• LCD Soundsystem @ Malahide Castle, Dublin

    June 8, 2018 - By 

    In spite of the nation’s frequent protestations about our weather, you couldn’t really ask for a better day for an outdoor gig. It’s the Tuesday after bank holiday Monday. The crowds are spent from the long weekend. Surveying the grounds of Malahide Castle, punters are littered around soaking in as much of this wonderful Midsummer glow as they can before they lose their minds and soul. Tonight LCD Soundsystem are making a return to Dublin for what will be, in frontman James Murphy’s words, “the second longest show [they’ve] ever played”. When Murphy and Co. walk out, the sun is…

  • Forbidden Fruit 2018: Sunday

    June 6, 2018 - By 

    The atmosphere of Sunday was considerably busier – and a little bit rowdier – than the previous day with a lot of teenagers flocking for dance favourites like DJ Seinfeld, Bicep, DJ Deece, Dennis Sulta. The day started on a slightly messy note, with both Ross from Friends and Earl Sweatshirt announcing last-minute cancellations. Anyone who decided to wander over to the Undergrowth stage for Bicep’s 9.30 set would have been equally as disappointed – the tent was sweaty and overspilling from Dennis Sulta’s set, with no chance of entry or exit; heat emitting from the tent was like someone…

  • Forbidden Fruit 2018: Monday

    June 6, 2018 - By 

    On the last day of the June bank holiday, also one of the hottest days of the year, a modest gathering assembled at Forbidden Fruit. The line-up for day three differed greatly from Saturday and Sunday’s bill, as it catered devotees of guitar-led indie-rock with Philadelphia based The War on Drugs headlining and veteran (and nostalgia inducing) acts like Spoon, Warpaint and Grizzly Bear performing, also. David Kitt, whose set predominantly drew from his most recent record, Yous, eased the early attendees into the day’s marathon of live music. His set-up was minimal; comprised of Kitt switching between acoustic and…

  • Forbidden Fruit 2018: Saturday

    June 6, 2018 - By 

    Now celebrating its 8th birthday, Forbidden Fruit has become a staple in the Irish music festival scene, and with it and last week’s LIFE festival, the summer festival season has officially begun. A celebrator of Irish acts, with a focus on dance, R&B, and hip-hop, this year’s line-up was especially anticipated, with headliners such as Glass Animals, Justice, Bonobo, and EDM favourites like Bicep, Dennis Sulta, and DJ Seinfeld all making appearances over the weekend. It’s never easy to be one of the first acts of the day at a festival, and especially on the first day but this didn’t…

  • Robocobra Quartet – Plays Hard To Get

    June 6, 2018 - By 

    Hyperbolic as it is to say, Chris Ryan might well be the most important creative voice in the city of Belfast today. This bespectacled Robocobra Quartet bandleader has been quietly releasing some of the finest broadcasts that this landmass has heard for some years now. Cuts like ’98-01′ from 2014’s Bomber EP and ‘Album of the Year’ from 2016’s groundbreaking Music For All Occasions should be used by the Council as a demonstration of how indispensable and experimental the city’s art scene is. The outfit’s truly idiosyncratic fusion of punk and jazz is the sort of stuff that music fans should be…

  • Xylouris White @ Black Box, Belfast

    June 2, 2018 - By 

    A lute and drum kit doesn’t sound like a combination that should really work, but in this post-genre age almost anything goes. And, when the musicians in question are veritable virtuosos, as is the case with Cretan laouto player George Xylouris and Australian-born, New York-based drummer Jim White, then the results are nothing short of spectacular. This duo already had a dozen European gigs under its belt in support of its third album, Mother (Bella Union, 2017), which was just as well, as the late arrival of the lute-like lauto-temporarily lost in transit-meant there was no time for a sound-check.…

  • Jenny Hval – The Long Sleep

    June 3, 2018 - By 

    What can one expect from Jenny Hval? To date, her career is comparable to one big game of whack-a-mole. At any one moment, the Norwegian artist could pop up in collaborations, most recently with Håvard Volden for the Lost Girls EP, or perhaps as the author of a novel (Paradise Rot, arriving October). Her solo work can largely be categorised under avant-garde, but flits between a range of electronic, jazz, pop, ambient and folk influences, making Hval one of the most freely creative artists of this generation. For someone so strikingly studious, it’s hard to imagine where the inspiration comes…

  • Father John Misty – God’s Favorite Customer

    June 5, 2018 - By 

    Nine years ago, Nardwuar The Human Serviette interviewed Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes and then drummer, Josh Tillman. The exuberant Canadian musician-turned-journalist acknowledged Pecknold’s penchant for performing in a seated position and commented that he had revived this style. Tillman, dissatisfied with the lack of attention, interjected, “I kind of resent being overlooked in this category because I also [perform] on a chair.” This casual exchange, small though it may seem, provided us with an early indication of someone unwilling to relinquish the spotlight. Nine years later, Josh Tillman’s ego abides. He’s transformed from the fabled “horny, man-child, Mamma’s boy”…

  • Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert – Here Lies the Body

    May 31, 2018 - By 

    Aidan Moffat has a knack for a musical partnership. Having first come to attention as one half of Arab Strap alongside Malcolm Middleton from the mid-90s to the mid-00s – as well as a recent triumphant run of reunion shows – his later pairing with jazz musician and fellow Falkirk native Bill Wells saw the pair bag the inaugural Scottish Album of the Year Award for their 2011 debut Everything’s Getting Older. Now it’s the turn of guitar virtuoso RM Hubbert, perhaps best known to Irish audiences for regular stints supporting Mogwai on these shores. The pair already teamed up…

  • Far Cry 5 (Ubisoft, Multi)

    May 29, 2018 - By 

    The Far Cry franchise has never been known for its bashfulness but this most recent episode not so much pushes the envelope as takes that envelope and uses next level origami skills to transform it into a lethal weapon. From beginning to end, Far Cry 5 is a no-holds-barred romp of cartoonish ridiculousness, albeit one with a sting in its tail: while other open world games are set in fairy kingdoms or irradiated wastelands, here the player is invited to frolic in a gonzo vision of rural Montana replete with grain silos, roadside diners, white picket houses, plantation mansions and the like. Look for…