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AUDIO Andrew Lambert Danny Wilson Grimes Miss Ant
hropocene [4AD] Best Coast Always Tomorrow [Concord] Five years on from Grimes ascension to the electro pop throne on Art Angels, Claire Boucher is back with a vengeance on Miss Anthropocene. While her 2015 landmark album perfected Grimes’ gift for combining pure pop melodies with a hardcore electronic aesthetic, Miss Anthropocene is a darker and more subtle affair, weaving a host of curious samples and sounds featuring everything from Bollywood samples to banjos. These kinds of seemingly disjointed styles could only find harmony when stealthily layered under Grimes’ unique brand of dreamy synthpop, which simultaneously explores soft and sinister territory throughout these 44 minutes. Boucher alternates between accessible and alienating as skilfully as ever across ten tracks – for all the chilled vibes of the euphonious Delete Forever and Violence (a concept track about humans abusive relationship with Earth which boasts an infectious beat despite its potentially hokey theme), the 31-yearold retains the whale song vocals and industrial ambience of her early years, best exemplified on ominous opener So Heavy I Fell… and lead single, 4ÆM, a self-professed ‘cyberpunk interpretation’ of Bollywood film Bajirao Mastani. Ultimately, the idea of Miss Anthropocene as a concept album about climate change never really translates due to its vague execution, yet while the message may be somewhat lost, the music never fails – this is the euphoric sound of a visionary artist still at her undeniable peak. AL Like This? Try These: Bjork – Homogenic FKA Twigs – LP1 Purity Ring – Shrines A certain veneration of bubblegum simplicity was always key to Bethany Cosentino’s Best Coast project, ever since she arrived on the scene with her (still magical) debut single, Sun Was High (So Was I). Whereas her earliest work - with its preoccupation with cats, weed, teen romance and little else – was playfully shallow, her more recent dispatches feel less like the sun-kissed transmissions of an untroubled mind and more like slices of wafer-thin Haim. Always Tomorrow’s personality-less by-thenumbers riffs continues with this Hindenburgian trend; recalling, as it does, Weezer’s on-going, interminable twilight. DW Hilary Woods Birthmarks [Sacred Bones] The latest full length from moody multi-disciplinarian, Hilary Woods, marks another leap in the erstwhile JJ72 bassist’s musical metamorphosis. Principally recorded while heavily pregnant; Birthmarks’ eight deeply ambient, richly appointed tracks can be read as a meditation on one’s own selfhood and what it means to gestate another life while facing an uncertain future – to put it generously. Birthmarks’ unique alchemy is born of its juxtapositions, as rumbling, brutal tones evolve into more delicate, ethereal textures and vice-versa as Woods and Co. playfully blur the line between unorthodox percussion, woodwinds and studio trickery. DW Tame Impala The Slow Rush [Universal] Soakie Soakie [La Vida Es Un Mus] The cult audience amassed by Tame Impala over the past decade is a rare thing in the modern rock landscape. Yet, The Slow Rush finds Kevin Parker ready to evolve, as he adapts the band’s sound for a mainstream audience. The result is a psychedelic pop dreamscape, tinged with lush disco and funk elements. While somewhat lacking the immediately arresting nature of Lonerism and Currents, Parker’s now characteristically glorious production suggests fans old and new will find little to complain about here. AL With seven tracks delivered in about 15 minutes, Soakie’s vicious, unrelenting debut most certainly does not overstay its welcome, not that this bracingly confrontational foursome display much concern with whether they are welcome or not. In fact, one gets the impression that Soakie relish a cold shoulder. They are, after all, directing some of their most venomous ire toward members of their own scene, most pointedly on Boys on Stage and What’s your Gender. Timeless hardcore driven by distinctly modern concerns, Soakie’s debut heralds the arrival of an irresistible new force in punk. DW Now Open 29 South Anne St, Dublin 2 Tel. 01 531 4491 80