• White Collar Boy – Priory Hall

    December 7, 2016 - By 

    Showing their roots in the form of sonic cap doffs to the likes of MK, Larry Levan, but more-so the straight-laced forms of euro disco prevalent in the 90s, White Collar Boys’ exceptionally infectious brand of garage-inflected house shines iridescent throughout their Priory Hall EP. The duo’s first effort proper since 2013, the four tracks of polished electronica that owe much more to Cologne than Chicago in places, relay to the listener a number of colourful synthesiser runs, throbbing rhythmic hits, and deep melodic excursions. EP opener and title-track ‘Priory Hall’ features Sean Reilly delivering a vocal that adds much…

  • Bantum – Move

    October 31, 2016 - By 

    With a three year gap since Legion, his debut full-length album, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Bantum (aka Ruairi Lynch) would want to execute a fairly insular, idiosyncratic affair with his latest effort. Instead, it’s the relationships that Lynch has formed in the interim that sees Move thrive as an essential addition to the 2016 Irish release calendar. Having enlisted the likes of CC Brez, Loah, Rusangano Family, and a few more familiar names to inject proceedings with a veritable feast of homegrown talent, Lynch’s vision becomes one of celebration and appreciation. Move feels like one of those records…

  • Far From Nowhere: An Interview With Malojian

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    Having released Southlands last year to critical acclaim, Malojian’s subsequent announcement that they’d be jetting off to Chicago to record the follow-up, This Is Nowhere, with the illustrious Steve Albini was just cause for much excitement within the NI music community. Now, on the cusp of its release, we pinned down Stevie Scullion – Malojian’s driving force – to get the scoop on recording with Albini, the writing of the new album, and more. Words by Aaron Drain. Photos by Colm Laverty Catch Malojian at the following Irish shows over the next three months. October 7: The Fat Gherkin (Solo…

  • A Time and A Place: An Interview With Lisa O’Neill

    August 23, 2016 - By 

    While it may seem trite to state that music, like most art, is often shaped by its environment, it is a theme that’s so intrinsically linked to creative expression that it simply cannot be ignored. So it’s unsurprising then, when listening to the melodic alt-folk, and often traditional-leaning music of Lisa O’Neill, that the actual act of listening itself becomes more than just transformative, but transcendental – your mind’s eye can become fixated on lyrical allusions or musical tropes associated with specific locales, real or imaginary, that allow deeply rewarding connections to be forged. For O’Neill, her upbringing in rural…

  • Róisín Murphy – Take Her Up To Monto

    July 26, 2016 - By 

    With the promotional admission that Róisín Murphy’s latest full-length album Take Her Up To Monto was born from sessions concurrent to her last LP, the faultlessly idiosyncratic Hairless Toys, the worry listeners faced was that the ‘new’ material on offer so shortly after might have been, well, old. But in typically daring fashion, what has resulted from these sessions is a collection of tracks that boasts the same verve and vibrancy as heard on Hairless Toys, but with a razor’s edge running throughout that’s explicit in differentiating THUTM from its predecessor – a feat that few manage to coherently demonstrate. The thing is though, fans can…

  • 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…

  • Big Beats and Broad Strokes: An Interview with The Chemical Brothers’ Ed Simons

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    Whether you’re into dance, rock, indie or have miraculously found yourself sequestered in a brit-pop niche over the past twenty five years, you’ll know that The Chemical Brothers have spent much of that time making some of the most recognisable and respected music ever committed to stereo. A duo of immense creative breadth, their early work frenetically soundtracked a new wave of genre-crossover experimentation that would quickly become a go-to production style for their contemporaries. Fusing hip hop, techno, house and whatever remnants of UK hardcore that were still holding on for dear life, the influence of Ed Simons and…

  • Courtney Pine & Zoe Rahman @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    It’s not exactly a shocking revelation to say that jazz can be a ludicrously self-reverential medium, especially given the insular virtuosity required to play it to a world-class degree, so it’s pleasant that tonight, under this starry-ceilinged festival marquee, that Courtney Pine maintains a balanced composure; one that allows for moments of wild, wandering timbres but also gentle interplay with Zoe Rahman’s fervent piano playing. A courteous guest, Pine lays on the thanks thick and fast for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival organisers, prompting agreement from a largely excitable crowd who rightly recognise that jazz in Belfast isn’t exactly the…

  • Leon Vynehall – Rojus

    April 7, 2016 - By 

    What’s interesting about Leon Vynehall is that, throughout his short career so far, he hasn’t fully committed to or straddled one concrete aspect of house music. Rather, he seems to relish the opportunity to push the boundaries of a relatively confined genre, and, given the constraints and familiarity of its 4/4 foundation, Vynehall has consistently found enough leeway to bridge out while maintaining a dance-floor ready edge. Rojus, his latest effort, sees the Brighton producer take elements from 2014’s Music For The Uninvited to offer a collection that, whilst finding its feet once more within the broad strokes of the Chicago sound, allows for enough variation…

  • T-Woc – Jetstar II

    February 26, 2016 - By 

    You’d be forgiven for considering a new T-woc release to be cause for celebration. It’s not that they’re few and far between (well, maybe a bit), it’s because they’ve historically been amalgamations of a few releases rolled in to one well-contained, shimmering, sonic entity. A patchwork of styles, energies, paces and sounds are sewn together to meet the creative vision of Mick T-Woc Donohoe – the Irish Mad Professor-esque engineer behind the sound desk, cutting and pasting, layering and editing until each track becomes a juxtapositional segue to the next. As mad-cap as this approach may have played out on previous releases (see 2011’s Jetstar),…