• Arms That Fit Like Legs – Legwork

    May 22, 2019 - By 

    The terms “post-rock” and “math-rock” can leave many eyes rolled firmly back in one’s skull, or just leave some scratching their heads. Although the genres have long been fleshed out with artists such as Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, And So I Watch You From Afar and TTNG, lingering questions remain. Clearly there’s texture, expanse, intricate time signatures, and often an overhanging emotional heft, but otherwise, it seems to have an anything-goes, gung-ho spirit more than most genres. Dublin four-piece Arms That Fit Like Legs do little to cement any working definitions. Since releasing their self-titled debut EP in…

  • The Gloaming – The Gloaming (3)

    February 25, 2019 - By 

      Virtuoso. The term has undergone somewhat of a realignment of late, thanks in part to the rate of technological advancements spawning a whole new range of art forms and instrumentation to master. Whilst the title clearly draws more gravitas in some fields than others, this hasn’t deterred the term being bandied around a bit too loosely. Timely, then, is The Gloaming’s third offering, whose five masterful musicians taught us to forget everything we thought we knew about the word and its connotations. Since their formation in early 2011, the band has drawn vast critical acclaim, selling out The National…

  • SPIES – Constancy

    December 7, 2018 - By 

    If death and taxes are the only two constants in life, why haven’t SPIES delivered any music that is less than exceptional? Since their launch back in 2011, the Dublin-based band have presented three EPs, each gradually cementing their reputation as post-punk revivalists. Sea Creatures, the last of these, arrived in 2015, and the band has since undergone a three-year hiatus. Writing sessions for Constancy had to fit in between full-time jobs, departures from the country and studies. For many, such a time-sensitive approach would be their shortfall. Constancy however, finds SPIES rejuvenated, reimagined, and with a whole new sonic…

  • Anderson .Paak – Oxnard

    November 20, 2018 - By 

    Anderson .Paak, the hardest working man on the southern Californian coast is back. After his breakthrough on Dr Dre’s Compton, he has gone from strength to strength, churning out his own unique hybrid of vintage soul, funk, hip hop and R&B across the so-called Beach trilogy (so far, 2014’s Venice and 2016’s Malibu). Between collaborations with Knxwledge (which bore the excellent NxWorries album), Kaytranada, the late Mac Miller and others, Paak has somehow managed to find the time to pen his latest album, Oxnard, thereby marking the end of the Beach trilogy. Aptly, Oxnard is Paak’s hometown, and as you might expect, the album…

  • We Cut Corners – Impostors

    October 24, 2018 - By 

    It was hard to recall a guitar and drums duo that actually deserved the hype surrounding them until We Cut Corners came along. Comprised of John Duignan (guitars/vocals) and Conall Ó Breachain (drums/vocals), the band have been crafting their identity the hard way for some years now, opting for an unpretentious and uncluttered set up in an era when people relentlessly question if the guitar has offered all it can. Yet over the course of three albums, We Cut Corners have steadily amassed a loyal following and critical acclaim that makes their fourth effort, Impostors, one of Ireland’s most anticipated releases of…

  • Max Cooper – One Hundred Billion Sparks

    October 1, 2018 - By 

      There are few artists who occupy the middle ground between music, science, art and technology quite like Max Cooper. The Belfast-born producer’s repertoire often portrays complex scientific theory through the medium of sonically beautiful shapeshifting electronica. Shaped by his studies in computational biology and genetics, One Hundred Billion Sparks is his first full length album since Emergence in 2016, and documents Cooper’s search for artistry amongst the mechanisms, emotions and constructs which yield identity and experience. Crudely put, individuals are distinguished from one another by their differing combinations of one hundred billion neurons, each of them capable of creating…

  • Big Red Machine – Big Red Machine

    September 12, 2018 - By 

    Cast your mind back to early 2009, and recall the exceptional Dark Was The Night charity album. In the middle of disc one, tucked neatly between Antony & Bryce Dessner’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’ and The Decemberists’ ‘Sleepless’ sat Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner’s ‘Big Red Machine’, an exquisite clash of strings and hammered piano keys that was perhaps clouded out by the diversity and richness of the album. Fast forward nine years, and the collaboration has been revisited, or rather, finally finished. The result, Big Red Machine, has been in the works for the best part…

  • Ólafur Arnalds – Re:member

    September 4, 2018 - By 

    Despite an exhaustive back catalog brimming with collections, mixtapes, EPs and scores, it is worth noting that Re:member is only BAFTA award winning Icelandic composer and pianist Ólafur Arnalds’ fourth full length studio album. Since debuting in the late ’00s, the now 31 year-old artist has carved an identity as a serial collaborator, and has worked extensively with Erased Tapes labelmate Nils Frahm, German classical pianist Alice Sara Ott and Haukur Heiðar Hauksson, not forgetting Janus Rasmussen for his melodic techno side-project, Kiasmos. Usually synonymous with crafting spacious and contemplative melancholic soundscapes – check out his chilling soundtrack to Broadchurch – Arnalds has turned to technology…

  • Lost in the Forest: An Interview With James Holden

    June 21, 2018 - By 

    Few artists have taken such a personal journey as James Holden. The electronic artist’s transformation is not subtle; Holden, now a practised bandleader, ties together jazz, folk, psychedelia and world music with an ideology rooted in trance. The Animal Spirits, one of 2017’s most interesting and colourful releases, threw these experiments loudly in the face of the listener with an unrivalled fervent energy. As a result of the critical acclaim, Holden is now in the thick of a cross-continental festival trek, including an appearance at Ireland’s very own Body & Soul this weekend. Despite this, Dom Edge had the pleasure of…

  • Jenny Hval – The Long Sleep

    June 3, 2018 - By 

    What can one expect from Jenny Hval? To date, her career is comparable to one big game of whack-a-mole. At any one moment, the Norwegian artist could pop up in collaborations, most recently with Håvard Volden for the Lost Girls EP, or perhaps as the author of a novel (Paradise Rot, arriving October). Her solo work can largely be categorised under avant-garde, but flits between a range of electronic, jazz, pop, ambient and folk influences, making Hval one of the most freely creative artists of this generation. For someone so strikingly studious, it’s hard to imagine where the inspiration comes…