• The National – Trouble Will Find Me

    May 27, 2013 - By 

    There’s a famous Edward Hopper painting, simply entitled ‘Gas’, in which a solitary, dapper figure stands in the centre of the canvas, almost obscured by a cherry red petrol pump. On first glance its meaning is immediately apparent: it’s either a character study or an elegy to those charming locations found off the beaten track. However, this simplicity is deceptive – as simplicity often is. Look to the right of the frame, where a particularly vicious darkness is bleeding from an obscured road into the forest. One wonders where this path leads and what is to be found there. The…

  • Transmit: Wonder Villains, Before Machines, Audio Cavalry – Limelight 2, Belfast

    May 24, 2013 - By 

    Tonight will be a night of novelties. Having only heard snippets of each of tonight’s TRANSMIT acts, it is with a sense of curiosity that this reviewer travels to Limelight 2 for his inaugural gig at the venue. First up is County Down four-piece Audio Cavalry, taking to the stage to play to a small but interested crowd.  Their influences and style are apparent from the offset: contemporary indie-rock with intricate, sharp guitars and contrasting neat chord progressions over drawled out vocals; these traits help set Audio Cavalry apart from others in a highly congested genre. The performance is highly…

  • The Dillinger Escape Plan – One Of Us Is The Killer

    May 23, 2013 - By 

    From opening track and mission statement ‘Prancer’ – resplendent with what are now Dillinger Escape Plan’s signature complex, syncopated guitar riffs, utterly frantic drumming and vocal intensity -their fifth full length album ‘One Of Us Is The Killer‘ rages to life with the chaotic measure of a broken photocopier. The second album to be released on their Party Smasher Inc label, One Of Us… is perhaps not quite the Dillinger of their seminal and still stunning breakthrough album Calculating Infinity – but is very much the Dillinger of today and tomorrow. Often referred to as ‘mathcore’, their music has been,…

  • Robyn G Shiels – Underneath The Night of Stars EP

    May 21, 2013 - By 

    Almost locally renown for “taking his time” between releases, Belfast-based singer-songwriter Robyn G Shiels is equally – ever increasingly – justified in biding his time as a consummate, altogether important artist. As the very best wine cannot possibly stem from a rushed harvest, similarly Shiels possesses an instinctive knack for seeing the brilliant fruits of his labour (experience, regret and alleviation) arrive in their destined condition at the most appropriate time. Little over a quarter of an hour in length, his new EP, Underneath The Night of Stars, is Shiels’ present-day distillation of this fact. Emerging quietly via a slowly…

  • The Dudley Corporation – Everyone Does Everything Wrong

    May 22, 2013 - By 

    It’s been five long years since the Dudleys caressed our lugholes with the slow-burning menace of Year Of The Husband. As supercharged opener ‘DLQ’ cranks this fourth LP into life, it’s apparent that much has changed in the Dubliners’ camp. Gone are the tension-building epics of old, replaced with thirteen sub-three minute nuggets of alt-rock gold. That’s not to say the trio have gone down the commercial route – anything but: the guitar sound is scathing, the vocals sneer and howl misanthropically and the rhythm section pummel and clatter more intensely than ever. Highlights of this newly-streamlined, energetic approach include…

  • Styles P – Float

    May 21, 2013 - By 

    The nineties resurgence sweeping New York hip-hop has primarily been forged by artists born right in the middle of the decade, but with boom-bap beats fashionable again it was only a matter of time before some older statesmen made a fresh run for relevance. Yonkers rapper Styles P has seemingly been around forever as both a solo artist and member of The LOX. But while Styles goes back far enough to have shared a label with Biggie, he’s always been playing catch up in a career full of missed opportunities and false starts. The LOX never really got going on…

  • Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Mosquito

    May 20, 2013 - By 

    Ten years on from their garlanded debut, and four years since their last album, much has changed for Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Singer Karen O has moved to LA from her native New York, and then come back. Guitarist Nick Zinner has taken time off to indulge his passion for photography. Drummer Brian Chase has, through the simple mechanism of growing both his hair and beard, transmogrified into Warren Ellis of the Bad Seeds. The question is, in the face of these various transitions, what has changed musically for everyone’s favourite NYC boho art-rockers? The answer – and apologies if this…

  • Frank Turner – Tape Deck Heart

    May 14, 2013 - By 

    It’s been ten years since Frank Turner first howled his lungs out on Million Dead’s debut. One band dissolution, a genre hop, multiple releases and an Olympic ceremony later the Winchester lad is still wailing, albeit with a greater sense of melody. Tape Deck Heart is Turner’s fifth solo album in seven years and it is around this point in an artist’s career that the cracks invariably begin to show – this album is no different. There is an increased feeling of lethargy with some of the music on display. A release schedule like Turner’s puts a strain on any artist’s musical ability and…

  • Altar of Plagues – Teethed Glory and Injury

    May 13, 2013 - By 

    After the breakthrough success of 2011’s Mammal, a release which bore witness to the peak of the band’s haunting collision of shoegaze and blackened malignance, Cork’s Altar of Plagues, fronted by WIFE man James Kelly, were guaranteed to be subject to scrutiny regardless of their next sonic step. Thankfully, they seem to have exhibited typical disregard for expectations and come out even stronger, and Teethed Glory and Injury as a result is their strongest, starkest statement yet. It is, at once, a widening of their trademark soundscape and a narrowing of focus – shredding, droning electronics and interference bid a…

  • Adam Buxton, Best of Bug – Odyssey Cinema, Belfast

    May 10, 2013 - By 

    There’s a crucial moment during this evening’s multimedia shenanigans when an entire cinema auditorium chuckles in unison at the sight of a LEGO David Bowie explaining the inspiration behind his new persona “Cobbler Bob”. At this point the audience have fully plugged into BUG, Adam Buxton’s deliberately random selection box of music videos, skits and winding anecdotes about earache. And that’s part of the joy of BUG: the not knowing what glittery video or deranged cartoon is going to pop out of the indie rock super collider next. Essentially, what we have is an assortment of music promos glued together…