TBL favourites, Moving On Music, are back with another 'weekend event', this time focusing on 'roots music'.
Beat Root: A Weekend Of Alternative Roots Music In Belfast, brings "the very best of alternative roots music to Belfast over three days in September."
The first weekend event will feature the Furrow Collective (Emily Portman, Alasdair Roberts, Lucy Farrell, and Rachel Newton), Filastine & Nova; delivering the grittiest transnational bass music around with their live A/V show, our very own Robyn G Shiels, and Newcastle's skewed troubadour Richard Dawson – "English folk equivalent of Captain Beefheart's deconstruction of the blues" The Guardian.
Tickets are priced at £10 per night with a 3-day ticket costing just £22.50.
All gigs take place in The Crescent Arts Centre, Thursday 03 to Saturday 05 September.
For more information and to book tickets go to movingonmusic.com
THE FURROW COLLECTIVE
THURS 3 SEPT
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE (BYO)
8PM / £10
This acclaimed collective brings together four of the finest, award winning musicians on the UK folk scene; Rachel Newton, Lucy Farrell, Emily Portman, and Alasdair Robert, as they delve into the obscure world of balladry at its darkest and quirkiest.
Each singer airs lesser-known gems from their traditional repertoire with an eclectic backing of harp, guitar, viola, concertina, banjo, musical saw and rousing harmonies.
With a bold, improvisatory approach, their common focus is to capture the raw edges and fleeting magic of ballads, with storytelling taking centre stage. Emily and Alasdair are both known for their original, folklore-influenced songwriting. Often finding themselves on the same bills, they struck up a musical friendship, sharing stages and collaborating on each other's albums. Lucy and Rachel are both bewitching solo artists in their own right as well as being sought-after session players and long-time collaborators with Emily Portman in her trio.
Their 2014 debut release, "At Our Next Meeting" received widespread critical acclaim, and a new album is planned for release in late 2015.
"…a quietly triumphant set"
**** The Guardian
"A mouth-watering collaboration"
**** Mojo
"One of the finest collaborative albums of the past few years"
Folk Radio UK
FILASTINE + NOVA
FRI 4 SEPT
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE (FULL BAR)
9.30PM / £10
LA born, Barcelona-based, audiovisual artist Grey Filastine and Javanese indie vocalist and rapper, Nova deliver the grittiest transnational bass music around.
Low frequency pressure collides with top-notch beat science to create what Prefix Mag calls "the prototype of globalized urban sound".
It's a music that Pitchfork describes as "awesome and delicate ... hybrids so fluent they defy classification" and we can't disagree. Filastine borrows from hip hop, moombathon, dubstep and cumbia, drawing sounds from across the globe, to create incredible canvases for Nova to place her vocals. The sheer number of influences and globally plucked sounds creates a journey unlike anything you've ever heard. Add timed, triggered, and manipulated visuals to the mix, and you've one of the most mesmerizing shows imaginable.
Highly charged, highly political, and incredibly visceral, we are delighted to bring Filastine to Ireland for the very first time.
"Filastine creates tracks so geographically and chronologically diverse that they sound less like "world" music and more like music from another world." Pitchfork
"Dystopian bass music for crumbling urban futures" Spin
SUPPORT
DJ sets from Deadman's Ghost & Paul Acroplane
ROBYN G SHIELS + RICHARD DAWSON [DOUBLE BILL]
SAT 5 SEPT
CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE (BYO)
8PM / £10
ROBYN G SHIELS
Last year Kilrea songwriter Robyn G Shiels scooped the Northern Ireland Music Prize for his album ‘The Blood Of The Innocents'; a fitting tribute for the veteran musician, who is surely one of the finest songwriters on the island.
For RG Shiels, darkness has always been more appealing than the light, as he mines the inky black for a truth that seldom makes it into song. His music speaks of experience and a life lived, but still point towards something new.
Whether stripped back to just the voice and acoustic guitar, or cutting loose in a full band setting, Robyn G Shiels is able to bring a documentarian's eye to any situation, coupled with the words of a poet. But just before it all seems too dark, he pulls back, a twinkle in his eye and another story to tell. In the world of Robyn G Shiels, it might be dark, but there's still a powerful sense of warmth.
"Shiels is a songwriter of rare talent, with a flair for words both beautiful and brutal, often simultaneously, the brutality often directed at himself…" Culture NI
RICHARD DAWSON
Rising up from the bed of the River Tyne, is a voice that crumbles and soars. Steeped in age-old balladry and finely chiselled observations of the mundane, hilarious, and tragic. Richard Dawson is a skewed troubadour all at once charming and abrasive.
His shambolically virtuosic guitar playing stumbles from music-hall tune-smithery to spidery swatches of noise-colour, swathed in amp static and teetering on the edge of feedback. His songs are both chucklesome and heartbreaking, rooted in a febrile imagination that references worlds held dear and worlds unknown.
In just 3 short years, Richard has made the transition from "local legend" to one of the most revered musicians in the UK. Lauded by Late Junction, The Wire, 6 Music, The Quietus, Stewart Lee and many more, he is held in very high esteem.
It's too easy to describe any artist as peerless but with Richard it really is the case. He's genuinely one of the most affecting performers you'll ever see, and we are delighted to welcome him back to Belfast.
"English folk equivalent of Captain Beefheart's deconstruction of the blues" ***** The Guardian
"a mesmerising, pungent collection…draws out hidden truths in strong bold strokes" Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times
"At times deeply, painfully intimate, but also witty, bawdy, surreal, disquieting, nostalgic, brash and fearlessly individual" The Quietus
"Perhaps Dawson's most ambitious and affecting composition to date" 7.8 – Pitchfork
