• Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly & James McAlister – Planetarium

    June 7, 2017 - By 

    “I am the god of war. I reside in every creature. Dispose of the future or put away your sword.” Michigan’s musical polymath Sufjan Stevens takes aim at the stars to reflect on the best and worst of our human nature on this collaborative record with Bryce Dessner of The National, composer Nico Muhly, and drummer James McAlister. The arrangements may be stellar, but earth is never too far away. “Love me completely in song” opines Stevens on ‘Venus’, with its references to Methodist summer camp and formative sexual experience. Each of the planets is a canvas for Stevens to ruminate on…

  • Beach Fossils – Somersault

    June 6, 2017 - By 

    It’s fairly easy to write off a group like Beach Fossils upon the first impression. While we can’t judge books by their cover, those sleeves are designed to give you the most concise definition of its contents, so there must be some merit. A cursory glance at the group reveals exactly what you need to know about them. These are four dudes from Brooklyn dressed in thrift shop finest and baseball caps. They produce lo-fi, Yo La Tengo inflected indie rock-and-droll with whispery vocals and enough irony to make Malkmus look sincere. They’re another group of stoned hipsters talking about…

  • alt-J – Relaxer

    June 5, 2017 - By 

      Relaxer, alt-j’s third album, opens with the track ‘3WW’. It begins more than reminiscent of Massive Attacks’ ‘Teardrop’, digresses into a passage of medieval-pastoral before flowing into a Kate Bush crescendo à la ‘Don’t Give Up’ courtesy of Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell’s vocal contributions. It’s a good choice of introduction to the album which, over the course of eight tracks, is chameleon in nature, varied in scope and only really held on its axis by the distinct idiosyncrasies of the band. In many ways Relaxer is a raging success as Alt-j take creative risks and come out largely unscathed…

  • Wavves – You’re Welcome

    May 30, 2017 - By 

    There was a moment in time when suggesting that Wavves would have a sixth album was laughable. Such was the breakdown of main man and songwriter Nathan Williams following the breakout success of their first album that led to most presuming that Wavves was going to be a short lived experiment. Yet Williams did manage to make the groups second album King of the Beach; to date the most perfect crystallisation of the groups wailing, bratty skate-punk. Now its seven years later and there’s been four albums in between, all of them decent but none of them truly great. There…

  • (Sandy) Alex G – Rocket

    May 25, 2017 - By 

    When Philadelphia based multi-instrumentalist Alex Giannascoli was eight years old his older brother, also a musician, enlisted the youngster to play drums in his band. This early exposure to performing persisted into adolescence and Alex would eventually turn his hand to writing and composing his own songs. Giannascoli revealed in a recent interview that he found it extremely difficult to be himself around his peers, growing up. He concluded that the only time he felt truly comfortable in his skin was when he was making music. In 2010, Giannascoli transformed into Alex G and he released his debut album Race…

  • Rejjie Snow – The Moon & You

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    “Free mixtape this month. Just for the fans. Everybody else can suck my d**k.” In spite of his tweets, there’s no way Rejjie Snow’s The Moon & You is going to avoid attention from critics. Since his early YouTube videos blew up as a teenager, the Drumcondra rapper has become  something of a critical darling: his off-kilter style found frequent comparisons to Earl Sweatshirt, and his debut EP Rejovich topped the iTunes chart ahead of Kanye West and J Cole upon its 2013 release. It might seem strange that a Dublin rapper would hold such high international regard, but Snow is truly…

  • Molly Nilsson – Imaginations

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    In the time it takes you to read this sentence, Molly Nilsson has probably already written, recorded and mastered her ninth LP. So studious is the Swedish born, Berlin-based musician/tour manager/designer/Dark Skies Association founder that her latest effort, Imaginations, marks an almost unparalleled eighth album in just nine years. Refreshingly though, Nilsson’s remarkable productivity still bears evolution and expansion. 2015’s effort Zenith was well received, combining vintage synth-pop with power ballads, dancehall and reggae undertones, all with an almost glazed and cold-blooded delivery, pleasing to fans of Eurythmics and Book of Love. Imaginations, written over a two year absence that…

  • New Jackson – From Night To Night

    May 22, 2017 - By 

    It’s been a full eight years since David Kitt released his last studio album The Nightsaver, but he hasn’t put that time to waste, continuing to gig sporadically, while also reinventing himself as New Jackson, swapping his usual ‘folktronica’ for a more purely electronic approach and releasing a string of EPs from 2011 on various house labels. Impressive then that the same year he makes a return under his own name – long awaited seventh LP Yous is released in September – this new alter ego also finally makes a full length debut with From Night to Night on Dublin’s…

  • Do Make Say Think – Stubborn Persistent Illusions

    May 22, 2017 - By 

    Do Make Say Think were always careful to differentiate themselves from their peers in the nineties instrumental rock boom. More subtle than Mogwai, less doom-mongering than Godspeed You! Black Emperor, more instrumentally varied than Explosions in the Sky and Comets On Fire, Do Make Say Think have always ploughed their own jazz-influenced furrow. As a result of this, the Toronto outfit have always seemed a band apart, one more interested in broadening their palette than sticking to one particular sound. This inquisitive spirit may be the reason for their somewhat sporadic output over the years, as various members pursue side…

  • Black Lips – Satan’s Graffiti or God’s Art?

    May 22, 2017 - By 

    Satan’s Graffiti or God’s Art is the eight album from garage rock stalwarts Black Lips. The Atlanta, Georgia natives have been ploughing this furrow since 1999, undergoing various lineup changes and becoming well known for their raucous live show, all thrown guitars and downed beers. While the band remain impressive in the live sphere, their studio albums took a decline around the time of 2011’s Arabia Mountain, primarily produced by Mark Ronson. The subsequent album, 2014’s ‘Underneath The Rainbow’, continued the decline and this year’s effort unfortunately doesn’t quite buck the trend enough, despite the recruiting of the mighty Sean Lennon…