• DuckTales Remastered (Capcom, multi-platform)

    August 29, 2013 - By 

    In days of old when gamers were bold and self-replenishing health bars weren’t invented, videogames were hard. Rock hard. Titles such as Super Star Wars, Castlevania and Ghosts ‘n Goblins made no concessions to ninnyish players reliant upon bountiful 1ups, mid-level game saves and unlimited continues. This was in part due to the influence of those Japanese fans who preferred their games to be from the more punishing end of the difficulty scale. Further, the limited memory of consoles meant that if you died you were whooshed back to the beginning of a given level. Precision timing was required to avoid spiked ceilings and bottomless…

  • 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…

  • Belsonic: Nine Inch Nails

    August 23, 2013 - By 

    With their eagerly anticipated eighth studio album, Hesitation Marks, primed for release at the beginning of next month, Trent Reznor’s genre-defining, decade-spanning Nine Inch Nails stop off in Belfast for Day Three of Belsonic 2013 experiencing quite possibly their most marked period of acclaim to date. Twenty-five years since Reznor formed the band as an effective solo project, there is an almost touchable urgency about the band and the music following a four-year incubation period. As fans rove in their thousands, everything, it would seem, is pointed in the general direction of a monumental first visit for the five-piece. Having endured the…

  • 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…

  • Spiritualized @ National Concert Hall, Dublin

    August 15, 2013 - By 

    There was no small sense of anticipation in the run-up to this one. Not only did Spiritualized announce that they were playing their Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space album in its entirety, they were doing so in Dublin’s National Concert Hall with an orchestra, and it would be the only such performance of 2013. So, tickets were duly snapped up for what was a pretty low-key announcement, all things considered. As the more NCH-savvy members of the audience file in for the eight o’clock sharp start time, there is a palpable air of excitement in the ornate…

  • Forfey 2013 Roundup

    August 14, 2013 - By 

    Miles from civilisation, in the scenic Fermanagh countryside, the Forfey Festival  is the destination for music fanatics around the country. The small farm site which plays host to the festival provides a communal atmosphere, where strangers are family and the reasonably small crowd overflows with passion and enthusiasm for each act. Early on Friday evening, Enemies’ semi-instrumental showcase of melodic math-rock impresses with a soulful ambience coupled with sheer head-bopping tunes. Usage of two drum kits heightens the intensity and kick-starts a seemingly tremendous weekend. Next up in the aptly named ‘Hayshed’ stage, Sons of Burlap put together a globe-spanning…

  • 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…

  • Transmit: Kasper Rosa, Lantern For A Gale, Vanilla Gloom

    August 12, 2013 - By 

    This gig was brought to you by Transmission; a regular showcase taking shape with some interesting and varied line ups drawing a respectable crowd on a nondescript Wednesday night. Belfast-based three-piece Vanilla Gloom take to the stage and start into their rain-soaked grunge pop to open the evening. A band whose name pretty accurately describes their music, the gloomy yet dreamy tone provides a good counter to the high pitched vocals which come across clearly and strongly, especially when delivered by all three members. Heavily indebted to the sounds of Seattle, with quite a nod to Weezer in the more mid-paced…