• Watch: GODHATESDISCO – Incredible Technology

    July 6, 2015 - By 

    A mechanical, foreboding procession into tremulous reverb and possessed of foreboding, post-punk pace, GODHATESDISCO‘s new single ‘Incredible Technology’ walks a thin line between Krautrock restraint and post-punk alienation. Never will this be better represented than in the accompanying video, just released. A veritable option paralysis of found footage, rhetoric and stock film, all overlaid and bleeding into each other, it perfectly mirrors the song’s descent from signal to drained-out noise, a commentary on the prevalence of tech. GODHATESDISCO releases new LP ‘Great Radio’ on July 24th via Little Gem Records.

  • Sleaford Mods – Key Markets

    July 7, 2015 - By 

    Fresh from well received performances on the festival circuit, particularly the BBC-broadcast Glastonbury, Sleaford Mods have been exposed to a wider audience and remain masters of polarisation. They have become poster boys for the disenfranchised: they’re proud of their roots but they don’t want the music to be undermined or people to misconstrue their working-class stance as validation of lout culture. They are quick to disassociate themselves from the hooligan element, or as vocalist Jason Williamson put it: “If you’re expecting some kind of cross between This Is England and Twycross Zoo mixed in with The Firm then please do…

  • Spectrum Festival 2015

    July 6, 2015 - By 

    Spectrum Festival kicked off in Mandela Hall over the weekend with live performances from R51, Hot Cops, Echo Raptors, Joshua Burnside, New Ancestors, Loris, In An Instant and The Emerald Armada. Photos by Sara Marsden.

  • Premiere: Galants – This is Heaven

    July 6, 2015 - By 

    Recalling heavily the reverb-soaked bombast of the Creation Records roster, GALANTS, the brainchild of Dublin man David Kennedy, have unveiled the first part of a triptych of summer singles in the washed-out tumult of ‘This is Heaven’, a hefty beast of a broadside that sets the tone nicely for their upcoming output. Featuring artwork by Barry White, the new single comes at the start of a spate of Irish dates, including the Workman’s in Dublin on August 2nd, and on the 8th at Cyprus Avenue in Cork, in support of local indie-pop power-trio HAGS. Stream the new single exclusively in the…

  • Review: Four Tet – Morning/Evening

    July 2, 2015 - By 

    “If you’re all about the destination, then take a fucking flight” Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends What strange and lovely little surprise is this? On June 21, English electronic musician Four Tet quietly released his latest LP, Morning/Evening, via Bandcamp. No fanfare, no big press tour, just the songs available in a free format, which is really an absolutely splendid little treat from one of the more intriguing electronic artists of the last 10 years. Four Tet is by no means an underground artist at this point, so it stands to wonder why he would choose…

  • The Best Releases of 2015 So Far

    July 6, 2015 - By 

    We’re halfway through the year so we asked our contributors to select five of what they believe to be the very best releases so far, picking out personal sonic highlights from each of the great albums and EPs of 2015. Some reoccurring favourites include Courtney Barrett, Young Fathers, Kendrick Lamar and Sleater Kinney. Niall Cregan Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly A true great rap album that will be remembered years down the line as a game changer, with such a varied instrumentation, the complexity of each song is proportional to how hard to dive into the record.   Turnover – Peripheral Vision A…

  • Amy

    July 1, 2015 - By 

    I really didn’t want her to die. I mean, it’s a ludicrous thing to say: this is Amy Winehouse. We know how the story ends. But as Asif Kapadia’s scrupulously chronological film unspools we follow this charming, bolshy North London girl from a friend’s 14th birthday party (filmed in the unfailing fawn and sage colour scheme of 90’s video footage) through to the first few steps of her recording career and onto a success that she didn’t want and couldn’t withstand. “I don’t think I’ll be at all famous,” she offers in an interview. “I don’t think I could handle…

  • Alden Penner & Michael Cera @ Hangar, Dublin

    July 1, 2015 - By 

    Has realisation dawned that the drummer from the support band is the guy – the other guy – from the main band, the guy who’s not in the movies? Probably not. Alden Penner, he of The Unicorns and Clues – both of whose albums are respectively mercurial and wondrous, collaborative and eponymous – and Michael Cera don’t actually seem an unlikely pairing. When tickets for their initial Workman’s Club gig sold out quick smart the gig was duly upgraded; ambitiously it turned out, to Vicar Street, before finally settling in Hangar. The Adam Brown warms up an already roasted crowd,…