The first track on Amarcord sounds like witch-house chancers Salem nudge-winking the build-up of Robert Miles’ Children, and there’s a guitar solo straight out of Tangerine Dream’s 1980s playbook. Virtual-E might sound like a brain-clash on […]
Author: Conor McCaffrey
For a crash course in house music history, Pump Up the Volume is a good place to start (2001)
The problem with dance music documentaries, history books and anthologies is that they date pretty quickly. New fads have writers like Simon Reynolds going back every few years to reshape their books with tacked-on chapters, […]
Lloyd Bradley’s Bass Culture is still the definitive history of reggae (2001)
As the late ska icon Prince Buster writes in the intro: “Jamaican music at last has the book it deserves”. I read Lloyd Bradley’s bulging history of reggae around 10 years ago and it’s one […]
MF Doom isn’t always worth the wait – new track Negus with Sean Price
There’s too much waiting around when you’re a fan of Supervillain rapper MF Doom. He hasn’t released a solo album since Born Like This in 2009, and his collaborations and sporadic releases haven’t touched the […]
No compromise: Remembering Suicide’s Alan Vega – a true one-off
It’s just over a year since Suicide frontman and co-founder Alan Vega passed away aged 78, and last night independent station Dublin Digital Radio broadcast a brilliant tribute to one of the most singular frontmen […]
30th Century Man lets us see through the fog of Scott Walker (2006)
Scott Walker is up there with David Bowie as one of the most universally revered artists in popular music, and the hyperbole is hitting morto levels on the BBC this week with Proms: The Songs […]
We’ll never stop bitching about U2
Bitching about U2 may be our national sport at this stage, but tomorrow’s gig will be filed in the history books as a celebration of one of our biggest exports, A Sort of Homecoming. Sometimes […]
Jeru the Damaja Interview: ‘I thought I could save the world’
For a movement that’s in constant flux there’s still an obsession with marking out hip-hop’s greatest year, and 1994 is a popular choice. The year had some mythical albums – Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die […]
Don Letts just sent me on his top 10 ‘Crucial Reggae Killer Cuts’
With over 50 years of records to choose from, creating a top 10 reggae playlist is a hell of a job — but it helps if DJ Don Letts is helping out. Letts has been […]
Irish gigs round-up
SUNN O ))): The Limelight, Belfast, Monday 17th; Button Factory, Dublin, Tuesday 18th. Part psychedelic drone metal seance, part bass frequency endurance test, Sunn O))) are one of extreme music’s most revered acts. Pronounced ‘Sun’, the added flourish is […]
Don Letts interview: ‘Reggae was always there, it was a social community service’
For 40-odd years, Don Letts has been the UK’s chief authority on reggae, and with a lifetime of bass culture echoing round his head he’s trying to squeeze it into a new series of podcasts, […]
Less Than is the catchiest Nine Inch Nails song in years
Sometimes you just want your favourite band to dish out some comfort food for you to devour like a snivelling peasant. Nine Inch Nails’ new song Less Than is their catchiest song since the safe […]
Irish gigs round-up
LOST FRIDAYS (SHIPS, WASTEFELLOW & MORE): Royal Hibernian Academy, tonight. After its sold-out event in March, the RHA gallery is running another of its occasional music and art showcases in one of the city centre’s […]
Blazing Brixton soundclashes in cult UK reggae movie Babylon (1980)
I‘m getting into the zone preparing to interview Don Letts – cult and cultural icon, DJ, film director, writer, Big Audio Dynamitee and the UK’s most eminent reggae and dub historian of the last 40 […]
Stick this in your fuse box! Bon Scott interviewed in Covent Garden in a pair of denim hotpants (1976)
Imagine being the parents of a teenage Angus Young – then imagine he started hanging out with Bon Scott. By the time Angus was 15, he’d already dropped out of school in Sydney, started working […]
Moo Kid 