Warp Records techno OGs The Black Dog have opened 2018 with their most serene ambient release yet – which has sadly turned into a sort of tribute to filmmaker Shaun Bloodworth, who died in hospital […]
Author: Conor McCaffrey
A cult 80s DIY synth classic revived: Solid Space – Space Museum
This 1982 lo-fi minimal wave curio has just been hailed by bleep.com as the potential “reissue of the decade”. But ignoring the half-gram of coke up one nostril hyperbole, it’s another bullseye release from Dark […]
Irish gigs round-up
LOAH: Roisn Dubh, Galway, Sunday Dublin-based singer Loah returns to Ireland after her first London show last night — with added ruckus from Limerick hip-hop crew Rusangano Family. Her new video for the track Nothing off her […]
Happy Mondays: Is it great when they’re straight?
A real hint that the Happy Mondays are finally maturing is their new set of promo shots — maybe their only half-sensible photos in three decades. The Mondays class of 2017 look like they’re extras […]
Moo Kid’s 2017 in 25 albums
This time last year we were begging for 2016 to hurry up and finish, oblivious to the cesspit round the corner. Luckily we have all these album lists to remind us of the year’s artistic […]
Bleep in heavenly peace: Can – Silent night (1976)
Christmas brings out the daftness in everyone — even if you’re a group of avant-garde experimentalists with a few free hours in the studio. Krautrock pioneers Can released the novelty single Silent Night in 1976 […]
Mark E Smith’s sensitive side on The Fall’s I’m Going To Spain (1993)
Mark E Smith in poignant song shocker! It’s not often the Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall veers down a heartfelt path, but in fairness, this one’s a cover. I’m Going To Spain is […]
The Warp Magic Tour Bus parks up in Dublin (2002)
A band of modern-day merry pranksters has rolled into Dublin – a busload of DJs and expert knob-twiddlers creating an alternative summer holiday soundtrack. After 100 releases, the Warp Record label is taking its Magic […]
Irish gigs round-up
King Krule, The Academy, Dublin, Wednesday. The title of King Krule’s latest album The Ooz could double as a one-word sum-up of the album as a whole — a slithering, nocturnal, nervy journey inside Londoner […]
Neil Hannon: Ireland’s most unlikely national treasure
E ven if Neil Hannon hadn’t released any albums in the last 20 years, he’d still be one of Ireland’s real cult heroes and national treasures. Hannon’s Divine Comedy may have lost their chart clout […]
Irish gigs round-up
FREDDIE GIBBS, Button Factory, Dublin, Tuesday. Freddie Gibbs last played Dublin in 2014, with a 2016 appearance at Forbidden Fruit cancelled after an arrest for rape — a charge that was eventually dropped with no evidence. So […]
Peter Hook won’t ever take it lying down
In an interview a few years ago, Peter Hook told me his aim with his band The Light is “to try and play every song I’ve ever recorded and written at least once live, before […]
Queens of the Stone Age really shouldn’t have ended up here
Listening back to Queens of the Stone Age’s first few LPS, you wouldn’t have bet on them landing arena headliners in Ireland, and recording an album with a blockbuster pop and R&B producer. Their 1998 self-titled […]
Irish gigs round-up
MULATU ASTATKE: The Sugar Club, Dublin, Monday & Tuesday. You might think Ethiopian jazz is down some obscure rabbit hole you’d never stumble on, but there’s a good chance you’ve come across the work of Mulatu Astatke […]
With Dopplereffekt you never want to solve the equation
A Dopplereffekt performance carries more weight and baggage than almost any other in underground electronic music circles, with the enigmatic electro duo returning to Dublin for the first time in eight years. Dopplereffekt is the […]
Moo Kid 