Tag Archives: music

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The Metropolis festival is on next week in Dublin’s RDS, providing a weekend of music, art, installation and conversation, plus plenty cool pre-parties and an afterparty for each night of the fest.

On the music end, Stef Edwards writes:

The Main Hall will see the likes of the incredible Miss Grace Jones, Moderat, Jack Garratt, The Sugar Hill Gang, Sura and more taking to the stage – and a very special performance from the Trinity Orchestra paying tribute to David Bowie.

Why not check out The Shelbourne Hall to take in DJ Shadow at the Opening Party, or Groove Armada’s DJ set, Cyril Hahn, Girl Band, Booka Shade live, New Jackson and many more?

The Serpentine Hall features an awesome line up of acts from Clams Casino, Mall Grab, Floating Points DJ set, Fakear and Jessy Lanza, while over in our Industries Hall, we’ve got the very best in Irish DJ collectives. These guys have been putting on the best parties across Ireland and will be spinning their favourite tunes across the weekend. Come and dance to DJs from Hidden Agenda, Sense, Bedlam, Abstract, Lumo, Telephones, Bodytonic, District 8 and many more.

In addition: the world’s largest mirrorball, Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds exhibition, bespoke stage designs, an audiovisual REPEAL installation in conjunction with an interactive petition, eats from restaurants around Dublin, craft beers, and more.

Tickets are on sale now.

Metropolis

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Soothsayer – doom from Cork

What you may need to know…

01. Hailing from Cork, five-piece Soothsayer provide a psychey, emotive take on sludge/doom metal.

02. Formed in late 2013 after the breakup of nine-headed Leeside noise beast Íweriú, the band were patient in assembling their debut extended-player The Soothsayer, released independently two years later.

03. Streaming above is Umpire, the lead-off from Soothsayer’s follow-up record At This Great Depth. It marks their signing to Indian metal label Transcending Obscurity, who are handling the physical release, as well as a limited-run merchandise pack.

04. Playing this Sunday at the Siege of Limerick at Dolan’s Warehouse, one of twenty-odd bands playing across fourteen straight hours (!) of various stripes of riffage.

Verdict: Eerie, almost reflective in quieter moments, and feral at their height of their heft. To be experienced live.

Soothsayer

Photo: Down the Barrel

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Icelandic airline WOWair is to run from Cork Airport, effective from May of next year, led by a Cork-Reykjavik service at €60 each way.

Sez the blurb:

Iceland’s low-cost airline will operate flights to Iceland, the US and Canada from May 2017.
The new service will operate direct scheduled flights to Reykjavik from Cork Airport four times per week and will allow passengers to connect to major US and Canadian cities including New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC , Montreal and Toronto.

Good times.

Cork Airport

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Gummidge – noise-rock from Galway

What you may need to know…

01. Grubby, gritty noise-rock foolishness is the order of the day for Gummidge, a trio from Gallimh, formed in 2010. You may remember them.

02. Releasing debut album Sick Again in 2012, the band has kept the home fires burning with work on Heartbreakers, a second LP released earlier this month and launched with a Galway gig.

03. Streaming above, available from the band’s Bandcamp. No formal physical release, but all digital purchases to receive liner notes in a card posted with each order.

04. Launching the new album in Dublin, at the Jigsaw arts space, next week on the 5th, with support from Ten Past Seven, 1, and Mercurius Forebrain.

Verdict: Angular, awkward, and noisy as ever. Grand job.

Gummidge

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Chris Power – Leeside beatmaker with second mixtape

What you may need to know…

01. Last time we checked in with Chris Power, he’d released his first mixtape for Cork’s Cuttin’ Heads Collective.

02. He’s just released his second, entitled The Trees, a mix of instrumentals, remixes and collaborations, including with Detroit MC Sincere.

03. It’s streaming above, and available for free/pay-what-you-want download.

04. The Cuttin’ Heads lads, Power among them, converge on Pigalle Bar, Barrack St. on the Friday of this Jazz Weekend in Cork – kickoff at 8pm, strictly jazzy hip-hop.

