• Tuath – Existence is Futile

    June 8, 2016 - By 

    Tuath, an Irish experimental noise band currently based in Donegal, are on the verge of releasing their second EP, Existence is Futile, set for digital release 15th June. Despite obvious connections which can be made between the band’s sound and genres such as shoegaze, electro and psych rock, what is captured beautifully in the EP is the group’s ability to defy the limitations of all generic conventions, creating an impressively unique sound for themselves. The diverse range of musical influences that motivate the band’s music is clearly evident throughout, aided by the variety of instruments used. The four-track EP opens strongly with the title track ‘Existence is…

  • Classic Album: Van Halen – 1984 (1984)

    June 6, 2016 - By 

    Two immense planets having been moving in synchronous orbit around a dazzling sun for a few years now, their every movement in synch with each other. But on one of the planets, a new technological overlord has begun conducting experiments, playing with dangerous new discoveries that will threaten to transform the harmonious nature of these two planets forever. Eddie Van Halen has mastered the synthesizer, and is about to smash headlong into the party-loving world of David Lee Roth, with devastating consequences. The year is 1983, and things are about to get rough. Van Halen’s self-titled 1978 album is one…

  • Overhead, The Albatross – Learning to Growl

    June 1, 2016 - By 

    A lot of people will tell you that Post-Rock had its day about five years ago, that those who have kept the torch burning the brightest are the just the ones who held it aloft in the first place, and that all the rest have merely fallen by the wayside or been left dragging their heels through the faux-sentimental, desperately “cinematic” mud. In a lot of ways they would be right I suppose. More bands than you can count dabbled in that realm of tremolo picked, delayed guitars and the“quiet bit/heavy bit” structure, to the point where a listener could…

  • I Have a Tribe – Beneath a Yellow Moon

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    Dubliner Patrick O’Laoghaire, better known as I Have A Tribe, last week released his long awaited debut album, Beneath A Yellow Moon, a stunningly imperfect indie-folk record, brimming with eleven brilliantly honest tracks. This intimate album comes as a follow up to 2015’s No Countries EP and upon a single listen it becomes clear that, even within such a brief timespan, O’Laoghaire’s songwriting has undoubtedly become so much more complex. The range of emotion he is now capable of evoking has grown extensively, now fully projecting the vibrant colours in his mind into the outside world, overshadowing his past two EPs and demonstrating his growth and brilliance as…

  • Gold Panda – Good Luck and Do Your Best

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    2010 was a bizarre time to be a producer of electronic music. At the advent of the bedroom producer and a period when Youtube channels like Majestic Casual were oversaturating our ears with sugary “chill” electronica – or whatever the heck it was called – it was a time in which one track could come to define an artist far too early into their musical career, long before they were in a position to be defined at all. Luckily, a number of artists managed to break free from the labelling and pigeonholing that coincided with having a Youtube “hit” around…

  • Marissa Nadler – Strangers

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    In the lead up to the release of her seventh LP Strangers, the second to be released on Sacred Bones/Bella Union, Marissa Nadler welcomed interviewers into her apartment instead of having features built on distant phone-calls or coffee shop meetings . This willingness to allow the external into the internal, the welcoming of outsiders into the most sacred and personal of spaces is something that plays heavily into this album. Moving from the highly introspective lyricism that has defined her previous releases, Nadler it seems has now taken to bringing the influence of others, be they strangers or best friends,…

  • Holy Fuck – Congrats

    May 26, 2016 - By 

    Far from being just another band with a sweary name, Holy Fuck were founded on an enticing principle – to make electronic music without the use of modern digital electronic methods (programming, sampling, laptops etc), core members Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh instead utilising various mini keyboards, effects pedals and even film reel and toys (a Speak & Spell being a particular favourite) to create a cacophony of sound, all accompanied by bass and drums. While they’ve always been a must-see live act, even earning the praise of a certain Lou Reed, their ability to progress over their first three albums without straying far from those methods…

  • PORTS – The Devil is a Songbird

    May 26, 2016 - By 

    ‘Luck’ is a funny old thing, especially in the often unforgiving world of music, although at the start of 2013, Derry’s Little Bear seemed to very much have it on their side. A bout of acute laryngitis in Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble saw Little Bear step in at the eleventh hour to replace the Bangor indie-poppers at 2013’s Other Voice’s Festival, and their show-stealing set paved the way for massive critical acclaim and a set of huge shows in Belfast’s Limelight and their home town’s Nerve Centre. Luck seemed to turn the other way fairly promptly though, as the band watched the support act…

  • My Tribe Your Tribe – Loyalties

    May 25, 2016 - By 

    Hailing from Kildare, My Tribe Your Tribe – not to be confused with I Have a Tribe – are expanding their fan base after an impressively productive 2015. The self-professed alt-rock trio, comprised of George Mercer, Tod Doyle and Colm Daffy, have continued to build the foundations of a promising trajectory, their songs steadily finding their way as the unique blueprint of My Tribe Your Tribe’s sound. Earlier this month they released their debut EP, Loyalties, a darkly melodic collection of compositions that are not entirely expected to co-exist, yet simultaneously work together. It is hard to comprehensively retrace the…

  • Ciaran Lavery – Let Bad In

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    With his rumpled suit, rural back-story, and battered guitar, not to mention the genre-hopping back catalogue and considerable streaming success it appears to be so far, so peak-beard for Ciaran Lavery. On his second full-length album Let Bad In, the Aghagallon singer-songwriter seamlessly welds together hip-hop beats, chamber balladry and soulful pop across ten addictively melodic tracks that demand repeated plays. This genre-hopping could sound calculating and impersonal but the album is more than held together by that glorious voice. Lavery’s enunciated delivery on album highlight ‘Return to Form’ transforms into a soulful rasp by the time the chorus comes round. This…