• Gadget And The Cloud – Songs For Sad People To Dance To

    March 21, 2018 - By 

    The night is over. The pub is closing, the lights are turned on and the bartenders are ushering you out. Hopefully, you have friends in tow. It can be a welcome relief, the nearing prospect of sleep after a long night on the booze, on the floor, dancing to the sounds played at decibels too high to be comfortable on the ears. For others, the end of the night – after the afterparty is fizzled out – brings with it a stunted sadness of sorts, a sort of melancholy spurred on by the early whisper of a hangover. This particular…

  • The Altered Hours – On My Tongue

    March 18, 2018 - By 

    The Altered Hours are a band who wear their influences very firmly on their sleeve. Elements of The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and The Brian Jonestown Massacre (whose frontman Anton Newcombe released the band’s Sweet Jelly Roll EP on his A Recordings label in 2013) abound, but they carry it off with such aplomb that they manage to make this sound all their own. Following on from 2016’s full length debut In Heat Not Sorry and a string of live shows that have cemented them as one of the very best live bands in the country, the…

  • David Kitt – Yous

    March 15, 2018 - By 

    In January of 2017, David Kitt shared an album that would only be available to stream for a week. A throwaway project of sorts, a means to share new material recorded since The Nightsaver, released seven years prior. The initial brevity of Yous predated the release of From Night To Night, the debut LP from Kitt’s techno project, New Jackson by only by a few months. The songs, however, are remarkably different. One provides a passport to escapism, the other eases your return to reality. That is not to say there are boundaries enforced preventing one from getting lost amongst…

  • David Byrne – American Utopia

    March 13, 2018 - By 

    David Byrne should be more egomaniacal than he is. Just take a moment and examine his back catalogue. Any human being who can craft records as powerful and diverse as Remain in Light, Fear of Music, and My Life In The Bush of Ghosts has every right to be as pompous as they like. Add to this the fact that he composed what might be the greatest love song ever recorded (‘This Must Be The Place’) and managed to get traditional music from across Africa played on mainstream radio and you simply have to accept it without question. But what’s always…

  • Wyvern Lingo – Wyvern Lingo

    March 11, 2018 - By 

    At its core, Wyvern Lingo’s stunning, eponymous debut is a journey towards recovery after a break-up, leading us on an intimate journey through love, loss and healing to an eventual resurrection. Wyvern Lingo bring to the table the storytelling qualities of Ireland’s contemporary folk musicians (Lisa Hannigan, Glen Hansard) but just as confidently introduce decades worth of pop and R&B flavours and sensibilties to make this an album that is truly their own. The Bray trio succeed in adapting these personal tales of woe, love and loss into a universal experience,  most clearly executed in tracks like ‘Dark Cloud’ and…

  • Paddy Hanna – Frankly, I Mutate

    March 10, 2018 - By 

    Four years have passed since Paddy Hanna’s triumphant solo debut Leafy Stilleto was released by the ever reliable Popical Island collective. Not that he hasn’t kept busy in that time, bridging the gap with a couple of standalone singles and fronting the mighty Autre Monde, all adding to an ever-growing CV that includes stints in the likes of Grand Pocket Orchestra, No Monster Club, Ginnels and Skelocrats. His long-awaited sophomore effort Frankly, I Mutate, released on increasingly impressive Galway label Strange Brew, features a star studded lineup of guests such as Saint Sister and Tandem Felix. Meanwhile members of Girl Band such as…

  • Soccer Mommy – Clean

    March 12, 2018 - By 

    Any child on a football pitch who takes the time to look down the touchline will be sure to see an eclectic bunch of fans: Passing dog walkers, aggressive and overly-stimulated dads who kick every ball and question every decision, mates and their crossed fingers for public embarrassment, and the unsung heroes, their mothers, sacrificing valuable weekend hours week in and week out watching a sport they may not have the faintest interest in, just to be there for that moment when their kid finally gets that goal. Somewhere down the line, Sophie Allison, AKA Soccer Mommy took at least some…

  • Andrew W.K. – You’re Not Alone

    March 7, 2018 - By 

    It’s fair to say that Andrew W.K. is more meme than man at this point. His nearly 20-year career has less been defined his output and more by a single facet of his character: a love of partying. With a back catalog which includes classics such as ‘Party Hard’, ‘Party Till You Puke’ and ‘We Want Fun’, his devotion is undeniable. Every song, quote or appearance relates in some way to partying and that’s nice. It’s comforting to know that the human embodiment of Slurms MacKenzie is out there. Our ADHD addled Batman partying for our right to party night…

  • The Breeders – All Nerve

    March 3, 2018 - By 

    J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote that the compound noun cellar door was one of the most beautiful words in the English language. I’m not a linguist or etymologist by any stretch, but I’d like put forth a phrase which I think captures the same awe as Tolkien’s… Kim Deal has a new album. Those six little words when drawn together represent a powerful sentiment in the English language. This is the woman who made the Pixies what they were. One of our great songwriters, a person who can captivate, exhilarate and intoxicate with the most impossibly simple chord progressions, has returned.…

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    Superorganism – Superorganism

    March 3, 2018 - By 

    Superorganism are to music what memes are to art. In the space of just one year they’ve managed to capture a sound that is both easily digestible and instantly recognisable. One which is synonymous with the online age that we live in as they curate the sound of endless YouTube holes and trips to “the weird part of the Internet”. Their self titled debut comes in at just over 30 minutes, and is laden with short songs that cut straight to the point. High Definition synth and guitar hooks are grounded by the lo-fi voice of singer Orono Noguchi. Her lyrics…