Baba Yarga - Galway multicultural band release new single
Music Reviews Thu, Jun 17, 2021
AN EASTERN European folk song, transformed into a modern, soul-pinching, ethno-pop ballad - this is ‘Vershe’, the new single from Galway multicultural band Baba Yarga.
Read more ...Album review: Saint Sister
Music Reviews Mon, Jun 14, 2021
“MY BRILLIANT friend traces where I should end and where I should begin, and he touches me with all the need and the want that goes on between us.”
Read more ...Album review: Noel Gallagher
Music Reviews Thu, Jun 03, 2021
NOEL GALLAGHER’S refusal to wear a face mask has hardly been edifying, and his claims of “there's too many liberties being taken away from us”, is verging on tin foil hat territory.
Read more ...Album review: Arab Strap
Music Reviews Tue, Mar 02, 2021
IT OPENS with a song about trying to connect - even if it is not the wisest course of action - with all the odds stacked against you: “Let’s move now before we’re back below.”
Read more ...Album review: Django Django
Music Reviews Tue, Feb 16, 2021
IT BEGINS in a swirl, as sounds musical and abstract weave into the sonic equivalent of the build-up to a rocket taking off, the moment of launch signalled by post-punk bass riff whose minimalism only enhances its forward momentum.
Read more ...Album review: The Fall
Music Reviews Thu, Feb 11, 2021
THE FALL’S recorded output is of such vastness that it is possible, like me, to be someone who has numerous Fall albums in your collection, and yet still have only a tiny fraction of their discography.
Read more ...Album review: The Staves
Music Reviews Thu, Feb 04, 2021
"THE HUMAN voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, the most moving...even the greatest virtuoso will never be able to give you even a fraction of the emotion a beautiful voice can...That is our share of the divine.”
Read more ...Album review: Ashnikko
Music Reviews Thu, Jan 28, 2021
SHE LOOKS like a blue haired version of She-Ra's Entrapta, armed with an equally colourful array of hip hop, garage, and pop beats - even a touch of emo - and an attitude that screams 'women power'.
Read more ...Album review: Midnight Sister
Music Reviews Thu, Jan 14, 2021
IN THE mind of Midnight Sister (aka artist, film-maker, and musician Juliana Giraffe, and composer Ari Balouzian), it is always the 1970s, or rather, it is in the current guise their imagination has adopted.
Read more ...Galway Advertiser's Best Albums of 2020
Music Reviews Mon, Dec 21, 2020
THIS HAS been a year without gigs, concerts, or festivals, and yet, it has still been a year which has given us some outstanding music. Here is my selection of the best albums of 2020.
Read more ...EP review: Shygirl
Music Reviews Thu, Dec 10, 2020
OSCAR WILDE noted that if you wanted someone to tell you the truth, let them wear a mask, the creation of an alter-ego allowing them a confidence they may otherwise not have.
Read more ...EP Review: Laura Groves
Music Reviews Thu, Nov 26, 2020
AS BLUE Roses, she recorded piano based songs which had the shifting tonal qualities and structures of classical music, and over which her voice danced beautifully.
Read more ...Album review: Marina Kaye
Music Reviews Thu, Nov 19, 2020
ANY HONEST look at the music created over this past decade reveals a basic truth - most of the best music is being made by women.
Read more ...Album review: Denise Chaila
Music Reviews Thu, Oct 22, 2020
AN ARTICULACY and a wisdom beyond her years, armed with groove filled beats and melodies that are as catchy as they are clever, Denise Chaila has truly arrived with Go Bravely.
Read more ...Album review: Future Islands
Music Reviews Thu, Oct 08, 2020
IT BEGINS with the call of birds in the wild and concludes with the sound of a cassette tape being switched off - a journey from the natural to the mechanical? More from the wilds to the security of a safe space.
Read more ...Album review: Pillow Queens
Music Reviews Thu, Sep 24, 2020
THE OPENING lines of opening track, 'Holy Show', present a picture of physical intimacy between two women, which is surprising for both its frankness, but also its tenderness.
Read more ...Album review: Suzanne Vega
Music Reviews Thu, Sep 17, 2020
WITH COVID-19 resulting in live shows becoming very small affairs and restricting artists to touring within their own national borders, the live album has - as it was during its 1970s heyday - become again one of the few ways to experience an artist in concert.
Read more ...Album review: The Flaming Lips
Music Reviews Thu, Sep 10, 2020
NO ATHEIST has ever written about death in a manner as grimly final as that found in the Bible: "For thou art dust, and unto dust shalt thou return".
Read more ...Album review: Fontaines D.C.
Music Reviews Thu, Jul 30, 2020
THE OPENING riff of the title track to Fontaines D.C.’s new album will have people of a certain age feel a need to cry, “Last night, she said, Oh, baby, I feel so down…”
Read more ...Album review: Courtney Marie Andrews
Music Reviews Thu, Jul 23, 2020
ON HER last album, May Your Kindness Remain, Courtney Marie Andrews gave voice to the values of the people from the US heartlands and rustbelt who did not vote for Trump.
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