• Under The Drum Festival Announces First Ever Programme

    July 26, 2024 - By 

    A brand new music festival set at the foot of the County Antrim Hills, just thirty minutes from Belfast, is set to hold its first ever iteration on Saturday 28th September. Set just outside Ballyclare, it takes its name from Drumadarragh, one of the hills overlooking its intimate setting of Breckenhill. Atop the bill are NI Music Prize-winning alternative folk artists, the supremely talented Joshua Burnside and Arborist, with the likes of indie-psych quartet Junk Drawer, Galway garage punk masters Oh Boland, Derry alt-pop artist Roe, experimental rock quartet Blue Whale, Brand New Friend, Cian Nugent, London act Arliston, Susie Blue, jangle-pop master Neil Brogan, Demi O’Hara…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 3rd May

    May 3, 2024 - By 

    It’s Bandcamp Friday and we’re spoiled with an absolutely stacked week for Irish music. Delve into new Natalia Beylis, So Cow, Oh Boland, Blue Whale, Alpha Chrome Yayo, Autumns, Ciaran Lavery, Lucy Gaffney and more. Photo by Aislinn McGinn Natalia Beylis – The Roots of the Mountain Ash Embrace the Stone Blue Whale – Orunge So Cow – Affected Services Affected Services EP by So Cow Oh Boland – A Power of Wides Alpha Chrome Yayo – Constant Night Constant Night by Alpha Chrome Yayo Ciaran Lavery – The World Will Put Its Arms Around You Lucy Gaffney – Pitfalls…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 15th March

    March 15, 2024 - By 

    With not a single St. Paddy’s-angled misfire among them, today sees essential new albums from Blue Whale and HAVVK, Fight Like Apes covering a Sinéad O’Connor classic in aid of Palestine, stellar new tracks by Garrett Laurie, Ciaran Lavery and more Blue Whale – Last Immediate Images Fight Like Apes – Black Boys on Mopeds Garrett Laurie – No Warning Ciaran Lavery – Honeybun HAVVK – To Fall Asleep To Fall Asleep by HAVVK Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin – Siren Spring Siren Spring by Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin The Guilteens – The Boat

  • Whaling On: An Interview With Blue Whale

    March 6, 2024 - By 

    Next Friday, March 15, Belfast jazz-punk band Blue Whale return with their highly-anticipated second LP, Last Immediate Images. The follow-up to 2018’s Process, it’s another masterfully shapeshifting leap forward from one of the island’s most fiercely unpigeonholeable bands. Recorded and produced by Gilla Band’s Dan Fox, the album is a remarkable expansion, and deft deconstruction, of what the Quietus once hailed as their “chaotic, yet controlled experimental rock.” Ahead of its release, Cathal McBride spoke with guitarist Ben Behzadafshar about prolonged experimentation, the magic of biding one’s timing, being ‘sound carriers’ for Damo Suzuki and more. Blue Whale launch Last…

  • The Thin Air Xmas ’22 Party: The Killing Spree, Blue Whale & Black Triptychs

    November 11, 2022 - By 

    We’re delighted to announce that Belfast hardcore heroes The Killing Spree will play their first show in seventeen (17!) at The Thin Air’s ’22 Xmas party at The Deer’s Head on Thursday, December 22nd. One of the North’s all-time great trios will be supported by long-time TTA favourites, experimental rock four-piece Blue Whale, as well as acoustic electronic ambient duo Black Triptychs. The Killing Spree played shows regularly between 2002 and 2005, embedding themselves in the Irish DIY scene that grew around the Warzone Centre (Giros) in Belfast. Acclaimed for their frenetic and engaging live shows, the band played in…

  • Moving on Music Launches Middle Aisle Music Agency and Development Project

    January 14, 2021 - By 

    One of the country’s most reliable promoters, Belfast’s Moving On Music have today launched a new music agency and development project. Working with a selection of folk, jazz, classic, trad and ‘other’ music from these shores, the aim of Middle Aisle is to “support and develop a selection of artists, introduce more ears to incredible music, and help musicians move forward in their careers.” Already, the initiative has added Arborist, Bairie, Blue Whale, Cahal Masterson, Gráinne Meyer, Jack Joseph James, Jack Warnock, Junk Drawer, Laytha, Réalta with Myles McCormack, Robocobra Quartet, Ruth McGinley, Scott Flanigan Trio, and TRÚ to its roster. Fair payment,…

  • Moving On Music Set To Hold Online Concert Event ‘All The Noels’

    October 20, 2020 - By 

    Belfast-based tastemakers par excellence Moving on Music are set to hold unique online live music experience held throughout the Black Box, Belfast, titled All The Noels. The 30-odd-minute single shot, walk-through experience is set to showcase different music taking place across the various spaces of the venue. The video – recorded across one day by a team of audio-visual professionals – attempts to capture the feeling of being in possibly our favourite Belfast venue for live music. Performances come from some of TTA faves, experimental rock quartet Blue Whale, traditional Irish vocal quartet Landless, Irish jazz pianist Scott Flanigan‘s Trio, jazz drummer Steve Davis, folk duo Laytha and traditional flute & whistle player Martha Guiney with Shane McCartan. Speaking of the project, Mick Bonner of Moving on Music said “it was…

  • High Rise | Low Rise: Gross Net & Blue Whale @ Rosemary Masonic Hall, Belfast

    February 1, 2020 - By 

    On Saturday, February 1st, Belfast Film Festival will host a one-off event exploring utopian and dystopian urban visions of Northern Ireland. Taking place at the former Masonic Hall on Rosemary Street – a three-storey stone building designed by Young & Mackenzie that was officially opened in 1956 – High Rise | Low Rise promises a playful, in-depth look at how modernist architecture and urban design was presented in media through the 1950s to the 1980s in Northern Ireland. Bringing that to life are two of Belfast’s best musical propositions: Blue Whale (above) and Philip Quinn aka Gross Net, who will be providing live soundtracks to…

  • Album Stream: Blue Whale – Process

    November 9, 2018 - By 

    Belfast’s Blue Whale have long been something of a sonic law unto themselves. Big words and no mistake, but if you’ve managed to catch them wield what their very own brand of what the Quietus have called the band’s ilk of “chaotic, yet controlled experimental rock”, you’ll know that the high praise is justified. Six years on from their debut three-track release – and countless awe-inspiring live shows later – the quartet launch their exceptional debut album, Process, at Belfast’s Menagerie tonight (Friday, November 9). Over ten tracks, it’s a release that contorts the confines of instrumentalism, all while distilling the band’s singular brand of…

  • Blue Whale ‘Process’ Album Launch @ The Menagerie

    September 21, 2018 - By 

    Belfast experimental rock quartet Blue Whale are finally set to launch their highly anticipated debut album Process, which reins the satiating havoc of their live show into a slightly more ordered studio format. The havoc, however, will come to the Menagerie on November 9, where its launch is hosted by Moving On Music. With an aim to always been to veer away from the trappings of the traditional guitar-centric four-piece, they have experimented heavily with unconventional scales and time signatures. Their cadenced, angular and atonal compositions tread fine lines between dance and discord, chaos and intricacy, with the resultant aural tension unique in its capacity to simultaneously provoke mental…