• The Lully Music Awards 2024 or I Listened To Too Many Albums This Year And All You Got Was This Stupid Article

    December 6, 2024 - By 

    As the year-end lists roll in, Belfast writer and musician Ben Behzadafshar cuts through the noise with a sharp, refreshingly unsentimental look at 2024 in music (see: the ‘Song Intro That Sounds Most Like In the End by Linkin Park’ Award, claimed by Fontaines D.C.) The 17th-century French composer Jean Baptiste Lully once got so swept up in one of his own compositions that he smashed a conducting staff used for keeping time through his foot. The foot became gangrenous, but he refused to have it taken off. Why? The man loved to dance. He died shortly after. Louis XIV…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 6th December

    December 6, 2024 - By 

    On this, the final Bandcamp Friday of 2024, dive into the very best Irish songs of the week… despite the fact most of them are just on Spotify ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Joshua Burnside – Up and Down Stray Planets – Please Don’t Hurt the Snow AM Shanley – Gone, Gone, (Gone) Michael Mormecha – Under a Spell AILSHA – Call In A Minute RUÁ and Jacob Cunningham-Bell – Breakout KhakiKid – Boy Racer Mount Palomar feat. Naomi Banks – Drag

  • Premiere: Various Artists – Hunger is Violence

    December 4, 2024 - By 

    Ireland’s creative community has long demonstrated extraordinary solidarity with the Palestinian cause, wielding art and music as powerful tools for activism. From protests to fundraisers, artists from all corners of the island have come together to support the struggle. Today, Hunger Is Violence stands as yet another significant contribution to this ongoing solidarity. We’re proud to present a first listen to this striking new compilation from Diet of Worms. Hunger Is Violence features fourteen diverse reinterpretations of Richard Berry’s iconic 1955 R&B track’, Louie Louie,’ with all proceeds going to the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC). This release is a…

  • Other Voices Dingle 2024

    December 3, 2024 - By 

    Driving into Dingle on Friday afternoon, the excitement of a musical weekend descended like the mist over the Conor Pass. The first day was the quietest, as a flutter of festival-goers wandered the streets, drifting from pub to pub in search of some late-afternoon musical respite. Fast-rising Fermanagh artist RÓIS (below)opened the Music Trail at An Díseart – a church turned temporary musical haven tucked away off the central road in Dingle – setting the tone for the trail with haunting dance fusion tunes that greeted early attendees. While acts like DUG, Oisín Leech and Khakikid christened Friday night’s Music…

  • Spiritualized Add Belfast Date to Pure Phase Tour

    November 29, 2024 - By 

    Spiritualized have added a Belfast date to their upcoming tour, performing their seminal 1995 album Pure Phase live in its entirety. The show will take place at The Telegraph Building on 19th March 2024, marking the band’s first Belfast appearance since 2019. It follows their previously announced date at the National Stadium in Dublin on 20th March 2024. Originally credited to “Spiritualized Electric Mainline,” Pure Phase remains a singular work within the band’s catalogue. Expanded personnel on the album included bassist Sean Cook and string arrangements by the Balanescu Quartet. At its beating heart is an unconventional mixing approach, described…

  • No Foolin’ Around: An Interview with Dillon O’Brien

    December 2, 2024 - By 

    It’s under a week until Foo Laa Fest at the Ulster Sports Club – probably the strongest top-to-bottom Irish lineup Belfast has seen this year, and one that rounds up the second year of Dillon O’Brien’s music promotion, Fooligan.  Taking place on Thursday 5th December, TTA cover stars M(h)aol, Silverbacks and 2024 NI Music Prize winners Problem Patterns top of the bill, with some of the most exciting rising stars round there too. For those who don’t know Fooligan, can you tell us a bit about what you’ve been up to over the last while, and what drives you as…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 29th November

    November 29, 2024 - By 

    Here’s this week’s very best in new Irish music. Dive into an election special by the inimitable Acid Granny (NB: fuck Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil too), the long-awaited new LP from Hatchet Field, plus fresh tracks from Annie-Dog, Adrian Crowley, Boyfrens and more Acid Granny – Radio Paddy’s 2024 General Election Special Radio Paddy’s 2024 General Election Special by Acid Granny Hatchet Field – Gather Them Home Gather Them Home by Hatchet Field Klark Bent – Extended Play Ninety Eight Extended Play Ninety Eight by Klark Bent Annie-Dog – The Feeling in My Fignertips Adrian Crowley – Measure of…