• Daithi – Tribes EP

    February 25, 2016 - By 

    With each passing release in the past couple of years, Galway based electronic producer Daithi has showcased a gradual but very definite increase in competency, confidence and determination in the music he is making; overtly melodic and bubbly electronica that has never failed at being colourful. The fault with his releases up to this point however always seemed to lie in his reliance on letting the equipment claim almost total ownership of the music. While the tracks were always evidently loaded with talent and careful construction, there was often too much of a feeling that the artist was clamouring for…

  • Wolfmother – Victorious

    February 22, 2016 - By 

    Does anyone remember how Wolfmother was tipped to be the “saviour of rock n roll” about ten years ago? How they were supposed to recapture the debauchery and majesty of the halcyon days of Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page and Angus Young and take rock music back from chic indie kids. While their self-titled debut was an enjoyable romp with real barnstormers on display, by the time their follow-up rolled around the band had all but lost their momentum and stardom. You can point to a few reasons for this: loss of two-thirds of the band in between the first and…

  • Choir of Young Believers – Grasque

    February 19, 2016 - By 

    There is a deep chill at the heart of the new Choir of Young Believers record, Grasque. Falling into that same niche as John Grant or Shearwater, the group has opted to set aside their more orchestra and folkier affectations in exchange for a more detached, electronic sound. Every human element, bar the vocals, is toned down to the point of non-existence. Strings are swapped out for synths or modulated and warped into something mechanical. When the emotion finally arrives in the form of Jannis Noya Makrigiannis’s voice it’s muted and confined yet yearning like less falsetto Jonsí.  Atmospherically, it seems…

  • No Monster Club – I Feel Magic

    February 19, 2016 - By 

    Magic conjures up images of David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear, David Blaine looking off-his-face with an eye drawn on his palm and saying ‘Shazam’ into a GMTV camera or even an uncle asking you to pick a card, any card, from a messily shuffled deck. In Ireland ‘I feel magic’ is a way of saying that we’re doing brilliantly. That we’re absolutely flying. On top of our game. Although there seems to be more than a hint of irony in that title here on Bobby Aherne’s twelfth release under the No Monster Club banner. He maintains the nursery rhyme-esque beats but gone are the…

  • Mats Gustafsson – Piano Mating

    February 18, 2016 - By 

    Mats Gustafsson is a sax player who has been recording since the 1980s, but for this strange release on Blue Tapes and X-Ray Records, he’s travelling a different path. Tasked by the label’s head with making music using an instrument he’d never recorded with before, he opted for the the Dubreq Pianomate. This is an obscure machine that acts as a kind of keyboard-less synth, generally used with a piano. In Gustafsson’s case, however, he turned the machine on itself, creating sounds that are shrill, calming, enraging, all dragged out in two lengthy sides of grinding drone. Gustafsson is known…

  • Animal Collective – Painting With

    February 17, 2016 - By 

    Baltimore’s Animal Collective have spent the best part of two decades attempting to give experimental pop a good name, with mixed results: after scoring a direct hit with 2009’s critical high water mark Merriweather Post Pavilion, the hazy experimentation of 2012’s follow up Centipede Hz alienated many of their new followers, and their trend of swaying between catchy weirdness and self-indulgent noodling has been a feature throughout their discography. As a result, the news that 2016 would bring the first Animal Collective album in four years was met with as much apprehension as anticipation: for a band that on average released an album a…

  • Sunflower Bean – Human Ceremony

    February 8, 2016 - By 

    One of the inherent issues of being part of the hype machine is that your teething pains stand a good chance of destroying  you. If you don’t come out of gestation period fully formed and with the next OK Computer neatly tucked into your back pocket then it’s back to the “2PM slot on the smallest stage” ghetto for you. Brooklyn’s Sunflower Bean, hotly tipped for indie rock stardom for the last two years, are victims of their own hype. Their debut LP, Human Ceremony, is a record borne of that expectation that struggles to find it’s own feet. Clear…

  • Jesu/Sun Kil Moon – Jesu/Sun Kil Moon

    February 4, 2016 - By 

    The name Justin Broadrick has previously been evoked by Sun Kil Moon on Universal Themes’ opening track – a gushing paean to “Godflesh’s guttural growls from hell.” Broadrick’s massively influential industrial metal band disintegrated in 2002 amidst various personal difficulties, with Jesu following in the wake of the break-up. Godlesh have since reconvened (as documented in ‘The Possum’), and it’s an astute move on Mark Kozelek’s part to change things up musically, hooking up with his long-time friend for this collaborative effort after the reflections of Benji and Universal Themes. With Jesu/Sun Kil Moon Kozelek’s lyrical ponderings are given a…

  • Cian Nugent – Night Fiction

    January 31, 2016 - By 

    Night Fiction is Dubliner Cian Nugent’s third album; on previous instrumental releases he has shown himself to be a prodigious guitarist and composer, but this record sees Nugent’s vocal chops come to the fore.  His sound tips its hat to world folk music, including African folk; one of the continents great musical exports, Ali Farka Touré’s guitar playing is a good reference point.  Psych rock could also be cited as an influence, and as such his songs often have a hypnotic quality which allows you to immerse yourself in the detail. On ‘Lost Your Way’ guitar lines dance along whilst Nugent’s voice crackles…

  • Bloc Party – HYMNS

    January 30, 2016 - By 

    For many, Bloc Party exist very much at a specific moment in time: Post the treble laden jangle of The Strokes and as somewhat forefathers to the frenetic melodies of bands like Foals and the hybridisation of electronica, house and old fashioned garage rock. Moving away from this point, some would argue that Bloc Party lose their relevance and quality. The two hiatuses that have underpinned the latter part of the group’s career may have offered solicitous gossip on the newsfeeds but they also seemed increasingly remote. And while two long term members leaving the group may be nothing to sniff at, the band’s…