• Stream: Arvo Party – Halloween (Main Theme)/Tubular Bells (Exorcist Theme)

    October 31, 2018 - By 

    John Carpenter’s soundtrack to his 1978 classic Halloween remains one of the greatest horror scores of all time – a fact reflected in the many tributes and remixes of its main themes over the years, not least Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ cover of the film’s menacing and instantly recognisable main theme. Last Halloween, Belfast producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party offered his own take with a “VHS Mix” interpretation that blended original with a lo-fi, wonderfully warped aesthetic and shuddering synth work more redolent of Carpenter’s soundtracks to the likes of Assault on Precinct 13. Now, in the year of our Lord John Carpenter…

  • Album Stream: Arvo Party – II

    October 3, 2018 - By 

    When Belfast musician and producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party unveiled his self-titled debut album last July, we quickly learnt that we were dealing with something pretty special. Having previously established himself as a formidable one-fourth of erstwhile Belfast alt-rock heroes LaFaro, and later with GOONS, it made for a feature-length curveball from a musician who has seemingly, and rather quietly, mastered a whole different palette of sound. The dancefloor nocturnalism of ‘Grube’ hit home hard. The widescreen ambience of ‘Thirty Five’ was a spectral tidal of ambience on mute. ‘Null Set’, meanwhile, proved an unravelling eight-minute centrepiece, and a track that continues to…

  • Watch: Arvo Party – D U S T

    August 11, 2018 - By 

    In July last year, Belfast electronic/ambient producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party arrived via his self-titled, Northern Irish Music Prize-nominated debut LP. Recorded and written in Belfast, Bangor, Bushmills, Denver, Strasburg, London, Holland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Dublin and far beyond, it was a carefully-crafted trip veering between drone, dense ambience, and shapeshifting electronica à la Wolfgang Voigt, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Tangerine Dream. Having bridged the gap with the sublime ‘Liberté ’ back in May, Magee is back with his strongest single effort to date, ‘D U S T’ . Marrying bushwacking beats and propulsive synth-bass with submerged vocals that sees…

  • Stream: Arvo Party – Tired Eyes (fear. LARKS)

    July 10, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of making his solo debut performance at Mandela Hall’s curtain call on July 27, Belfast musician and producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party is back with collaborative new single ‘Tired Eyes’. Featuring sublime guest vocals from Fiona O’Kane AKA LARKS, it’s a first-rate, FM-flirting electro-pop gem that not only confines within its unfurling four minutes Magee’s keen versatility as a producer – it doubles up as a stop-gap ahead of the release of Arvo Party’s second album, which is pipped for release next month. Details to be announced. In the meantime, give this a blast or two.  

  • Premiere: Arvo Party – Null Set

    July 6, 2017 - By 

    Although many of you won’t need told, Belfast-based musician and producer Herb Magee is a jack of all trades, master of many. A current or past bassist for several stellar Northern Irish acts including three-piece GOONS and riffmasters general LaFaro, Magee has also been drip-feeding us varyingly-shaded electronic and ambient sounds as Arvo Party since early last year. A handful of original efforts and various first-rate covers later, Magee will release his brilliantly inspired, self-titled debut album on Friday. Traversing ambient, drone, neo-classical and experimental electronic sounds – as well full-on, straight-up electronica – the release is an 11 track, 50-minute masterstroke from an…