• A Grave With No Name – Wooden Mask

    August 15, 2016 - By 

    When the first guitar strum on ‘Sword’, the opening track on A Grave With No Name’s latest LP Wooden Mask, cuts through the atmospheric clinking and clattering, it’s clear that we’re in Phil Elverum territory. Alexander Shields, the man behind the Grave moniker, has his sights firmly set on picking up from where The Microphones’ The Gloaming, Part 2 left off. Shields’ output is based on these eerie slices of folk music infused with ambient whispers and these twinges of aggressive, electric and electronic instruments creeping around the edges of the aural plain. Although it never manages to invigorate or…

  • Everything Shook – Drinking About You

    August 11, 2016 - By 

    Everything Shook have proven one of the more interesting outfits on the Irish live circuit of late, a kinetic and technicolour blend of music, electro-performance art and synchronised choreography. The trouble with such visual bombardment is often that while it’s entertaining in the moment, it’s a transient thing. However, Robyn Bromfield, Jessica Kennedy and Áine Stapleton demonstrated on their debut release, Argento Nights, that they had the songs to back up the schtick. That three-track EP – as its title implied – was a louche, low-key and murky snippet of the brooding electronica that was to come on Drinking About You. It’s with the foreboding march…

  • Dinosaur Jr. – Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not

    August 9, 2016 - By 

    “All I know is that we play hard and a lot of this shit is not fun. Playing is great but the way we live is not the life of a rockstar.” Henry Rollins’ classic tour diary Get In The Van is an hilarious and often harrowing reminder of how deeply unglamorous life on the road was for Black Flag and their hardcore and college rock contemporaries. The leading lights of that scene eventually found financial reward from their sterling work in the pre-Nevermind era, with greatest hits tours by Jane’s Addiction, The Pixies and the Replacements finding them before huge audiences that were simply inconceivable…

  • Drown – Drown EP

    August 8, 2016 - By 

    Galway based experimental pop outfit Drown are set to drop their debut EP this month, a snappy four-track release that immediately beams with potential. The post-punk outfit were drawn together by their passion for experimental pop music, emerging with a punch towards the end of last year. Their sound however, suggests otherwise. Self-dubbed unintentional pop, the tracks appear heavily influenced by the more ethereal elements of 80s underground rock, drawing upon the likes of Sonic Youth and DIIV for inspiration. The release sees the five-piece noise outfit rebel against typical pop music, creating a sound that is intoxicating, honest and thought-provoking. Leavened melodies are carried by heavy angular guitar…

  • Russian Circles – Guidance

    August 5, 2016 - By 

    In many ways, post-rock is an easy genre. Get a guitar, bass, and drums, load them with enough pedals to make Kevin Shields gasp and repeat a single musical phrase for the guts of seventy minutes and, voilà, you’re the next Explosions In The Sky, This Will Destroy or The Album Leaf. Freebasers will line up far and wide to catch a glimpse of what you’re doing, tv shows will contact you to write the score for their uplifting emotional scene and you’ll write variants of an identical theme for about decade, replacing members faster than an 80’s hair metal…

  • The Beatyard 2016 (Day Two)

    August 4, 2016 - By 

    Day two of Beatyard 2016 ztarts off on a sour note as word filters through that the Daptone records’ soul maestro Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires have had to pull their main stage appearance, due to the man himself being unwell. Alas, these things happen so it is left to the organisers to switch a few things around. In relation to the same time yesterday the numbers are nowhere near as high, however Brazilian Sambo outfit Morro 16 appear on the main stage, to what is at the outset a pretty paltry number, in the hope of boosting spirits. As…

  • The Beatyard 2016 (Day One)

    August 2, 2016 - By 

    Following on from its successful debut last year, the Beatyard Festival makes a welcome return to Dún Laoghaire’s former Stena Line ferry terminal. There seems to have been a conscious decision made by the promoters, Bodytonic, to expand on the non-music related features from last year which includes: a wide variety of talks with accompanying Q&A’s, an expanded flea market, a designated gaming zone and a specific child friendly play area. The layout of the festival itself is well thought out which allows the crowd to find their way around rather effortlessly, without the fear of having to rush around…

  • Popicalia 22: Squarehead, Land Lovers & Ginnels @ Bello Bar, Dublin

    August 2, 2016 - By 

    At one stage, Popical Island’s regular Popicalia nights were such a staple of Dublin’s indie scene that Retarded Cop even wrote a song about it (found on the Popical Island #2 compilation), so its return with a stellar lineup – and an invitingly colourful poster courtesy of Ruan Van Vliet – after a 2 and a half year hiatus was always going to attract a hefty crowd to its new home in the cosy surroundings of Bello Bar. Ginnels (below) opening set sees Mark Chester add a new violinist to the lineup, adding an extra layer to the infectious indie pop…

  • Ben Chatwin – Heat and Entropy

    August 2, 2016 - By 

    It’s nice when an LP’s cover so succinctly summarises what the album holds. Heat and Entropy, the latest LP from experimental Scottish composer Ben Chatwin, has one of those images. The picture in question is of the underside of a squid against a purely black backdrop. It’s crisp, detailed and leaves to the imagination as the mouth, suction cups and moisture of the cephalopod’s underside are prominently visible. It’s a striking and almost hideous vision of the natural world that because of the void-like darkness that surrounds it; it looks as though it would torment you were you in a…

  • TTNG – Disappointment Island

    July 26, 2016 - By 

    Despite the vast number of changes in line-up since their formation just over twelve years ago, TTNG have been a steady trio for the past five years. This comes across in what is over all, a solid and consistent third album from the math-rock Brits. Even the title, Disappointment Island could suggest a bout of confidence for them, as had they failed to produce a somewhat decent listen the title itself would provide an ideal base for thoughtless, crummy criticism. Instead, they have succeeded in compiling a reliable set of ten tracks that hold true to the sound that TTNG (or This Town Needs Guns as they…