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ARB words Killian Barry Andrew Lambert Danny Wilson Sinéad O’Reilly Refresh your Rigout... with a pair of ‘Big Face Earrings’ - a worthy alternative to this summer’s Picasso-earring compulsion - from freshly-launched Dublin label This Jewellery - @thisjewellery FASHIONABLE FLEA MERCHANTS Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! [Polydor] Bill Callahan Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest [Drag City] HEMLINES FLYING THE FLAG HEMLINES Since forcedly departing from their decade-long home in Newmarket Square this past May, there’s been a Dublin-Flea shaped hole in everyone’s heart – so the market’s triumphant return to the Point across two December weekends is not to be missed. Those searching for stylish, sustainable gifts will be spoilt for choice, with highlight stalls including Jump the Hedges, Kate’s Sample Sale and Kathryn Davey (her handdyed socks are a personal favourite). Cement these dates in your calendar: December 6-9 & 13-16. @dublinflea words Amelia O’Mahony-Brady words Amelia O’Mahony-Brady Few creatives have merged mediums as dextrously as Dublin polymath Aoife Dunne. With an extensive career trajectory that crosses continents with ease, she melds the worlds of costume design, fashion styling and large-scale artworks. Her feeds are bursting at the seams with project announcements. This summer, she’s added yet another feather to her jewelencrusted cap with a week’s residency in Margate Location House, whose “acid-aesthetic” interiors go hand-in-hand with Dunne’s personal style. “Walking-art-installation” is the simplest way to describe her look. The spoils of her creative output are now splashed across @efadone and @margatelocationhouse for all spectators to see. Between these visuals and Aoife’s freshly-minted website, you’ll find no better colour fix. aoifedunne.com London-goers, make sure to catch Fashion Space Gallery show Inside Arc which liberates precious archive pieces from their vaults. Replete with masterfully-crafted garments and accessories, highlights of the show include items from Givenchyera John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, and accomplished Irish designer Sorcha O’Raghallaigh. Her featured creation, a vibrant embroidered cape from her Central Saint Martins graduate collection boasting an abundance of semi-precious jewels and prayer beads, must be marvelled at in the flesh. Running until 28th July. fashionspacegallery.com ’I ain’t no candle in the wind’’ is an early standout among many defiant declarations made throughout the blistering tour-de-force that is Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana Del Rey’s fifth and finest record to date. It’s a phrase borrowed from a similarly elegant songwriter, Elton John, to honour the late Marilyn Monroe, the kind of classic American icon whom Del Rey has attributed a ‘’special connection’’ to in the past. Yet, it’s perfectly fitting that Del Rey would make a point of rejecting this label in 2019 on an album in which she documents an achingly beautiful, apocalyptic version of America while proving her lasting status as one of the most definitive female artists in the world today. Del Rey has spent the past decade disproving naysayers who prematurely cast her as some kind of inauthentic Instagram star while quietly crafting a quality discography that has grown in status since 2017’s sprawling, adventurous Lust For Life. That album assembled an impressive list of finely executed features and explored a variety of genres, but NFR! is exclusively and intimately Lana, a predominantly piano led opus boasting 68-minutes of the most heartfelt, graceful and confessional ballad songwriting of her career. A moment of triumph in the face of a conflicted country, a breathtaking message of empowerment to a torn generation and, most of all, the sound of an instantaneous masterpiece. AL Like this? Try these: Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde Fiona Apple - When The Pawn... Joni Mitchell - Blue Remarkably considering its four-sided runtime, Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest is one of Bill Callahan’s more focused affairs to date. While his recent records saw him stretching out his limbs and exploring a sun-kissed, if sombre, branch of alt-country, there was still room in the great man’s vision for extended, arguably patience testing experimentation. (See Apocalypse’s America!) Only five of Shepherd’s tracks stretch out beyond the four-minute mark with none of those reaching five. The elongated runtime affords Callahan to luxuriate in a certain milieu without feeling the need to hustle on to his next thought. And you know what? For the first time in a long time (...ever?) Bill sounds like he is really enjoying himself. As he says on Writing, “It sure feels good to be writing again…” Callahan has always been at home unpacking the points of The American Sublime where the grandiose meets the frayed, the dust-caked, the dog-eared. Now, happily