• 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…

  • Girls Names – Stains on Silence

    March 26, 2018 - By 

    It stands to reason that many vital albums come critically close to never being made. The eight-track upshot of doubt, upheaval and financial strain, Stains on Silence by Girls Names is one such release. Following 2015’s Arms Around a Vision, and the parting of drummer Gib Cassidy just over a year later, the Belfast band suddenly found themselves facing down a looming void. “There was a finished – and then aborted – mix of the album, which was shelved for six months,” reveals Girls Names frontman Cathal Cully. “We then took a break from all music and went back to full-time work. We chilled…

  • Room For Rebellion will host parties in three cities this Friday in aid of reproductive rights campaign

    March 20, 2018 - By 

    Irish “Political Party” Room For Rebellion will return this Friday 23rd March for three parties spread across three cities, all in aid of the Irish reproductive rights campaign. The parties will be held in The Black Box in Belfast, Jigwaw in Dublin and The Yard, Hackney Wick in London respectively, with each event featuring a superb line-up of female DJs. In Belfast, local DJ Venus Dupree will join Lisbon’s Violet in providing music all night long while at Dublin’s BYOB party in Jigsaw proceedings will be in the hands of Endrift, Eliza and NTS resident Moxie. For London’s party in Hackney…

  • Robocobra Quartet – Plays Hard To Get

    March 12, 2018 - By 

    Belfast-based jazz-punk ensemble Robocobra Quartet have just announced details of the follow-up to their NI Music Prize-nominated debut album, entitled Plays Hard To Get. Released through Abbreviated Records on May 25 on digital & vinyl formats, it’s going to be one of Ireland’s finest releases of 2018. With drummer, vocalist & producer Chris Ryan once more at the helm, it features a broader palette of sounds, it rocks harder, pushes its avant-garde & contemporary classical flourishes further out there, and is more lyrically daring than ever before – no small statement for arguably the most unique outfit on the island. Never resting on any one idea or preconceived notion, its blackly comic, starkly…

  • Video Premiere: Blue Americans – Apparition

    February 7, 2018 - By 

    Leftfield pop duo Blue Americans have just lifted the cloche on the video for ‘Apparition’, their fourth single in five months, and it’s once more a pristine, self-produced slice of vibing, somnambulant pop that begs to be listened to in a warmly-lit bedroom, well into the early AM. As with the singles that have preceded it, we’ve also found much allure in the genuinely leftfield, exploratory B-side, with Danny Ball production transforming Platt’s vocal on ‘Beetroot (What If I Was 1?)’ into very real moment of yearning. It’s out now on their own label, Oil Tape Records, ahead of the release of their debut album later this year. They’ve nailed it on…

  • AVA Festival announce Bicep, Or:la, Sunil Sharpe, Saoirse and many more for 2018 Edition

    January 24, 2018 - By 

    Belfast’s AVA Festival and Conference has announced the huge line-up for its fourth edition between 1 – 2 June 2018. While talks, panels and workshops will make the bulk of the first day of the festival, Friday 1 June, the Saturday will feature a huge cast of DJs sets and live performances spread across four stages. The legendary Boiler Room stage will run for two days this year while Red Bull Music Academy and Smirnoff will host two others. The line-up consists of some massive international acts such as Floorplan, Helena Hauff, Midland, Jayda G, Dennis Sulta, Hunee and Job Jobse. Not only that, but the Irish are very well represented with sets coming…

  • Plain Living & High Thinking: An Interview With Belfast’s Latest Promotion

    January 8, 2018 - By 

    If you’ve been keeping track of the Belfast live music scene lately, you might have noticed – despite well-intentioned pockets and open-minded promoters – that it’s somewhat fractured and currently lacking the infrastructure to cultivate a strong grassroots music community beyond those looked after by management and the likes. Two bands who have organically harnessed their substantial following in a very short space of time are the groove-strewn, endlessly soulful jam trio Electric Octopus – having toured the UK, look to extensively traipse across Europe in Spring following the release of their latest album – and stoner-doom outfit Elder Druid, who released…