• The Record: Stonemasons

    August 20, 2015 - By 

    Featuring in studio photos by Liam Kielt, we chat to Belfast-based alt-rock trio Stonemasons about the writing, recording and release of their vehement new five-track EP, Lost Layers.  Hey guys. For complete newcomers, how did the Stonemasons come about and get off the ground? Pod (Kerr, bass/vocals): We all grew up around the same area of North Antrim. Blaney was playing guitar in a pop-punk called Breaking Even and McCann and myself were playing covers with a different drummer. We initially met through from beating lumps out of each other on a hurling pitch until a hazy 18th birthday party where we got chatting about…

  • This Morning is a Dream to Me: The Return of Giveamanakick

    August 19, 2015 - By 

    Rare are the musical reunions that can fill a person’s heart up. Evoke feelings of nostalgia? Yes. The warm and fuzzies are the basis of the major labels’ bottom line these days. Tie in with a time and place in a person’s life? Yes. Absolutely. But to truly unwrap those layers of cynicism and break a smile across the face from within? Deep within? Now, there’s a feat. Limerick two-piece Giveamanakick emerged in 2002 and immediately set about wrecking heads with debut long-player is it ok to be loud, jesus?, the maiden label voyage of the city’s flagship independent label,…

  • Interview: Foals

    August 19, 2015 - By 

    Foals have this aura of being an incredibly intense act. There’s an image portrayed of this bunch of manic but brooding individuals from Oxford who have gone from creating live dance punk to trash a house party to, to crafting some of the most lucid and crushingly expansive indie-rock of the past decade. Speaking to Foals’ drummer Jack Bevan on the phone about their upcoming release What Went Down then, it felt both refreshing and jarring to be met with a relaxed yet chirpy voice on the other side. On the subject of change, writing, dynamic and everything that was…

  • Visual Arts Outlook (18/8)

    August 18, 2015 - By 

    We are at that midpoint in the month where things tend to quiet down a bit. However, don’t panic, I do have some recommendations to whet your artistic appetite for the week. If you’re feeling like a party on Friday night head out to Public Indecency a Fundraiser for Household Collective at the Hudson Bar Belfast on Friday Night. This is sure to be a good party hosted by the wonderful Venus Dupree. Household is a curatorial collective based in Belfast who are currently planning for an exciting  three day programme of screenings and events at the beginning of September…

  • Rave New World (14/8)

    August 14, 2015 - By 

    Very much the man with the plan, Antoin Lindsay takes a look at the very best electronic gigs, tracks, releases and mixes of the week. GIGS Head Front Panel, Sunil Sharpe and Defekt at The Button Factory, Dublin Friday 14 August John Heckle has been releasing some brilliant techno as Head Front Panel recently, and you can catch him doing a live set down at The Button Factory tonight. He’ll be accompanied by the ever-present Sunil Sharpe (pictured) and another live set from Defekt. T’will be a heavy one. Twisted Pepper Closing Weekender, Dublin Friday 14 & Saturday 15 August In…

  • Classic Album: Can – Future Days

    August 13, 2015 - By 

    This may seem a pretentious review. It probably is.  I may well be using words like “oneiric”*, a word that spell-check tells me doesn’t exist. This is to be expected: this is a Can record I’m talking about, the band I‘m most likely to wax lyrical about, especially when they’re at their least lyrical. This is Future Days, Can at their most impressionistic, most painterly, least literal. Moving on from the pop certainties of Ege Bamyasi, (‘Spoon’, adopted as the theme tune for a detective series, had been an actual chart hit in Germany!) the band decided to break free…

  • Midweek Mixtape: Short Songs

    August 12, 2015 - By 

    Despite being the accepted standard for radio play etc., sometimes there’s something unsatisfactory about the three-to-four minute pop song. It can, on occasion, feel like one idea has been dragged out a bit longer than it should have been, with superfluous guitar solos, incongruous bridges and unnecessary third verses, simply because it’s deemed that anything below this length is unacceptable. The best musicians, though, have the confidence and self awareness to keep things brief if they can say all they need to say in one or two minutes (or even less). Such tracks can easily be mistaken for throwaways, but…

  • Visual Arts Outlook (11/8)

    August 11, 2015 - By 

    This August is proving to be a busy one with events continuing throughout the summer months and some great shows to get out and see. After the rather hectic Late Night Art in Belfast last Thursday, it’s good to call round and see the new exhibitions at a more relaxed pace when things are a bit quieter. Definately check out ‘Because these Reds’ by  Ciarán Wood at PS2 on Donegal Street which continues until the 15th August. I would also recommend dropping into the Mac today or tomorrow to witness the screening of the ‘Creative Time Summit’. The Mac is…

  • Premiere: Linebacker Dirge – Livia/Motion Parallax

    August 11, 2015 - By 

    Co. Down singer-songwriter Jason Gibson is an artist who thrives on collaboration. Formed back in 2005, his project Linebacker Dirge has seen him write and record with the likes of A Plastic Rose’s Ian McHugh, A Northern Light’s Colm Laverty and James Bruce of Kasper Rosa/Matua Trap. Ten years on from the release of his debut, Postcards, Distance and Sleep (written and recorded with Harry Ffitch of Hello Newman over MSN Messenger, no less), Gibson’s new EP, The Worried Well, is a real re-affirmation of those early stirrings, going that bit further in driving the point (the unspoken and profound…

  • Classic Album: Gene Clark – No Other (1974)

    August 10, 2015 - By 

    Gene Clark was the Byrd who couldn’t fly. If that sounds trite (and let’s face it, it is) consider the facts. Clark was one of the original members of America’s answer to The Beatles, and whilst Roger McGuinn was the frontman of The Byrds on hit singles like ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ and ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’, it was Clark who provided the majority of their self-penned material during his tenure with the band. But, in an irony that would be delicious if it wasn’t something that happened to a living, breathing person, Gene Clark was afraid of flying. In 1965, with…