• Blue Whale – Process

    September 21, 2018 - By 

    At long last, one of our favourite bands in Ireland are set to release their debut album. Alluding to their deconstructivist tendencies, Belfast-based experimental rock band Blue Whale release Process on November 9. Recorded with Ben McCauley at Start Together Studios, lead single ‘Shortbread Fingers’ has recently premiered over at The Quietus, and ‘Coitus‘ featured on Irish independent compilation A Litany of Failures: Volume II. Their carefully-constructed chaos has led to a considerable live portfolio, where their potency is as undiminished on the dancefloor as it is with Can’s Damo Suzuki as improvised sound carriers. Oft-compared to Swans, Captain Beefheart, King Crimson and Slint, we’ve described them as “one of the country’s most thoroughly…

  • Exhibition Opening: Imperial Courts @ Belfast Exposed

    September 5, 2018 - By 

    This Thursday (September 6th) sees the preview of Dana Lixenberg’s first solo exhibition on the island of Ireland in Belfast Exposed. Titled Imperial Courts 1993-2015, the series saw Lixenberg collect the 20th edition of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2017. In 1992 the artist was commissioned to document areas of Los Angeles following the riots that took place after the acquittal of police officers following the much publicised brutality during the arrest of Rodney King. Lixenberg returned the following year and began a 22-year process of documenting the area and its inhabitants, focusing on the Imperial Courts housing project. The time-frame…

  • Premiere: Mob Wife – Warm Water

    August 17, 2018 - By 

    In the vein of past noise rock/post-hardcore outfit PigsAsPeople, and following the closure of Chris Leckey’s emo-hued dark alt. country project Via:Barvikha, he returns to the idea of the power trio. Today, we introduce you to Mob Wife, a new project that carries the heft of the former without losing the subtlety of the latter. The band’s caliber isn’t under question, with one of Belfast’s busiest drummers in Gascan Ruckus‘ Mark McDaid and producer & Ghost Office/Pale Lanterns‘ Carl Small on bass. ‘Warm Water’ is characteristic Leckey – blackly comic in its nihilism, the song tackles the 9-5 office grind that Dolly loved so well – stale coffee…

  • Sea Pinks – Rockpool Blue

    August 1, 2018 - By 

    Belfast’s foremost purveyors of jangle-pop, Sea Pinks, have announced their latest album, Rockpool Blue, out on September 28. The 28 minute album is their seventh LP since their 2010 inception. Recorded in four days over a six month period by engineer Ben McAuley at Start Together Studios, Belfast. Sonically blissed-out and dripping – moreso than any record before – it thematically tackles the pressure of adult responsibilities against the internal imposter syndrome that comes with it. Following bassist Steven Henry’s departure, frontman & guitarist Neil Brogan has taken on bass duties, with Davey Agnew on drums. Stream first track ‘Watermelon Sugar (Alcohol)’ below: Rockpool Blue…

  • VerseChorusVerse – outro

    June 20, 2018 - By 

    Former ASIWYFA axeman Tony Wright’s VerseChorusVerse has surprise released his third album, outro, to accompany the news of his debut book later this year. Blending the literary & theatrical prowess displayed on last year’s The Tragedy of Dr Hannigan with the folk & blues he’s become known for under the VCV moniker, outro marks his return to Big Guitar Anthems, indulging in the alt. rock edge and dynamic he gave to ASIWYFA. The LP was minimally by Wright & Andrew Coles in a mansion on the North Coat, assisted on backing vocals & bass by Arvo Party/LaFaro’s Herb Magee. Stream it here: outro by VerseChorusVerse As explained in the following video, proceeds…

  • Kurt Vile & The Violators Set For Belfast Show

    May 23, 2018 - By 

    In addition to his previously-announced Vicar Street show, one of indie rock’s finest and most understated guitarists and songwriters – not to mention chill dude – Kurt Vile brings The Violators to Belfast’s Limelight 1 on November 15. He’s released seven acclaimed albums, the most recent being his the wonderful collaboration with Courtney Barnett, Lotta Sea Lice, as well as working with J Mascis, Kim Gordon, John Prine, John Cale and Warpaint as the respect he commands increases exponentially. Tickets go on sale this Friday May 25 at 9am from Ticketmaster, priced at £21 + booking fee.

  • Michael Black – Memoirs

    May 29, 2018 - By 

    Having recently been featured on the official Piano Day 2018 playlist, curated by Nils Frahm, Belfast-based multi-instrumentalist & composer Michael Black is set to release his debut album, Memoirs, on June 13. Across its fifteen tracks of unaccompanied piano, Black weaves the personal with the classical, evoking contemporary classic composers like Arvo Pärt and minimalism’s man-of-the-moment, Nils Frahm. “I understood that by releasing something as intimate as Memoirs, I’d leave myself very exposed and somewhat vulnerable. but I couldn’t expect the listener to dwell and reflect on these thoughts in their own manner unless I provided an honest account in the first place. My wish is that Memoirs…

  • Watch: Robocobra Quartet – You’ll Wade

    May 1, 2018 - By 

    Very few things excite us more than the prospect of new music from (by far) one of Ireland’s difficult, and genuine, pioneers, Robocobra Quartet. Ahead of second album, Plays Hard To Get, out on May 25th, the band have just released their video for ‘You’ll Wade’. We’ve already covered the song – “Culminating in a cry of “Everything is old news” before petering out in a plume of funereal ambience, its recording and composition distils the band’s ongoing, masterfully unconventional approach” – but the video’s conceit is strong enough to warrant another visit. Shot by Colin Armstrong & edited by Robocobra leader Chris Ryan, it’s…

  • Watch: Pale Lanterns – In The Dark We Are

    April 25, 2018 - By 

    One thing that Northern Ireland produces with astonishing prolificacy is high calibre indie-folk alternative pop, as a cursory glance at the NI Music Prize winner list might dictate. Belfast-based singer-songwriter Darragh Donnelly, aka Pale Lanterns, has released an EP and four singles in the past 11 months, and with each has come a firm compositional forward stride. With long-time production partner Carl Small of Start Together once more at the helm, new single ‘In The Dark We Are’ further broadens the aperture on Pale Lanterns’ sound, as it metamorphoses from somnambulant reverie into crystal clear self-questioning. Melodically, Donnelly’s tied to the earthly Irish indie-folk & pop subtle experimentation of recent years, bordering…

  • EP Premiere: Ghost Office – Desire Lines

    April 6, 2018 - By 

    Almost certainly Belfast’s most promising post-punk prospect, Ghost Office, have just made available their second EP, Desire Lines. With new bassist Carl Small in tow and new material to be unveiled in coming months showing further songwriting spark, Desire Lines is just the beginning of what will be Ghost Office’s defining year so far. With each cut an under 3 minute short burst of undistilled creative flourish, throbbing bass & jagged Fender attack the band – both live and on record – bursts with vitality, while the confluence of musical & literary influences conjure acts like Parquet Courts and Protomartr‘s knowing self-loathing, lent broader purview with vocals from former-bassist MK Maguire, and…