Produced by Ben Hillier of Doves and Blur fame, Dave Gahan says, “It’s better being in Depeche Mode now than it has been for 15 years”. If that’s the case, then why set the new material in a 15-year-old atmosphere with that same old bassline? Quintessential Depeche Mode it is, but we’ll keep an ear out for the rest of the album.
Rumours of Depeche Mode’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, as Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher explain on the eve of the release of their 11th studio album, Playing The Angel.
He's come a long way, baby - once a poster-boy for rampant hedonistic excess, Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan has since settled down and learned to channel his energies into the area in which he excels, haunting, dream-like though reliably attitudinal - rock n roll.
The Dubliners’ clever debut marries a strong tune and vocal performance with intricate, melodic synths, orchestral Depeche Mode-ish chords and perfectly flat drums. Excellent stuff from a band who know their stuff.
After making a formidable dent in Dublin’s live music scene, Channel One release a one-off single with Polydor offshoot Sound Foundation. With ‘Accelerate, Brake’ they opt for a gothic take on electronic/rock, a la mid-career Depeche Mode.
And with the indiebleep genre all the rage these days thanks to The Modern, The Faint et al, there ne’er was a better time for the five-piece to be bumped to that level higher.
It s easy to trace the tracks of DAVE GAHAN s tears. Like the illustrated man, the marks on his body tell their own story. But not the whole story for this is a man who took heroin abuse to such a lethal extent that he was once clinically dead for two minutes. Now, after a long and painful battle, he s clean, sober and delighted that depeche mode have released the album that few ever expected them to make. Interview: Olaf Tyaransen.
So far, think classic '80s Depeche Mode, The Young Gods, Nine Inch Nails, Faithless and Death in Vegas - good goth/dance/pomp rock/freaked out fusion stuff - all shouty and melodramatic but still sweet and smooth
Hard to believe they’ve been around for over 20 years, but it was back in 1985 when former Depeche Mode/Yazoo keyboardist Vince Clarke first hooked up with ex-butcher Andy Bell for what would become a match made in pop heaven. 32 Top 40 hits later and they’re still capable of surprises, none more so than on this all-acoustic outing which sees them re-visit some of their finest moments in a radically transformed setting.
Though she’s only 20, this hugely talented North Dubliner has been knocking around the local scene since her early teens, gigging relentlessly and releasing a well-received EP a few years back. For her full-length debut she’s enlisted a heavyweight producer in Chris Tsangarides (Thin Lizzy, Ozzy, Depeche Mode), and recorded it in a remote studio in North Wales (fans of Led Zeppelin IV take note).
Erasure - namely Vince Clarke and Andy Bell have been creating electronic pop for over a decade. John Walshe catches up with them on a recent promotional tour.
Tribute bands may not capture the true spirit of rock’n’roll – but they do succeed in attracting fans, starved of the music of the originals of the species.
Tribute bands may not capture the true spirit of rock’n’roll – but they do succeed in attracting fans, starved of the music of the originals of the species.
“The stakes go up every season,” she reflects. “When I first sold to a Japanese store I was over the moon. I would have taken off my socks and shoes and sold them"
He helped invent synth-pop and is famous for his huge open-air shows. Now Jean-Michel Jarre is going back to basics to reprise his landmark Oxygene album.
On the eve of Kraftwerk’s headlining appearance at the Electric Picnic, mainman Ralf Hütter talks with rare candour about David Bowie, U2, hip-hop, cycling and why sometimes even man-machines have to smile.
The future of house music is in the hands of a trainee teacher from Frankfurt. Sounds strange? Let Richard Brophy introduce you to the weird and wonderful world of Isolee.
EDITORS’ new album finds them re-booting their sound with the help of super-producer Flood and the Prussian soldier’s helmet gifted to him by Bono. Also on the agenda when the band meet Stuart Clark are fatherhood, baby poo, Brooklyn block parties and stealing Michael Stipe’s megaphone.
Tori Amos' sixth album and her first since 1999's To Venus And Back, marks a major departure for her in that it consists entirely of cover versions – written exclusively by men!
'80s-influenced indie stars BLACK KIDS have been taking flak from message board snobs before their Bernard Butler-produced debut album has even been released. The crime? Being too popular.
Wank, bollocks, Chris Evans. These are dirty words.
Pop isn t.
