Yes, it really is him on that stage at his beat-up Rhodes piano, telling us we “need to fly to better days ahead”. Some 40 years after A New Black Poet kicked the doors in […]
A day in the life: Matthew Herbert – One One
Sifting through Matthew Herbert‘s website you’ll find writings on critical theory, his self-imposed manifesto, a free stream of his 15-year discography and this claim: “I don’t want music to be dismembered from the body it […]
Dark arts: Autechre live in Dublin
Autechre‘s no-frills live performance works on the thesis that stage shows and visuals are mere pollution, a distraction from their singular musical vision. Sean Booth and Rob Brown famously even play with the house lights turned […]
More Fire: Antipop Consortium live in Dublin
You get plenty of ‘holy shit’ moments at an Anti-Pop Consortium gig: M. Sayyid and High Priest trading verbal punches; beatmaster Earl Blaize’s Morse code racket as the three MCs take the stage; Beans’ breakneck freestyling […]
Krautrocksampler: Cluster live in Dublin
On The Village balcony, a girl is asking her mate: “So is this krautrock?” She may as well be asking: ‘Er, is this it?’ And fair enough, it’s hard to imagine the refined and reserved Cluster […]
You can always turn around: Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here
The opening two minutes of I’m New Here will stop you dead in your tracks. The intro ‘On Coming from a Broken Home’ glides in on a rip of Kanye West’s ‘Flashing Lights’ before Gil […]
La Rock star: Vitalic live in Dublin
Warning: This performance may feature strobe lighting effects. It may also feature frantic LED mania and a 30-foot mirror on stage so you can catch yourself pogoing in the front row. Yes, it does look […]
Dub with my head man: Martyn – Fabric 50
The mix CD seems a bit quaint these days. Without the forced retro kudos of an underground ‘mixtape’, most record label mixes get buried in HMV CD racks beneath the industry detritus from Hed Kandi […]
Quality control: Vitalic – Flashmob
Signalling the arrival of your new album using an online day-hour-minute-second rolling countdown is a bit conceited, but we can forgive Vitalic. Flashmob is another genre-defying record from the French electro trendsetter, and the chattering […]
Plenty of added sugar: Hudson Mohawke – Butter
Hip-hop maverick Hudson Mohawke‘s debut album Butter is the aural equivalent of stuffing a full packet of Jelly Tots into your mouth at once. It’s so full of artificial sweeteners and processed ingredients that fans […]
It’s the new mathematics: Antipop Consortium – Fluorescent Black
It’s a relief when MC High Priest boasts that Anti-Pop Consortium are about to “awaken from that permanent nap”, as Fluorescent Black reboots like a mainframe computer after a power cut. Reunited after an “amicable […]
Industrial strength: Legion of Two – Riffs
Here’s one record you can judge by its cover. The colossal sound on Legion of Two’s debut album Riffs is so ‘industrial’ you can almost trace the cables from those spindly pylons back to the turbine […]
The lights are on – Orbital 20 review
After helping to rewire popular culture in the late 1980s with their symphonic take on techno, Orbital seem to be edging into heritage act territory, with this third best-of compilation and a reunion tour that […]
I beg your Pardon – !!! live in Dublin
People expecting one of those cliched ‘intimate’ gigs get more intimacy than they bargained for at Whelan’s as !!! (Chk Chk Chk) frontman Nic Offer drags his hip-shaking sweaty self into the moshpit like a […]
