Most attempts to fuse folky singer-songwriting and electronic music end in disaster (anyone remember the laughable 'folktronica' scene from a few years back?) but Jenny Wilson's new album strikes a chord, literally. Her ability to create bittersweet melodies and tales of woe and combine them with floaty electronic hooks sounds like a simplistic approach on paper, but check her quirky, high pitched vocals and warbling synths on the future classic 'Summertime: The Roughest Time' or the tongue in cheek lyrics and seductive arrangement of 'Bitter? No, I Just Love To Complain' for proof that Ms Wilson is operating at a higher level to her laptop loving, acoustic strumming peers.
Believers view Hansard & Co’s brew of emotive folk-tinged rock as a shining example of durability and authenticity in image-obsessed days. Atheists see it as the grim apotheosis of the strain of phoney singer-songwriting that was especially virulent in Dublin at the latter part of the last decade. Agnostics remain largely unmoved. The Cost, it has to be said, is not a record that will inspire many cross-camp defections.
As girl band the saturdays prepare to play this year’s Oxegen, Edwin McFee gets a frosty reception when he talks to Irish member Una Healy. Undeterred, he manages to find out about their bust up with Basshunter, their admiration for Girls Aloud and more.
Credited with being a pioneer in the field of confessional singer-songwriting, it is only now, at the age of 55, that JONI MITCHELL is able to talk openly about the private trauma behind the songs on such classic albums as Blue. On the occasion of the release of a new album Both Sides Now, that sees her revisit some former glories, the legendary Mitchell takes JOE JACKSON on a journey through her personal, and professional history.
This is part one of an exclusive two-part interview
When a gang of Ireland’s finest musicians, media stars and political types gathered in the Central Hotel for pre-Christmas drinks, there were fun and games aplenty. reporting: Stephen Bailey, Stuart Clark and Roisin Dwyer. Photos: Mick Quinn and Graham Keogh. Costumes: courtesy of The Dublin Costume Company.
Or perhaps we might have reached for another old familiar headline - Fears and Loathing in RTE - as the bosses at Radio 1 announce the chopping of virtually all specialist music programmes from the schedule. It is, writes Bill Graham, an act of cultural criminal negligence.
A group of four Dublin 16-year-olds could be set to storm the city’s reggae and indie scene. Good things have been heard about the new kids on the block – excuse the accidental Yankee pop reference – with the unusual name of Pudjet Sound.