married and rearing his first child, Callahan focuses his singular insight on scenes from the life of a young family. More so than misery, Callahan’s hallmark has always been profundity and there is great scope for it with this entirely unfamiliar point of view. A masterpiece in its own right, Shepard is also a testament to the singularity of Callahan’s career trajectory – from instrumental lo-fi noisemaker to one of the most significant voices relating to the American experience of his generation. There are simply not enough superlatives. DW Like this? Try these: Lambchop - (OH) Ohio Josephine Foster - Blood Rushing Hand Habits - Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void) THE PAINTED LADY CALLED FROM THE BAR HATS OFF Charlie XCX Charli [Asylum/Atlantic] Ordnance Survey Relative Phase [Scintilla Recordings] IN THE REFLECTIVE AGE No-one can meld fashion designing and disk jockeying quite like Louisa Jane. She’s been clocking up followers across both circuits for quite some time, but the gateway through which I first encountered her work was fantastically-colourful “neck candy”. Take one look at these playful necklaces – drenched in primary hues, their hand-crafted forms recall building blocks – and her creative influences will prove unsurprising: Matisse, Miró, Bauhaus… Her polychromatic approach also extends to childrenswear, while her latest textural experiment (a once-off, hand-painted shift dress) went down a treat at Om Diva’s 20th birthday bash. Most Louisa Jane Design pieces are made-to-order, but some prêt-à-porter necklaces can be purchased in Hen’s Teeth (with a web shop soon to follow). For a final bout of visual feasting, make sure to check out her new photo series with Sarah Doyle, a fellow colour fiend. louisajanedesign.com M83 DSVII [Mute] Pelican Nighttime Stories (Southern Lord) im The blisteringly futuristic sound of mixtape Pop 2 cemented her status as the future of pop music back in 2017, but Charli confirms Charlotte Aitchenson is very much the present as the 27-year-old achieves fully fledged superstardom on her third full length studio album. Charli’s immaculately assembled guestlist and reliably innovative production result in some of 2019’s most impressive smash hit singles and help Charli to achieve her final form after years of demonstrated potential. AL IN THE WORDS OF PHILIP TREACY, “HATS MAKE PEOPLE FEEL GOOD, AND THAT’S THE POINT OF THEM.” WE TALK TO TWO SUCH LOCAL DESIGNERS WHO WANT TO INSTILL THE FEEL GOOD FACTOR. Over two decades, Ordnance Survey’s Neil O’Connor has been responsible (solely or in part) for some of the most cherished transmissions from the Irish experimental and electronic landscape. With this, his debut under this topographically informed moniker, O’Connor and his collaborators continues in this tradition. O’Connor’s nous for ambience in the Music for Airports mould has never been secret, but the rich drones, sometimes glacial pacing and discernible acoustic instrumentation evident here imbues the work with the feel of a more propulsive cousin to drone merchants par-excellence, Stars of the Lid. Recommended. DW Right: cape by Sorcha O’Raghallaigh Below: Aoife Dunne at her studio “Have we met before?” she asks. About a year ago outside Grogans I remind her. We were amongst a group of NCAD graduates huddled together for warmth, swapping tales of post-college tribulations and reminiscing. It was here that I first heard about Choy’s broken hands and the seemingly impossible graduate collection that followed, something of legend on the fashion course now though Choy would never admit it. Three months before the graduate show, Choy went over the handlebars of her bike and broke both of her arms. “Ah I’m grand!” she said after the fall, in what I now understand to be typical Choy fashion. 12 hours later she was on the operating table having a plate and three screws put into her arms. Bed-bound, unable to move her fused arms and with the first fitting in four days she realised she was “completely screwed”, in every sense of the word. With full recovery time estimated at 12 weeks, like funding and planning. But seeing what you’ve created being worn is a really amazing feeling, it sort of gives you a boost to get through those boring bits. What were you looking into for your SS16 collection? I star et d by looking at the artwork of Wesley Triggs and François Morelli, they’re very geoher tutors heavily advised that she defer the year. “They said ‘these are great, I can totally see these t very r pleopd and co lo . I th ugoey ret thse s uct pos nble it was.hapnyo e e s er attitt no hought twice ab rat throwing in thy nice 100% co on anory aa ou metric abstract artists. Their lines f ro med the shapes in the garments and the mood of the collection was insp eir d by a young Patti Smith, desig jus ns on e axele’, but I think th h ali d he tr ow ure asi d linear s” A es, w n ith hl e migh ude wast have e io, I lo uden As a sequel to a prior collection of ambient instrumentals, M83’s eighth record stands apart