• Bouts – Flow

    January 24, 2019 - By 

    After a five year hiatus, Dublin based Bouts have harkened back to when they were regulars on the Irish music scene, circa 2013, and gifted us with a long awaited second album. Flow is the result of two years of intercontinental songwriting and recording, as the lads are now spread across Dublin, London and Amsterdam. But has the maturity and cultural expansion added to the creative and musical process? Barry Bracken (vocals, guitar), Colin Boylan (guitar, vocals), Niall Jackson (bass, vocals) and Daniel Flynn (drums, percussion) have nurtured a sound that’s familiar and comforting in its ‘90s inspired indie pop…

  • The Twilight Sad – It Won/t Be Like This All The Time

    January 18, 2019 - By 

    A few years under the wing of The Cure seems to have pushed The Twilight Sad away from the subdued atmosphere of their last record, Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave. On this, their fourth outing, James Graham, Andy MacFarlane and company revisit the gnawing sinister sadness of 2012’s No One Can Ever Know and ramp up the dense, engulfing atmospherics almost to the same level as their 2007 debut Fourteen Autums and Fifteen Winters Previous albums have gradually eased the listener in the Kilsyth group’s murky world but this time guitarist (and producer) MacFarlane wastes no time jumping in…

  • Maria Kelly – Notes To Self

    December 13, 2018 - By 

    Have you ever had that feeling of knowing something you shouldn’t? Something so intimate and raw, it creates a discomfort. Whether someone is opening up to you willingly, or passively through virtue of their lyrics, there’s something confronting about it. Maria Kelly confronts you. Her presence is gentle, maybe even unassuming. Her vocals, at times, barely a whisper. But in her delicacy, there is a cutting catharsis that hits with the strength of a train.   The singer-songwriter’s latest EP Notes To Self was written last summer when Kelly moved from Dublin to Berlin and it is the diary that the…

  • The Redneck Manifesto – The How

    December 11, 2018 - By 

    The Redneck Manifesto may not be a household name, but their influence on modern Irish music cannot be understated. Their initial run of releases in the early 2000s, falling somewhere in that uncategorisable gap between post-rock and math-rock, helped to pave the way for the abnormally large influx of instrumental guitar bands on this island. Bands like Adebisi Shank and Enemies bore their influence and long sang their praises, while across the Irish sea, even now-global superstars Foals reportedly worshipped heavily at the TRM alter in their early days, even inspiring frontman Yannis Philippakis’ choice of Travis Bean guitar. Resolutely DIY…

  • Jeff Tweedy – Warm

    December 8, 2018 - By 

    “I leave behind A trail of songs From the darkest gloom To the brightest sun” Jeff Tweedy’s alt-Wilco resurgence continues with these eleven new songs of wit and, yes…warmth. The acoustic reimaginations of last year’s Together At Last record aside, Tweedy has tended to conduct his extra-curricular activities in collaboration with his peers (Golden Smog, Loose Fur) or make things a family affair (2014’s Sukierae with son Spencer).This is the first record of new material that bears his name only. Several of the songs have been road-tested during Jeff’s recent solo acoustic tour.  ‘Bombs Above’ is a tentative opening confession…

  • SPIES – Constancy

    December 7, 2018 - By 

    If death and taxes are the only two constants in life, why haven’t SPIES delivered any music that is less than exceptional? Since their launch back in 2011, the Dublin-based band have presented three EPs, each gradually cementing their reputation as post-punk revivalists. Sea Creatures, the last of these, arrived in 2015, and the band has since undergone a three-year hiatus. Writing sessions for Constancy had to fit in between full-time jobs, departures from the country and studies. For many, such a time-sensitive approach would be their shortfall. Constancy however, finds SPIES rejuvenated, reimagined, and with a whole new sonic…

  • Woven Skull – Woven Skull

    December 3, 2018 - By 

    The latest Woven Skull record may be self-titled, but it’s a long way off being their debut. One glance at their Bandcamp page shows just how impressively prolific they’ve been over the past decade, with all manner of singles, EPs, albums and collaborations of improvisational drone-folk creeping out of their Leitrim base. And that’s not to mention the various solo and side projects the group – original trio Natalia Beylis, Aonghus McEvoy and Willie Stewart, along with more recent addition Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh of Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – manage to keep on the go as well. If giving…

  • Muse – Simulation Theory

    November 26, 2018 - By 

    From pollution and dirty talk to Harry Potter references and riffs straight out of ’90s Europop, Muse’s latest album, Simulation Theory, has the energetic, revolutionary spirit of an album that has no idea what or who it’s revolting against. Like many albums released by a British artist in the past year, critics have uncovered an elaborate anti-Brexit agenda somewhere amidst the circus of synthesisers. ‘Thought Contagion’ is one of the strongest tracks on the album – but that doesn’t say much – with Bellamy belting on about “fractured identities”, “infinite black skies’ and a society “bitten by false beliefs”. It’s so…

  • Katie Kim & The Crash Ensemble – Salt Interventions

    November 21, 2018 - By 

    Salt Interventions documents a superb live performance by Waterford musician Katie Kim as she teams up with the Crash Ensemble to revisit and reimagine her darkly brooding masterwork, Salt. Casting a new light on the 2016 album’s nine chilling tracks, Kim chooses to divest her compositions of the surging electric guitar figures and stormy electronic textures that were so central to their studio incarnations. Instead, she boils her song’s down to their base emotional bone broth, allowing her authoritative vocals to take centre stage as they unfurl over unfussy piano chords, leaving it to the orchestral 14-piece Crash Ensemble to provide…

  • Anderson .Paak – Oxnard

    November 20, 2018 - By 

    Anderson .Paak, the hardest working man on the southern Californian coast is back. After his breakthrough on Dr Dre’s Compton, he has gone from strength to strength, churning out his own unique hybrid of vintage soul, funk, hip hop and R&B across the so-called Beach trilogy (so far, 2014’s Venice and 2016’s Malibu). Between collaborations with Knxwledge (which bore the excellent NxWorries album), Kaytranada, the late Mac Miller and others, Paak has somehow managed to find the time to pen his latest album, Oxnard, thereby marking the end of the Beach trilogy. Aptly, Oxnard is Paak’s hometown, and as you might expect, the album…