The Cork Midsummer Festival has been a staple of the city’s art scene for the past decade. Though primarily focused on theatre and literary events, the festival often throws up some musical surprises. This year the undoubted musical highlight of the festival looks to be the new piece by Australian sound artist and Cork resident […]
Michael Lanigan traces the return of indie legends Ride, via Weather Diaries, their first full length album in over twenty years. Reunion albums rarely deserve the same scepticism as reunion tours. They are not cash-grabs, unless the artist in question has no concept of how to actually grab cash. In most cases, the artist deserves brownie points of […]
It is surely the completion of this, our fourth summer mix tape from Cian Ó Cíobháin, that heralded in the weather we’re having – Ireland as a Riviera paradise full of summer dresses, boys in their shorts and 99s. Wrap this annual treat around these long, warm sunny days. Play it from cars and apartments. Take it […]
Arcade Fire – Ormeau Park, Belfast – by Joseph Nawaz There was a rumour going around last Tuesday afternoon that a certain Ian Brown was in Belfast city centre handing out free Stone Roses tickets to anybody who’d take them. Like all the best rumours, there’s zero evidence to back this up (although King Monkey […]
We’ve featured the delightfully husky tones of Belfast singer-songwriter Rory Nellis before, and with latest single ‘All I Ever Wanted Was A Chance’, it’s easy to see why (or hear, really). Taken from his forthcoming album There Are Enough Songs In The World, the track marks a considerable progression from the introspective acoustic balladry Nellis has honed […]
Having released the exquisite Structures and Light as Group Zero just a few months back, Cathal Cully (Girls Names) has followed up the heady electronic collection with a brand new video reflecting ‘Pyramid of Light’ & ‘Love and The Present’, two of the album’s more serene pieces. It’s directed by Dublin-based visual artist Dorje De Burgh, who says “The visual […]
“At first it was in some ways almost frustrating,” Austra’s Katie Stelmanis tells me over the phone, talking about her accidental role as a political voice. On latest album Future Politics, Stelmanis plays the character Revolutionary Rhonda, who works against the album’s dystopian universe – a scenario that became more relevant by the time of its release […]
It’s a tale as old as time, presuming that revellers existed back at the dawn of civilisation. If so, did inclement weather dampen their spirits, thus providing the first arts journalists the chance to mould and shape cringe-worthy headlines? This admittedly tortured intro exists to underline the unfortunate fact that the vast majority of festivals […]
In terms of footfall, Forbidden Fruit 2017 immediately extends to us a bizarre dichotomy between its size and patronage. Entering the grounds of the RHK, there’s a noticeable swell in brightly-garbed, gurning youths peacocking around under rays of sunshine; far more so than the ‘too-much-of-a-good-thing’ crowd straggling outside the gates would suggest has landed here […]
The main thing that has been recurring in my mind since attending this year’s Forbidden Fruit is the level of pressure involved in contrast to other festivals of its scope. Though thousands of people pass through the Kilmainham site each year, it’s never hard to get a good spot for a particular artist, with no […]
La Femme sit somewhere on an idiosyncratic sound spectrum where they don’t seem to commit to one particular brand of noise making. Influenced by Cold Wave, No Wave, Surf Rock, and often found proliferating the motorik insistency of Krautrock, their’s is a musical powerhouse of vibrancy and intensity. Ever expanding, and with new music in the […]
The sun does funny things to Dublin; al fresco dining, 99’s and more goose pimpled skin than Tesco’s poultry section. The Iveagh Gardens is the perfect place to bask in that all too scarce sunshine, the perfect place to meet Damien Dempsey, an oasis inside the “concrete maze of Anna Livia’s domain” that serves as […]
If you’re reading this, congratulations, you’ve made it to June! We’ve somehow survived the first 150 days of 2017 and now the promise of summer hangs over us like a flock of seagulls over the canal, waiting to rob your ice cream and knock your cans over. A truly blessed time of year. Blockbuster season […]
With a lineup that seems to get weightier year by year, this weekend’s 2017 edition of Forbidden Fruit has been at the forefront of State’s collective editorial brain for some time now. Boasting a healthy supply of urban, indie, and electronic acts – some homegrown, some internationally and critically renowned – the three day city festival, which […]