• Preview: WorldService Project

    October 2, 2018 - By 

    This Friday, the second of our run of shows co-presented by esteemed Belfast tastemakers Moving on Music takes place at the Black Box, when British punk-jazz quintet WorldService Project make their first Belfast performance. Blending the third-eye-opening freneticism of Return To Forever or late 60s Zappa with an acerbic surrealist Britishness that’s one of few ties to any place of origin – look for a cameo from nightmare fuel himself, Mr Giggles. A fine example of nominal determinism, their rootlessness & contempt for genre classification has led to a confluence of math-rock, prog, punk, and the kind of contemporary, groove-laden fusion carried out by the likes of Snarky Puppy, rooted in the playfulness of Mingus & Coltrane to counteract their clearly schooled…

  • Preview: Peter Brötzmann’s Full Blast

    September 27, 2018 - By 

    For over fifty years, German saxophonist & clarinettist Peter Brötzmann has exemplified European improvised music. His excoriating, volatile style soundtracked a continent ravaged by division & civil unrest, tearing up convention and laying the groundwork for the defiant late 60s European avant-garde. Pitchfork describes him as “one of the most devastating forces to ever touch a saxophone”. In the first of what’s planned to be an ongoing collaboration, we’re delighted to co-present his Full Blast project, in partnership with esteemed Belfast-based tastemakers Moving On Music. Self-taught on saxophone, Brötzmann was originally a painter, schooled in the Cage-influenced Fluxus movement in before moving through Dixieland, ultimately turning his hand to…

  • Blue Whale – Process

    September 21, 2018 - By 

    At long last, one of our favourite bands in Ireland are set to release their debut album. Alluding to their deconstructivist tendencies, Belfast-based experimental rock band Blue Whale release Process on November 9. Recorded with Ben McCauley at Start Together Studios, lead single ‘Shortbread Fingers’ has recently premiered over at The Quietus, and ‘Coitus‘ featured on Irish independent compilation A Litany of Failures: Volume II. Their carefully-constructed chaos has led to a considerable live portfolio, where their potency is as undiminished on the dancefloor as it is with Can’s Damo Suzuki as improvised sound carriers. Oft-compared to Swans, Captain Beefheart, King Crimson and Slint, we’ve described them as “one of the country’s most thoroughly…

  • Watch: Robocobra Quartet – You’ll Wade

    May 1, 2018 - By 

    Very few things excite us more than the prospect of new music from (by far) one of Ireland’s difficult, and genuine, pioneers, Robocobra Quartet. Ahead of second album, Plays Hard To Get, out on May 25th, the band have just released their video for ‘You’ll Wade’. We’ve already covered the song – “Culminating in a cry of “Everything is old news” before petering out in a plume of funereal ambience, its recording and composition distils the band’s ongoing, masterfully unconventional approach” – but the video’s conceit is strong enough to warrant another visit. Shot by Colin Armstrong & edited by Robocobra leader Chris Ryan, it’s…

  • 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…

  • Five to Two – How Tall Do You Think You Could Grow (If You Wanted To Be So Tall)

    November 25, 2017 - By 

    Dublin jazz outfit Five To Two have just released their debut album at Workman’s Club through Dublin-based indie, Soft Boy Records. The trio, comprising Matthew Breen on piano, Jonah Byrne on double bass & Finn Mac Anna on drums, lean towards a traditional piano-led jazz combo sound, with some of the progressional hallmarks and playfulness of the likes of Kamasi Washington & other contemporary jazz that’s allowed the influence of hip-hop & r’n’b to seep into its blend. It’s out now, available to stream on Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes and the usuals. Stream it below: How Tall Do You Think You Could…

  • Le Guess Who? 2017

    November 24, 2017 - By 

    Photo by Tim van Veen You can’t help but admire the audacity of Le Guess Who? After an almost household-friendly 2016 lineup, they made a point of aiming their powers of tastemaking further toward the underground, with a broad range of curators that give as accurate a microcosm of the festival as you’d hope – Perfume Genius, Jerusalem In My Heart, Grouper, James Holden, Han Bennink, Basilica Soundscape & Shabazz Palaces. This comes accompanied by everything a fan of music & the arts could dream of, including the world’s largest record fair, the smaller Le Mini Who? festival. Every festival…

  • Preview & Festival Mixtape: Le Guess Who? 2017

    October 25, 2017 - By 

    Laying comfortably in the shadow of Amsterdam is the chilled-out university town of Utrecht, where the red light district is gladly a distant memory, and typically Dutch architecture and culture are in great supply. While this particularly from of citywide festival can be tough to pull off, Le Guess Who? has developed and diversified every year, offering something for everyone. A holiday-planner’s dream, it boasts the artistic ambition with none of the associated pretentiousness. Many of the performances take place in the impressive TivoliVredenburg or multitude of other venues within walking distance. Most music starts after 5pm, offering the chance to visit the Rietveld Schröder House, tour the…

  • Album Premiere & Interview: The Bonk

    October 6, 2017 - By 

    Having released a string of stellar singles over the last two years, Dublin & Cork-based experimental, orchestral, psychedelic garage rock project The Bonk have released their debut LP, The Bonk Seems To Be A Verb, and we’re delighted to premiere the entire album on its day of release. Recorded over the last few years while the outfit have been together, it’s released on cassette through Drogheda arts & culture collective Thirty Three – 45. Although the project is based around the compositions of frontman Phil Christie – of O Emperor, the substantial cast of musicians credited on the album includes some of the island’s most…

  • Sun Collective – Sun Collective

    May 30, 2017 - By 

    Lushly arranged Irish eight-piece Sun Collective release their debut album, Snarky Puppy-style, with a show at  on Saturday June 10. Led by songwriter & composer Caimin Gilmore – who plays as the double-bassist with Lisa Hannigan – they’re comprised of classical and jazz musicians from some of Ireland’s leading groups, including Crash Ensemble. Written by Gilmore and Shane Sugrue and crafted over four years at studios in London (SARM West, of Island Records & Miloca Studios), Dublin (Steve Shannon, The Hive) and Australia. The ensemble features string trio, two pianos, three high male voices, double bass & percussion, filtered through the lens…