Spherical Notions

Friday, June 17, 2011

Give Her Up To The Gods

This week has seen Cork play host to the inaugural Solstice Festival, an offshoot of the Cork Midsummer Festival.

As part of the festival, Dublin-based performance colective Come As Soon As You Hear have teamed up with the festival organisers to present Human Sacrifice, an evening of DJs, dancing and virgin bloodshed this Sunday 19th of June.

Kicking off at 10pm at Murphy's Midsummer Nights at The Spiegeltent, the event will see a pretty young virgin pay the ultimate price as a gesture of gratitude to The Gods for a bountiful harvest.

Dress to distress and don't forget your dancing shoes as DJs Conor Behan and Joey Kavanagh will be soundtracking the slaying with a palette of pagan electropop. Tickets available here.

Thursday, June 09, 2011

How Stella Got Her Groove Back

A few months back, I raved about Bristol singer Florrie after I made a last minute decision to catch her playing in the intimate surrounds of Dublin's Academy 2.

Since then, I've had her debut EP, Introduction, on heavy rotation (it's available as a free download from her site here). Her electro-infused top shelf pop reminds of the better output of Girls Aloud and Annie and her novel approach to releasing her music, turning down label offers in favour of financing herself with the benefit of endorsements and corporate collaborations, is really intriguing.

A follow-up EP, Experiments, is due next week. I wasn't entirely sold on the first track, the autotune-heavy Begging Me but, this morning, The Guardian posted a new track, Experimenting With Rugs.

A melancholy mid-tempo number, laced with delicious hooks and underpinned by Florrie's deft drumwork, it reaffirms my suspicions that Florrie is a pop messiah, come to save us all.

Experimenting With Rugs by Florrie

Begging Me by Florrie