HUNKYPAPA
WILL RUSSELL Wonderfully eclectic stuff from art-rock maestros. Lisa Gerrard’s chops are meaty: a Golden Globe for the Gladiator soundtrack; several Grammy nominations; and a Dead Can Dance catalogue that blows a hole in the often-derided moniker of World Music. Jules Maxwell, meanwhile, joined Dead Can Dance as a live keyboardist on their 2012 world tour. He Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Folk legend John Spillane discusses his formative years in Cork, unforgettable gigs in Páidí O’Sé’s pub, and his cracking new album 100 Snow White Horses – which boasts a stunning cover designed by Brian Eno. He is Christy Moore’s favourite songwriter. Damien Dempsey calls his songs the heart and soul of Ireland. John Spillane is Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Mascis attack: the real deal… On a night carousing at World’s End in Camden in 1995, I twigged that J. Mascis was playing a solo gig downstairs. Or perhaps it was a Dinosaur Jr. show – they may have been touring the Without A Sound album, a period when they were trucking along without Lou Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL In a field of their own… Field Music are often seen as paragons of accretion, who meticulously forge baroque music. On Flat White Moon, however, they deliver a newly compressed version of their contagious sound. Discussing influences on their podcast Field Musicast, they reveal that their vivid wordplay is influenced by Joni Mitchell and Dire Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL A long-awaited record from the elusive and enigmatic band. Iwas thrilled to hear the great Paddy Cox, CIE conductor on the Sligo rail line cherishingly immortalized in song. People west of the Pale, may well recall chugging out of Connolly Station after sinking a few watery ones on Talbot Street, listening to Paddy Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Impressive effort from glam legend. They build ‘em to last in Detroit – Suzi, Iggy and Alice are all still motoring. Suzi Quatro’s breadcrumbs trail all the way back to the 1960s jazz of the Art Quatro Trio, through the garage rock of The Pleasure Seekers and Cradle. Subsequently, she cut her teeth Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL Masterful offering from folk supremo On a wild night, in the dying days of a year, a crowd of us clambered upon tables, stools and one another to get a glimpse of John Spillane singing to a packed Páidí Ó Sé’s bar in Ventry. It was worth it. Spillane is an extraordinary figure. Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL “Sticky Fingers is three quarters of an hour of apeiron mood wrapped in Warhol’s package.” I never met JP Donleavy, neither did Hunter S Thompson. Bizarrely, I had a better chance. Donleavy lived on the shores of Owel, a lake that metamorphosed children into swans and stuffed High Kings of Ireland into barrels and Continue Reading
WILL RUSSELL For Those About To Post-Rock Aquarter-of-a-century not out, Mogwai’s 10th record is definitively Mogwai. Nobody else sounds quite like them. With their last two records, Every Country’s Sun and Rave Tapes, breaking into the UK Top 10, As The Love Continues may be viewed in time as the final piece of a mid-period Mogwai Continue Reading
THE HOT PRESS NEWSDESK It was a very special occasion indeed when former Oasis front-man Liam Gallagher came to 3Arena, in Dublin towards the end of November. And afterwards, there was a hootenanny in the centre of town that lifted the gathered throng into another dimension. By Will Russell. Gallagher @3Arena 23/11/19www.peterohanlonphotography.com/Hotpress.com Iwoke feeling disinterred, Continue Reading