• First Acts for AVA Festival 2016 Announced

    January 27, 2016 - By 

    Having had a triumphant first outing last year (check out our review here) grassroots electronic and conference AVA will return to Belfast’s T13 on Saturday, June 4. With more yet to be revealed, Rødhåd, Mano Le Tough, Bicep, Optimo and Phil Kieran and more are amongst the first wave of acts confirmed to make an appearance. With its implicit manifesto of “collectively celebrating, amplifying and devloping the strong current of electronic music and visual arts talent that has and is emerging from Northern Ireland”, tickets for the festival – which will also include live lectures, Ableton workshops, Q+A with artists, label showcase and more – are…

  • Premiere: The Irish Youth Music Awards Volume 8

    December 4, 2015 - By 

    Back in April, we took part in the voting process of this year’s Irish Youth Music Awards at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. A hugely encouraging, jam-packed day of genre-spanning music and performance from some of our country’s best budding talent, it fully reinforced the importance of grassroots educational programmes that extend a platform to homegrown artists in the making. Eight months on, we’re pleased to present a premiere of The IYMAs Volume 8, a five-track release featuring participating acts from Louth – Jake Mc Ardle, Kate Rogers and Bobby Bankole – the recipient region of this year’s IYMAs. The album also features a track from…

  • ELO: Never Been Cool

    November 25, 2015 - By 

    In the annals of rock history, it’s unlikely that there’s any band less cool than ELO. Ignorant of stylistic trends, they started out uncool, and remained ever so. But behind the fuzzy hair, black shirts, and sunglasses of Jeff Lynne, there lies a creative pop mastermind, and a resolute quest to finish what the Beatles started. For something it’s easy to laugh at, ELO always treated pop like it was very serious business indeed. When The Beatles finally called it a day in 1970, it left an impact that we’re still coming to terms with today. More so than Elvis,…

  • Other Voices Reveal First Acts For Dingle 2015

    November 11, 2015 - By 

    Now well and truly an Irish musical institution after 14 years, Other Voices have revealed the first acts to play their return to Dingle from December 4 to December 6. With many more acts yet to be revealed, Richard Hawley, Gaz Coombes, Gavin James, Lapsley and Otherkin are the first five acts to be announced. Set to take place at St. James Church in the Co. Kerry town, tickets for Other Voices 2015 will be up for grabs via raffles soon.

  • Watch: Candice Gordon – Smoke in the Air

    November 10, 2015 - By 

    With vocals evoking the likes of Anna Calvi and Grace Slick to Nico and PJ Harvey, Berlin-based Dublin artist Candice Gordon fuses garage, psych and rock with classical and jazz influences in an irresistible brume of quasi-Gothic space. Set for release via Proper Octopus Records on Friday, November 13, her new single ‘Smoke In The Air’ personifies that elemental majesty in a haze of repetitive, mantric glory. Creative by Gordon with cameras courtesy of No Name Media & Valquire Veljkovic, watch the video for the single below.  

  • Irish Tour: Beach House

    October 27, 2015 - By 

    Having released two fantastic albums in the space of three months – Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars – Baltimore dream-pop band Beach House played Belfast’s Mandela Hall and Dublin’s Vicar street at the weekend. Words by Cathal McBride and Joe Madsen. Photos by Colm Laverty and Aaron Corr. Mandela Hall, Belfast Photos by Colm Laverty Kicking off their lengthy European tour tonight, Baltimore dream pop duo Beach House unusually have not one but two new albums to promote, having released Depression Cherry and last week’s surprise follow up Thank Your Lucky Stars (written later but recorded in the…

  • Watch: Therapy? – Deathstimate

    October 22, 2015 - By 

    From the halcyon days of ‘Perversonality’, ‘Screamager’, ‘Femtex’ and ‘Brainsaw’, Therapy? have always been good for a lurid titular portmanteau. The latest in that hallowed tradition is their new single, ‘Deathstimate’, which serves as a triumphant, seven-minute closer to their fourteenth studio album, Disquiet. Set for official release on October 30, an abridged version of the single has been released with a suitably heavy video by Sitcom Soldiers. Therapy? play Infernal Love anniversary shows at Dublin’s The Button Factory on December 10/11 and Belfast’s Limelight on December 12. Watch the video for the ‘Deathstimate’ below (and go here to stream the full, seven-minute, Sabbath…

  • Speedy Ortiz w/ Oh Boland & Trust Fund @ Whelan’s, Dublin

    October 20, 2015 - By 

    It is a mild enough night for October and the already-sweltering Whelan’s is slow to fill as garage-maestros Oh Boland take the stage but this doesn’t stop the three Tuam lads from throwing everything at the gathered few. This is never clearer than in the sweat dripping from the floppy hair of bassist Eanna MacDonnacha or the spit clinging to the mic from Niall Murphy’s rapid-fire vocals. Oh Boland own the stage with their diminutive frontman clattering about the stage as though he is about to collapse but always keeps it together – nearly a metaphor for their entire set.…

  • Irish Tour: Johnny Marr

    October 20, 2015 - By 

    Johnny Marr is a man in a rush right now. This past March’s sophomoric effort Playland arrived a little more than a year after his solo debut The Messenger and he’s already trying out new material live. “This is a new song, but don’t be afraid,” he says with a smile before launching into ‘Spiral Cites’ to the approval of the crowd. It seems architect of some of the indie pop’s best loved songs seems to be working at a pace we haven’t seen since the mid 80’s when classic songs were falling out of Rickenbacker back in his bedroom…