• Live From Guerrilla Studios – Episode 4

    August 18, 2020 - By 

    A weekly must-watch since it launched via The Bonk and co. last month, Live From Guerrilla Studios returns this Thursday, August 20th with another comprehensively deadly line-up. As well as specially commissioned video appearances from Fears and Gash Collective, this week’s episode will feature live performances from Dunk Murphy aka Sunken Foal and one of our must-watch acts for 2020, Acid Granny (pictured). As ever, things kick off in the company of Ray Wingnut et al. from 10pm right here. Make a note of that for this Thursday and, while you’re at it, consider donating to the Live From Guerrilla Studios Patreon here.

  • Various Artists – The 343 Vol.1

    June 25, 2020 - By 

    Named for Le Manifeste des 343,  a brave act of civil disobedience by French women who dared sign a Simone de Beauvoir penned petition, publicly declaring that they had undergone illegal abortions,  The 343 is a feminist-led, Queer art space that has swiftly become a thriving and vital corner stone of the Belfast music scene. Having  garnered a glowing reputation for its community-driven ethos and unflinching dedication to creating a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQIA artists, The 343 has now put together its first compilation album. The 343 Vol. 1 brings together a vibrant range of experimental artists associated…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – June 5th

    June 5, 2020 - By 

    It should come as no surprise that many of the tracks featured this week are directly donating to, or released in strong support of various bail funds and charities like MASI and Black Lives Matter. And seeing as Bandcamp are once more waiving their fees today, buying music – not simply streaming it – is what it’s all about. MuRli – Til The Wheels Drop Off Till The Wheels Fall Off by MuRli Fears – two_ (Kobina Remix) two_ remixes by Fears The Last Sound – Beamed Beamed by The Last Sound Plaice – Such Sweet Release Planar En Plain Air by Plaice…

  • Watch: Fears – two_

    May 19, 2020 - By 

    Content note: self-harm Fears, AKA Constance Keane, has consistently used her voice to further the conversation on the importance of the arts in mental health, so we could think of no more apt artist to open up the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival. Taking place remotely for the first time, running through until May 24th, the festival could hardly happen at a more pertinent time, with online-only commissioned music, art, film premieres, talks & workshops from esteemed doctors and comedians, with many innovative ways to navigate ‘the great unprecedented’. Commissioned by the festival, the self-produced single and its visual companion depict the non-linear recovery from trauma, using repurposed footage shot by Constance and her family during the last…

  • Stream: The 343 Vol 1

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    In virtually no time at all, Belfast’s 343 has established itself as a vital part of the city’s creative community. An artist-focused, feminist-led, queer art-space in East Belfast, it’s one of many venues fighting to survive during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Currently fundraising as part of a national initiative launched by the Music Venue Trust, the 343 are going one further with the release of the aptly-titled The 343 Vol 1. Across fifteen tracks, it’s an endlessly listenable, perfectly genre-traversing compilation, featuring TTA favourites Rising Damp, Natalia Beylis, Elaine Howley, Gross Net & Fears and more. Best of all, seeing as Bandcamp…

  • Stream: Fears – Bones

    November 15, 2019 - By 

    Last year’s ‘h_always‘ came in at #3 in our 100 tracks of 2018, and following up on her excellent ‘Fabric’, Fears might have delivered her finest slice of experimental pop yet in ‘Bones’. Both the song and its fragmented visual companion are completely self-produced. The staggered, introvert’s club tune is further progression in the trajectory of an artist whose multi-faceted craft recalls the leftfield likes of Carla Dal Forno & Holly Herndon in its elevation of pop songwriting as an fully-fledged art form; understandable, given she’s one of three artists in Moving On Music’s Emerging Artists Programme 2018/19. Exploring the gradual, imperfect nature of trauma recovery, ‘Bones’ is spiritual closure…

  • Video Premiere: Fears – Fabric

    April 19, 2019 - By 

    A few weeks back, we described ‘Fabric’, the latest single from minimalist electronic pop artist Fears, as “an unfurling, self-produced tale of entanglement and escape that finds the Belfast/Dublin musician and producer at her most emphatic to date”. It’s the first collaboration of the year for Constance Keane, who continues down the audio-visual path with the same complete level of authorship that led to support vision justifiably supported by Moving On Music’s – NI’s foremost exponents of culturally vital music – Emerging Artist Programme. The visual component to ‘Fabric’ was directed by Daniel Butler, who had this to say of their partnership on the short film: “The idea came from a…

  • Stream: Fears – Fabric

    April 4, 2019 - By 

    Constance Keane aka Fears is an artist wielding rapt and carefully-woven electro-pop like few others. The follow-up to previous singles ‘h_blood‘, ‘Blood‘ and ‘Priorities’, ‘Fabric’ is an unfurling, self-produced tale of entanglement and escape that finds the Belfast/Dublin musician and producer at her most emphatic to date. Prepare for this one to reverberate in your inner ear hours after a first listen. Fears and Steven Henry play Belfast’s the 343 on tomorrow night (Friday, April 5.)

  • Watch: Fears – Blood

    July 31, 2018 - By 

    From her immersive live shows to recent single ‘h_always‘, Constance Keane, AKA Fears, has grown to become one of Ireland’s foremost creators of ambitious, subtle pop. Her latest in a recent string of audio-visual collaborations revisits her stark, somnambulist 2016 single ‘Blood‘, which has now too met its warped match with the help of director Aodh. ‘Blood’ stars Mark Loughran as father and IFTA-nominated young actor Dafhyd Flynn from award-winning Irish 2017 film Michael Inside as son. Thanks in no small part to the to contrasting camera work from Matthew Rogan & lo-fi footage by Cloda Farrelly, the video is eye-wateringly evocative in its portrayal of the complexities…