• Deadman’s Ghost – Hypocritical Oath

    February 10, 2017 - By 

    Jason Mills, better known as Deadman’s Ghost, recently dropped his third album Hypocritical Oath, an eccentric, eight-track collection of prismatic experimentation. The Belfast native inventively fuses together electronic, folk and synth elements, creating a sound that’s intoxicating, honest and thought provoking. The intimate album comes as a follow up to 2012’s The Broken Zoetrope. It takes the listener on a sonic journey of discovery, delving into new territory and overshadowing his previous releases. The multi-instrumentalist’s music appears to have become much more complex and this album demonstrates his growth, creativity and experimental brilliance as a musician. ‘Ogham Script’ serves as…

  • Atlantic Sessions 2016

    January 10, 2017 - By 

    In a slightly delayed review we take a look back at Atlantic Sessions 2016 and look forward to the next session. Words and Images by Chris Flack, additional images by Tim Swart courtesy of Atlantic Sessions. With waves crashing against the shoreline, a relentless Atlantic wind, a canopy of snow on the hills and a decidedly vicious chill in the air, Atlantic Sessions rolled into the North Coast in November for its 8th year. And what a year it was, a near-perfect way to see out the shitstorm that was 2016. Hosting over 50 artists in 20 venues across the…

  • Tinariwen – Elwan

    February 9, 2017 - By 

    It’s fair to say that in our Western-centric music industry, few artists from an African country like Mali tend to get much of a look in. With that in mind, for a band of Tuareg musicians like Tinariwen to break through as they have must be a signal that they’re pretty damn good. Formed as long ago as 1979 as political exiles in Algeria but only releasing their first album proper in 2001 after their return to their native country having picked up several new members along the way, their gradually growing international profile culminated in fifth album Tassili –…

  • Christine

    February 9, 2017 - By 

    The line ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ marks a key moment in director Antonio Campos’ (Simon Killer) latest movie Christine, about the grim story of US newswoman Christine Chubbuck. Based on real events, this deeply cynical line is delivered in a time when the news started to turn tabloid in the 70s, and sums up much of what the filmmaker is criticising in this shocking, yet intensely mesmerising, depiction of the reporter’s last days. Rebecca Hall (The Gift) stars as Chubbuck, an intelligent but highly strung news reporter whose personal life and career collide, causing her world to spiral out of…

  • Sampha – Process

    February 8, 2017 - By 

    Sampha is an artist who has spent the vast majority of his music career as a fleeting shadow of brilliance on tracks by some extremely famous artists. You may be able to place his sullen vocals on Beyoncé’s ‘Mine’, Frank Ocean’s ‘Alabama’, Kanye West’s ‘Saint Pablo’, Drake’s ‘Too Much’ and several appearances on SBTRKT‘s 2014 album Wonder Where We Land. When not appearing beside some of the biggest names in rap/hip-hop, Sampha has been quietly releasing EP’s every now and then, simultaneously preparing for his first full release, building expectations for what was to come. When he was three years old Sampha Sisay’s father…

  • Fairport Convention @ Black Box, Belfast

    February 6, 2017 - By 

    Who knows where the time goes? For Fairport Convention, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2017, and for its legion of fans, Sandy Denny’s song and lyric from Fairport Convention’s 1969 album Unhalfbricking has never been more poignant, or indeed, more haunting. Where indeed? Fairport has played just about every town, city and village the length of breadth of mainland UK since its first concert in 1967, but jaunts to this part of the world have been fairly rare, with this being Fairport’s first Belfast gig since 2010. All the more reason then for celebration. Fittingly, this afternoon’s matinee gig and…

  • T2 Trainspotting

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Danny Boyle’s oddly-titled T2 Trainspotting is a Jonny-cum-lately [sic] sequel to the cult 1996 film. T2 picks up the threads of the saga some twenty years after the events of the first film (or T1, as I’ll call it), stitching together original elements from a screenplay by John Hodge with some bits of the novel Porno, Irvine Welsh’s sequel to his breakthrough 1993 novel. So, having ripped off his friends and fled to the Netherlands at the end of the first film, Renton (Ewan McGregor), returns to haunt Leith, the backdrop of T1’s lurid, heroin-fuelled events. Renton presents himself as…

  • Sleater-Kinney – Live In Paris

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Anyone who claims that Sleater-Kinney do not belong in the pantheon of great bands should be forced to listen to Dig Me Out, One Beat and The Woods until they can see how wrong they are. With their furiously impassioned lyrics, clever off kilter musicianship and jaw dropping live shows, they’re a trio who belong in every music lover’s heart, not just the punks or riot grrls. Despite their tenure, the group had not released anything which demonstrated how powerful and forceful they are on stage until Live In Paris. Recorded on the tour for their comeback album, No Cities…

  • Loving

    February 2, 2017 - By 

    I could probably relate Loving quite easily to the colossal shitstorm currently raging in the United States as a result of the rise to power of the man Dan Savage memorably calls ‘Orange Julius Caesar’. I could tease out the parallels between the mid-twentieth century America of Loving, in which laws are used to deny peoples’ humanity, and Trump’s new playground. But that’s a rant best suited to Twitter, or maybe the pub. In any case, Loving offers a much more convincing and compassionate response to the politics of hate than me and my bleeding heart, wringing hands and jerking…

  • New Pope – Love

    January 31, 2017 - By 

    Galway’s New Pope AKA David Boland, hasn’t been around long, but he doesn’t waste any time. Released with little fanfare on New Year’s Eve – evidently caring not for making his way into any album of the year lists – his second album Love comes along just a year after his debut Youth. Much like the debut – an album steeped in childhood nostalgia – the single word title again serves as a theme for the album’s lyrical content, the word ‘love’ appearing in the titles of three of the seven tracks alone, and being at the heart of all the…