• Premiere: peak hue – safe room

    Few Irish artists have shapeshifted convincingly, or as consistently, as Phil Quinn. Over the years, the Belfast musician has offered up an abundance of first-rate sounds as – or as a member of – Charles Hurts, Gross Net, Girls Names, and Grave Goods, as well as recent collaborations with the likes of Aoife Wolf. It’s a winding and immersive path that leads very nicely to peak hue. A homophone for their initials, PQ, the new solo project’s first release, safe room, instantly hits like a clean, meditative break from the more ardent, beat-heavy post-punk they’re rightly lauded for. Ahead of the three-tracker’s release on 3rd February, its…

  • Preview: Spilt Milk Festival 2022

    On these shores, few creative initiatives pair careful curation with an independent spirit as focused and informed as Spilt Milk. A year on from hosting the likes of School Tour, Syn and the sadly-missed Shammen Delly, the annual festival of music, art and film returns to Sligo town across 18th-20th November for its fourth outing, and arguably its strongest line-up to date. The programme from this year’s festival comprises four events, taking place at one of the island’s finest art centres, The Model – and it’s primed to be another wonderfully palette-spanning affair featuring several TTA favourites. From 7pm on Friday, the venue will…

  • Premiere: Charles Hurts – Living Under Lockdown

    Though there have been many reunions and recommencements in Irish music since we launched back in May 2013, none have demanded our attention more than the long-awaited return of Charles Hurts. A solo moniker of Belfast musician Philip Quinn aka Gross Net, who is also a one-third of Grave Goods and guitarist with the currently inactive Girls Names, ‘Living Under Lockdown’ arrives eight years on from his last Charles Hurts release (Blue Valentine, a stellar split with Hello Translinks? on CF/Recs). Taken from forthcoming three-track EP Squashed, which is released on July 3, it’s a typically phantasmal effort from Quinn, and a wonderfully balmy rumination…