Robocobra Quartet for Dublin & Belfast shows
As well as landing a top 10 spot on in our favourite Irish records of 2022, Belfast jazz, post-punk and hardcore band Robocobra Quartet also picked up the album of the year at the Northern Ireland Music Prize 2022 .
While their latest album Living Isn’t Easy, was surely deserving of a Choice Prize, the band’s live reputation does much to allay such a lack of recognition, and they’ve announced two gigs on the island for later this year at:
Fri 22 Sep – Belfast – Limelight 2
Sat 23 Sep – Dublin – The Grand Social
Tickets on sale Friday 11am from robocobraquartet.com
More about Robocobra Quartet:
The band’s hometown of Belfast is also central to the band and their sound. The city has seen glimpses of the spotlight in the past year, with the local art group Array Collective winning the Turner Prize and Kenneth Branagh Oscar-nominated film Belfast (2021) in the headlines. The city’s historically low rent (due to its assumed danger by outsiders) has allowed artists like Robocobra Quartet to flourish and hone their craft for years without worrying about broad appeal or commercial interest, instead designing a singular style that is unique and borne of interests across punk rock, jazz, avant-garde and modern pop.
The unique placement of Northern Ireland as a kind of quasi-European post-brexit loophole means that Irish and British pop culture both influence the band’s work, with various band members growing up with Irish, British and European backgrounds.
Their musical freedom and proclivity for improvisation often results in Robocobra Quartet being spoken about in the same breath as jazz and experimental music but their background is in punk rock and indie rock just as much as the avant-garde. They simply deal with what they have at their disposal – a collective of six members of wildly different musical backgrounds swapping in and out to make a touring quartet, which has taken them across Europe to Montreux Jazz Festival, Latitude Festival, and as far as Inversia Festival in the polar north of Russia. All while receiving acclaim from the likes of The Quietus, The Line Of Best Fit, Prog, and BBC Radio 6, seeing comparisons to the likes of Fugazi, BadBadNotGood, Tortoise, Black Midi, Black Country, New Road, and Squid.
Improvisation and experimentation is at the core of Robocobra Quartet‘s DNA, whether it be in the fluidity of their line-up or in their unique records which flirt with choral groups and string sections – almost intentionally at odds with their ostensible roots as a post-punk band.
Robocobra Quartet:
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