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Artwork: Frances Smyth

The new record by Huartan is called ‘Fiáin’. It is a protest tune that revisits ‘The Foggy Dew’ and the revolutionary sentiments of Easter 1916. Now, it has electronic beats and a cut-up speech from activist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, addressing the National Demonstration for Palestine in Dublin, January 13.

Her words are piercing and direct. She is outraged at the actions of the Israel Defence Force in Gaza. She calls it genocide and she laments the many breaches of the United Nations Charter. Also, she is furious at the Irish parties – Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil – for not contesting the actions in the way that the South African government has done. Further, Bernadette condemns Sinn Féin, “a government in waiting” and wants their leader, Mary Lou McDonald, to “step up to the plate, now.” Palestine, she says, is a litmus test for our conscience.   Continue Reading…

Steve Pyke takes astounding photos of faces and hands, landscapes and astronauts. He has pictured war veterans, roadside shrines, monumental thinkers and the countenance of Shane MacGowan.

An artist and an agent of mischief, he takes most of his portraits on a Rolleiflex TLR that was engineered in 1957 and still delivers detail, skin tones and fine poetry on silver halide. For many sittings, he spends a lot of the scheduled time talking with his subjects, finding a sympathetic rhythm. Then he gets in tight with close-up lenses and aims for the moment of transference when his sitters reveal a piece of their soul. Continue Reading…

Huartan, Gradaim NÓS, review

February 14, 2024

Ram, bam, thank you man. Huartan play Irish trad music with rave dynamics, masks and pagan intent. They attach meaning to pre-Christian spirits, especially the hawthorn tree, a species you don’t want to mess with. Just to make the point clear, there are two dancers on stage, representing the fairy folk – alternately good and evil, light and dark. They are denizens of the hawthorn manor and they have assembled at the Black Box to enact síogaí magic. Continue Reading…

GUB is a parcel of poems, alive with Belfast vernacular and spitball zen. It sees heaven in a gravy chip. It is wise to Captain Beefheart, Snap! and Roxy Music. The guy in the ice cream van serves up Embassy Regal on the sly until he is shopped by a tout. But hey, he was once a boss feature of the Lower Shankill and he made a classy entrance:  Continue Reading…

Elaine Howley – In Five

January 21, 2024

Elaine Howley first came to my attention (writes Timmy Stewart) via the heartbreakingly good The Distance Between Heart and Mouth on the always on point Irish imprint, Touch Sensitive. It’s a beautifully emotive collection of work that shifts between ethereal folk, hazy psyche and otherworldly electronics. An album I return to time and time again and know it’s got a classic yet unique sound that will have me coming back forever. I managed to catch Elaine’s live show at the Courthouse in Bangor last Summer and exactly like the album, it’s impressive how she builds layers of such rich warm audio tapestry while flying solo. What makes the album so incredible, also truly carries over to the live experience.
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Fancy the greatest commission? Stuart Bailie took the call in 1987 to meet The Pogues in NYC, preparing for their breakthrough moment, ‘Fairytale of New York’. What follows is a remembrance of that visit, with some pictures from his personal archive plus an extract from the original Record Mirror cover story…

 

 

 

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Emma Hart – In Five

December 2, 2023

In a local electronic music landscape often dominated by house and techno, Emma Hart stands out as an electronic artist ploughing a different kind of groove. Whether pushing more laidback tempos and textures fusing elements of hip-hop and jazz as HART (check her excellent, choppy audio collage Moon Jazz album, for some hazy summer soul) or as Nyphaea, where she ups the energy level with faster UK garage influences. Timmy Stewart caught up with Emma to give Dig With It the overview, in five. Continue Reading…

They’ve been dropping bombs on libraries, they’ve destroyed the university and many thousands of homes. The death toll in Gaza for the month is currently 15,000. Whole families have been obliterated from the civil registry. This IDF response to the Hamas killings is horrendous, vengeful and at times, gloating. We know there’s a whole other narrative, a twisted back story and there’s even nuance below the dust of those sickening craters. But in the now, the analysis is simple: this is wrong. Continue Reading…

Connor Dougan – In Five

November 19, 2023

Connor Dougan has been producing incredibly emotive music for a while now, under a range of pseudonyms.

Timmy Stewart caught up with Connor for a quick chat about his various projects and what inspires him to be creative.  Continue Reading…

You hear the crackle of a Palestinian ambulance driver, reporting from the worst of it. There are voices from Ukraine and Afghanistan. Later, a French speaker will ask you to chose a direction – “Enfer ou paradis?” Will you tolerate this very hell, or struggle for a higher position? In response, the new David Holmes record is reaching for love and transcendence in the face of unrelenting dread. Continue Reading…