It’s an exciting time for the Belfast Trad scene. Not that it hasn’t always had a vibrant energy that has you stomping your feet and swaying for hours on end. But these days when I head to a trad gig there’s the added element of having no idea what to expect. It’s a thrill in itself.
Lonesome George played the Empire Music Hall last Saturday. Thinking back to the concert, I’ve come to the conclusion that the band has this unique quality of keeping you feeling right at home whilst keeping you guessing. Continue Reading…
Brand New Friend return with a record that sees them evolve into a new, arthouse soundscape. Their third album Grandstand blends grunge guitar with sunbursts of 00s-inspired garage rock. The title which nods to the iconic sports TV sports programme hosted by Des Lynam, is a perfect allusion to the bittersweet epiphany of leaving childhood behind. 
Back in the day, an art combo called the Frank Chickens came up with a performance idea called scratch. The idea was that you shouldn’t be fixated with the finished, tidy product. Rather, you deliver the raw heart of your idea, and burnish the details as you go along. Scratch became a core concept of the Battersea Arts Centre and has traveled widely ever since. 
“I’m an Irish woman and I’m an abused child.”
Kneecap are shouting out to the glue-sniffers and the “low-life scum”. Ten thousand people in Falls Park are loving it. It’s a night of messy humour, beats and singalong. Here we are, in the Gaeltacht of west Belfast, where the seeds of an Irish language movement have grown into a new vernacular of pills, thrills and bellyache. This is the group’s heartland, their “DLA capital”, a community that’s engaged and up for it. 
ELLAS is the first collaborative all-female mixtape in Northern Ireland. It highlights through the work of 16 performers the diverse talent flourishing across the local music scene. The project’s founder, DJ and musician Katie Martinez reveals how the fusion of artists influenced her decision to expand beyond the idea of just a regular album. 
Thursday was the downpour, Friday was the recovery and Saturday is the sun-lashed finale. The fields of Ballymully Cottage Farm embrace the heat as the welly boots are retired to the campsite. The Stendhal Festival organisers are visibly relaxed and the extra footfall (over 10,000 people attending) is proof that this has been a restorative win – a great weekend in spite of funding cutbacks, messy weather and a populace that has been mugged by grim economics. Now they all want to party and Stendhal is willing to oblige. 
Timmy Stewart, one half of Black Bones and a regular Dig With It contributor, puts together a playist to mark gigs this weekend in Liverpool, Todmorden and London. Here are some of the current favourites he has packed for the trip.
Cathal McNaughton walks through the documentary I Dream in Photos with a fragile, abstracted air. He tugs often at the fraying bill of his baseball cap. With his beard and denim shirt, he looks like a wayward act from Domino Records. He has a severe story to share with you. 
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