Author Archives: Dean Van Nguyen

Even within a tightly knit Dublin music scene so quick to glorify its innovators, Stano feels like a man apart.

“In this dream world, Dulu wanders soundscapes that feel endless in every direction, each song resembling fragments of different half-remembered hallucinations.”

Seán Keenan and Gearóid Peggs – buddies “separated by sea, producing remotely from Dublin and London” – have spent the longest year recording nostalgic tunes.

“I like a certain amount of tradition, such as the long-form music project, and ‘92 Degrees’ is, for me, the most complete drill release this island has produced yet. If this isn’t the best Irish album in a while, it’s for sure the hardest.”

“In a way, Róisín Machine finally brings her around to the kind of record that might have launched her star in the mid-2000s,” writes Dean Van Nguyen on the Irish disco musician.

“The video for ‘Up De Flats’ is a show of hometown pride in a corner of the city too often degraded and denigrated.”

Ailbhe Reddy’s “Personal History” and Kean Kavanagh’s “Dog Person” are two debut albums with vastly different perspectives on coming-of-age in the city.

“In Waiting” is “a classic Irish guitar music debut, a proud affirmation of queerness, the power and the peril of organised religion, and a love letter to Dublin”.

“Perhaps the most interesting thing about the ‘Who’s Asking’ remixes is that they assert the idea of sub-scenes within the Irish rap lexicon.”

“Garrett’s voice is an interesting instrument. For sure he’s a smooth performer, but his singing conveys an unusual and expressive tension.”