• Earl Sweatshirt – Some Rap Songs

    December 11, 2018 - By 

    Some Rap Songs sees the welcome return of Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, otherwise known as Earl Sweatshirt. Since joining Tyler the Creator’s Odd Future collective as a 15 year old prodigy, the LA-based MC has rightly staked a claim as one of the best in the business, delivering deeply personal rhymes with a level of literacy and complexity that few of his peers can match. Some Rap Songs comes three years after release of his sophomore effort, the highly acclaimed I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. Earl has had a lot to contend with in that time, including the…

  • The Redneck Manifesto – The How

    December 11, 2018 - By 

    The Redneck Manifesto may not be a household name, but their influence on modern Irish music cannot be understated. Their initial run of releases in the early 2000s, falling somewhere in that uncategorisable gap between post-rock and math-rock, helped to pave the way for the abnormally large influx of instrumental guitar bands on this island. Bands like Adebisi Shank and Enemies bore their influence and long sang their praises, while across the Irish sea, even now-global superstars Foals reportedly worshipped heavily at the TRM alter in their early days, even inspiring frontman Yannis Philippakis’ choice of Travis Bean guitar. Resolutely DIY…

  • 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…

  • Woven Skull – Woven Skull

    December 3, 2018 - By 

    The latest Woven Skull record may be self-titled, but it’s a long way off being their debut. One glance at their Bandcamp page shows just how impressively prolific they’ve been over the past decade, with all manner of singles, EPs, albums and collaborations of improvisational drone-folk creeping out of their Leitrim base. And that’s not to mention the various solo and side projects the group – original trio Natalia Beylis, Aonghus McEvoy and Willie Stewart, along with more recent addition Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh of Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – manage to keep on the go as well. If giving…

  • Muse – Simulation Theory

    November 26, 2018 - By 

    From pollution and dirty talk to Harry Potter references and riffs straight out of ’90s Europop, Muse’s latest album, Simulation Theory, has the energetic, revolutionary spirit of an album that has no idea what or who it’s revolting against. Like many albums released by a British artist in the past year, critics have uncovered an elaborate anti-Brexit agenda somewhere amidst the circus of synthesisers. ‘Thought Contagion’ is one of the strongest tracks on the album – but that doesn’t say much – with Bellamy belting on about “fractured identities”, “infinite black skies’ and a society “bitten by false beliefs”. It’s so…

  • Katie Kim & The Crash Ensemble – Salt Interventions

    November 21, 2018 - By 

    Salt Interventions documents a superb live performance by Waterford musician Katie Kim as she teams up with the Crash Ensemble to revisit and reimagine her darkly brooding masterwork, Salt. Casting a new light on the 2016 album’s nine chilling tracks, Kim chooses to divest her compositions of the surging electric guitar figures and stormy electronic textures that were so central to their studio incarnations. Instead, she boils her song’s down to their base emotional bone broth, allowing her authoritative vocals to take centre stage as they unfurl over unfussy piano chords, leaving it to the orchestral 14-piece Crash Ensemble to provide…

  • 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…

  • Kurt Vile – Bottle It In

    November 17, 2018 - By 

    The sixth track on Kurt Vile’s latest opus is titled ‘Rollin’ With the Flow’ helpfully encapsulating the ambling, shambling rhythms and can kicking nonchalance the Philadelphia songwriter has long been celebrated for.  As always with Vile’s work though, clouds are never too far from spoiling his sunny skies and Bottle It In sees the darker depths of his artistry grow ever murkier. Typically preoccupied with Vile’s dazed yet disarmingly astute ponderings and observations, Bottle It In succeeds in creating an intensely personal connection with the listener, often lending the impression that we have a direct link to Vile’s inner monologue.…

  • Thom Yorke – Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film)

    November 15, 2018 - By 

    With the increasingly long gaps between Radiohead albums in their latter years, three of the band’s members so far have managed to put this downtime to good use exploring their own projects on the side. And for a band so heavily focused on sounds and texture, it’s no surprise that all three of them have found themselves drawn to soundtrack work in one way or another – most notably Jonny Greenwood, whose string of collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson this year earned him an Oscar nomination for Phantom Thread. Drummer Philip Selway too, having reinvented himself as a hushed folk…

  • Sun Kil Moon – This Is My Dinner

    November 13, 2018 - By 

    Mark Kozelek plays music, eats, and watches boxing matches. This is all that he does. This we learn towards the end of This Is My Dinner. This, we already knew. Let Sun Kil Moon’s ninth album, then, illuminate a few more of the obscure corners of Kozelek’s mind. His favourite Lou Reed album? Berlin. Favourite Jonathan Richman song? ‘Hospital’. Does he hate Steely Dan and The Eagles? Yes. Does he love AC/DC’s ‘A Touch Too Much’? Also yes. Will he ever eat reindeer? Definitely not. These are just a few mundane insights from the myriad details that are densely strewn…