nessymon.com

Category: Music Review

  • Stephanie Rainey: The One Review

    Stephanie Rainey‘The One’ is the debut single from Stephanie Rainey. The Cork chaunteuse has a clear crisp vocals and the track is reminiscent of early Kelly Clarkson with a slight AOR twinge. It’s a mid tempo track and a really good debut. Rainey writes well for her voice and production on the track is very clean, almost too clean, a nice dirty guitar slightly higher in the mix would do the trick. As a debut single though, this shows Rainey as a competent songwriter.

    ‘Hold On’ builds up beautifully and shows Stephanie Rainey as potentially a fantastic artist. On this track Rainey shows variations in her voice and understanding of a decent song structure. I’d like to hear a slightly grittier musical backing to counterbalance Rainey’s pure vocals but this is a great start from the Cork lady.

  • Each Small Candle: Album Review

    Each Small CandleEach Small Candle is a seventeen track project brought together by the second year music technology students in Cavan Institute. Mostly acoustic in nature the album shows a cross section of Cavan Artists.

    The album features Shouting At Planes, Lisa O’Neil, C O’Neil & Co and Daire O’Reilly along with many others this writer hadn’t heard before. The styles throughout also vary from traditional, to blues and dance, yes dance.

    There are a few nice surprises on the album including the Dara Stacke’s Mr Snooze, a country punk track I wasn’t expecting and Sean Maguire’s sublime ‘Two Swans on The Lake’. It’s understated Americana with great guitar and subtle backing vocals.

    One of my favourite tracks on the album is John O’Grady’s atmospheric ‘Anyone’. O’Grady’s delicate voice counterbalances isolated string plucks until everything rises, then falls away again. I really want to hear more from his artist. Plus the production from the students, shows a hell of a lot of potential.

    Just when it seems the compilation is winding down, the last two tracks provide a pleasant kick. Dance music made in Cavan isn’t something I would ever have written about. Ciaran Farrelly’s ‘You Got Me Thinking’ is a funky house track while Gary Maguire’s ‘Uneven’ could easily be a club anthem. Surprised? Yes I am!

    Each Small Candle is a great insight into the current Cavan music scene and shows it’s diversity well.  Well worth a listen and what’s more all proceeds from the sale go to Sosad.

  • Stephen Young & The Union: Wilderness Machine Review

    stephen young albumStephen Young is an artist who blurs the boundaries while enticing you into his brand of country folk. There seems to be more than that though, as on this record, Young also stops off at Jazztown for a bit.

    In his press release, Young is quoted as saying “the concept of the album is loosely based on a character, who left his hometown after the break-up of a relationship and the death of a close friend. He moves to a remote house in the mountains where he writes a series of letters that lead to a novel.” Interesting but can he deliver throughout?

    Lead single, ‘Coke and Rum’ starts off the album at break neck speed. This track is pure contemporary Americana, country blues updated with subtle production effects. Maybe I’m reading too much into the whole ‘concept’ feel but ‘Fairbanks’ has a drum beat reminiscent of a train, a beautiful guitar sound and subtle strings. Here, for some reason, Young sounds uncannily like Brendan Murphy of The 4 of us. Like this one a lot. (more…)

  • Lethal Dialect: LD50 Album Review

    Lethal DialectIrish rap hasn’t had a great, rep, really. Thanks to some really bad wannabes getting press, Irish Hip hop has been viewed by many as a joke. This means a lot of the serious rap and hip hop artists of the country are still underground and unknown.  With his new album ‘LD50’, Lethal Dialect does more than his fair share to dispel the myth.

    Before the rap stylings, before the Dublin accent, the first thing I notice is how good the production is. This is what a producer is supposed to do, take an artist and make them marketable and sellable in a particular genre. This sounds like proper hiphop as you would hear in a US or French suburb.

    ‘The Beginning’ starts with a city soundscape and a couple of American voices before Lethal Dialect delivers. Yes, he has a Dublin accent but the accent shouldn’t make any difference as Lethal Dialect puts gritty rhymes together with ease. (more…)