• The Chancer’s Guide To… Frank Zappa

    November 5, 2013 - By 

    December 4th will see the 20th anniversary of Frank Zappa’s death. Inevitably between now and then, we can expect a dramatic increase in discussion about the man, his legacy and his broad ranging musical output. So in order to stay ahead of the game, it’s time for a refresher. Refresher that is, for those of you in the know. For all the chancers out there it’s more like a crash course allowing you to pretend to be less of an ignoramus online or in the pub or wherever you try to inject your tuppeneth, welcome or otherwise. The Chancer’s Guide judgeth not.…

  • The Love That Dare Not Speaks Its Name – Why It’s Still Not Cool To Like Progressive Rock

    November 7, 2013 - By 

    There’s a certain school of thought that declares punk rock as the saviour of music, wiping away an era of awful, bloated sounds. It was essentially the ‘Second Coming’ of good music, without needing a ‘First Coming’ to justify that title. “NO FUTURE!” screamed the punks, but what they really meant was “NO PAST”, and over the years, as the music press has become populated by the disciples of punk, this has become accepted as fact. And of all the victims of this cull, none fell further than progressive rock. With the way people listen to music having irreparably changed,…

  • Alarmist – Pal Magnet EP track-by-track interview

    November 1, 2013 - By 

    On the day of its official release, Dublin instrumental quartet Alarmist talk us through each track on their brand new – not to mention exceptionally good – EP Pal Magnet. Read their words and stream each track individually below! Aztec Dreams In this song we were trying to be quite intense but in an unconventional way, with these old-school guitar tones and blippy melodies rather than heavy rock riffs. A couple of us had gotten really into the 1950s producer Joe Meek and his albumI Hear a New World, which is full of these twangy slapback sounds and primitive early synths, and that…

  • My Problem With Modern Horror

    October 31, 2013 - By 

    Fuck Horror. As grandiose as a statement that it is, I hate most modern horror films. Not because I intrinsically hate the genre, nor because I am a cynical, hate filled cretin. No, I hate modern horror because it categorically spoils the things necessary for horror films to work. To be blunt, horror has always been somewhat of a second string cinematic genre. With it’s central aim being prick-teasing animal instincts, it’s no wonder that most horror films have been the kind of cheese ridden b-movie that one associates with Hammer and Christopher Lee. For the greater part of cinema…

  • Silent Hill 2 – A Psychological Horror Masterpiece

    October 31, 2013 - By 

    Silent Hill 2 is a masterpiece. It’s not a masterpiece in the traditional sense, where every aspect of the work is perfect. It’s a masterpiece in the sense that, despite being fundamentally broken in many ways, it still feels like a brutal, cohesive, human experience. Silent Hill 2 is not perfect – but it’s alive. This sequel is, for all intents and purposes, a reboot. Removing the B-movie cult storyline that the original was based on, Silent Hill 2 unshackles itself from the continuity of the franchise. The foggy town of Silent Hill is no longer the manifestation of tortured…

  • Classic Album: The Wicker Man OST (1973)

    October 31, 2013 - By 

    What is the sound of fear? Over the years, musicians and composers have tried various things, and certain tropes have emerged: the stabbing strings, the gothic grandeur, the discordant noise, or the Theremins and strange electronic sounds. But back in 1973, Paul Giovanni and Magnet took a completely different path, tapping into an altogether more earth vein of horror, capturing the cruel majesty of The Wicker Man. For many people, The Wicker Man is one of the towering giants of horror (if you’ll pardon the pun), a masterpiece of sustained dread that digs deep into our hearts to unearth a…

  • Horror songs: The Intense Humming Of Evil

    October 30, 2013 - By 

    There is no denying that the Manic Street Preachers’ third album, The Holy Bible, is a distressing listen. The album represents some of the final days of Richey James Edwards and gives us an insight into a mind that is as unsettling as it is compelling. Edwards penned songs about self-destruction, societal breakdown and the holocaust with a level of poeticism seldom seen in rock music. This poeticism gives way to terror on more than one occasion and is best typified with the gut-curdling holocaust themed ‘The Intense Humming Of Evil’. We begin with the sound of clanging metal and gaseous release. We begin…

  • Exclusive EP stream: Katharine Philippa – Broken To Be Rebuilt

    October 30, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of its release tonight at Belfast’s McMordie Hall, we are delighted to present an exclusive stream of the spectacular Broken To Be Rebuilt, the eagerly-anticipated new EP from singer-songwriter Katharine Philippa. Co-produced, mixed and master by Matt Duke, the six-track EP features extra instrumentation from five different musicians, including Duke himself. The closing track is an orchestra quartet version of the album’s title track, bookending a release that perfectly captures Philippa’s spectral and sublime craft. Stream the EP in full below.

  • Inbound: A Bad Cavalier

    November 1, 2013 - By 

    In the latest installment of Inbound, Brian Coney talks to And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist and ex-Panama Kings frontman Niall Kennedy about his (essentially) new solo project A Bad Cavalier, the release of his superb debut EP, Ex Libris, and trying to make the time to make the whole solo thing work. Hi Niall. You’ve just released Ex Libris, your first solo release under the moniker A Bad Cavalier. How long has it been in the making? It’s been in the making for quite a while now. I started A Bad Cavalier when I was 16 and I have been…

  • Getting re-acquainted: Blue Öyster Cult – (Don’t Fear) The Reaper (1976)

    October 30, 2013 - By 

    A coiling guitar figure wraps itself around your consciousness, drawing tighter and tighter. And then… and then… the cowbell comes in. This, my friends, is as good as it can ever get. Blue Öyster Cult had been a rather gnarly biker-rock band, all greasy hair, leather trousers, and weird, occult imagery. They even had their own runic symbol, man. Their first three albums are packed with post-Altamont death jams, best summed up by the fantastic ‘Career of Evil’ from their third album, Secret Treaties, a song that begins with the lines, “I plot your rubric scarab, I steal your satellite, I…