• The Witness (Thekla, Inc., PC / PS4)

    March 11, 2016 - By 

    Life, according to some philosophers, is a maze. A daily chore of blindly feeling your way around corridors, of searching in vain, of following the breadcrumb trail that previous wayfarers have left that may or not lead to the exit. It can be frustrating, enchanting but ultimately rewarding. The sight of the rising light glimmering through the portal that beckons you to freedom is quite beautiful. Many videogames, which are not as separate from the real world as we would like to think, are built around mazes. All of the Zelda games, for example, feature central character link exploring maze-like…

  • The Coral – Distance Inbetween

    March 11, 2016 - By 

    The Coral have always been outsiders. Springing up in 2002, this young and fully formed six-piece dazzled listeners with Captain Beefheart-esque psychedelia, pop hooks and classic songwriting. At the time, the NME led New Rock Revolution was in full swing and aside from The Zutons, they seemed completely out of step with the predominantly garage rock bands they were sharing column inches with. Producing outstanding albums as a frenetic pace –their first two albums in particular still sound spectacular—could not last and the past few years have been one of contemplation and regrouping for the band. Losing the outrageously talented Bill Ryder-Jones and original guitarist Lee Southall…

  • Little Green Cars – Ephemera

    March 11, 2016 - By 

    Following on from Little Green Cars’ stunning debut LP Absolute Zero was always going to be a challenge. The album, which was released in 2013, was a culmination of a young band’s determined and remarkably capable work up to that point. It was rife with brittle, anxious lyrics, ambitious yet subtle musicianship and stunning vocal harmonies, and was at times almost like listening to someone speak when their nerves have lead to a jarringly frantic output. Everything they had to give was thrown at us to ensure something stuck. And it did. Thankfully, there was scarcely a note on that…

  • Far Cry Primal (Ubisoft, Multi)

    March 10, 2016 - By 

    Few games are as unapologetically hostile as the various instalments in the Far Cry franchise, which specialise in dropping the player in far-flung locations then throwing lots and lots of very angry soldiers, natives and animals your way. Take, Far Cry 4, for example, set in a fictitious country in the Himalayas torn apart by a civil war. The scenery may be beautiful but the phalanxes of dissidents, drug-smugglers and vicious little honey badgers certainly are not, and they do not take kindly to you invading their turf. This same principle applies to Primal, but the action has been transported…

  • London Has Fallen

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    Forty minutes into London Has Fallen, the air is suddenly thick with tension and the promise of conflict. Not from the film itself – believe me – but from the screaming match that has erupted half a dozen rows behind me. A complaint over the volume of a sweet-chomping audience member has escalated into a blazing row, the offender’s mother vocally attacking the manhood of her son’s accuser. Will either get up from their seats? What happens when the lights go up and they meet in the aisle? It was, by a country mile, the most exciting thing to happen…

  • Emmy The Great – Second Love

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    Second Love, the new LP by Emmy The Great and her first in five years, is secure enough to know exactly what it wants to be. The title, which by design immediately evokes her 2009 debut First Love, implies this continuation and growth that runs deep at the core of the album. Musically, ETG begins moving away from the acoustic folk styling which characterised her earlier releases in exchange for a more minimalist electronica. While the record as a whole is a very mixed bag, what shines throughout are the lyrics, which still retain the incisive power of her debut…

  • Big Ups – Before A Million Universes

    March 11, 2016 - By 

    Of all the notions one can fling at post-hardcore, the much maligned and misattributed genre, it does have one undeniable strength: tension. The key songs in the genre’s oeuvre are not built around a typical rock structure of verse-chorus-verse, but rather on a more fluid, almost progressive structure that emphasizes the disquiet over all else. It’s best envisioned like a constantly tightening torture rack, constantly ratcheting the tension, keeping the listener in this state of unease and the brink of real discomfort before discharging in the most cathartic manner possible. It’s one of punk’s hydra heads taken to its logical…

  • M. Ward – More Rain

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    More Rain has been four years in the making. In truth, M. Ward has been making this album his whole career, such is the omnipresence of the main ingredients weaving through the songwriter’s back catalogue. Sometimes, you just know what you are going to get with an album. Sometimes, that is a really good thing. More Rain continues to show Matthew Ward as a musician enthralled with capturing a 60s sound and wrapping it around skilled arrangements and engaging melodies. Though 12 songs long, it still feels like a piece of flash fiction, such is the tight and minimalist make up of the songs on…

  • Jeff Buckley – You and I

    March 7, 2016 - By 

    The late alternative rock icon Jeff Buckley was recently the subject of a documentary on BBC Radio Ulster’s Across the Line featuring contributions from friends, fans and fellow artists. The programme’s highlight, however, was a charming anecdote from Buckley’s sole Belfast date: after playing to a half empty Limelight, the practically unknown Buckley and his band were bemused when their simple tour rider request for ‘beer and soda’ saw them greeted with trays of filled soda farls on their arrival to the dressing room. Buckley’s confused encounter with Belfast’s finest luxury serves as a reminder of his relatively limited fame during his own lifetime: the small,…