• Album Review: Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice 

    October 26, 2017 - By 

    It’s a laid-back love-in and we’re all invited – we always knew these two kids would get it together. The Melbourne-Pennsylvanian alliance of Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile sprang organically from the grooves of Vile’s Smoke Ring For My Halo, an album with deep personal resonance for Barnett. Her then band, CB4, ended up supporting Vile’s own Violators a couple of years later as his Wakin on a Pretty Daze record was taking hold in people’s consciousness, and the two became gradual friends over the ensuing years’ international festival circuit. Ideas were bounced, files were shared, and eventually Lotta Sea…

  • The Tragedy of Dr Hannigan – Fawkes Ache

    October 27, 2017 - By 

    The vaudevillian, murder balladeering musical theatre of The Tragedy of Dr Hannigan sees the release of its inaugural LP, Fawkes Ache on November 24. Having first reared its curious little head back in July via the swaggering ‘Hey Little Worried One’, the collaboration is the self-proclaimed bastard child project of North Coast chameleonic rock troubadour par excellence Tony Wright and producer & multi-instrumentalist Dead Stevens AKA Deany Darko. The sonic warmth of rock’n’roll fused with the cold, hard truths of the blues, it would, in the hands of anyone else, be just about any grizzled blues-rock album. But, in the same way the genius of Nick Cave’s Grinderman lies in its total & utter…

  • Album Review: Julien Baker – Turn Out The Lights

    October 25, 2017 - By 

    Two years ago Julien Baker put out her debut, Sprained Ankle. A white-knuckled, minimal lo-fi listen, the EP was predominantly Baker and her guitar with the occasional flourish of piano. It was an intimate-veering-on-discomforting voyage into a late teenager’s emotional fragility, isolation, and desperation. There are too many things to be said about that record, but needless to say, it was fantastic from back to front. In keeping with its low-key aesthetic, it was released via Bandcamp wherein it subsequently exploded and pushed Baker into the indie rock spotlight. Upon the announcement of her latest full length, Turn Out The…

  • Track-by-Track: Feather Beds – Blooming

    October 26, 2017 - By 

      Ahead of the release of his second album Blooming, Dublin’s Michael Orange AKA Feather Beds has been kind enough to give us a track by track rundown of the record. Set for release this Friday 27 October on Montreal-based label Moderna Records, Blooming is a dreamy alt-folk venture written and recorded when the songwriter was living in Canada. Following his debut LP in 2015, The Skeletal System, Blooming is mixed and co-produced by Stephen Shannon (Adrian Crowley, Strands) and is a dreamy, multi-layered a that evokes the likes of The Antlers and Mutual Benefit‘s Love’s Crushing Diamond in its ambient folk atmosphere, but owes just as much to the hypnotic, minimal compositions of Steve Reich and to the…

  • Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem and Liam Gallagher set for Malahide Castle Next Year?

    October 24, 2017 - By 

    Ah, the old internet rumour mill. What on earth was life like before you? According to reports on a couple of mammoth Irish digital content pedallers, LCD Soundsystem are primed to play Malahide Castle on Tuesday, June 5, Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz will play Saturday, June 9 and Liam Gallagher (whose debut solo album Christine Costello reviewed for us over here) will play an as-of-yet unspecified date in the month. According to a post by Enjoy Malahide (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t enjoy Malahide?) the shows are provisional and dependent upon successful planning permission. Assuming that’s granted, and these shows are, you know, actually…

  • Album Review: King Krule – The Ooz

    October 24, 2017 - By 

    Sunday evenings are traditionally reserved for reclining in a state of hazed relaxation for as long as physically possible. A sleepy air descends upon the climatic hours of the weekend, you grasp tightly onto the feeling of not having to fulfil any commitments. And yet there is, always lingering in the background, a sense of agitation. The calm is impeded by a menacing presence, the knowledge of something inevitable and an uncertainty of what has happened or will reveal itself in due course. The Ooz has all the sonic hallmarks of a Sunday night: Calming, alluring, hypnotic, but also audacious,…

  • Other Voices Belfast

    October 24, 2017 - By 

    Across October 26-28, Other Voices will team up with the 174 Trust, Digital DNA and the Duncairn to host a three-day showcase of one-off events, workshops, talks and a live performance featuring some fast-rising Irish talent in the heart of Belfast. With Ryan Vail, Picture This, Touts, Beoga (pictured), Jealous of the Birds and Rosie Carney playing the Other Voices Stage at the Duncairn on Saturday night, on Thursday and Friday, various schools, youth and community organisations from across the city will come together to take part in four events as part of the Digital DNA Creative Quarter, showcasing the power…

  • Preview & Festival Mixtape: Le Guess Who? 2017

    October 25, 2017 - By 

    Laying comfortably in the shadow of Amsterdam is the chilled-out university town of Utrecht, where the red light district is gladly a distant memory, and typically Dutch architecture and culture are in great supply. While this particularly from of citywide festival can be tough to pull off, Le Guess Who? has developed and diversified every year, offering something for everyone. A holiday-planner’s dream, it boasts the artistic ambition with none of the associated pretentiousness. Many of the performances take place in the impressive TivoliVredenburg or multitude of other venues within walking distance. Most music starts after 5pm, offering the chance to visit the Rietveld Schröder House, tour the…