• Alarmist – Popular Demain

    November 3, 2015 - By 

    Dublin four-piece Alarmist’s first full-length album Popular Demain feels like it has been a long time coming. Having released their debut EP in August 2011 followed by the Pal Magnet EP in November 2013 the band have very gradually been growing into their sound, leaving each element to develop without urgency. The result of this patient honing of sound on Popular Demain is a collection of eight tracks that seamlessly combine elements of Math-Rock, Jazz and Ambient music without ever letting any of those sound become overbearing. Instead, the style and atmosphere created is an almost entirely unique one; complex…

  • SlowPlaceLikeHome – Romola

    October 31, 2015 - By 

    Fishing boats come in and out, young men and women in wetsuits ride slices of polyurethane on foamy waves and dogs run after luminous tennis balls on the sandy beach. The coastline has potential for escape but the oppressiveness of being surrounded by the sea can take its toll. The Atlantic North-West’s SlowPlaceLikeHome manage to walk this line between an oppressiveness and freedom. Album opener ‘Our Rules’ starts off with the synth taking the lead and allowing Mannion to take the song in directions you wouldn’t expect but which don’t feel jarring to the listener. The song ends with the…

  • The Annulments – Everything I Lost

    October 27, 2015 - By 

    In an ideal world, the title of a record would tell you everything you need to know. Maybe not in the literal sense, as you’d wonder how many copies of Nickelback’s latest LP, 12 Generic Cobain Aping Songs, would sell. Everything I Lost, the debut album from Dublin folk group The Annulments is a great example of a name perfectly fitting an album. In three simple words, the phrase is able to evoke this incredibly personal sense of longing, sadness and pathos, yet is vague enough to apply in any context: loss of love, financial security or even a sense…

  • Fuzz – Fuzz II

    October 21, 2015 - By 

    Fuzz II is everything a good sequel should be. It’s the band’s Aliens, their Terminator 2 – bigger, bolder, ballsier and noisier than its predecessor but retaining the conventions that made that record great. With this release Fuzz once again harness the cosmic powers of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Hawkwind and a thousand gnarly garage bands, and the transmutation is a gratifyingly dense entanglement of heavy rock riffing and oppressive themes. Charles Moothart, Chad Ubovich, and the ubiquitous Ty Segall form a formidable triptych, and their second outing builds Cyclopean blocks on the first record’s foundation. Fuzz II slowly spatters…

  • Documenta – Drone Pop #1

    October 19, 2015 - By 

    As one of the forerunners in a burgeoning Irish psych-rock scene, Documenta are an intriguing prospect.  They have realistic expectations of their audience and a keen sense of artistic integrity.  Their music doesn’t invite the fanfare of over-excited teens screaming a chorus back at them.  It is music to be absorbed, introspective and thought provoking; it lends itself well to the escapists among us, those who want to drift away momentarily to dream of halcyon days. There’s clarity in their approach – a three-record agenda has been mapped out, this being the second in the trilogy before they move on…

  • John Grant – Grey Tickles, Black Pressure

    October 9, 2015 - By 

    A record whose title essentially means Middle-Aged Nightmares doesn’t sound like a particularly fun prospect. That said, Grey Tickles, Black Pressure is such a wonderful, euphemistic description of its subject, layering the deeply troubling topic in a layer of abstraction and disassociation. This idea is mirrored in its eerie, yet cheerful, album cover; a man dressed in WASPy attire, his eyes replaced with inhuman, piercing white beams of light. This balancing act between sinister and serene is to be expected from the likes of John Grant, the former Czars frontman, whose previous two records stand as some of the finest…

  • The Winter Passing – A Different Space of Mind

    October 6, 2015 - By 

    Irish five-piece The Winter Passing have built up to their debut record for around a year now. Having announced the signing to US label 6131 Records, A Different Space Of Mind was scheduled for release back in May, and although a few delays surfaced, the band dropped the full length mid September to much hype around the genre and DIY scene. With a large fan base around Dublin, having played on some incredible shows supporting the likes of Balance And Composure, Touché Amore and will even be in attendance at Fest this year, momentum is gathering rapidly and with a full…

  • Best Boy Grip – Best Boy Grip

    September 23, 2015 - By 

    “You’ve been getting it on with the boys in the neighbourhood, and now it seems you’re all alone, living in shame…” As he sings those words on signature tune ‘Barbara’, a crafty, catchy ditty about a promiscuous woman, Derry-based singer, songwriter, guitarist and piano man Eoin O’Callaghan AKA Best Boy Grip, is making a powerful statement, not just in the song itself, but for the gist and wit of his written word in his self-titled debut album. His lyrics come across as a mixture of the mildly satirical and the genuinely sorrowful. Along with numerous memorable melodies, sometimes merry, sometimes miserable, they…

  • Girls Names – Arms Around a Vision

    September 21, 2015 - By 

    Although the current line up of Girls Names have been playing live for well over two years now, aside from a cover of Brian Eno’s ‘Third Uncle’, new album Arms Around A Vision (and recent single ‘Zero Triptych’ – a track that would have made a perfect centrepiece to the album had it not been perversely left off) marks the debut of Gib Cassidy behind the drums in place of founder member, Sea Pinks’ Neil Brogan, as well as guitarist Philip Quinn’s full integration into the band, having only appeared on synth duty for two tracks on 2013’s The New…

  • Battles – La Di Da Di

    September 16, 2015 - By 

    For Battles, it was always going to be downhill after a record like Mirrored; a strangely hypnotic and danceable collection of math rock songs that let the group kick in the door, guns blazing, announcing to the world that Battles were a fully formed and ready to rock. While recording their follow-up, 2010’s Gloss Drop, the group lost their lead singer and were forced to bring in a number of guest vocalists to fill the void as well as dropping vocals from a number of the tracks altogether. This schism of sound didn’t do the album, admittedly very good, many…