• Wastefellow @ The Grand Social, Dublin

    October 27, 2018 - By 

    Wastefellow is an up-and-coming coming electronic producer hailing from the streets of Dublin. With a brand new EP, Post Human Potential, under his belt and recent performances at Hard Working Class Heroes and some of Ireland’s biggest festivals this summer, his current position as an artist is on the verge of a major breakthrough. It’s clear from the packed out Grand Social midweek audience that he takes to the stage for that this is a musician surrounded by a hell of a lot of hype and promise. His show makes good on that hype with ease. Donning his signature silver…

  • We Cut Corners – Impostors

    October 24, 2018 - By 

    It was hard to recall a guitar and drums duo that actually deserved the hype surrounding them until We Cut Corners came along. Comprised of John Duignan (guitars/vocals) and Conall Ó Breachain (drums/vocals), the band have been crafting their identity the hard way for some years now, opting for an unpretentious and uncluttered set up in an era when people relentlessly question if the guitar has offered all it can. Yet over the course of three albums, We Cut Corners have steadily amassed a loyal following and critical acclaim that makes their fourth effort, Impostors, one of Ireland’s most anticipated releases of…

  • Halloween

    October 24, 2018 - By 

    For the Final Girl, nothing’s really final. Laurie Strode might have thought it was game over when a doctor in a raincoat put six holes in the chest of her masked attacker, but Halloween wasn’t even close to done with her. Strapped to the wheel of fate, she was brought back, again and again, for twenty years, enduring more nastiness, more reboots, more bloodline backstory. For survivors, surviving is a full-time job. For the eleventh film in the franchise, writers Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green (who also directs) plunged a butcher’s knife into the heart of the…

  • The Hate U Give

    October 24, 2018 - By 

    In the last few years, Fox 2000 Pictures has developed a line in sturdy, engaging, young-adult adaptations that play with teen melodrama and “issue” storytelling. And The Hate U Give is the best yet. The Fault in Our Stars was the Ur-text, then Paper Towns, last year’s underrated Love, Simon and now The Hate U Give, from Angie Thomas’ 2017 novel. The film reminded me intensely of Love, Simon, with its arc of a teenager settling into a stable identity and owning their own experiences, and its emphatic exploration of a young person struggling with how to speak their own truth.…

  • Idles @ Button Factory, Dublin

    October 23, 2018 - By 

    The accepted trajectory of momentum in modern music can be an almighty fucker. But it’s no indelible law. There are, after all, those artists who somehow manage to ride the killer wave without buckling at the knees, being swiftly consigned to the industry seabed and bid adieu with a muffled chorus of, “See? Told you they weren’t all that.” In the case of the irrepressible Idles, it seems that no amount of five-star reviews or bandwidth-shagging kudos can derail their focus from what they already have: killer songs brimming with pit-starting transmissions of self-love and tolerance, and an ever-growing fanbase whose wide-eyed love of their music outshines the tut and tsk of even the…

  • Rosie

    October 19, 2018 - By 

    Rosie’s tagline describes the film “inspired by too many true stories” of families affected by homelessness. It is an affecting and vital exploration of Ireland’s housing crisis through the concentrated study of one Dublin working class family’s experiences. Unable to find a house after their landlord decides to sell their home, Rosie (Sarah Greene, Black 47, Dublin Oldschool), her partner John Paul (Moe Dunford, Michael Inside) and their four children have been sleeping in hotel rooms unsure where they will be staying next. The children are often late for school because the family have been staying in hotels across county…

  • First Man

    October 19, 2018 - By 

    How far would you travel to get away from everyone you love? Would 400,000 kilometres be enough? Damien Chazelle is not a romantic. He is in the habit of taking conventionally uplifting genres — the artist’s journey, the technicolour musical, and now the space race — cutting out their rah-rah hearts, and rebuilding them with a controlled focus on grit, sacrifice and the weight of roads not taken. The spectacular lunar leap that took place in the summer of 1969 is hardwired to be a narrative of triumph. Triumph over gravity, over the odds, and, let’s not forget, over the Soviets, who snatched an…

  • John Grant – Love Is Magic

    October 14, 2018 - By 

    Upon first listen to an album that flits between seemingly whimsical matters of broccoli and cheese sauce to diet gum and hot Brazilian boys, one would be forgiven for merely scratching its surface. It’s only on the second and third (and fourth and fifth) listen to Love Is Magic, John Grant’s fourth studio album as a solo artist, that true appreciation can be found. After the sheer wackiness loses its immediacy, the authenticity of Grant’s latest body of work becomes more apparent and the world is given a whole new way of experiencing the American musician. It’s his most electronic…

  • Saint Sister – Shape of Silence

    October 12, 2018 - By 

    It’s hard to believe that we’re only now hearing Saint Sister’s debut album given how quickly the duo have grown since their 2014 debut single, both at home and abroad. Shape of Silence is a cohesive and carefully put together album, and awe inspiring as a debut release. Drenched in traditional celtic and folk influence, but with a hint of electronic indie-pop, Saint Sister have etched out a niche in today’s Irish music, and they’re an act that we should treasure. Many of the tracks here are previous releases, including the song that first brought attention to the pair, ‘Madrid’,…

  • Rigoletto @ Grand Opera House, Belfast

    October 11, 2018 - By 

    “I’m denied that common human right – to weep” It’s entirely apt that Northern Ireland Opera’s staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto should be set in modern times. Apt because its salient themes – celebrity and vanity; the objectification of women and the presumed privileges of patriarchal society; the dangers of herd mentality; and, in an age of #MeToo and on-line trolling, the consequences of bullying and mockery – all resonate loudly today. A cast of international opera stars grace the Grand Opera House stage for this powerful NI Opera production, but the other protagonist is the set (Kaspar Glarner) –…