• Hurray For The Riff Raff – The Navigator

    March 14, 2017 - By 

    On paper, what about a blues folk concept album dealing with a young Puerto Rican’s perspective of her city and homogenisation of her culture should work? On genre level, it’s far too grand an idea. This almost operatic scope isn’t suited to the gritty sensibilities of folk or blues music. Their key hitters are typically the minor, metaphorical pieces which possess a great deal of power and heft, but which diluted at scale. Even on the thematic level, it shouldn’t work. The loss of and longing for some kind “home” is well-trodden ground, but the metropolitan Hispanic immigrant version doesn’t…

  • RTÉ Choice Music Prize 2017

    March 10, 2017 - By 

    The Choice Music Prize is a pivotal point in the Irish music industry calendar and a celebration of the best of the best of Irish music. Last year’s winner was Derry’s SOAK, who won for her debut, Before We Forgot How to Dream. This year’s awards at Vicar St. was the first time in its history being held in partnership with RTE, and was broadcast live in a special four-hour programme from 7-11pm on RTÉ 2FM, and will be broadcasted on March 18th on RTÉ2 as part of a special RTÉ Choice Music Prize programme.  This partnership is a focal point of host…

  • Field Trip – Evening’s Over EP

    March 10, 2017 - By 

    There’s something so interminably pleasant about Evening’s Over, the latest EP from pop rockers Field Trip. An undeniable ennui and melancholy run throughout. Yet they’re wrapped up in an infectious brand of pop goodness that’s hard not to get lost in. Yet these aren’t throwaway nuggets. The band understands how to introduce scope and scale into what could otherwise be inconsequential mush.   Take the opener ‘Wait’, for example. It starts off as a twitchy, yet straightforward indie pop track with a great big meaty fuzzed out chorus. But by the midpoint of the song, we transitioned to shredding solos…

  • Logan

    March 9, 2017 - By 

    Finally! Writer/director James Mangold (Walk The Line) has made up for the damp squib that was 2013’s The Wolverine, with a fantastic final outing for Hugh Jackman that transcends the usual superhero formula and delves into a much darker, violent and more vulnerable, nearly dystopian world. Unlike the many other movies of this genre, Logan gives the viewer a feeling of realism, substance and heart, of the type that has never been seen in the rest of the Marvel or DC worlds, making for an instant classic. In the year 2029, mutants are all but a thing of the past,…

  • George Best: All By Himself

    March 9, 2017 - By 

    George Best: All By Himself begins in darkness, with the voices of commentators eulogising George Best’s remarkable footballing talent, before the dreamlike moment is shattered by a recollection of Best’s ex-wife Angie of seeing a homeless man walking along the road, only to realise it was George. In Daniel Gordon’s documentary, football is secondary to the tragedy of Best’s personal demons, as Gordon attempts to unravel the enigma and get to the root cause of the star’s dramatic decline into alcoholism. Gordon’s film unfolds in a largely chronological structure, taking the audience from Best’s humble beginnings, through his meteoric rise…

  • Trespass Against Us

    March 9, 2017 - By 

    There is something very pseudo-Shakespearean about Trespass Against Us, and not just because of Michael Fassbender’s pedigree playing the mad Scottish king. This West Country Traveller crime drama revolves around the question of lineage and, in its own grubby way, dynastic fulfillment. The Cutlers are a family of Travellers who, along with the rest of their small nomadic community, have rejected conventional townie life and finance their existence with a spot of thieving on the side. At the head of the clan sits Brendan Gleeson’s Colby, usually seen squatting on his beaten-down leather armchair throne, who keeps a firm grip…

  • Grandaddy – Last Place

    March 9, 2017 - By 

    There are very few bands that can take a song and transform its tapestry multiple times within a four minute period. There are even fewer bands that execute this boldness in experimentation successfully. This impulsion to deviate from compositional convention is oft cited as self-indulgent or messy. Grandaddy, a band that have thrived on the lo-fi and literal homemade music have mastered the art of rogue arrangements. They have become known for creating a musical landscape populated by straightforward analogue instruments that co-exist with newer devices and effects to pave a route of meandering melodies. On paper, Last Place – Grandaddy’s…

  • Sleaford Mods – English Tapas

    March 6, 2017 - By 

    Sleaford Mods are some of the last punks standing. Their songs are slim, no muss, no fuss affairs. Like ESG before them, the pair rely on a basic setup of bass and drums to carry hip hop infused vitriol to the listener. They are lyrically snotty and upfront with tales of frustration and degradation at the hands of a society which has bred and demeaned them. What their words offer is an insight into the world of the marginalised; people feeling the impact of austerity politics, Brexit and the complacency of the South to the suffering of the North. Yet it…

  • Certain Women

    March 3, 2017 - By 

    [This review contains mild plot spoilers] I wasn’t surprised to discover, just a few hours after watching Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, that the film’s three, loosely connected narratives were adapted from a collection of short stories. (The author of these stories is Maile Meloy, and the collection from which they’re drawn is called Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It.) Like a good short story, each of Certain Women’s segments offers a concise but rich glimpse into other lives, places and experiences. And, while each part could easily stand alone as a minor-key indie drama, they interlock in…

  • A Cure For Wellness

    March 3, 2017 - By 

    Gore Verbinski’s (Pirates Of The Carribean) latest big budget venture is a mishmash of the mystery/suspense/horror genres, that sees the director move into painfully familiar territory. So much so that you would swear that he’s trying to evoke the ghost of Stanley Kubrick, but in the most unflattering, unoriginal and derivative manner. A Cure For Wellness tells the story of a young, cocky Wall Street executive called Lockhart, who is tasked with bringing an important CEO of his company back from a ‘wellness retreat’, located in a picturesque location of the Swiss Alps. But as soon as he arrives, an…