• A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here, Thank You 4 Your Service

    November 18, 2016 - By 

    While Bowie’s Blackstar is no doubt the most important musical epilogue of 2016, A Tribe Called Quest’s final chapter, featuring the sadly departed Phife Dawg, is a minor triumph in itself. The group have a legacy in hip-hop like few others: their one-two of landmark records, 1991’s The Low End Theory and 1993’s Midnight Marauders, are as close to perfection as the genre gets. Arriving when rap was dominated by Dr Dre led West Coast gangsta rap, NYC’s Tribe rejected the violent posturing and casual misogyny of the former while paying homage to the more abstract, arty influences that informed…

  • Meltybrains? – Kiss Yourself

    November 16, 2016 - By 

    Meltybrains? have been a staple on the live circuit in Ireland for a few years now, gaining a cult following through their Dadaist stage show and irreverent sense of humour. While marrying a post-rock base with a mix of styles on top hasn’t necessarily made for the most compelling of musical statement in their previous recorded works,  Their latest EP Kiss Yourself looks to make amends and move the band forward artistically. Opener ‘Know My Name’ opens with auto-tuned vocals over synth before settling down into the Melty’s now signature sound. It’s a track that promises a lot but that…

  • Douglas Dare – Aforger

    November 16, 2016 - By 

    Whelm, the 2014 debut album by London-based songwriter Douglas Dare, was a bold opening statement. It was held together by Dare’s powerful voice in spite of its musical idiosyncrasies; a voice that was immediately striking in its delivery and cadences, but which later revealed a fragility that suggested it was the tenor of a man in emotional distress. He has always written from a personal place, but his second album, Aforger, amplifies that to the nth degree. It’s an album in which the music is complex (almost to a self-conscious degree) and whose lyrics speak of deep personal strife; a struggle against…

  • Robocobra Quartet – Music for all Occasions

    November 15, 2016 - By 

    Take some seedy post-punk jazzy brass, heavy anchored basslines, sporadic nuanced drum fills, and the expressive vocal stylings of the beat generation’s slam poets and you’re left with a vaguely accurate depiction of Belfast’s own Robocobra Quartet. Music for all Occasions is a fascinatingly fierce attack on the Irish music scene. The nine track collection is refreshingly ambitious and entirely bold throughout, with wandering variations of song length, style, and approach. It’s a very complete record designed to be listened to and appreciated from beginning to end. Lead single ‘Correct’ opens the record and immediately sets the tone for everything…

  • Watch: Swords – Sixty Thousand Years

    November 16, 2016 - By 

    Dublin three-piece Swords returned recently with their sophomore LP Tidal Waves. Moving away from the dense layers of production that occupied their – still excellent  – debut Lions and Gold, the band have have strived to create a more organic, live sound on this record. Nowhere is this more present than on new single ‘Sixty Thousand Years’, a fragile ballad sparingly built on piano, drums, bass and vocals with little or no added embellishments. The forthright structure of the song allows Diane Anglim’s vocals to shine more prominently with an aching honesty not dissimilar to Sharon Van Etten or Broken Twin.  The song is accompanied by an equally…

  • We Cut Corners – The Cadences of Others

    November 4, 2016 - By 

    The first time I saw Dublin’s We Cut Corners was on a nasty, raining evening in October 2014. I’d never heard of them but a friend dragged me out and I was in the mood to be distracted. They had just released their sophomore effort Think Nothing. Each song they played that night was a masterstroke of brevity, every line smacked with authenticity, sitting gingerly on top of John Duignan’s clanging guitars and Conall Ó’Breacháin’s drums. By the end, lyrics like “You live by the sword and get hit by a bus” and “Maybe in the future I will say more…

  • Watch: Rejjie Snow – Pink Beetle

    November 1, 2016 - By 

    Was your Halloween not quite spooky enough? That case of the hangover terrors you have after the long weekend not quite sufficient? Rejjie Snow will solve that for you. Yesterday, the Dublin born rapper unveiled the feverishly uncomfortable video for ‘Pink Beetle’, his second track to be released via  300 Entertainment, the same label who will be releasing his debut LP. The aim of the video, according to Rejjie, was to emulate the “hyperreal imagery that one envisions when thinking about going to the dentist”. And that he has done. The unsettling, surreal, squirm inducing visuals manage to trigger every uncomfortable image that…

  • Album Stream: Ralph Cola – Cosmic Joke

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    Dublin based label Little L Records have released the debut album Cosmic Joke from Coventry based musician Aidan Leather aka Ralph Cola. The LP is an assortment of crisp, jaunty cuts, incorporating into the psyche-pop foundation more jazz, funk and soul tropes and tricks than you could throw your hat at. Tracks like ‘Sundial’ and ‘Are You’ are psychedelic gems to put smiles on the faces of Connan Mockasin fans while ‘Floating’ and ‘Must be Tiring’ lean gleefully into the soul and jazz realm while maintaining the lo-fi pop charm. ‘COMMAND’ is a stand-out interlude, splitting the album down the middle and providing an electronic spin…

  • 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.…