• Bell X1 – Arms

    November 2, 2016 - By 

    It’s been 16 years since Bell X1 released their severely overlooked debut Neither Am I and began a steady ascent towards their current status as one of Ireland’s most reliable bands.  They’ve existed in a curious niche since their inception, their sound too broad for the quick-fix pop set with whom they found favour with singles such as ‘Rocky Took A Lover’, ‘The Great Defector’ and ‘Velcro’: crowd-pleasers all, but as the trio have grown as musicians, their modus operandi has become more difficult to pin down. They’re much more of an albums band than most people realise, and since…

  • Bantum – Move

    October 31, 2016 - By 

    With a three year gap since Legion, his debut full-length album, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Bantum (aka Ruairi Lynch) would want to execute a fairly insular, idiosyncratic affair with his latest effort. Instead, it’s the relationships that Lynch has formed in the interim that sees Move thrive as an essential addition to the 2016 Irish release calendar. Having enlisted the likes of CC Brez, Loah, Rusangano Family, and a few more familiar names to inject proceedings with a veritable feast of homegrown talent, Lynch’s vision becomes one of celebration and appreciation. Move feels like one of those records…

  • Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker

    October 26, 2016 - By 

    After 82 years of experience, a hundred thousand cigarettes later, and more than a few near-perfect words of love, life, death, and every notable human occurrence between, Leonard Cohen has returned with You Want it Darker – the 14th studio album from the “Godfather of Gloom”. Regardless of the album’s suggestively bleak title and the monicker the poet and author established for himself back in ‘71 with his controversially downbeat yet critically acclaimed album Songs of Love and Hate, this record as a whole is actually more sombre and settled. It sounds entirely certain of itself. The songs are notably sparse in their…

  • American Football – American Football (LP2)

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    There was a lot going on back in 1999. Will Smith was declaring the next thousand years for himself, everyone was waiting for that big party Prince had promised and there was far, far too much clip art around. So it’s no wonder that some people missed a very quiet yet incredibly important moment in music history. Like the proverbial ripple in the pond (or butterfly hadouken) the release of American Football’s debut started as a small, localised wonder but since has proved to be a landmark and touchstone, for many reasons, but most notably for its influence on nascent genres like emo and post-rock. The…

  • Ilenkus – Hunger

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    Galway’s Ilenkus returned this month with their first release since 2014’s EP The Crossing. Hunger sees the quintet moving from the sludgy Neurosis-leaning sound of their previous work into a considerably more frenetic, uninhibited direction. This has done them plenty of favours, the tracks on this 15 minute offering being a step up both in terms of technicality but also in its immediate appeal. While it is by no means a re-invention of the wheel, it is a triumphant chunk of energy that deserves to stand front-and-centre within its realm. Written as a single piece, Hunger‘s four sections flow into one another with hurricane ferocity. From…

  • Two Door Cinema Club – Gameshow

    October 18, 2016 - By 

    Having struggled to find their place in society, both musically and personally over the past number of years, it was only going to be the hope that Bangor’s Two Door Cinema Club, who were previously so emblematic of indie-pop, would return with an exciting and re-energized collection. Distancing themselves from the indie scene, they have still managed to stay true to their original fun style of twitchy, undeniably danceable, electro-pop. This third musical endeavour, Gameshow, sees the trio curiously venture into new genres, digging into the 80s for inspiration and injecting a splash of colour to the record with the retro revival of disco, neo-soul and funk.…

  • Goat – Requiem

    October 12, 2016 - By 

    Goat are one of the most unusual bands around at the minute. Based in Gothenburg, the band’s core trio have built up a shadowy mystique with their knack for storytelling – they claim to hail from the remote village of Korpilombolo in northern Sweden, which allegedly has a centuries old history of voodoo practice, and is still haunted by a curse placed on it by inhabitants fleeing the attack of Christian crusaders – all of which fits quite neatly with their stage show’s involvement of elaborate costumes and tribal masks. Other claims include the idea that Goat is an ongoing multi-generational communal entity that…

  • C Duncan – The Midnight Sun

    October 12, 2016 - By 

    It’s easy to forget that C Duncan’s debut album was released only 15 months ago; July 2015 feels like a lifetime away. Architect displayed enough promise to suggest that the Glaswegian wouldn’t take too long to piece together a follow-up however. Perhaps he heard the saying that an artist has their whole life to make their first album and 18 months to write their second, and took that as a challenge. In addition to this, the tour itinerary for his debut album was nothing to be sniffed at, and said debut was nominated for the Mercury Prize. With all that…

  • The Dillinger Escape Plan – Dissociation

    October 11, 2016 - By 

    So here we are, The Dillinger Escape Plan have literally beaten a bloody, broken and sometimes shitty path to an ending of their own choosing. What was once being called a hiatus is now, absolutely, one-hundred percent a break up and so ends nearly twenty years as one of the most frenetically innovative groups in “heavy music”. But as one has come to expect from the band they are not going out with a whimper but rather a guttural hoorah. To finish there will be a globe spanning tour and this, their final album, Dissociation. And while it may be their least directly innovative project to…

  • Arab Strap – 20 Songs for 20 Years

    October 10, 2016 - By 

    Six albums isn’t a lot by some bands’ standards, but for one as consistent as Arab Strap, it’s difficult to narrow that down into a “best of”. Without any drastic stylistic reinventions, the duo gradually evolved over their decade long career from fairly lo-fi beginnings, taking in elements of slowcore, folk, electronic music and more thanks to Malcolm Middleton’s impressive musicianship, all anchored by Aidan Moffat’s sung or spoken tales of misery and debauchery in his unmistakable thick Scottish accent. After their amicable split in 2006 they didn’t bother attempting that best of, instead releasing the aptly titled Ten Years of Tears compilation, a ragtag collection of…