from the bulk of their catalogue. Those chasing the epic grandeur of Anthony Gonzalez’ dreamy synthpop may be disappointed by his pivot. Instead, DSVII is an ambitious, soft focus, tribute to analogue synth that draws on 1980s video games and fantasy soundtracks as source material. The result is a meandering hour of nostalgic mood music designed to evoke fantastical adventures. So faithfully are these vintage soundscapes rendered, however, that DSVII is primarily one for the purists. KB Post-metallers Pelican have had to overcome a partial relocation of the band across America, not only changing their songwriting and creative dynamic, but also, inevitably, how they relate to each other as individuals. Like many adult friends that stay in touch loosely over the years, some real magic results in a brief period of reunion, and Nighttime Stories weaves ideas and threads that band members left for each other in a Dropbox folder into an, at times, more direct piece of work, retaining their trademark focus on texture and interplay. MMGB Ch d crisp wearing co ottdle o akes ye u f ld me ab f esh colol who broke h lf w t and deferr d ot cemh te anoy’s decision to trun n mn. “Thoy toeel. I like rout a girurs, but I m eyser wriosuld wear a loet and then had to defer again. I knew I couldn’t wait around for a year. I’d just be moping and I of black. When I’m designing I tend to think ‘fresher’ than maybe just designing for myself. wanted to get on with it.” For the six weeks when Choy was completely unable to move her arms, she adopted a Matisselike approach to work, enlisting the help of everyone from her granny to her boyfriend to help create the collection. Her inexperienced but diligent volunteers were delegated to cutting patterns and sewing garments. In the remaining six Could you tell us about your design process? I will start by looking around me, usually going to IMMA and compiling imagery on the internet. I tend to save a lot of imagery, not even specifically for that collection, but for the future. I also look at people around the streets and get the mood from how I’m feelSam Fender Hypersonic Missiles [Polydor] (Community Skratch Games) WASTE NOT. WANT NOT. A NEW COLLECTION AND ONLINE VENTURE SEW SUSTAINABILITY INTO THE FABRIC OF THEIR OPERATIONS. ir d her new mf The identity of Sam Fender’s north star is clear long before Hypersonic Missiles’ first sax solo. If you must ape Springsteen so brazenly, best do it convincingly. Luckily, this debut establishes the UK’s shiny new penny as no mere cut-rate knock-off. Affectionate, anthemic tales of northern England make for a region-specific brand of blue-collar heartland rock. It’s pure pastiche, but provided you’re buying what he’s selling (Brandon Flowers fronting the War on Drugs), there’s room for Sam Fender at the table. KB In addition to his position running the Alkalinear Recordings label, his status as a world-ranking Street Fighter player, and running Galway’s worldrenowned Community Skratch Games turntablism festival, Jimmy Penguin has long been one of Ireland’s most forward-thinking skratchologists and electronic musicians. A solo exploration of space previously explored in collaborative projects like Run the Jukes, Jimmy’s third long-player this year (!) continues a move into spacey, minimal, acidflecked beatmaking, most notably across nineminute jam Diamond Egg. MMGB urn t ise r e commut wao woould brain off. Thrk. Soa etimes yo otalunly diffteren t a nice little co ton ust. I used a reall e towel but anotther st d a lbmbt a p’s le rtha ver us stve h w fresen d Vivian Girls Memory [Polyvinyl Record Co.] The Raconteurs Help Us Stranger (Third Man) d w h h guess so ey t ke iaw t aord w r it t TWO JEWELLERY DESIGNERS FROM ROSCOMMON AND VENEZUELA TRACE THE PATH TO WHERE THEIR CAREERS ARE AT RIGHT NOW. WARNING — IT INVOLVED BAR WORK. lex her creative muscles again. Choy decided to h your designs? h t hos a s rong sense of their oll sligh ln sy ‘wearable’ b cau es y u co aran be s nu might o someetimse it’s h d to t urp h d abo ercihl side of y ur b uy your woen I remlised I do ’t want t e in thn image in yl ind e try.” F llo body his eph h n n be to g sev w unadul ualitt d side of her b o c a g As Jack White’s continued transition to dad-rock contrarian finds him bemoaning modern technology while continuing to benefit from it in various ways that should appear obvious, there’s no doubting the magic that his collaboration with Brendan Benson and bandmates bristled with across the first two Raconteurs albums. These curmudgeonly antics are the difference-maker on Help Us Stranger. Sadly, none of the sincerity that bled out of every wailing guitar on that first longplayer is evident. A sense of having gone to the well one too many times pervades. MMGB re oy’s l v u at leslect lle allow her ide s t cep t an e coa e a c aract st enr yoursein.e g cursing and being self-effacing when discussing the concept of the collection because it’s rea y about not giving a fuck and just being really chilled.” e wot arnd not