• Battles w/ Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith @ The Button Factory, Dublin

    March 24, 2016 - By 

    The Button Factory plays host to the first night of Battles’ European Spring tour tonight, in support of their latest album La Di Da Di. Having sold out not too long after it was announced last year, the desire for the trio’s return to Dublin is immense. Tonight’s sole support, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith takes to the stage first with an impressive array of synths, sequencers, connective wires and blinking lights, evocative of a young Delia Derbyshire at the BBC radiophonic workshop. She begins with a series of robotic loops, which advances into Laurie Anderson territory as she distorts her vocals through…

  • Reverberation Psych Fest Launch @ Grand Social, Dublin

    March 18, 2016 - By 

    Following on from its well received debut last August, the announcement that a second Reverberation Festival is scheduled to take place next month, was music to the ears of the ever growing Irish Psych loving fraternity. In anticipation of the festival, the inaugural appearance of Holy Wave to Dublin, is billed as the event’s official launch party. First up is This Other Kingdom, a four piece who play a mix of bombinate-esque shoegaze fused with psychedelia that can draw you in their world so effortlessly, it’s hard not to be converted there and then. Just picture The Black Angels fronted…

  • Sea Pinks @ Roisin Dubh, Galway

    March 15, 2016 - By 

    I sometimes wonder how often, if ever, bands think about how the sound they craft in a studio translates to a live stage. Some groups are simply ‘studio bands’ – they sound better when they can endlessly and obsessively tinker with the sonic possibilities of technology. Others see the live setting as a different set of circumstances altogether, something with the living potential for a more sensory collective experience, something that can become a genuine reason to senselessly roar at your friends in a smoking area. While this is all pretty vague stuff to be beginning with, I promise it…

  • Hornets w/ Apartments & Unyielding Love @ Catalyst Art Centre, Belfast

    March 14, 2016 - By 

    Saturday March 12 2016. A hidden location in Belfast’s city centre. No, not a meeting of some clandestine secret society, but a fundraising gig for Belfast hardcore rockers Hornets. As they’ve previously done (to raise money for a tour) the band chose a tiny studio location, holding a maximum of eighty people, to have ‘a bit of a do’, including an art gallery, a raffle, and a couple of up and coming young bands as support. First of these bands was Unyielding Love, who describe themselves as grind/noise. They gather ‘onstage’ (the end of the room) and begin their set…