Verdict: More of what’s good – and good to see his work with collaborators ahead of more high-profile releases on the horizon.

Chris Power

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Last week, in our weekly TWENTY-FIVE EURO competition in association with Golden Discs, we asked you for your favourite one-hit wonder. In fact, we asked…

‘The most satisfying single hit from an otherwise obscure source would have to be _____________________________’

As ever, you responded in your dozens, but there can only be one winner…

Or can there?

Eoin Fegan, with the clincher:

The most satisfying single hit from an otherwise obscure source would have to be ‘Your Woman’ by White Town. From nowhere to UK no.1, and rapidly back to nowhere. His only UK top 40 entry in 10 attempts.

But!

Also hit upon by commenter Bertie Blenkinsop, as a second choice to his original guess, a technicality over which the judges are currently deliberating feverishly.

In other highlights from some very stiff competition:

Ivan: “The most satisfying single hit from an otherwise obscure source would have to be She’s Not There by The Zombies. Obscure is a funny word. This is the only hit but I suppose maybe everybody also knows Time of the Season from the Bulmers ad.”

Gemma Power: “The most satisfying single hit from an otherwise obscure source would have to be Where’s me Jumper by Sultans of Ping.”

Barry Higgins: “Has to be Owen Paul’s My Favourite Waste of Time. Sums up my relationship with Broadsheet perfectly.”

Turgenev: “The most satisfying single hit from an otherwise obscure source would have to be Fatima Mansions’ Only Losers Take the Bus.”

f_lawless: “Gotta be Althea & Donna, who came from obscurity to have a UK no.1 in 1977 with the reggae classic Uptown, Top Ranking”

 

Golden Discs

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BANTUM – new album available today

What you may need to know…

01. Last we saw of Dublin-based Corkman Ruairí Lynch, aka BANTUM, he’d released his first new single in a while, a collaborative effort with soul singer Loah.

02. Four years on from his debut album Legion, one of the best Irish LPs of recent years, he’s back with sophomore effort Move, featuring appearances and collaborations from Rusangano Family, Senita, Loah and more.

03. It’s streaming above in its entirety, and available for download via Bandcamp. His back-catalogue of EPs, single, and the aforementioned debut are all free, too, and you really owe that much to yourself, today being Friday and all. Treat yo’ self.

04. Next confirmed to be appearing live in support of Rusangano Family at the Sudden Club Weekender at the Kino in Cork on December 9th, though that’s certain to not to be the case for long. Check out this chat he’s had with the Times, also.

Verdict: On first listen: the logical progression from Legion. A wider musical frame of reference and Lynch at his best when working with others.

BANTUM

Photo: Bríd O’Donovan

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Gadget and the Cloud – Leeside beats and pieces

What you may need to know…

01. Gadget and the Cloud is the nom-de-beats of music journalist and student activist Kelly Doherty.

02. A former blog editor herself, she currently writes for the Belfast’s The Thin Air, inbetween study and her duties with UCC’s SU.

03. Venturing into composition last year as Gadget and the Cloud, she quickly assembled an extended-player, October 31st, for release late last year. Ambience was the name of the game, albeit with drone/sound-art overtones.

04. Streaming above is 3600 Seconds, released last week via her Soundcloud page, and continuing Doherty’s foray into electronica, using cheapo ’90s beats as exposition this time around.

Verdict: Progressing quickly from a subtly evocative debut, Doherty’s explorations of/reflections on various electronic sub-genres are the spirited, impatient noises of an artist experimenting and figuring the next step out.

Gadget and the Cloud

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The Irish Youth Music Awards are back, and Volume 9 of their annual series of compilations, featuring winners and nominees, is available now for pre-order from iTunes.

The programme, which engages with musicians aged 12-19 via Youth Work Ireland, provides training, education, and first-contact work experience in music for young people, with help from IMRO, IRMA and Irish music media.

Release date is this Friday, and the IYMAs and producers are pushing for chart placement for the young bands, artists and producers featured

You know what to do.

Launch show happens this Sunday afternoon, at the Roisín Dubh in Galway.

IYMAs