• It Hasn’t Got Better: The Pulse Nightclub Shootings

    June 13, 2016 - By 

    I’ll never forget my first time in a gay club. I was eighteen years old and in my first year of college. I’d been clubbing before but had never felt comfortable. The hyper-heteronormativity made me nervous – I could never picture myself dancing as carelessly as the other college kids, all flirting and grinding and at ease with themselves. I could never identify with the people around me and most nights consisted of me standing in a corner, feeling intimidated, looking out of place and humouring the drunken flirting of men who could barely even see me rather than actively…

  • Classic Album: The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead (1986)

    June 13, 2016 - By 

    The Smiths recorded their 3rd album ill at ease with their position in the music world. They were unsure of their record label, frustrated at how the media represented them, and perplexed with the public’s perception of the band. Nevertheless, when The Queen Is Dead was released, it presented The Smiths at their zenith, aware of their astonishing abilities and revelling in utilising them to full effect. The confidence bursts forth from the get-go with a 6 minute plus, unbridled thrash of a title track and is sustained throughout the 9 diverse songs that follow it. The musical landscape displays a knowing maturity;…

  • Classic Album: Van Halen – 1984 (1984)

    June 6, 2016 - By 

    Two immense planets having been moving in synchronous orbit around a dazzling sun for a few years now, their every movement in synch with each other. But on one of the planets, a new technological overlord has begun conducting experiments, playing with dangerous new discoveries that will threaten to transform the harmonious nature of these two planets forever. Eddie Van Halen has mastered the synthesizer, and is about to smash headlong into the party-loving world of David Lee Roth, with devastating consequences. The year is 1983, and things are about to get rough. Van Halen’s self-titled 1978 album is one…

  • Big Beats and Broad Strokes: An Interview with The Chemical Brothers’ Ed Simons

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    Whether you’re into dance, rock, indie or have miraculously found yourself sequestered in a brit-pop niche over the past twenty five years, you’ll know that The Chemical Brothers have spent much of that time making some of the most recognisable and respected music ever committed to stereo. A duo of immense creative breadth, their early work frenetically soundtracked a new wave of genre-crossover experimentation that would quickly become a go-to production style for their contemporaries. Fusing hip hop, techno, house and whatever remnants of UK hardcore that were still holding on for dear life, the influence of Ed Simons and…

  • Inbound: Feather

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    Emma Garnett AKA Feather has morphed again. While many may know her from the punchy, artistic collaborations with Ben Bix this itineration is something of a departure. Now fully backed by an eight-piece band, she and the group are emerging as a blooded, blended new horizon in Irish music so it’s no surprise that they’re signed up with emerging world conscious independent label Hipdrop Records whose slant towards global sounds, funk, soul and jazz distinguish them from the pack. Take their new single ‘Like No Other’ which works its way through three distinct movements without sounding piecemeal. The comparisons to…

  • Inbound: Bad Bones

    May 30, 2016 - By 

    Paul O’Connor excavates the impetus and art of Dublin producer and visual artist Sal Stapleton AKA BAD BONES. Photos by Joe Laverty. Under the moniker of BAD BONES, Dublin based producer and visual artist Sal Stapelton, has spent 2016 eking out a series of stunning singles and videos on a monthly basis. With dark but infectious beats that combine rich textural layers of synths and choral vocals with her own heavily processed vocal melodies each single has taken themes of sexuality and power exploring them in different ways. Next month sees the release of the fifth of these video singles,…

  • Track Record: Cian Ó Cíobháin (An Taobh Tuathail)

    May 30, 2016 - By 

    Presenter of Ireland’s best radio show, An Taobh Tuathail on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, Cian Ó Cíobháin reveals some of his all-time favourite records. Photos by Sean McCormack. Sonic Youth – EVOL Looking back, it now seems to me that this was the album that ‘trained’ my ears to appreciate more experimental sounds.  Picture it.  Prior to discovering this, one of Sonic Youth’s strangest records, originally released in 1986, I had been mostly listening to what was on the radio and perhaps just been eased into ‘indie’ music by The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.  I can’t recall how or…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Retrospective Viewpoints

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    Merlin James, Fence, 2002 The themes of retrospectives and viewpoints, in terms of personal, institutional and national culture, resonate in the shows from Dublin, Carlow and Limerick chosen in this edition of Picture This. In Dublin, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios’ latest exhibition looks at the last 100 years history of Trinity College and casts a light on some of the institution’s lesser known fables. A more critical look at the role of educational institutions can be found in Limerick and Ormston House, this show also looks at the cultural appropriation of languages in Ireland and further afield. Cultural appropriation…

  • Rave New World (27/05)

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    Aidan Hanratty and Antoin Lindsay return with the best electronic gigs, tracks and mixes of the week. Gigs Shit Robot Album Launch at Bar Tengu, Dublin Saturday 28 May Dubliner Shit Robot has a new album on DFA, and to celebrate its release there’s a party in Tengu (which is host to all the best parties in Dublin right now, funny that). Previous collaborators Alexis Taylor and Nancy Whang both feature on What Follows, as does local lad New Jackson, who’s going to be DJing tomorrow night. Sure to be a partyyyyy. AH Julia Kent + David Donohoe, Freemasons’ Hall,…

  • Preview: The Undertones @ The BBC

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    Having formed in Derry in 1976, it’s a fact universally acknowledged that The Undertones have spent the last 40 years establishing and re-establishing themselves as one of the country’s most treasured acts. With their equally enduring legacy, back catalogue and inimitable charm, the band have just marked the milestone by recording a special live show for BBC Radio Ulster in front of a live studio audience at Blackstaff in Belfast. Hosted by Stephen McCauley, the resulting one-hour programme – set to broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and Foyle at 3pm on Monday afternoon – is a perfect distillation of why the band are still a homegrown live proposition at the peak of…