• Future Islands – The Far Field

    April 10, 2017 - By 

    By 2014, the days of a hard-working band catching their break on late night TV were supposed to be over, at least until Future Islands proved everyone wrong. Clever synth-pop number ‘Seasons (Waiting on You)’ was elevated so much by frontman Samuel T Herring’s performance on David Letterman that they were catapulted onto another level. His hip swaying, chest beating, growling run through the song was almost comically sincere, downright bizarre, and completely captivating. It soon went viral, inspiring GIFs and blog posts aplenty. It even collected prestigious ‘Song of the Year’ gongs from Pitchfork, NME, Spin and others, while…

  • 17 for ’17: Damola

    January 27, 2017 - By 

    Nigeria, Jamaica and Ireland mightn’t be known as hip-hop hotspots, but it’s these unexpected influences that seem to characterise Damola’s music. He cites listening to his parents’ Jamaican music as a child in Nigeria as his earliest influence, although he didn’t start performing until he was a teenager in Dublin, making up raps to impress his friends. Since 2014 he’s been releasing tracks and videos with the Backshed Inc. collective, allowing him the freedom to develop his increasingly idiosyncratic sound. Last year’s ‘Workflow’, in both it’s production and hard-hitting, rhythmic flow, owed a lot to the earlier work of Kendrick…

  • Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 3

    January 10, 2017 - By 

    By releasing their fiercely political – and wickedly funny –  sophomore record Run The Jewels 2 at the end of 2014, MCs Killer Mike and El-P couldn’t have picked a better time to explode into the mainstream. Having kicked around just outside the rap mainstream for as well-respected solo artists during the 2000s, their 2012 joint tour lead to Run The Jewel’s self-titled debut the following year, although it’s party vibe gave little warning for it’s hard-nosed successor: El-P’s production rattled with the same intensity of The Bomb Squad, while Killer Mike spat angry truths about racism and social equality…

  • A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here, Thank You 4 Your Service

    November 18, 2016 - By 

    While Bowie’s Blackstar is no doubt the most important musical epilogue of 2016, A Tribe Called Quest’s final chapter, featuring the sadly departed Phife Dawg, is a minor triumph in itself. The group have a legacy in hip-hop like few others: their one-two of landmark records, 1991’s The Low End Theory and 1993’s Midnight Marauders, are as close to perfection as the genre gets. Arriving when rap was dominated by Dr Dre led West Coast gangsta rap, NYC’s Tribe rejected the violent posturing and casual misogyny of the former while paying homage to the more abstract, arty influences that informed…

  • Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition

    October 5, 2016 - By 

    Danny Brown’s flair for off kilter delivery and taste for unusual production has garnered a cult following since the Detroit rapper’s earliest mixtapes. Subsequently, studio albums like XX and Old found a much wider audience for his tales of drink and drug fuelled escapades, placing Brown as the oddball at the very edge of the rap mainstream. Brown’s brutally honest confessions made him a fascinating figure: avoiding the hip-hop clichés of purely revelling in debauchery, Brown seemed genuinely compelled towards such levels of self-abuse. A series of concerning tweets from 2014, in which the rapper took aim at a lack of support in the rap industry…

  • Galaxy’s Greatest Comic: The Story of 2000AD

    October 4, 2016 - By 

    The story goes that the editors of 2000AD – British sci-fi institution and self-styled ‘The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic’ – chose its title thinking it would never see the millennia. Nigh on 40 years later it’s still in print, with this week seeing the release of its landmark 2000th issue, giving a perfect chance to reflect on its almost incalculable influence on the comics world and pop culture as a whole. When editor/writer Pat Mills was commissioned with creating a Star Wars cash-in in 1977, he saw it as a vehicle for his own brand of anti-authoritarian anarchy, enlisting fellow scribe John…

  • “I hate to stay still and pat myself on the back”: An Interview With Ciaran Lavery

    October 3, 2016 - By 

    Having spent the last few years steadily carving out his standing as one of the country’s most-loved and increasingly established solo artists, Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery commands sensitivity and candour like very few songsmiths, Irish or otherwise. Despite confirming his arrival with his sublime debut album Not Nearly Dark and Kosher EP in 2013 and 2014 respectively, it was Sea Legs, his collaborative mini-album with Derry producer Ryan Vail, that positively underscored Lavery’s knack and versatility as artist that has often said he has zero desire to be solely filed under “acoustic guitar-wielding singer-songwriter”. But it’s Lavery’s second full-length album…

  • Preoccupations – Preoccupations

    September 13, 2016 - By 

    What’s in a name? For Toronto’s Preoccupations, their previous moniker ended up presenting more trouble than they could have anticipated. Releasing an EP and self-titled album as Viet Cong in 2015, their name seemed only to compliment the dark, unsparing and even brutal music that they played, with few reviews drawing any attention to the group’s political insensitivity (it had done little harm to their post punk forbearers Joy Division and Gang Of Four). However, as the band grew in stature so too did internet protests, questioning how four white westerners found it fit they should name themselves after violent Asian paramilitaries in search of some…

  • Glass Animals – How to Be a Human Being

    August 31, 2016 - By 

    Glass Animals’ sparse, trip-hop influenced sonic textures, coupled with Dave Bayley’s quietly seductive vocals, made debut album Zaba a critical and commercial hit, selling an impressive 500,000 copies worldwide. Bayley’s obscure lyrics added to the record’s haze, more concerned with extending it’s dreamy ambiguity than in storytelling. Their second long-player, How To Be A Human Being, is a different story entirely, with each song seeing Bayley assume the voice of a different character the band met on the road in support of Zaba. Following up a successful debut with a concept album may seem like an over the top risk, but this is no Drones: the…

  • Warpaint w/ Hilary Woods @ National Concert Hall, Dublin

    August 25, 2016 - By 

    There are dozens of details, both obvious and seemingly insignificant, that help to define a gig experience. The size and attitude of the audience, the choice of setlist and, of course, the individual performances of band members can elevate a run of the mill tour stop to something truly memorable. The importance of venue, though, can’t be understated. There’s a giddy thrill to be gained from catching a band in a sweaty bar, warm in the knowledge they’ll soon be arena headliners. Alternatively, poor sound or unhelpful staff can drain away any enthusiasm you might have had on the night,…