REVIEW: The Big Pink – Future This

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Three years can be a long time in the music business, but it’s taken that long for English electro-rock duo The Big Pink to release their sophomore album Future This. The question is, was it worth the wait? The double act’s first album A
Brief History of Love was a hit with music pundits across the board, applauding their mix of soaring tunes, daring synth sets and their own brand of slick and painfully effortless cool. The Big Pink are all about big sounds with big ideas. However, Future This does not live up to their past success.

BY ROMANO MULLIN

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ARTS: Let’s Dance

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When we use the term ‘dance music,’ do we really mean music we can dance to? Dance music is used as an umbrella term to house all those tantalizing remixes and sparsely lyriced tracks that lie in the abandoned warehouses and late night radio shows. However, categorizing dance music into genres is difficult. To begin with there is: house, trance, dubstep, techno, electronica… The list could go on for pages. The genre of dance music has turned into such a ridiculous genre that all the sub-sections and different divisions couldn’t possibly be contrasted. An act can pretty much come up with their own genre of music these days. For example, Gold Panda refers to himself as “progressive electronic influenced by African melodies”(!) Popular DJs who are associated with and heavily influence the dance scene include; Annie Mac, Pete Tong and Kissy Sell Out. And the variations in the styles of music they promote are hugely conflicting. Mac is a staunch believer in the power of drum and bass, sometimes venturing dangerously close to the mainstream, whereas Tong and Sell Out play far more trance, house and industrial.

BY PRIYA BIRING Continue reading →

REVIEW: Lana Del Ray – Born To Die

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It’s been a busy year for Ms. Del Rey. Her début album may only be winging its way to shelves, yet she’s already one of the most talked about figures of the past twelve months. The internet debate surrounding her astronomic ascent to fame having rendered the blogosphere positively explosive. Even her début Saturday Night Live performance inspired the ire of everyone from the Twitterati to Juliette Lewis, who compared Del Rey to “a 12 year-old in their bedroom pretending to sing and perform.” (Pot/kettle, anyone?)

 

BY TARA McEVOY Continue reading →

FEATURES: United we stand?

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Debates on sovereignty are nothing new to us here in Northern Ireland. Born in contentious circumstances, it has existed in a constant state of dispute, both political and violent, ever since. So used are we to the on-going arguments that they have almost become a backing track to everyday life: we can hear them, but are we really listening anymore?

BY COLIN WILLIAMSON  Continue reading →

FEATURES: Your regular dose of recycled bullshit

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Closer, Now, Reveal, More, Heat, Cosmopolitan: all popular women’s magazines that we see on the shelves of every newsagents and supermarket. From their attention-grabbing sensationalist headlines, to get fit quick, fad diet secrets and instructions on almost every issue on how to please your man, are these magazines of real sustenance with a worthwhile message, or just fodder for the masses?

BY JANETTE LOUGHLIN Continue reading →

FEATURES: Exercise never felt so good

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Who needs the gym when you have a boyfriend? Or girlfriend, or any willing sexual partner for that matter. Just don’t get all Freudian on us. Safe sex can be extremely enjoyable when you’re with someone you trust, and even better if they’re up for trying something new and fun. As well as increasing feelings of intimacy with your partner, sex also has been proved to decrease stress levels, and release lots of feel-good hormones. But have you ever thought about using sex as a way of exercising?

BY KITTY CUMMINGS Continue reading →

FEATURES: Missing Zzzzs

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We fill our days with mindless chatter, polite conversation. We say the words ritually rather than actually thinking about what we say and hear and one of the most common responses to the polite question “how are you?” is “tired.” Students have a reputation for sleeping all day. However, working all night to start and finish that essay or cram for an exam is a habit too many of us develop.

BY MEGAN LIDDY  Continue reading →