• Interlude 2016

    June 28, 2016 - By 

    A woman loudly and tirelessly lists the bands she may or may not have heard of. Maybe that’s why it feels like we’ve been queuing here for the best part of an hour. After all it couldn’t really be true, could it? But it is. A fact so far excusable because this isn’t any night, nor just any art gallery. This is the return of Dublin’s latest, hippest city festival; Interlude, held in the on paper awesomeness of the Royal Hibernian Academy, a linchpin location for the dynamic art of the city and country. So it’s fine. What’s an hour…

  • Bryan Ferry @ Olympia Theatre, Dublin

    June 9, 2016 - By 

    It’s only June but summer 2016 seems to be the one that just keeps on giving. The glorious weather is only the setting to our sweet isle being visited by not one, two but three musical giants in little over a week, and these standalone shows all sit in the midst of a rousing festival season. For some it may be a little too much but in a world losing legends at every turn it’s simply unthinkable to pass up an opportunity to take in another one who lies so comfortably in the canon. Bryan Ferry may not be the…

  • Inbound: Feather

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    Emma Garnett AKA Feather has morphed again. While many may know her from the punchy, artistic collaborations with Ben Bix this itineration is something of a departure. Now fully backed by an eight-piece band, she and the group are emerging as a blooded, blended new horizon in Irish music so it’s no surprise that they’re signed up with emerging world conscious independent label Hipdrop Records whose slant towards global sounds, funk, soul and jazz distinguish them from the pack. Take their new single ‘Like No Other’ which works its way through three distinct movements without sounding piecemeal. The comparisons to…

  • James Blake – The Colour in Anything

    May 9, 2016 - By 

    There has always been something special about James Blake. Ever since his career began in a clutch of dubstep influenced EPs he’s been making music that means an awful lot to an awful lot of people. As he’s progressed, channelling our collective existential scream into a mournful but beautiful whisper, his resonance seems only to have deepened. His sound, one could even say his formula, of spacious, emotive music paired with his own haunting vocals are affecting in a way that is almost primal. Yet that description does a disservice to the intellectual construction of his music. True, there are no massive changes here; it is…

  • Rusangano Family @ The Sugar Club, Dublin

    April 11, 2016 - By 

    There’s been something special brewing in Ireland for the last year or so. If you’ve been lucky you’ve caught glimpses of it here and there, or heard the rumours; something big from the Mid-West. Something new. But after nearly a full year of hor d’ouvres in the shape of feverish shows and tantalising single track releases one of Ireland’s most exciting bands finally has a full album to offer. And while it’s justifiably whipping critics and fans into a frenzy, many know that for the full Rusangano Family hip hop experience you’ve got to see it live. So while the…

  • Inbound: God Creative & Crimes Against

    April 7, 2016 - By 

    Both stellar acts in their own right, Dublin’s God Creative and Crimes Against have joined forces to collaborate on an upcoming album. In this installment of Inbound, Eoghain Meakin catches up with them just after this historic Easter to talk ancestors, ‘the scene’ and solid gold rocket ships. Photos by Pedro Giaquinto. Everything is changing in Ireland. Hip Hop, once the cast out of the home-grown music scene and the last import only product on the musical menu, is growing in strength, respect and deployment. Case in point is Dublin’s latest collaboration between long time rapper God Creative and writer/producer Crimes Against. Billed…

  • Yeasayer – Amen & Goodbye

    April 4, 2016 - By 

    Judging by their interviews Yeasayer are duly concerned with keeping things fresh. Since they broke onto the scene almost ten years ago they’ve conjured up tracks from pop, rock, dance, folk, psychedelia and most things in between. They’ve been called ‘desert-rock’, ‘art-pop’ and the self- made label ‘Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel’. Yet the careful listener will spot sonic threads running from one album to another, connecting even some of the most disparate elements. Whether it’s the iPod-hippie of Odd Blood or the noticeably bare focus of 2013’s Fragrant World Yeasayer have always focused on the more expansive and melodic elements of song writing. Each album so far has been…

  • Insert Coin: Zoe Jellicoe

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Insert Coin, Eoghain Meakin speaks with Zoe Jellicoe, editor of Critical Hits: An Indie Gaming Anthology, currently on target to meet its Kickstarter funding goal. From remarkably humble beginnings video games have become, quite simply, the most important form of entertainment in the first world. With a growing demographic and an unwavering core audience gaming no longer competes with its less immersive cousins like film and television but sits apart as a fully-fledged and largely respected entity. As a market gaming is hugely lucrative and with the home console well into its eighth generation the industry…

  • Access All Areas?

    March 7, 2016 - By 

    Eoghain Meakin weighs up the occasional mismatch between music love and accessibility in venues, festivals and beyond. People come to music for different reasons; for some it’s that hour wind down after work. For others it’s the pumped gym playlist, the ‘let’s get it on’ dinner mix tape, the ‘when I was young’ NOFX compilation, or the ‘I am still young’ hip hop hits of 2015 (handpicked by VEVO). It permeates into our entire lives. It’s a comfort, a refuge and a challenge and inspiration. It doesn’t exist just in a moment but as a continuous soundtrack to our lives.…

  • Foals w/ Everything Everything @ 3Arena, Dublin

    February 12, 2016 - By 

    Coming off the sound of their excellent 2015 record Get to Heaven Everything Everything take the stage packing all their reverb-y epic-ness into the 3Arena’s panoramic sound. They kick in with a metallic, eighties edge and the vocals have a sharp bite that more than make up for Jonathan Higgs contained but usually irreducible, athletic range. ‘Regrets’ lives up to its anthemic potential and ‘Cough Cough’s frenetic rhythms make way for the best pop-post-rock soup on any mainstream menu. In ten minutes the Manchester locals have already played a stormer. By the time they unleash a bouncy, tricky version of…