• Snowpoet – Thought You Knew

    June 22, 2018 - By 

    Two years on from its well-received eponymous debut on Two Rivers Records, Snowpoet returns with a sumptuous offering of sweet melodies, meditative textures and poetic lyricism. Snowpoet is now part of Dave Stapleton’s Edition Records – one of the UK’s most progressive labels, and one with for big ears for some of the most adventurous music currently produced in Europe. Essentially the song-writing vehicle for vocalist Lauren Kinsella and bassist Chris Hyson, Snowpoet has played in everything from a duo to a quintet setting, though here the duo is joined by core Snowpoet collaborators Josh Arcoleo on tenor saxophone, Nick…

  • Angélique Kidjo – Remain In Light

    June 21, 2018 - By 

    To describe Talking Heads’ Remain In Light as one of rock music’s sacred cows would not be unfair. It’s a seminal album for a good reason. Over its eight songs, it manages to capture the best of Brian Eno’s kitchen sink experimentalism, David Byrne’s existential mania, and improbably groovy rhythms. It manages to do all of this while successfully fusing the group’s post-punk roots with a wide array of Afro-Carribean influences to create profound and stridently individual, one of the 1980s greatest idiosyncrasies. So when the Benin-born artist Angélique Kidjo announced her intention to reimagine the album and reclaim it…

  • Set It Up

    June 21, 2018 - By 

    A romantic comedy designed from the stuff of nightmares for HR departments, Set It Up is an entertaining if slight story about workplace romances, demanding bosses and overworked employees. The main romance is between two overworked assistants who decide to set their demanding bosses up in the hope of spending less time in the office. Harper (Zoey Deutch), a sports and popcorn obsessive, wants to write and date but struggles to do either because of the hours she puts in at the office. Charlie (Glen Powell) is looking to secure a promotion to increase his salary while maintaining his relationship with his model girlfriend…

  • The National w/ John Grant @ Energia Park, Dublin

    June 19, 2018 - By 

    The National just can’t seem to stay away from Dublin. Not ten months since their intimate double-bill at Vicar St., they made their return this Friday, nestled away in the leafy Donnybrook suburbs at the Energia/Donnybrook Stadium, for their own miniature two-day festival, with support acts including Lisa Hannigan, John Grant, Villagers and Rostam. The Friday gig featured the aforementioned Lisa Hannigan and John Grant, as well as Jay Som, and Preoccupations. Not your typical outdoor venue, this weekend was an opportunity for Donnybrook Stadium to showcase itself as one – with surprisingly strong acoustics, and the high suburban trees…

  • Dott – Heart Swell

    June 19, 2018 - By 

    Mere happenstance it may be, but in the context of a certain momentous referendum victory and one of the longest stretches of good weather in Irish history, the timing of Dott’s balmy and conspicuously political release feels oddly significant. Heart Swell  bulges at the seams with driving garage rock riffs and rumbling basslines while sundrenched melodies and buoyant harmonies sugar the album’s impassioned politics without sacrificing an ounce of the band’s defiant verve. The surf pop inflected opener ‘Bleached Blonde’, announces itself with Laura Finnegan’s throbbing bass and frontwoman Anna McCarthy’s vocals echoing the ebb and flow of the tide,…

  • Ben Howard – Noonday Dream

    June 18, 2018 - By 

    Unusual though it may seem, Ben Howard has never been a predictable artist. The Devon born singer-songwriter first emerged onto the scene in 2011 with the timely folk-pop LP Every Kingdom, followed up three years later with I Forgot Where We Were which sounded more like James Blake than Ed Sheeran. Subsequently, after cursing some of his gig attendees out of it in Norwich and declaring “I couldn’t give a fuck” in response to a journalist who claimed Howard might fall into “the New Boring” music scene, Howard seemed to disappear off into the shadows and it was unclear when…

  • Primavera Sound 2018

    June 15, 2018 - By 

    Four Tet – Credit: Sergio Albert Disclaimer: The punctuality of this review was brought to you by Vueling Airlines, whose inability to deal with two hours of stormy weather resulted in several hundred failing to make it home for up to 4 days without compensation – half this site’s editorial team included. We recommend sacrificing some extra budget allocation on transport. It’s easy to stress the festival experience with its clashes, transport and accommodation woes, but once you’ve arrived at Primavera Sound, it’s all vibes; that soft coastal breeze – and a €1 street Estrella to cushion the sun’s blow…

  • Ash – Islands

    June 14, 2018 - By 

    Ash’s seventh studio album Islands lets you listen once again to the corny soundtrack to your summer love affair. Wheeler scrapes towards the very bottom of the barrel in one final bid to transform that washing machine shift at a Gaeltacht Céilí into the idealised romanticised summer of sun, beach and surfing. Islands features a myriad of sun-soaked riffs, images of crisp, white beaches for miles and just about everything else you’d expect from an Ash album. Only this time, the summer lovin’ fallacy just isn’t working its charm the way it used to as the album falls just short…

  • Hilary Woods – Colt

    June 13, 2018 - By 

    The word colt is used to in reference to either a male foal or a young untried person. Universally, horses symbolise a spirited force and freedom without restraint. In that defiance, a passionate desire also pervades. Both The Rolling Stones and U2 sang about wild horses; Keith Richards was inspired to write a lullaby for his toddler to articulate the strain of having to leave him to tour the world. Bono pined for a “dangerous” but exhilarating woman on Achtung Baby’s ‘Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses’. On her gorgeously soothing debut Colt, Hilary Woods marries these feelings of varied…

  • Giant Sand @ Whelan’s, Dublin

    June 13, 2018 - By 

    No word in the English language sums up Howe Gelb’s ever-mutating life’s work Giant Sand more than idiosyncratic. Threaded through by just one man and his broad-ranging – oft. cowpunk – plays on the idioms of Americana and the topics he’s always held dear: love, death, humour & wanderlust, never straying too far from wryly homespun existentialism. Despite a few of indefinite hiatuses in the last few years, Giant Sand’s original lineup were reconvened for a complete rerecording of their debut LP, a scattershot snapshot of 35 years ago accompanied by members of Gelb’s LA & Tuscon circles at the…