• Wyvern Lingo – Wyvern Lingo

    March 11, 2018 - By 

    At its core, Wyvern Lingo’s stunning, eponymous debut is a journey towards recovery after a break-up, leading us on an intimate journey through love, loss and healing to an eventual resurrection. Wyvern Lingo bring to the table the storytelling qualities of Ireland’s contemporary folk musicians (Lisa Hannigan, Glen Hansard) but just as confidently introduce decades worth of pop and R&B flavours and sensibilties to make this an album that is truly their own. The Bray trio succeed in adapting these personal tales of woe, love and loss into a universal experience,  most clearly executed in tracks like ‘Dark Cloud’ and…

  • Paddy Hanna – Frankly, I Mutate

    March 10, 2018 - By 

    Four years have passed since Paddy Hanna’s triumphant solo debut Leafy Stilleto was released by the ever reliable Popical Island collective. Not that he hasn’t kept busy in that time, bridging the gap with a couple of standalone singles and fronting the mighty Autre Monde, all adding to an ever-growing CV that includes stints in the likes of Grand Pocket Orchestra, No Monster Club, Ginnels and Skelocrats. His long-awaited sophomore effort Frankly, I Mutate, released on increasingly impressive Galway label Strange Brew, features a star studded lineup of guests such as Saint Sister and Tandem Felix. Meanwhile members of Girl Band such as…

  • Andrew W.K. – You’re Not Alone

    March 7, 2018 - By 

    It’s fair to say that Andrew W.K. is more meme than man at this point. His nearly 20-year career has less been defined his output and more by a single facet of his character: a love of partying. With a back catalog which includes classics such as ‘Party Hard’, ‘Party Till You Puke’ and ‘We Want Fun’, his devotion is undeniable. Every song, quote or appearance relates in some way to partying and that’s nice. It’s comforting to know that the human embodiment of Slurms MacKenzie is out there. Our ADHD addled Batman partying for our right to party night…

  • The Breeders – All Nerve

    March 3, 2018 - By 

    J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote that the compound noun cellar door was one of the most beautiful words in the English language. I’m not a linguist or etymologist by any stretch, but I’d like put forth a phrase which I think captures the same awe as Tolkien’s… Kim Deal has a new album. Those six little words when drawn together represent a powerful sentiment in the English language. This is the woman who made the Pixies what they were. One of our great songwriters, a person who can captivate, exhilarate and intoxicate with the most impossibly simple chord progressions, has returned.…

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    Superorganism – Superorganism

    March 3, 2018 - By 

    Superorganism are to music what memes are to art. In the space of just one year they’ve managed to capture a sound that is both easily digestible and instantly recognisable. One which is synonymous with the online age that we live in as they curate the sound of endless YouTube holes and trips to “the weird part of the Internet”. Their self titled debut comes in at just over 30 minutes, and is laden with short songs that cut straight to the point. High Definition synth and guitar hooks are grounded by the lo-fi voice of singer Orono Noguchi. Her lyrics…

  • S. Carey – Hundred Acres

    February 26, 2018 - By 

    Try as we may, it is difficult to separate S. Carey’s music from that of his long-term collaborator and Bon Iver bandmate, Justin Vernon. Despite two full-length solo albums and two EPs being released in the past eight years, it’s been hard to dispel that intrinsic comparison. His third LP, Hundred Acres, does little to change that.  Written over the course of a few years, Carey’s third full length release was crafted while his family grew and touring was intermittent. The Bon Iver influence is, as one might expect having listened to Carey’s previous offerings, obvious as ever. If there is a defining difference, it…

  • Ought – Room Inside The World

    February 21, 2018 - By 

      The word ‘ought’ touches on probability; the coulds, woulds and shoulds. It is a word often used with critical intent to highlight the shortcomings of a project. Room Inside The World, the third album from Canadian post-punk quartet Ought brings forth an unfortunate case of nominative determinism. What should have been a triumphant return instead presents a band struggling to find their identity and a cohesive sound in the light of a changed dynamic. On their latest record Ought scarcely resemble their formerly distinct selves, shifting instead towards a style that veils their individuality. This is a record that…

  • U.S. Girls – In a Poem Unlimited

    February 20, 2018 - By 

    Six albums in, Meghan Remy’s U.S. Girls project shows few resting on its laurels. Having originally dealt in lo-fi loops and drones on earlier records like Go Grey, subsequent releases saw her pop sensibility rise increasingly to the fore, culminating in her 4AD debut and one of 2015’s finest albums, Half Free. Eagerly anticipated follow up In a Poem Unlimited has carried that trend on with aplomb. Not only is the new LP Remy’s most widescreen, pop-heavy outing yet, it’s also her most political. Her lyrical ethos here can be summed up with the title of ‘M.A.H.’, short for ‘Mad…

  • Dedekind Cut – Tahoe

    February 20, 2018 - By 

    Dedekind Cut is the current pseudonym of Northern California based experimental composer & producer Fred Welton Warmsley III. His 2016 debut $uccessor was a singular piece of work, an abstract, opaquely kaleidoscopic fusion of paranoia and dread, sonically teased out via digital/analogue and synthetic/organic contradictions. If that record edged into the far corners of noise and drone music, then its true successor plumbs depths equally as distant. Named after the mountain lake town in which its creator – who used to produce and release music as Lee Bannon – resides, a multitude of sonic components make up the macrocosm of…

  • Rejjie Snow – Dear Annie

    February 16, 2018 - By 

    Rejjie Snow had been knocking around for the best part of a decade now without a “proper” release under his belt (though 2017’s The Moon & You mixtape was excellent). In the six years since he broke onto the scene with ‘Trumpets’, the Dublin-born rapper has gone from being a YouTube buzz artist to collaborating with Joey Bada$$, supporting Madonna and hanging out with King Krule so fast that it’s hard to know exactly when the turning point really was. Any one of these things would have been the dream come true for a boy from Drumcondra and yet Mr. Snow – real name  Alexa Anyaegbunam – achieved…