STUART CLARK refrains from ruining their career for long enough to discover whether
IN UTOPIA have got what it takes to become Ireland s next three minute heroes.
Pix: Cathal Dawson.
Christmas has indeed come early - the latest issue of Hot Press has a FREE exclusive thirteen-track CD of live and rare tracks from some of the country's favourite acts.
And while the quality dips in places, thanks to a restrained and niftily back-referencing production job from Flood, it’s never anything less than an interesting listen.
peter murphy meets the multi-faceted pelvis, whose debut album Who Are You Today marks them out as one of the most formidable new Irish
talents in years.
How did Brandon Flowers, Ronnie Vannucci, Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer go from the Las Vegas dive bar circuit to selling four million copies of their debut album, Hot Fuss? On the eve of the band's highly-anticipated Oxegen 2005 appearance, Stuart Clark talks to the people involved in the making of The Killers.
The pen behind "My Beautiful Launderette" and "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid", HANIF KUREISHI has been treated as an outsider in his home, Britain, and as a traitor by some elements within his own race. But, he maintains, it's the job of the writer to "stir the shit" - and now he's got the fundamentalists in his sights. Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN FREQUENTING THE LATE-NIGHT HOSTELRIES OF DUBLIN, YOU’RE UNLIKELY TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF WITS, ER, MANO A MANO, WITH ACE QUIZ MASTER GEORGE “I KNOW A LOT MORE THAN YOU DO” BYRNE. WORRY NOT. THAT’S WHAT THE HOT PRESS QUIZ OF THE YEAR IS FOR. NOW GO FOR IT. SECONDS OUT!
Their debut album Hopes And Fears launched a host of hit singles, going on to become one of the most successful British records of the past five years. But, their indie background notwithstanding, Keane have still been dismissed by some self-styled aficionados as just too nice to be considered real rock'n'rollers. "If only people knew," says lead singer Tom Chaplin.
Their debut Hot Fuss sold over 4 million copies and in the process set The Killers up as one of the brightest young hopes of the modern era. On the eve of the release of their second album Sam’s Town, the band look like settling for nothing less than U2-sized supremacy. Now, if only Brandon Flowers would shave off that, ahem, controversial face fuzz.
30th Anniversary Retrospective: In a special interview, The Edge reminisces about the early days of Hotpress, explains Bill Graham’s role in U2’s development, and comes clean about what the band have been up to recently in Morocco.
It was inflight double entendres all round as Bell X1 donned cabin crew attire for a special Hot Press photoshoot. When not showing an unhealthy interest in women’s clothes and fancy Raybans, they talked about their chart-topping new album Blue Lights On The Runway, their imminent breakthrough in the US and freezing their arses off on The Late Show with Dave Letterman
Annual article: The Electric Picnic wasn’t just one of the musical events of the year; it also let us chow down and have a natter with some of the top pop combos of the day, including Bloc Party, Gang Of Four and New Order.
One of the most familiar faces and voices in Irish broadcasting, Dave Fanning has interviewed just about every rock and movie star worth knowing. But here Olaf Tyaransen goes behind the public image to unearth some of his more secret history: working with the disgraced “Captain” Cooke; nude interviewing with U2; getting ripped off by the nanny; and much more.
An overnight success story that was years in the making, The Strokes have been dismissed as flagrant hype and lauded as the saviours of rock 'n' roll. Eamon Sweeney, a journalist who has spent more time in their company than most, gets the fullest account yet of the rise and rise of New York's band of brothers. "Whatever happens, we'll be there together," they tell him. "we won’t let each other fall."
GARBAGE are a band who absorb all the detritus, darkness and despair of the pre-millennial zeitgeist and spit it back out in a torrent of searing guitars, futuristic technological trickery and lyrics that freeze the blood. They've also made two of the most sinister pop records of modern times - the second of which, Version 2.0, is due for imminent release. PETER MURPHY met them in London to discuss sex, surveillance, studio strife, pre-2000 tension and their special fondness for The Beach Boys.
Perhaps Gore’s finest achievement with Counterfeit is that all 11 songs gel seamlessly and flow as smoothly as if this was a collection of originals from the same mean and moody pen.
The HP-7 Summit is back with Michelle Doherty, Rocky O'Reilly, Niall Breslin, Mark Greaney, Niamh Farrell, Messiah J and Danny O'Donoghue sat around the only table that matters this Christmas.
