• Hannah Peel – Awake But Always Dreaming

    September 23, 2016 - By 

    Every second we’re alive we move closer to our conclusion. We hope for ourselves there will be some dignity and grace in our final moments and that we might finish the whole existence thing with our minds intact, painlessly drifting into the great unknown. Sadly, though, that probably won’t be the case. Estimates from Genio state that by 2046, 150000 people in Ireland will suffer from dementia with two-thirds of those being women. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia, are becoming the shadow which defines the latter section of so many lives. Yet in spite of the looming nature of this…

  • WIFE – Standard Nature

    September 21, 2016 - By 

    Combing ferocity with beauty is something that has always played a central role in the music of James Kelly. In his other musical life the Cork artist makes up part of currently-in-limbo Atmospheric Black Metal outfit, Altar of Plagues, a group whose knack for vicious energy is made all the more gripping by the constant undercurrent of anguished melody, in particular on their 2013 album Teethed Glory and Injury.  Under his electronic solo moniker, WIFE, Kelly has, over the course of two previous releases, always tended to err more on the atmospheric end of that spectrum. His last LP, 2014’s…

  • Devendra Banhart – Ape In Pink Marble

    September 22, 2016 - By 

    Once you become aware of Venezuelan-American songwriter Devendra Banhart‘s other life as a visual artist it becomes difficult to distance it from his musical output. Despite rarely linking his music and visual art, aside from painting his own album artwork (including the grammy nominated beauty of 2009’s What We Will Be), one always feels the intended aesthetic and colour that permeates his music. In 2013 Banhart released his Nonesuch Records debut, Mala, a record of playful, winsome cuts that toyed with love’s awkwardness and silliness with equal parts melancholy and wit. Throughout the album, the grainy pink colouring that defined its cover perched on the listener’s…

  • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree

    September 16, 2016 - By 

    Skeleton Tree isn’t the first Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds album born out of personal turmoil. The melancholy of albums like Your Funeral, My Trial in the 80s was inspired by Cave’s worsening heroin addiction, while 1997’s The Boatman’s Call was one of those classic breakup albums, famously considered – until now, that is – to be Cave’s most emotionally affecting work. But that must pale into insignificance for Cave now, ever since his 15 year old son Arthur last year fell to his death from a cliff near their home in Brighton, an event he describes in the album’s accompanying film One More Time With Feeling…

  • R51 – No Chill

    September 16, 2016 - By 

    That steamrolling wall of sound which smashes through the mix and opens R51’s No Chill EP is a pretty undeniable statement of intent: the Belfast five-piece is bringing their already exceptionally high game to a new tier. Expanding on the palette set out on last year’s  the group delve deeper into shoegaze territory, as the emphasis on this outing is focused on the swirls of textured guitars and soaring vocals. It’s noisy and chaotic, yet intricate and finely honed. ‘Elephant’, the EP’s first song, is a clear testament to this as the seismic opening contrasts with Melyssa Shannon’s delicate, yet…

  • The Smoke Clears – The Smoke Clears

    September 15, 2016 - By 

    It’s a shame this album didn’t come out sooner. The Smoke Clears, the self-titled album under the alias of Galway resident and Berghain/Panorama Bar regular John Daly, is laden with the same feeling encouraged by Netflix hit Stranger Things. In the wake of its success, a flurry of mixes, covers and think-pieces have explored the show’s music, with the soundtrack already being released on vinyl, and Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of S U R V I V E set to perform the score at Unsound in Poland next month. With the speed of passing interest, it seems too late to…

  • Clipping – Splendor & Misery

    September 13, 2016 - By 

    For those who don’t know Clipping, they are an LA based trio who single-handedly make up the most prominent hip-hop and avant-garde contingent of legendary label Sub Pop. Since their critically received label debut CLPPNG the group have become a reckonable leftfield force, creating music that is challenging, beguiling and academic all at once. While their last EP Wriggle may have been little more than loose tracks after the release of their LP it continued, musically and verbally, to chronicle humanity’s burnt suburban landscape where society is little more than its bodily functions and lust for cheap thrills and short term gains. On the surface Splendor…

  • Preoccupations – Preoccupations

    September 13, 2016 - By 

    What’s in a name? For Toronto’s Preoccupations, their previous moniker ended up presenting more trouble than they could have anticipated. Releasing an EP and self-titled album as Viet Cong in 2015, their name seemed only to compliment the dark, unsparing and even brutal music that they played, with few reviews drawing any attention to the group’s political insensitivity (it had done little harm to their post punk forbearers Joy Division and Gang Of Four). However, as the band grew in stature so too did internet protests, questioning how four white westerners found it fit they should name themselves after violent Asian paramilitaries in search of some…

  • August Wells – Madness is the Mercy

    September 9, 2016 - By 

    Over 20 years since his emergence with shoegaze band Rollerskate Skinny (with none other than Jimi Shields, brother of My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin) and a CV that includes stints fronting New York alt-rock band Favourite Sons and his own solo project Kid Silver, Dublin native Kenneth Griffin shows no sign of letting up from his multifaceted musical pursuits, with his latest venture August Wells – formed in 2012 with New York pianist John Rauchenberger – recently signing to Cork’s FIFA Records (Forever In Financial Arrears) for this second LP. Griffin’s impressive croon is the first thing you hear at the start of opener ‘Here in the…

  • Angel Olsen – My Woman

    September 5, 2016 - By 

    I’ve never been able keep a diary. Having to articulate and make sense of the thoughts that muddle my mind used to be a terrifying and daunting ordeal. The first song I heard by Angel Olsen was ‘The Waiting’, from her first full length studio album, Half Way Home. In this song, she sings about fruitlessly and foolishly waiting for someone to reciprocate a feeling of fulfilment that we are capable of giving to ourselves. It just takes a little time to reach that realisation.That shift from interdependence to independence allows you to appreciate the inevitable contentions in life as a twenty-something with an unfettered honesty…