As a somewhat lapsed metaller who still tries to keep up, I still get regular pangs of oul’ lad when I hear formative bands touring the classic albums I grew up with. In 2019, Oakland […]
Category: Gig previews
Crazy P Soundsystem play ‘escape room meets Boiler Room’
Billed as “Escape room meets Boiler Room”, this virtual illegal rave series is an ironic take on the lockdown party. Running from February 10 to March 27, it’s a series of live stream DJ gigs […]
Bicep staying in to go out
Around this time four years ago, aka an ancient golden era of human contact and music louder than your laptop speaker, Bicep were launching their debut album at District 8 in Dublin’s Tivoli Theatre. As […]
Blurring the lines at the Bang on a Can Marathon
Over the past three decades, New York ensemble Bang On a Can have made a name blurring the lines between minimalist composition, jazz and avant-garde rock. They have released and performed many of their own […]
Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye – 50 years of words and music
Proto-punk icon Patti Smith is having a special celebration in the early hours of tonight/tomorrow morning. The New York singer-songwriter, poet, activist and all-round legend is marking “Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye: 50 Years of […]
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 […]
JPEGMAFIA: Extreme vetting
Modern rap has no shortage of provocateurs, but Baltimore’s JPEGMAFIA seems to enjoy knocking noses out of joint as much as knocking out fearless and confrontational albums. The Afghanistan and Iraq War veteran is no […]
IAMDDB: Turn up the Vol
While many current R&B and hip-hop artists struggle with a phoned-in live show lacking in effort and content, IAMDDB’s longest recording to date is her 2019 album Vol.Xperience Live@Roundhouse London. Over 75 minutes and 24 […]
Sleater-Kinney: We’re still only at our halfway point
After 25 years and nine albums, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein said recently that they’re in their mid-period. Bold words for a veteran band, but back up by that ninth album The Center Won’t Hold. The LP […]
Prosumer hits Boiler Room Dublin — there’ll be dancing at this one
Belfast’s electronic music festival and conference teams up with the live streaming video platform to showcase a night of loose-limbed house and techno. Boiler Room is infamous for videos showing rigid half-dancing, sheepish hangers-on and […]
HMLTD: The hypebeast band that time forgot
Around 2016 there was a whiff of PR and journo hysteria off this London bunch, recalling the time everyone lost the plot about Fischerspooner during the electroclash years at the turn of the millennium. For […]
Mango x Mathman won’t be keeping it too Casual on first Irish tour
In an interview in 2017 just before the release of Mango x Mathman’s debut EP Wheel Up, MC Mango told me: “Grime music isn’t alien in Ireland anymore.” He’d been considering the growing acceptance of […]
More notes than most: Black Midi
So have bands made it when they appear in Rolling Stone, or is that too dad rock for an avant-garde guitar band? The wrinkly old publication last week declared Black Midi to be “England’s not […]
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 […]
Moo Kid 