be worried about it being commIer’ cial a d sl llin . I g on Al W16, so t m currn t een y wogrk t’ins slow y getting bherk tac ’s ge o oing hat I used to do” w to be a little cha.nge-up and be much d kar er than p Ch io s co t coio s. I n, her least cohe phcital to dphra ate since her departh e from Dunnes, ies in her reflerk, sn of a’s going ti o be a bioint w ere sh tic. It jo beeading. The d karcere wh a bi f th t o d m lle k ctioh y of Sally Mann, ture mood she creat s a woctio o it n arr val to a p t m hore roman will be a to a h m m fre le y. Ch y beocomesbtle k y but not insin er nig ts a scw ysin o dress ue con-p n. “I juer fo d up b lf Edel Traynor is stocked at Atelier 27, Drury Street, Dublin 2. You can see ore of her work at edeltraynor.com Cleo Prickett, Capulet and Montague, Callan… the labels currently holding court in Bloss read like a call sheet for the city’s hottest design talents. How fitting that this Dundrum Town Centre pop-up was conceived by two designers celebrated in their own right – Emma Manley (of Manley) and Jenny Huston (of Edge Only). With 38 established and emerging brands under the one roof, and a slick kitting-out to boot, you now know where to concentrate your Christmas wish-list. Open until January 7 @blossintl e wah oy y u think. The lastt yeler was e can uc o rorae feminine woith s me su hen dillo us ou t g th ll nctio’m looking at tmmero ogod n exercise in un c ing t a n,h t weeks, her arms were beginning to regain mobility, though not very willingly. Yet the looming deadline, says Choy, “actually helped recovery [because] I just had to do it, I just had to sew a little bit more. I think I would have been lazier about the exercises otherwise.” Six outfits later she had a collection, to disbelief of pretty much everyone including her tutors. It’s clear that Choy does not like being told what she can or can’t do. After a year long stint designing for Dunnes Stores abiding by the constraints of the commercial industry where profits trump expression every time, she felt an urge to f What kind of woman do you see wearing old an exhibition of her personal work, though she founA g l wh ’os quite coly le n able in who th’t so r ea tsilay f argottten. “They were sti aroretd habits wereney a e, w t tyle. I guess Raucous acolytes of Spector’s wall of sound, Vivian Girls were a serious proposition back in the days when people would routinely use the word “blogosphere”. Then, sadly, the trio suffered the same fate as all too many buzz bands; people moved on. The two albums that followed their lauded debut were, entirely unfairly, overlooked by many. This posthiatus return is like slipping on a beloved garment, thought to be lost forever. It’s just as comfy as you remembered and, what’s this? There’s a fiver in the pocket! DW b have ae commerciaour husad of somewing t, but tipe a ayy c , she fBLOSSd a s, BLOSS BABnYe thntinue h w en tit h er o n wnk creeaatin heir o n way collections, eacmeb h a hy w o appreciates goolo k d desig nice qtera ey, and think that thrain ay ce gaan inoin. “Y u hara t thh iece ine pn e th to t eir wardrobe as a s ap a. still breaking that down. It’s t ka en a year to enjoy thWhark ae you working on next? udio s ace at apnd I likd coat. I like eral more. I corpovete We sat down with Hannah Choy O’Byrne afterhours in Thirty Four, café below where her studio is located, to discuss her latest collection, a meditation on unlocking the spirt of our inner child and losing our inhibitions in an age when it feels like Big Brother is always watching. Jimmy Penguin Perished Rubber Refresh your Rigout... with a pair of Fake Fancys. Translation: earrings that’ll make the rest of your jewellery box jealous. €30; emmalarkindesign.com ing, and put them all together and that would be my research process. I would go on to sketch and take elements from painters I like, it tends to mostly be artists that I’m inspired by. Then I’d start toileing up and it evolves from the design work. It’s nice to sew up a few designs and see how they’re working together, and at that stage of the making I would put a critical eye to it. That’s the most exciting part of doing a collection – seeing it come to life. We produce everything in Dublin, as it’s still small scale, I would work on the samples and toiles, but my machinist sews up all of the production. It’s easily contained at the moment which is nice because I get to have control over everything and be very particular. Do you have any favourite designers or style icons? In terms of designers, I like the new wave of London designers like Craig Green, who has a really interesting style, he has a great balance of creativity and conceptual work, and still manages to be commercial. I like Faustine Steinmetz for her technique and fresh colours. I guess these are designers that have a nice signature and know their brand. I think everybody loves FKA twigs, she’s got such a cool style that I think anyone would love to see her in their clothes. Kazumi – 36 Molesworth Street – T 083-355 17 80