• The Sea and Cake – Any Day

    May 22, 2018 - By 

    Chicagoan supergroup, The Sea and Cake sprang from the mid-western city’s post-rock hotbed during the early ’90s, bringing together members of bands such as Shrimp Boat and Tortoise to create a singularly sophisticated sound. Over the course of 11 albums The Sea and Cake have plied an increasingly finessed trade, melding a love of jazz, bossa nova and ’70s Krautrock with their own breezy indie rock instincts, tearing an unlikely wormhole between the parallel universes of Astrud Gilberto, Neu! and Guided by Voices.  The band’s latest effort Any day, which arrives after a lengthy six year break, flashes to life…

  • Irish Tour: Snow Patrol

    May 22, 2018 - By 

    Snow Patrol embarked on their Irish tour last week with gigs in Cork and Dublin. Photos by Silvio Severino and Moira Reilly. Snow Patrol live at Cyprus Avenue, Cork Snow Patrol with support from Brand New Friend at Olympia Theatre, Dublin

  • Track Record: Hannah Richardson (Cherym)

    May 23, 2018 - By 

    In this installment of Track Record we hang out with Hannah Richardson of Derry based punk/noise pop band Cherym, while she discusses some of her favourite records from Sleater Kinney to Fugazi. Photos by Mickey Rooney Shop Assistants – Safety Net Everything about this is so real and I love how catchy Safety Net is, although somehow listening to it online doesn’t even come close to how good it sounds on vinyl! The idea of punk bands with female vocalists really appeal to me as someone in a similar industry. Sleater Kinney – One Beat This album was given to me…

  • Deadpool 2

    May 16, 2018 - By 

    In the beefed up, more densely populated Deadpool 2, an expanded talent budget means Ryan Reynolds’ chattering ‘Merc with the Mouth’ gets to assemble his own super-team (named ‘X-Force’, because ‘X-Men’ is sexist). One of his recruits is Domino (a breezy Zazie Beetz), whose power is to be permanently in Fortune’s good books. She is effortlessly lucky: spinning cars whizz past her, guns in her face jam and a blustery day blows her parachute in just the right direction (prevailing winds turn out to be a not-minor plot point). In Reynolds’ rearguard mutant franchise, 20th Century Fox have found their own…

  • Galway’s Lá Tech Festival Is Celebrating Electronics In The West This Weekend

    May 1, 2018 - By 

    Galway’s Lá Tech Festival & Conference makes its inaugural outing this weekend in the city’s Commercial Boatclub, Woodquay and it’s looking like a very special way to spend your long weekend. Taking place on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th May, the festival features a huge host of grassroots, local talent from the likes of Tinfoil (DeFeKt, Sunil Sharpe), Jamie Behan, Lolz, Noid The Droid and Tommy Holohan. Representing Galway’s ever-evolving new wave of club promoters at the festival are Refuge Events’ Mossy Hynes, Basement Project, Origin and Anti Social Acid Club. On an international level, the festival will also host some of European techno’s big names in the form of Ancient Methods, Anetha, I Hate Models,…

  • Hilary Woods – Colt

    April 25, 2018 - By 

    Some artists are just destined to wind up on certain rosters. One such act is Dublin’s Hilary Woods, an artist whose solo craft we’ve followed with a certain glee over the last couple of years. On June 8, the musician, ex-JJ72 member and multi-instrumentalist will release her debut full-length album, Colt, via Brooklyn’s Sacred Bones, an indie imprint whose discerning (and, so far, pretty impeccable) penchant for repping acts such as Zola Jesus, Jenny Hval, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Blanck Mass and Marissa Nadler runs directly parallel with Woods’ very own crepuscular craft. Her minimal composition & otherwordly layered atmospherics follow two acclaimed EPs and recent scoring of a horror film for IFI’s Weimar…

  • Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar

    April 2, 2018 - By 

    Words are hard. Try as we might as we attempt to translate thoughts into words, we inevitably truncate the infinite. We’ve spent millennia desperately trying to communicate with one another the depth and breadth of the things we feel and how external stimuli affect us. Think of all the experiences you’ve had and everything you’ve ever felt and then wonder if you’ve ever been able to truly express yourself to another without losing some level of definition. That’s the reason behind the elation of discovering a new metaphor. Occasionally though, you’re faced with an experience or piece of art whose…

  • EP Stream: The Altered Hours – On My Tongue

    March 9, 2018 - By 

    Two years on from the release of their triumphant debut album, In Heat Not Sorry, Cork five-piece The Altered Hours‘ brand of snaking, crepuscular psych-rock sounds more more singular and vital than ever. Released via Art for Blind/Penske Recordings on 12″ vinyl and digital, the band’s new EP, On My Tongue, is an equal parts murky and prismatic four-track re-affirmation of something we have have always maintained: the Altered Hours are not merely one of the country’s very best bands, they continue to push headlong into a masterfully dazed realm all their very own. Stream the EP in full via Bandcamp below. On My Tongue by…