They go together like a horse and carriage. You can't have one without the other - or words to that effect. In fact, however, even rock 'n' roll has yet to invent an erotic language that does justice to the breadth and complexity of human desire. In pushing out the boundaries, madonna has taken on the role of sexual pioneer, and done it with courage and no little success. Niall Stokes weighs up the evidence . . .
Currently flavour of the season in the UK, where they are being hailed as the new saviours of British pop music (ie this year’s Coldplay), Keane are the victims of that most despised of four-letter words, hype.
U2 fans take note: Stealing Hearts At A Travelling Show will appear at Music Ireland '07. This is the first time this unmissable exhibition has been shown in Europe, so be sure to check it out. The exhibition will feature the designs that shaped the band for 25 years and the designers will also present an intimate Q&A session in the Red room on Saturday October 6.
Perhaps Gore’s finest achievement with Counterfeit is that all 11 songs gel seamlessly and flow as smoothly as if this was a collection of originals from the same mean and moody pen.
On the whole, Black Holes & Revelations is an album that delights, beguiles and satiates. At once familiar and new, this is Muse at their most crystallised, focused and ambitious.
Like their incendiary live performances, the pace is nothing short of relentless over the course of the 43 minutes or so it takes Humanzi to slash and scorch their way through this 11-track debut.
The band churn out the dreariest material from both Sam’s Town and Day & Age, and – although I’m definitely in the minority – I find myself feeling a bit bored.
Thankfully for them, the Manchester three-piece deliver on the promise of their debut, as their sophomore effort is brimming with the kind of timeless guitar tunesmithery that marked their earlier work
There’s no shortage of showcase events vying for the attention of young acts these days, but IMRO’s tried and trusted model remains refreshingly free of bells and whistles.
As the country’s largest music festival, Oxegen is a crucial shop window for Irish acts. From main-stage headliners Snow Patrol through new kids on the block The Script. Here are some of our favourite Irish picks.
Today sees the first unveiling of the complete Hot Press Covers Exhibition online, featuring a selection of the great and historic images that have adorned the front page of the magazine, from June 1977 onwards
I said to an A&R man the other day that I could never do his job and I thought I meant it. Only later did it hit me that my job is, in some ways, harder than A&R.
I said to an A&R man the other day that I could never do his job and I thought I meant it. Only later did it hit me that my job is, in some ways, harder than A&R.
Yes, the incessant downpour ensured that Punchestown Racecourse often looked more like the set of a World War 1 epic than a music festival, but the rain couldn't dampen the 80,000-strong Oxegen crowd's spirits, not to mention the fiery performances delivered by Arctic Monkeys, Franz, The Who, the Chili Peppers and a cast of, well, hundreds.
Comedienne Eleanor Tiernan invites Anne Sexton into her Georgian home, and talks to her about childhood holidays in Kerry, her love of JP Donleavy, and writing a play – well, kind of – about Damien Rice and Damien Dempsey.
THE CRITICS PANEL WHO VOTED FOR THE TOP 30 ALBUMS AND SINGLES OF THE YEAR ARE AS FOLLOWS: BILL GRAHAM, LIAM FAY, GEORGE BYRNE, STUART CLARK, LORRAINE FREENEY, TARA McCARTHY, GERRY McGOVERN, NEIL McCORMICK, DERMOT STOKES, OLIVER P. SWEENEY, SIOBHAN LONG, STEVE AVERILL, ANDY DARLINGTON, COLM O’HARE, JOE JACKSON, HELENA MULKERNS, DAN OGGLY, CATHY DILLON, NIALL CRUMLISH, OLAF TYARANSEN, PATRICK BRENNAN, JACKIE HAYDEN AND NIALL STOKES.
Hey, it was messy out there. Nine evenings of dance music across town. Incessant surprises from DJs and the local dance practitioners. The collective shebang was called Digital Belfest, a development from the rock-tastic Belfest events that take place here on regular occasions.
Under severe editorial pressure, journalist/comedian BARRY GLENDENNING is forced to interview himself. But then, given time, he would have anyway.
Pic: Peter Mathews.
They’ve embraced the big sound of America but The Killers still aren’t fully comfortable with the burdens of stardom, reveals frontman Brandon Flowers.
