• God Is An Astronaut – Origins

    September 8, 2013 - By 

    As God Is An Astronaut pull from one of Irish rock’s best-kept secrets to an institution in their own right, like many bands in their situation, they run the risk of depending on more of the same to retain the attentions of an ever-more unfocused audience, usually in search of the next shiny thing. With seventh album Origins, it’s heartening to see that this is far from the case with the Glen of the Downs-based outfit, expanding their sound and artistic horizons as a five-piece, and dialing back on a lot of the now much-imitated post-rock tropes that have defined…

  • The Fall – 5 Albums

    September 4, 2013 - By 

    A story less visited than the personnel changes of The Fall is that of the myriad labels they have called home over the years. Despite Mark E Smith’s aversion to nostalgia, many fans would no doubt look back at the 5 years they spent in the care of Beggars Banquet with fond regard. Coinciding with (Smith’s first wife) Brix’s tenure in the group, 1984-89 marked (amongst other things) their unlikely flirtation with mainstream success – with a few proper singles actually making the actual proper charts. This 5 CD box set is perhaps optimum illustration of why that success was…

  • Clark – Feast/Beast

    September 2, 2013 - By 

    The success or failure of a remix compilation can be entirely down to the approach of the label and artist responsible for the output. One approach, which favours commercial acclaim over artistic integrity, can fairly easily culminate in a product that ultimately brings on the same harrowing feeling as finding the biscuit tin devoid of all deliciousness and filled with fig-rolls instead; a dark hour in the lives of many. Think Sasha’s latest Involv3r monstrosity. Actually, don’t do it to yourself. You deserve better. Thankfully though, Clark (Chris Clark) has taken the more fruitful direction with his latest effort Feast/Beast,…

  • White Lies – Big TV

    September 2, 2013 - By 

    “All this eighties indie/it sounds like shit to me/because I don’t like Joy Division/I don’t like Morrissey” – ‘Crushed Under The Weight of The Enormous Bullshit’, Reuben For several years, that line summed up my feelings towards contemporary music. In recent years though, my views have mellowed. While I still hold Morrissey with the same contempt that G. G. Allin held for showers and human decency, Joy Division eventually clicked with me, due in no small part to Anton Corbijn’s Control. With this thawing of my icy relationship, I was able to listen to bands like Interpol and Editors with new ears. I still hate them, but now it’s because I think…

  • Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action

    August 30, 2013 - By 

    Franz Ferdinand have kept a deliberately low profile ahead of their latest release, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, with lead singer Alex Kapranos having being quoted as saying that he felt “misinformation” had been forthcoming about their last album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. Being cut from a literary sort of cloth, there is – you’ve guessed it – a concept of sorts linking the songs, apparently based around the cynic’s search for optimism and the sceptic’s search for a manual ‘crop up’ here and there. Don’t follow Alex’s words? No, I don’t either, and if your listening pleasure is enhanced…

  • Superchunk – I Hate Music

    August 29, 2013 - By 

    This makes absolutely no sense to me. I have no idea why a label would release an album like Superchunk‘s I Hate Music at the tail end of the Summer. This is a record that was perfectly designed for golden hour driving sessions and mid-day drinks in the park. It’s an album that brings a near-insurmountable level of joy and energy with every song. It’s hard not to listen to this sweet little treat of a record without having a stupidly big, ear to ear grin plastered to your face. What’s even more impressive about this whole situation is that…

  • Washed Out – Paracosm

    August 27, 2013 - By 

    “Nothing like this sound I make that only lasts the season and is only heard by bedroom kids who buy it for that reason.” Matt Berninger probably wasn’t singing specifically about chillwave on the National’s ‘Lit Up’, but he might as well have been. Like anything sporting the “nü-” prefix or the NME’s current, desperate hawking of “psych”, chillwave was one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-em musical trends that sounded great on first exposure but rapidly vanished like the one-trick ponies they so obviously were. With its easy-to-digest blend of muffled vocal harmonies, shoegaze fuzz and blissed-out Balearic beats it’s not hard…

  • Mogwai – Les Revenants EP

    August 19, 2013 - By 

    Zombies. Fucking zombies. There are few things that have assimilated as many cultural touchstones as the zombie phenomenon. They’ve taken movies, classic novels, video games, music and now they’ve taken beloved Scottish instrumentalists Mogwai with the group’s Les Revenants EP (As an aside, if anyone wishes to create a Gremlins zombie mash-up, I won’t complain). The EP, the group’s first release since 2009’s fantastic Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will, probably won’t win any new fans for the group but is a neat little treat for longtime fans. For a bit of context,  Les Revenants is a collection of…

  • CFCF – Music For Objects EP

    August 15, 2013 - By 

    There is often a stigma attached to the term ‘concept album’ that can generally be found rooted in the lank-haired, progressive rock of the 1970’s and 80’s, and as such, it can be difficult to dissolve any predispositions of the description without looking both further back than this era of musical history, as well as further forward. Davis and Coltrane produced some outstanding examples of conceptually driven jazz back in the 1940’s and 50’s; Philip Glass has explored minimalist and modern classical music beyond the boundaries of the ordinary for half a century or more and in the past 20…

  • Shigeto – No Better Time Than Now

    August 12, 2013 - By 

    Zack Saginaw is a man with a distinct mantra. The Detroit-raised artist was surrounded by jazz and mo-town music from an early age, influenced heavily by his family upbringing. After studying electronic production in both New York and London, he has decidedly stuck to his roots ever since. Across numerous releases under the moniker Shigeto over the past few years (itself a reference to his past – his grandfather’s name), his blend of instrumental jazz, dubstep and hip-hop combined with his ever-present fascination with his heritage has yielded a collection of satisfying releases and remixes. His latest effort, No Better…