The xx, Ulster Hall, Belfast, Monday, SOLD OUT; Tivoli, Dublin, Wednesday & Thursday, €44 The xx live experience really does depend on context, setting and your frame of mind. At Lowlands in Holland last […]
Never Reigns but it pours: Slayer going down fighting on last tour
Metal fans have recently been wearing extra black for mourning after thrash gods Slayer announced their retirement — but they’re going out with a hell of a headbang on their final tour. After 37 years […]
Irish gigs round-up…
SUPER EXTRA BONUS PARTY, Bello Bar, Dublin, tomorrow, €15. SEPB’s return after a seven-year break seems to be a relatively stress-free affair, with the Kildare act saying they never fell out, so there’s no cliched rock’n’roll […]
Relentless despair: The Body’s I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer
The Body’s Chip King maybe has the most terrifying howl of anyone in metal’s outer limits. True, extreme black metal acts like Gnaw their Tongues and Jute Gyte are polluting Bandcamp with their brilliant festering […]
New Death Grips track Streaky. YUH!
Death Grips just threw out a new track called Streaky. As usual, they put it on YouTube and shared it on Facebook, with over 400 comments in 20 minutes and counting. Seems there’s a rabid […]
Faces ripped off (literally) in new Dead Cross EP
Dead Cross drummer Dave Lombardo is behind one of the most seething rhythms in metal history, on Slayer’s Dead Skin Mask – and there’s a follow-through theme in this surprise EP from the hardcore supergroup. […]
Irish gigs round-up
GROUPER: Unitarian Church, Dublin, tomorrow. Promoter Skinny Wolves has had to close the returns wish-list for this one, as it sold out weeks ago and there really won’t be many returns. They also warned people […]
Test your nerve endings with new Gazelle Twin single Hobby Horse
Gazelle Twin flagged ‘Hobby Horse’ two months ago and now she’s finally giving us all the gory details with a new industrial body-horror mission statement. The first hint of ‘Hobby Horse’ was a striking image […]
All the right noises: April 2018 in 21 tracks
Aside from Kanye’s #MAGA hat, last month was brought to you by abstract hip-hop, hypnotic house, cosmic lounge music, darkwave pop, voodoo techno and black metal ultraviolence. Playlist below… 1. lojii – Six9 (lofeye LP) […]
Irish gigs round-up
Xeno & Oaklander: Bello Bar, Dublin, tonight (€13). An analogue synth item since 2004, Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride create impeccably realised coldwave pop that sounds like a remastering of a whole early 80s European […]
The genie’s out of the bottle with these reanimated holograms
Whether you think the Roy Orbison hologram tour is a celebration of a long-lost legend or a ghoulish cash-grab, reanimated shows beaming dead pop stars are just about to take off now the genie is […]
The Earth moves, slowly: Dylan Carlson – Conquistador
Even if you don’t always judge a book by its cover, you know where you’re going with a Dylan Carlson track title. A few weeks before the release of Conquistador, Carlson revealed the track ‘Scorpions […]
Irish gigs round-up
EARS OPEN, A4 Sounds, Dublin (Day); Jigsaw, Dublin (Night), tomorrow, (€10 day ticket or €15 for day and night) “Performing, talking, workshopping and dancing, day into night across two venues in Dublin 1” is what it […]
Another fine edition of Bryan Ferry
Depending who you’re talking to, Bryan Ferry is either the avant-garde hero who helped Roxy Music write the art-rock blueprint in the 1970s, or the impossibly suave crooner engulfed in elegant adult pop. But who […]
Should we care about The Streets’ comeback when Mike Skinner doesn’t seem too fussed?
Last October, rapper Mike Skinner announced the return of his landmark project The Streets with as little fanfare as the project’s ‘retirement’ in 2011. “Spoke to my old band! Told them we need to sing […]
Moo Kid 