• Minor Victories – Minor Victories

    June 21, 2016 - By 

    Just because some things seem like they could go together, doesn’t mean they should. Everyone can agree that roller coasters are fun, as is coitus, however, if you were to meld them though you’d probably end up as the subject of one of those Snopes verified urban legends. An album such as Minor Victories, the eponymous debut from a new supergroup featuring the Editors’ Justin Lockey, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, and Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, is the aural equivalent of the aforementioned Alton Towers copulation. Take every individual component on offer and you’ve got a recipe special; A record which might potentially…

  • Plaid – The Digging Remedy

    June 15, 2016 - By 

    Since 1991, Plaid, the duo of of Andy Turner and Ed Handley, haven’t so much straddled the line between experimental and straightforward electronica as used it as their skipping rope. At times, they’ve been wholly unrecognisable in their wildly experimental sonic threshes (‘Cold’), they’ve made dark and demented electro anthems (‘Itsu’), and created some of the most accessible, yet weirdly unsettling music out there (‘Eyen’ ). It would be an understatement to profess that over their 25 years, Plaid have made some of the most exquisitely composed, highly-listenable electronica ever committed to wax, but in latest full-length The Digging Remedy, the former Black Dog founding fathers seem…

  • PAWS – No Grace

    June 15, 2016 - By 

    It’s the summer months and you all know what that means: it’s time for the latest slew of pop-punk records to stretch out their heavily tattooed arms and release their latest diatribe on the pains of being misunderstood just in time for the Summer festival season. Bring on the Warped Tour, yo! So amongst this crop which includes the likes of Modern Baseball, The Hotelier and White Lung, where does Scotland’s PAWS’ latest LP, No Grace, fit into this new crop of punkers? Well, it’s a record that seems to believe that the best way to go forward is to…

  • Tuath – Existence is Futile

    June 8, 2016 - By 

    Tuath, an Irish experimental noise band currently based in Donegal, are on the verge of releasing their second EP, Existence is Futile, set for digital release 15th June. Despite obvious connections which can be made between the band’s sound and genres such as shoegaze, electro and psych rock, what is captured beautifully in the EP is the group’s ability to defy the limitations of all generic conventions, creating an impressively unique sound for themselves. The diverse range of musical influences that motivate the band’s music is clearly evident throughout, aided by the variety of instruments used. The four-track EP opens strongly with the title track ‘Existence is…

  • Overhead, The Albatross – Learning to Growl

    June 1, 2016 - By 

    A lot of people will tell you that Post-Rock had its day about five years ago, that those who have kept the torch burning the brightest are the just the ones who held it aloft in the first place, and that all the rest have merely fallen by the wayside or been left dragging their heels through the faux-sentimental, desperately “cinematic” mud. In a lot of ways they would be right I suppose. More bands than you can count dabbled in that realm of tremolo picked, delayed guitars and the“quiet bit/heavy bit” structure, to the point where a listener could…

  • I Have a Tribe – Beneath a Yellow Moon

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    Dubliner Patrick O’Laoghaire, better known as I Have A Tribe, last week released his long awaited debut album, Beneath A Yellow Moon, a stunningly imperfect indie-folk record, brimming with eleven brilliantly honest tracks. This intimate album comes as a follow up to 2015’s No Countries EP and upon a single listen it becomes clear that, even within such a brief timespan, O’Laoghaire’s songwriting has undoubtedly become so much more complex. The range of emotion he is now capable of evoking has grown extensively, now fully projecting the vibrant colours in his mind into the outside world, overshadowing his past two EPs and demonstrating his growth and brilliance as…

  • Gold Panda – Good Luck and Do Your Best

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    2010 was a bizarre time to be a producer of electronic music. At the advent of the bedroom producer and a period when Youtube channels like Majestic Casual were oversaturating our ears with sugary “chill” electronica – or whatever the heck it was called – it was a time in which one track could come to define an artist far too early into their musical career, long before they were in a position to be defined at all. Luckily, a number of artists managed to break free from the labelling and pigeonholing that coincided with having a Youtube “hit” around…

  • Marissa Nadler – Strangers

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    In the lead up to the release of her seventh LP Strangers, the second to be released on Sacred Bones/Bella Union, Marissa Nadler welcomed interviewers into her apartment instead of having features built on distant phone-calls or coffee shop meetings . This willingness to allow the external into the internal, the welcoming of outsiders into the most sacred and personal of spaces is something that plays heavily into this album. Moving from the highly introspective lyricism that has defined her previous releases, Nadler it seems has now taken to bringing the influence of others, be they strangers or best friends,…

  • Holy Fuck – Congrats

    May 26, 2016 - By 

    Far from being just another band with a sweary name, Holy Fuck were founded on an enticing principle – to make electronic music without the use of modern digital electronic methods (programming, sampling, laptops etc), core members Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh instead utilising various mini keyboards, effects pedals and even film reel and toys (a Speak & Spell being a particular favourite) to create a cacophony of sound, all accompanied by bass and drums. While they’ve always been a must-see live act, even earning the praise of a certain Lou Reed, their ability to progress over their first three albums without straying far from those methods…

  • PORTS – The Devil is a Songbird

    May 26, 2016 - By 

    ‘Luck’ is a funny old thing, especially in the often unforgiving world of music, although at the start of 2013, Derry’s Little Bear seemed to very much have it on their side. A bout of acute laryngitis in Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble saw Little Bear step in at the eleventh hour to replace the Bangor indie-poppers at 2013’s Other Voice’s Festival, and their show-stealing set paved the way for massive critical acclaim and a set of huge shows in Belfast’s Limelight and their home town’s Nerve Centre. Luck seemed to turn the other way fairly promptly though, as the band watched the support act…