Sparks are about to release their 24th album Hippopotamus this Friday, and it’s another pop sidestep from the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, who’ve been upending pop conventions for nearly 50 years. Hippopotamus is a […]
Another field trip: here’s who to see at Electric Picnic
I know I know, fuck the begrudgers and all that, but this year’s Electric Picnic line-up is pretty underwhelming. I’ve missed two or three since 2005, but this is my first year of zero fomo. […]
Robert Hood interview: ‘You can’t escape your vision’
Robert Hood is an artist who’s always flipping things. He’s a pioneer of austere, minimal techno who releases gospel house as Floorplan; The ‘Minister of Information’ in revolutionary techno act Underground Resistance who now preaches […]
Irish gigs round-up
BORIS… Limelight 2, Belfast, Wednesday Experimental metal band Boris are one of Japan’s most famous avant-garde exports, with over 40 releases since 1996, ranging from heavy psychedelia to doom metal and noise. Their underground credentials are boosted […]
This is a drill: Talker – Battle Standards
If you want your techno to sound like Ancient Methods trapped inside an oil drum, Talker has just the thing. The Chicago duo’s new EP is three tracks of heavy metal without the guitars or […]
Irish gigs round-up
CONVEXTION: Tengu, Dublin, tonight. Describing himself as “willingly anonymous”, Dallas producer Gerard Hanson works under two aliases and has been sporadically releasing since the mid-90s — fast-paced electro as E.R.P. and graceful sci-fi techno as Convextion. […]
Bending nostalgia all sides: OOBE – Amarcord
The first track on Amarcord sounds like witch-house chancers Salem nudge-winking the build-up of Robert Miles’ Children, and there’s a guitar solo straight out of Tangerine Dream’s 1980s playbook. Virtual-E might sound like a brain-clash on […]
For a crash course in house music history, Pump Up the Volume is a good place to start (2001)
The problem with dance music documentaries, history books and anthologies is that they date pretty quickly. New fads have writers like Simon Reynolds going back every few years to reshape their books with tacked-on chapters, […]
Lloyd Bradley’s Bass Culture is still the definitive history of reggae (2001)
As the late ska icon Prince Buster writes in the intro: “Jamaican music at last has the book it deserves”. I read Lloyd Bradley’s bulging history of reggae around 10 years ago and it’s one […]
MF Doom isn’t always worth the wait – new track Negus with Sean Price
There’s too much waiting around when you’re a fan of Supervillain rapper MF Doom. He hasn’t released a solo album since Born Like This in 2009, and his collaborations and sporadic releases haven’t touched the […]
No compromise: Remembering Suicide’s Alan Vega – a true one-off
It’s just over a year since Suicide frontman and co-founder Alan Vega passed away aged 78, and last night independent station Dublin Digital Radio broadcast a brilliant tribute to one of the most singular frontmen […]
30th Century Man lets us see through the fog of Scott Walker (2006)
Scott Walker is up there with David Bowie as one of the most universally revered artists in popular music, and the hyperbole is hitting morto levels on the BBC this week with Proms: The Songs […]
We’ll never stop bitching about U2
Bitching about U2 may be our national sport at this stage, but tomorrow’s gig will be filed in the history books as a celebration of one of our biggest exports, A Sort of Homecoming. Sometimes […]
Jeru the Damaja Interview: ‘I thought I could save the world’
For a movement that’s in constant flux there’s still an obsession with marking out hip-hop’s greatest year, and 1994 is a popular choice. The year had some mythical albums – Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die […]
Don Letts just sent me on his top 10 ‘Crucial Reggae Killer Cuts’
With over 50 years of records to choose from, creating a top 10 reggae playlist is a hell of a job — but it helps if DJ Don Letts is helping out. Letts has been […]
Moo Kid 