• Stream: Daithí – Holiday Home

    March 22, 2017 - By 

    Daithí is always at his strongest when his music is at its most introspective. On ‘Holiday Home’, a fresh cut taken from his forthcoming EP of the same name, the Clare based producer proves this once again with a deep groove and weaving, pulsating melodies. The track harks to the likes of both of Dan Snaith’s monikers, Caribou and Daphni as well as bearing some loyalty to the melodic propulsion of George Fitzgerald‘s 2015 album Fading Love. It is carried and made into something truly special with the bodhrán sample that carries through it. The sample once again shows the producers affinity to incorporating elements of trad music…

  • Album Premiere: Clang Sayne – The Round Soul of the World

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    Conceived in London by Wexford artist Laura Hyland back in 2008 as a means to forge her interests in song, story and sound improvisation, Irish quartet Clang Sayne are an act that have been mentioned in the same breath as such alt-folk luminaries as diverse and inimitable as Tim Buckley and Jandek. Eight years on from their debut Winterlands – a brooding and emotionally potent release – the four-piece (in its current incarnation of in its current incarnation of Hyland on acoustic guitar and vocals, Judith Ring on vocals, Carolyn Goodwin on bass clarinet and drummer Matthew Jacobson) have been busy working on its…

  • Stream: Paddy Hanna – Sunday Milkshake

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    Masterful Dublin songsmith Paddy Hanna has unveiled yet another song in the form of ‘Sunday Milkshake’, ahead of the release of new single ‘Bad Boys’ on March 24. Featuring hints of a motorik beat, filled out with a lush orchestral arrangement, Hanna has once again put his genre-tapping to full use in proving why he’s one of the finest, most artful pop songwriters in Ireland – if his string of singles from mid-2015 following 2014 debut album Leafy Stiletto didn’t already do it – check them out on Soundcloud. On its themes, Hanna states that Sunday Milkshake is “a tale of realisation, of sleeping on a…

  • Playlist: World Poetry Day 2017

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    To mark this year’s World Poetry Day we’ve compiled thirteen songs from the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Cure, James Blake (above) and Talking Heads directly inspired by poetry. Check out the playlist and accompanying poems/poets below. 1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand (Paradise Lost by Milton) 2. The Cure – How Beautiful You Are (The Eyes of the Poor by Baudelaire) 3. Talking Heads – I Zimbra (Gadji Beri Bimba by Hugo Ball) 4. Joni Mitchell – If (If by Rudyard Kipling) 5. Lana Del Rey – Body Electric (I Sing The Body Electric by…

  • Tennis – Yours Conditionally

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    Making sweet sweet music with your significant other can go one of two ways. The chemistry you have as a couple (good or fractious – Rumours, anyone?) can translate effortlessly when improvising with lyrics and arrangements, eventually expanding into solid soundscapes. It’s akin to building a life or home together, it is a gradual journey that unfurls to represent the couple. On the contrary, a musical duo brought together in matrimony can spawn songs that are, at times, uncomfortable to listen to, presenting a sort of audio PDA. Tennis often waver between these scenarios. In the past they have written…

  • Personal Shopper

    March 20, 2017 - By 

    If you are looking for a ghost story with a difference, then writer/director Olivier Assayas’ (Carlos) latest genre-bender Personal Shopper may be just what you are after. The film initially plods along, with Kristen Stewart (Twilight) leading in an odd combination of a haunted house type story and an insight into the world of Parisian socialites and celebrities. But what gives Personal Shopper an edge is how the movie morphs into a gripping suspense/thriller in its latter half, managing to creep me out more than any other horror that I’ve seen in quite some time. Quite the feat! Maureen (Stewart)…

  • Lawrence English – Cruel Optimism

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    I find it difficult to listen to Lawrence English‘s new album, Cruel Optimism. On first play, I thought it was “suitably bleak”. Further attempts sent me into a mini spiral of despair, thoroughly ruining whole days with its depressive claws. I left it for a while, returning to it tentatively in the hope of gaining more understanding. The album’s title comes from a work by Lauren Berlant, in which she posits that modern desires stand in the way of true growth. Whatever my inferences, English writes that the album is a “meditation” on the challenges we face in today’s world,…

  • Kong: Skull Island

    March 20, 2017 - By 

    Like John Goodman’s black ops adventurer whose mania for fantastic beasts and where to find them drives the film, Warner Bros are chasing something big with Kong: Skull Island. Coming with an Avengers Initiative-style post-credit coda and forming a “Monsterverse” (sigh) with Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla, this new Kong rendition is a reach for a big, stonking franchise to compete with other studios’ similar endeavours. Peter Jackson’s 2005 King Kong leant into the tragic, emotionally grand tradition of old-timey, New York skyline iconography. Whatever you make of Jackson’s film – and reception was mixed – an eager artistic vision shone through. Skull…

  • Picture This Special: PLASTIK Festival

    March 22, 2017 - By 

    Returning for its sophomore edition to Dublin this weekend is the PLASTIK Festival of Artists’ Moving Image. Due to run Friday 24th to Sunday 26th, the festival is a collaboration between LUX, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios and the IFI. The latter provides the setting for the weekend’s film screenings, which see a number of artists, including Yuri Pattison, aemi and Sasha Litvintseva, present bodies of work that influence their outputs, while others are showcasing current or forthcoming work. The festival begins on Friday at 6:30pm with Abyss Film in the IFI, curated by James Richards. This is followed by Richards and LUX…

  • HAWK – She Knows

    March 20, 2017 - By 

    HAWK are a Berlin-based, grunge-infused indie rock band who, since their formation in 2013 have had a tendency to address social and political issues through their music, all the while blending dark tones with sometimes delicate and sometimes ferocious arrangements and ethereal vocals. The band’s latest release, She Knows, builds upon the foundations laid by last year’s HAWK EP.  ‘Introduction’ starts the EP on the right footing, a largely atmospheric piece that builds into crashing drums, crunching distortion, and powerful vocals.‘Take it Away’ then, the EP’s second track shows the band embracing a newer, heavier sound. Starting delicately and quickly building into…