• 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…

  • Savages – Adore Life

    January 22, 2016 - By 

    Revivalism – is that a dirty word? It is if you’re in a band, trying to forge your own sound while folk are sitting there spouting comparisons. As Ought have shown us Stateside, if you’re going to retread well-worn ground, you better lace up your assault boots and do so with conviction, stamping any glib reference points from the mind of the listener. Savages aren’t short on conviction. Nor are they short of muscle in the art of ratcheting up the tension within a track. Post punk was all about tension, though, wasn’t it? The London quartet’s debut, Silence Yourself,…

  • Gascan Ruckus – Narrow Defeats and Bitter Victories

    January 18, 2016 - By 

    Armagh’s Gascan Ruckus are long overdue their time in the sun having spent the better part of a decade honing their skills and carving out their place in the scene. Operating in the same range as Fighting With Wire, Twin Atlantic or Dinosaur Pile-Up and a live show that beggars belief, the group has long been teetering on the brink of mainstream acceptance. With their debut album, Narrow Defeats and Bitter Victories, they’re primed and ready to be pushed into the spotlight. Among the record’s stronger cuts are songs such as the PigsAsPeople inspired ‘Goodbye’ or the mammoth riff of…