The word pilgrimage is overused for visits to celebrity homes, but crowds at Paisley Park today for the fifth anniversary of Prince’s death will be marking the legacy of a genuine god of music. Dearly […]
Category: Features
All the right noises: January 2021
Soundtrack to filing that month away…
Always read the label – Deathbomb Arc
Deathbomb Arc founder Brian Miller on the California label’s experimental sounds: “Genres unknown since 1998.”
Fee hugs: 10 Irish acts to get behind on this Bandcamp Friday
A weekly dig through bandcamp.com for leftfield Irish music.
Ennio Morricone: The soundtrack of our lives
Everyone has a corner in their brain reserved for cinematic memories formed by the music of Ennio Morricone, the eminent Italian composer who has died aged 91 — just a few months after his last […]
Gaika’s thrilling take on mechanised dancehall
Gaika’s take on mechanised dancehall and grime and R&B is a thrilling concoction, and on his debut album Basic Volume he explores the outer limits of R&B, creating the kind of music The Weeknd thinks […]
‘Profound moments of stillness’: Jon Hopkins’ Polarity
Producer Jon Hopkins has always hit that sweet spot between the head, the heart and the dancefloor — creating intricate, majestic long-form electronic pieces with a debt to new music composition as much as soulful […]
Algiers’ fist-up punk soul
Many bands claim to hit soul at different angles, but Atlanta group Algiers take the fury of the 60s and 70s protest soul movement and ram it with heavy electronics, post-punk and enough sloganeering to […]
No Journeys End: Radio doc traces the life and work of cult musician Michael O’Shea
“A master musician demands attention,” says Dublin poet and artist Larry Burns in the intro to a brilliant new RTE Lyric FM documentary about the life and work of his late friend Michael O’Shea. O’Shea […]
The hungry and the hunted: Bruce Springsteen the storyteller in 10 songs
In a memorable episode of his Revisionist History podcast, Malcolm Gladwell asks why the greatest country music is so sad, and came to the obvious answer that it’s all about the details. “We cry when […]
Metallica Inc. trying to stay vital
When Metallica emerged in the early 80s no one ever expected them to ever be classic elder statesmen. The cover of their debut album Kill ‘Em All is still the one of the most iconic […]
Nothing is forbidden: Tallinn Music Week 2019
“Remake / Remodel is the key… not that we haven’t stumbled and fell,” says Ingrid Kohtla, one of the creative minds behind Tallinn Music Week – one of Europe’s most consistently fearless, diverse festivals, in […]
Deconstruction time again: Massive attack tear apart their masterpiece Mezzanine
In the hysterical climate of retromania, band reunions and anniversary tours, it’s easy to forget the albums that actually deserve the adulation. In recent times we’ve had 10-year anniversary tours of indie detritus bands such […]
House is a feeling: A modern teen’s love for classic dance music
What does house music mean to me? To put it simply, it means everything really. As Marshall Jefferson famously says: “With that house music you can’t go wrong.” I wholeheartedly agree with that melodical statement! […]
Journey man: The story behind Michael O’Shea’s mystic folk masterpiece
Like many great legends, the story behind one of Irish music’s most revered cult records starts with a door. Not some metaphorical passageway, but an actual busted door that travelling folk musician Michael O’Shea dragged […]
Moo Kid 