• Track Record: Laura Ann Brady

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Dublin dark ambient folk singer-songwriter Laura Ann Brady is our latest willing subject for Track Record, a regular feature in which we delve into the prized record collections of some of the country’s finest creative minds. Dublin dark ambient folk singer-songwriter Laura Ann Brady Photos by Abi Denniston. Leonard Cohen – New Skin for Old Ceremony Leonard is a hero of a man and this is one of my favourite Cohen albums, which Leonard himself calls a little gem rather than a masterpiece. There is a much bigger sound going on here than on his previous recordings. Lots of lovely woodwind…

  • Belfast Music Club Presents: Tiago

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of the latter’s absolutely free show at Belfast’s Lavery’s on Sunday at 3pm (June 28), Mark Manley from Belfast Music Club profiles globetrotting, legendary Lisbon DJ Tiago. ___ Tiago’s arrival in Belfast is very much an indulgence. I hate the term “DJ’s DJ”  as it’s so clichéd but in this instance it’s never been more true. He is one of Tim Sweeney’s favourite DJs, loved by James Murphy, and famous for his genre-spanning, marathon, seven-hour-plus DJ sets at his residency in Lux, a Lisbon club whose interior was designed by John Malkovich. Before I heard him play, everyone I…

  • A Jet Setter’s Life

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    With the dust having settled on the experience, Jeff Courtney from Dublin quartet Jet Setter gives us an insight into the band’s recent performance at Westmeath’s Life Festival. Photos by Tara Thomas. So I’m turning the key, trying to get the van to start and the poor things not making a sound – the battery is dead. We’d arrived at the studio in good time on this fine Saturday morning to collect our equipment ready for our Life Festival debut. The van had a reputation for this kind of thing and whilst it came as no surprise; it was all together…

  • Monday Mixtape: Marty Harvey (War Iron/Slomatics)

    June 22, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of supporting sludge-doom overlords Eyehategod at Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Wednesday night, Marty Harvey, drummer/vocalist with Belfast very own behemothic heavyweights War Iron (not to mention the similarly Cyclopean Slomatics) selects and talks about some of his all time favourite tracks. Photo by John Gallardo All these songs for me blend heaviness and melody. I love heavy music with big riffs, noise and walls of sound, but this has to be counteracted with space, room for the music to breath or the chords, vocal harmonies to be heard. The music I prefer to listen to has to have light…

  • Festival Preview: Open House Festival

    June 22, 2015 - By 

    This year’s Open House Festival has once again delivered a strong blend of music and arts to charm audiences throughout the month of August.  An array of top-class talent is brought to Northern Ireland during the course of the year under the Open House banner, but the annual festival is the pinnacle for its promoters; when they round-up a list of traditional and cutting edge folk artists to perform in Bangor.  Taking place from August 1-31 there will be over 100 events in 26 different locations within the seaside town.  A whole range of concerts, performances, film screenings, talks, exhibitions…

  • Deep Down South: Music and the “Cork Brand”

    June 22, 2015 - By 

    The past two weeks (for this column is now fortnightly) have been marked by two weekends of the Cork Midsummer Festival, a celebration of the arts and culture in Cork City that’s sprawled all over the city’s venues and spanned the axis of artistic endeavour. From critiques of capitalism draped in Northside accents and caffeine-fueled hyperkinesis, to the sight of a string quartet welcoming the first sunrise of the season at 5am in the company of tired but elated attendees, it’s been something else to see the extent to which the town opens its arms to the arts, and the…

  • The Hefty Fog: Naked Aggression

    June 19, 2015 - By 

    If the sight of a fully-grown man’s bare arse bathed in blue LED light has you shuddering with disgust, then you simply aren’t acculturated to the ways of Metal. If you are willing to sit through songs detailing gruesome acts of murder and purchase merchandise emblazoned with decapitated infants, but you suddenly become grossed out as a lead singer’s testicle peeps at you momentarily from its loin cloth, you’ve got a long way to go, kid. Impetuous Ritual’s performance in Dublin earlier in the month raised a few questions about the visual effect that nudity has on the overall presentation…

  • Rave New World (19/6)

    June 19, 2015 - By 

    We have it on pretty good authority that it’s the weekend. Celebrate that very distinct possibility with Antoin Lindsay’s latest traipse into the world of all things electronic: Rave New World. GIGS Jika Jika! present Danny Tenalgia at The Bunker, Derry Saturday, June 20 After the unmitigated success of the last night at The Bunker with Marcel Dettmann, Jika Jika! return with Danny Tenalgia. He’s playing a 3 hour set so if you fancy catching a dance music legend in a massive car park this weekend, then Derry is the only place to be. Celtronic present Recondite and Fort Romeau…

  • Track Record: Swimmers

    June 19, 2015 - By 

    In the latest installment of Track Record, Niall Jackson and Barry MacNeill from Dublin band Swimmers reveal and talk about their all-time favourite records, including the likes of Neil Young, Pixies, The Redneck Manifesto and Michael Jackson. Swimmers play Dublin’s Odessa Club with Middle Ages tomorrow night (Saturday, June 20). Photos by Abi Denniston. Niall Michael Jackson – BAD This was a really important album to me as a kid. I remember my uncle Jim had it on vinyl in his house down the road from me (as well as a dog called Fletch, named after the Chevy Chase movie) As a 6…

  • Visual Arts Outlook (15/6)

    June 15, 2015 - By 

    June is always a nice month to see some exciting new arts projects due to the College shows and the lovely summer weather (hopefully!). If you haven’t been to your local end of year degree show, I would very much recommend you do! Aligned, the NCAD awards exhibition (undergraduate) is on this week 1pm-5pm Monday – Friday. There is also the continuation this weekend of the BASS Belfast Artists’ Sonic Showcase Event #4 with artists Bernadette Comac, Die Hexen and Aghori at FRAMEWERK. This will be happening on Saturday evening at 7pm so be sure to check it out. If…