Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 not only cemented the socio-economic foundations of just about everything that is wrong with the West, it also coincided with a short-lived epoch of unfettered creativity in New York City. […]
Cause and effects: An interview with Åmnfx
It’s not often you stumble on an ambient performance in a bookshop, but Tallinn Music Week is known for its, ahem, novel bookings, and Åmnfx was one of the many highlights of the Estonian showcase […]
The hip-hop nostalgia trap
We should always be wary about nostalgia in any music genre, no matter how many times your mates post songs from their teenage years saying it used to be way better. Still, the most scene […]
New festival is Eastbound and down with the kids
Introduced as a less hectic and laser-focused showcase city festival such as Hard Working Class Heroes (now Ireland Music Week), Dublin series Eastbound kicks off next week on a next big thing vibe. The new […]
Pete Doherty’s real legacy is indie lads wearing hats
It’s nearly 20 years since The Libertines failed to be the ‘saviours of rock’n’roll’, no matter how much they were forced into that role by the NME, who overhyped them to the point of absurdity. […]
All the right noises: April 2019 in 20 tracks
From April Fool’s Day court jester fear to “gender-bending noise-punk”, jungle ambience, shoegaze, new age healing sounds, epic doom metal psychedelia and the most hyped album of the year, here’s the sound of April 2019. […]
Work in Progress: An interview with Telesonic 9000
There was a time in humanity’s not-so ancient past when progress wasn’t so fraught with self-doubt – conjuring up the naive optimism of the Space Race, computer evolution and civil rights rather than global warming, […]
Post Punk Podge: Kicking against the brown envelope pricks
If you thought the Rubberbandits’ disguise of plastic bags on their heads was unique, get a load of Post Punk Podge – whose method of subterfuge involves a balaclava made from an An Post padded […]
Phil Hartnoll interview: Orbital On + On after 30 years
“No worries, I am officially nocturnal,” is Phil Hartnoll’s text assuring me it’s OK to call him for an interview at 11pm midweek. Later on, he jokes, “I can’t tell the time anyway”, when I […]
Mathman interview: ‘We’re writing our history – right now’
“Our history books are being written day by day by the artists around us, and that’s a very powerful thing.” Get Adam ‘Mathman’ Fogarty talking about Irish hip-hop and he goes off on one, in […]
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 […]
Boomelant – TARŁO: An EP made from porn sounds that’s actually quite SFW
I found this electronic curio while stuck in a Bandcamp wormhole, digging around “field recordings” tags, trying to find some Chris Watson-type nature recordings to help me sleep. But instead of the ambient sounds of […]
Oran “Juice” Jones – The Rain: A weirdo boogie-soul revenge fantasy (1986)
Ah, the 80s – a simpler time for gender politics, when the most popular comedian on the planet was Eddie Murphy, doing his routine about gold-diggers, and on the big screen the most aspirational figure […]
GZA’s still in da Front
I‘m not dissing the rest of the Wu-Tang Clan, but GZA is the only member who you could imagine boasting onstage about the number of books he saw with his own eyes in the Trinity […]
Sansibar makes some Finnish EBM-techno noise on White Swan
Helsinki producer Sansibar has been turning the dial in recent years, flitting between trip-hop, dark techno and even lo-fi punk as Shoplift – but hopefully he doesn’t change the station after hitting a bullseye with […]
Moo Kid 