Hello and introduction

Hello and welcome to everyone reading this! This is my online archive for all my music reviews for Belfast and Northern Ireland. I will be updating this as I write them.

If you wish to have a piece reviewed, please email me at benjaminjlmagee@gmail.com

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Stayne - Parachute

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Stayne - Parachute Derry singer/songwriter Stayne makes a highly anticipated return to the ‘new releases’ column with ‘ Parachute ’. A self-described pop artist who brings “something a little different,” his newest single pulls no punches. On his latest, the ‘I slay ’ performer tackles everything from alcoholism, spirituality and needing someone to hold on to a 'human parachute.’ Know to fuse his lyricism with introspection and self-worth before sending them out into the world, Stayne’s newest is his best so far. The warm gruff vocals of the walled city resident flow into range, telling a tale of victory and failure. A stripped back arrangement of keys and ghostly strings help elevate the vocal message, ultimately committing addition by subtraction. Wallowing in a more subtle sound than would be expected from pop allows Stayne to bring his voice to the forefront, giving lines such as “I’m a whole different man when I’m holding a beer” a new gravity. With this being ...
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Culture Night - 21st September 2018

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Auspicious does not do justice. Culture Night in Belfast, one of the biggest nights of the calendar year, completes its first decade. As my head bobs against the window on my train, however, I am drawn to the faces around me, Irish and British, immigrant and local, and crack a small smile as physical proof of a matter materialises around me – Culture Night is about the culture of Belfast. This is not a celebration of Irish culture, but the hundreds of communities and families that make our port city such a thriving, unique cluster. As I depart Great Victoria Street station and slip into the masses, my theory is confirmed as humans of all shapes, sizes and orientations fill my vision. Truly a night to be proud of. I head first past City Hall wherein I hear the unmistakable whine of police sirens. I raise my hands in mock/completely serious surrender before approaching the source of this distraction. A large stage has been set up by the  Inter-Cultural Community Development ...
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Don Maple - Never Loved You Better

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Don Maple - Never loved you better  Following the success of his previous release Sweet and Sour, Belfast based troubadour Don Maple rolls out the red carpet for his latest single Never Loved You Better, a psychedelic sonnet dedicated to enjoying the simple things when life is determined to cut you down. A song as much about defiance as it is about enjoyment Never loved… opens with a smoking lounge lick, employing that factor of psychedelia that sounds both retro and modern simultaneously. Don’s velvety vocals, reassuring in their uneasy drawl, crawl over the smouldering carpet laid down by the guitar and drum accompaniments. An unmistakable similarity in lyrical and vocal style to Alex Turner, particularly in the ways Maple stretches the last syllable of each line impossibly beyond its mortal career like some 1950’s American bubblegum, only adds to the agile, dreamlike composition of his music, which in itself resemble the love child of Radiohead and Eels. Not one ...
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