Have a listen to our exclusive playlist of some of our favourite Northern acts who are appearing on July 25 at the small but massive Glasgowbury festival in Draperstown, County Derry.
A slight change of pace can be seen in this EP with a hip-hop icon cameo and some Eastern embellishments that may hint to new musical endeavors for Coldplay.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Seal re-visits some soul classics, but dresses them up in a way that turns pure gold into something of a different color.
Morricone brings a taste of the Wild West to Belfast when he performs scores from famous western films through the sounds of an orchestra over 200 musicians strong.
Newcomer electro-rockers produce a hyperactive, ear-decimating album that screams with heavy synth and rhythms, but dies with a lack of inspiration and creativity.
"...in almost every respect, Made In The Dark is an immaculately poised record, the poptronica super geeks at last striking the perfect balance between head and heart..."
There is more than nostalgia at work here. Lyrically at least, the cocaine cowboys of yore strive to engage with the modern world’s ills and idiosyncrasies.
Bat For Lashes' debut, Fur And Gold, is an album that delivers the listener from any form of humdrum existence into a deeper realm of dream and dementia.
The Crimea manage to fashion epic tales from everyday material, intimate scenarios instilled with the heroic bombast of Greek myth, or a sense of tragedy befitting the Bard.
A talent as refined as Kate Walsh is a true rarity. This is a record devoid of cynicism, beautifully naïve in many respects and all the more engaging for it.
Perennial chart favourites of the early to mid ‘80s, Madness remain adored by their fans. Flying trumpeter Chas Smash explains why he wouldn’t change a thing.
To be fair to the perpetually bellyaching rap-metallers, this time they are at least moaning for the good of society and not just for personal pain - the current American regime gets a right old Bush-whacking on this record.
Three albums into her career and it seems to be a case of diminishing returns for Ellis-Bextor. Yet again too much of the material on offer has sold her short.
A one-night stand entitled Orchestral Manoeuvres In Belfast in which the Ulster Orchestra gets its oh-so-refined freak on with three of Ireland’s most popular performers.
One Man Revolution finds Tom Morello, best known as Rage Against The Machine’s firebrand guitarist, attempt to metamorphose into a latter-day Woody Guthrie.
It’s a forbidding date – no I’m not talking about Friday the 13th, I’m referring to Ash’s first Belfast date proper since the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley.
Despite the big name producer and big time contributors, Macy Gray has somehow achieved the not insignificant feat of delivering an altogether average record.
They create a beautiful tumult, all scrawling synth, insistent rhythms, corrosive guitar and narcotised vocal: Channel One are tuned into the strangest frequencies.
The Earlies have corralled an army of musicians, almost 15 in total, to create an unquestionably ambitious, unbearably ominous album, one that stalks the listener from start to finish.
The rich, comforting voice remains, but Cat Stevens is no more. In his stead there is Yusuf, offering us An Other Cup, a record that bears proud comparison to Stevens’ classic Tea For The Tillerman.
Delving into myriad genres, The Good, The Bad & The Queen have created an album that is more texture than tune led, unsettling, almost unsure of its footing and yet hugely rewarding.
The nigh-on three hour set will see the prolific Adams delve deep into his extensive back catalogue, panhandling for precious nuggets, with songs from Heartbreaker and Gold glinting among the Cardinals’ material.
Nope, 1990s are not the infamous Cork band, they're a red hot Scottish act that evolved from the wonderfully named Yummy Fur, who also spawned half of Franz Ferdinand.
“You fucking love it, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Dirty Pretty Things alight upon the stage of Mandela Hall, an unruly rock ‘n’ roll tornado, all braggart charm and uncompromising swagger. How could we not fucking love it?
Michael Franti is mad and he wants you to know about it. To demonstrate the fraught condition of the world, he’s even gone to the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones to make a movie.
It’s all very free-spirited, some might even say immoral. Certainly relations within The Immediate are unconventional: band members frequently change places, instruments are swapped and vocal duties rotated. There’s a playful grope with U2 here, a quick fumble with Talking Heads there and a covert, climactic Krautrock fondle at the end.
Grunge: The Lost Civilisation. Our musical archaeologist? Dave Navarro, former Jane’s Addiction guitarist and part-time MTV celebrity, joined by his former bandmates, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Chris Chaney. Filling the Perry Farrell role, none other than renowned vocalist/guitarist Steve Isaacs. Yep, that’s Steve Isaacs of Skycycle fame. No, me neither.
In keeping with Nouvelle Vague's eponymous debut, the modus operandi of Bande A Part sees new wave noir given a narcotised bossa nova facelift, the songs whispered into sensual life by a succession of breathy chanteuses.
He’s the hottest thing in boxing and has been tipped as a future world champion. Recently Amir Khan was in King’s Hall Belfast for a lightweight bout with Laszlo Komjathi of Hungary. Francis Jones was in the audience.
After the relatively disappointing Absent Friends, Victory For The Comic Muse is The Divine Comedy back to their louche, seductive best. This is as good as it gets.
A diminutive figure, he tiptoes across the stage and takes his seat. Quiet and unassuming, it is typical of the man. But then, what need has José González of rock and roll histrionics?
They scream and bawl at each other, and to the casual observer it looks like just another mutually abusive relationship. But we know better. This is the sound of discordant devotion, a marriage of highbrow concepts and barbarian rhythms spawning sweetly twisted music.
Pop-rock prize fighters The Zutons have moved up a weight division for their second album. The dense layering and hefty riffs and rhythms mean that this Stephen Street-produced record packs considerably more punch than its predecessor, 2004’s Who Killed The Zutons?
Debased Dubliners Republic Of Loose return, here serving up their second smorgasbord of gourmet sleaze for your delectation. What more could a poor boy ask for in a time of plenty?
Few performances will have done more to shape the future of The Ordinary Boys than the ignoble appearance of frontman Samuel Preston on Celebrity Big Brother. Ironically, his dalliance with trash television, though ensuring the commercial survival of the band, would also signal their exile from the affections of credibility junkies.
They say less is more. Obviously ‘they’ hadn’t seen Broken Social Scene. I quickly ran out of fingers trying to count exactly how many individuals comprise this rampaging Canadian horde. But, hey, let’s not worry about quantifying the experience, it’s the quality that counts, right?
Primed to attract and repel in equal measure, Alec Ounsworth’s disaffected drawl is pure vocal Bovril and, for many, the CYHSY maker/breaker. An acquired taste, it will either have you clutching that CYHSY record to your chest in fevered, heart palpitating devotion or reaching for the nearest scalpel to perform a Van Gogh ear double.
