Ask any random person to recall 1995 in music and Britpop will come up right away. If you were to commission a talking heads nostalgia programme or a Q magazine special, you’d be searching for […]
Author: Conor McCaffrey
The Masseduction of Annie Clark
A countless number of bands can be filed under ‘art-rock’ no matter how much they deserve it, but St Vincent has made a case for her whole career as a work of performance art. Texan Annie […]
Nine Inch Knives: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross rework John Carpenter’s Halloween theme
It’s not often you need a spoiler alert when you’re discussing a new tune, but this new Nine Inch Nails rework of John Carpenter’s Halloween is better when you don’t know what happens at the […]
Irish gigs round-up
THE BREEDERS: Vicar Street, Dublin, Monday The last time The Breeders went on tour they couldn’t resist doing the now-obligatory 20th anniversary album shows that any self-respecting 1990s alt-rock band goes for. The band took their breakthrough […]
The Horrors’ biggest triumph was avoiding the indie landfill dump
Even though The Horrors have only been going for over 10 years, when you recall the state of the so-called indie-rock scene in 2007 it feels like a real survival story. It’s also a tale […]
Alessandro Cortini’s new LP Avanti is a fuzzy childhood time capsule
Anemoia is a word that describes an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia for a time you’ve never known, and it could also be a handy one-word filing tab for this new ambient album by electronic producer […]
Irish gigs round-up
JENNY HVAL, National Concert Hall, Dublin, tonight. Jenny Hval released one of 2016’s most stunning records – and surely Blood Bitch is the only record to be filed under ‘concept album about menstruation and female vampires’. […]
Neil Diamond: Not as cheesy as you think
For many, Neil Diamond is the cheeseball in the diamante cowboy shirt hamming up Sweet Caroline for pensioners in the front row — and he kind of is, up to a point. But shuffle around […]
Dälek’s Endangered Philosophies is the hip-hop album we deserve right now
The front cover of Endangered Philosophies is like a picture someone could just tweet and lazily caption: #2017. It’s a scene of deranged wrongness, arrows shooting into the hide of a screaming wild cat trampling […]
Andrew Weatherall interview: ‘It’s good to see the reds of people’s eyes’ (2008)
This town ain’t big enough for the both of them, and sparks will fly when Andrew Weatherall and Ivan Smagghe get set for another soundclash. Armed with “a disco bag over one shoulder and a […]
Brainwaltzera tries to squeeze all Warp Records’ best bits into his debut LP
The Aphex Twin references come pretty quickly when Brainwaltzera’s name comes up. When he released his EP Aescoba earlier this year, there were so many Aphex DNA strands running through the tracks that there was […]
It’s weird watching LCD Soundsystem’s Shut Up and Play the Hits now
We all partied, as the saying goes. LCD Soundsystem called it a day in 2011, and their three-night run in Tripod in 2010 was one of the defining events at the long-lost Dublin venue – […]
Irish gigs of the week
GHOSTFACE KILLAH, Button Factory, Dublin, Tonight, Friday 29th It’s tough being a Wu-Tang fan these days. Their 2014 album A Better Tomorrow was an over-produced mess, with a few syrupy tracks that border on Disney balladry, and […]
Haco’s new album Qoosui sounds like it’s barely there, but it’s magical
Japanese sound artist Haco describes her voice as a ‘mist’, and it’s true, there’s something intangible and barely-there about her new ambient drone album Qoosui. Haco is the one-time singer of Japanese avant-pop band After […]
LCD Soundsystem really are getting away with this brazen comeback
Even when we’re stuck in music’s current rut of nostalgia and retromania, LCD Soundsystem’s break-up and reunion is one of the most brazen yet. The dust had barely settled on the band’s ‘farewell’ shows when […]
Moo Kid 