Album Review: Ulster is a Dance Master // Strength NIA

Bandcamp

Strength NIA’s second full length release opens with disembodied vocals over the ominous stuttering chords of an organ. Formed around the talents of frontman Rory Moore, the band’s USP is using old, broken instruments to create a discordant brand of post-apocalyptic pop with the occasional chorus peeking up from beneath the rubble. The band like to think of their work as “the first pop songs in the world”.

Following on from their debut Northern Ireland Yes in 2018, Ulster is a Dance Master abounds with regional references and is a smorgasbord of instruments and sounds. The whole album clocks in at well under an hour and its lyrics recount eerie tales from Irish history to a more recent a youth spent in Derry. Song topics include everything from gravy buns to the population of Strabane.

The comically titled ‘Dressing Up for the TUV’ is an ode to the women found guilty in the last witch trial in Ireland in 1711. Moore speaks as the TUV councillor objecting to their memorial in 2015, delivering the crashing couplets: “Eight women from Islandmagee // they made a pact with the demons you see”. His vocal delivery recalls Joy Division’s Ian Curtis.

‘Stuck on the Lyre’ is a heartfelt elegy in post-punk clothing, whilst ‘Donegal Sweetheart’ is an unconventional love song somewhere between church hymn and spaced out anthem. The echoic ‘Hospital Beds and Drugs’ is another highlight. The album leaves listeners with ‘Never been to Belfast’, a warmer, mellower number than other tracks on LP, with Doors-esque keys and a North West twang.

Ulster is a Dance Master is at once cacophonous, cerebral and intimate. Strength NIA are undoubtedly one of the most unique acts the North has produced and wear their eccentricity as a badge of pride – and rightly so. The album may not be so accessible to the casual listener, but you can’t help feeling that was never the intention. It only gets better with every listen. Ulster is a Dance Master could give you a headache, but you might just like it.

This review was written for Dig With It magazine. It appears in print in Issue 5, which you can purchase here.

Comments

Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt - John Frusciante

Dedicated to Clara Balzary, bandmate Flea's daughter (Source: wikipedia.org) "My smile is a rifle, won't you give it a try?" The first time I listened to Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was in the back of my family’s campervan parked in Calais after we’d just been robbed. I hadn’t listened to it – or any of Frusciante’s narcotic haze of nineties releases – since, preferring his more polished offerings of To Record Only Water for Ten Days and Shadows Collide With People , until my sister bought me a copy of Niandra Lades for my birthday. My main memories of the album were Frusciante’s wails making me jump as I tried to drift off with my headphones in. So, safe to say, I was a little apprehensive upon receiving this gift. Although released in 1994, the first half of the album – Niandra Lades – was recorded prior to Frusciante’s departure from the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik at the allegedly haunted ...

Live Review: Florence + the Machine with The Staves @ SSE Arena, Belfast

Source: All photos my own Having topped the charts in eight countries within her album’s first week, Florence + the Machine is premiering her How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Tour at the newly-renamed SSE Arena in Belfast. With her trademark soaring vocals and Stevie Nicks-like elegance, support band The Staves are a wonderfully satisfying contrast to tonight’s headliner, complimenting Florence’s danceability with their sleepy falsetto and honey sweet harmonies. To liken the sister trio to Haim would be a generic comparison. Blending indie folk with a melancholic yet poppy air which builds to a Fleetwood Mac-esque denouement, the sisters from “glorious Watford” have a sound not unlike Fleet Foxes. Playing against a glittery backdrop as purple light floods the stage, the girls – dressed all in black with perfectly straightened locks – gather around the microphone in sweet sisterhood to sing acapella. “ Even the good die young ,” croon the girls on ‘Let Me Down’, alternating lea...

Film Review: Quills (2000)

(Source: google.com) “Some things belong on paper, others in life. It’s a blessed fool who can’t tell the difference.” If I’m completely honest, I initially decided to watch this film because I fancy Joaquin Phoenix loads. Aside from his looking dreamy as ever, Quills is a genuinely great film with a fantastic cast which exceeded my expectations when I first put it on. In fact, before watching Quills , it’s worth knowing a bit about its protagonist, the infamous Marquis de Sade. Born in Paris in 1740, he was an aristocratic politician, philosopher and writer, known for what Wikipedia is calling his ‘libertine sexuality’, characterised by violence and a complete lack of morality; in reality this was most likely his perverted and often misogynistic sexual fantasies (the word ‘sadism’ is derived from his name, so take from that what you will). During the time of Napoleon, he was imprisoned several times, notably in the Bastille and finally in an insane asylum at Charenton nea...

Kristen Sinclair

Search This Blog