CRADLE OF FILTH, The Limelight, Belfast, Monday; The Academy, Dublin, Tuesday. A heavy metal focus group couldn’t have organised this gig – with Cradle of Filth sure to win all the Halloween costume awards. The British veterans have been […]
Richie Hawtin gets up Close at Metropolis
Before Metropolis started two years ago in November 2015, an Irish winter festival seemed like a hard sell. By October every year we’re usually done with the festival spamming all through the summer and we’re […]
Liam’s big mouth routine is the PR win of the year
Ireland’s newest winter festival was nearly left out in the cold after a group of residents lodged an appeal — but the first ever Samhain festival is going ahead at Weston Airport, 20 minutes west […]
Dublin Blues Fest kicks off – with no blues
The Blues Fest in Dublin is an unashamed nostalgia trip to warm up the coldest of winter hearts — but one tune by headliners Steely Dan will strike a particular chord with everyone in the […]
Irish gigs of the week
GHOSTPOET, The Button Factory, Dublin, Tuesday, €16 Ghostpoet’s fourth album Dark Days and Canapes is the bleakest yet from the poet, rapper, singer, beatmaker and producer, but his acclaimed live show will be no less intense. The […]
Leftfield interview: ‘Leftism live is an enormous output of emotion’
Ask any random person to recall 1995 in music and Britpop will come up right away. If you were to commission a talking heads nostalgia programme or a Q magazine special, you’d be searching for […]
The Masseduction of Annie Clark
A countless number of bands can be filed under ‘art-rock’ no matter how much they deserve it, but St Vincent has made a case for her whole career as a work of performance art. Texan Annie […]
Nine Inch Knives: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross rework John Carpenter’s Halloween theme
It’s not often you need a spoiler alert when you’re discussing a new tune, but this new Nine Inch Nails rework of John Carpenter’s Halloween is better when you don’t know what happens at the […]
Irish gigs round-up
THE BREEDERS: Vicar Street, Dublin, Monday The last time The Breeders went on tour they couldn’t resist doing the now-obligatory 20th anniversary album shows that any self-respecting 1990s alt-rock band goes for. The band took their breakthrough […]
The Horrors’ biggest triumph was avoiding the indie landfill dump
Even though The Horrors have only been going for over 10 years, when you recall the state of the so-called indie-rock scene in 2007 it feels like a real survival story. It’s also a tale […]
Alessandro Cortini’s new LP Avanti is a fuzzy childhood time capsule
Anemoia is a word that describes an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia for a time you’ve never known, and it could also be a handy one-word filing tab for this new ambient album by electronic producer […]
Irish gigs round-up
JENNY HVAL, National Concert Hall, Dublin, tonight. Jenny Hval released one of 2016’s most stunning records – and surely Blood Bitch is the only record to be filed under ‘concept album about menstruation and female vampires’. […]
Neil Diamond: Not as cheesy as you think
For many, Neil Diamond is the cheeseball in the diamante cowboy shirt hamming up Sweet Caroline for pensioners in the front row — and he kind of is, up to a point. But shuffle around […]
Dälek’s Endangered Philosophies is the hip-hop album we deserve right now
The front cover of Endangered Philosophies is like a picture someone could just tweet and lazily caption: #2017. It’s a scene of deranged wrongness, arrows shooting into the hide of a screaming wild cat trampling […]
Andrew Weatherall interview: ‘It’s good to see the reds of people’s eyes’ (2008)
This town ain’t big enough for the both of them, and sparks will fly when Andrew Weatherall and Ivan Smagghe get set for another soundclash. Armed with “a disco bag over one shoulder and a […]
Moo Kid 