As Richie Egan likes to point out one day he’ll be nothing more than a dead man who played the bass from Crumlin. For this tongue-in-cheek down-to-earth attitude I admire him. But there’s no need for him to be so humble, for with Jape’s current electro-rock sound he has ascended to the throne and become King of the Irish Underground.

It may be dubious to claim that Egan is still part of the underground, after all he has been around the Dublin music scene for almost a decade now, playing with Jape and The Redneck Manifesto. But whereas contemporaries such as Glen Hansard, Damien Rice and David Kitt have all moved on to bigger things following popular interest, Egan, bar the ‘Floating’ phenomenon, has never experienced international popular acclaim.

Maybe it’s because of the type of music he creates. The Redneck Manifesto, which he leads with his bass and freewheeling aplomb, are all about instrumental barrages of riffs and tight rhythms, a sound they’ve developed over the years and which has very much become their own. In contrast Jape began as a ’stoner-folk’ side profect, acoustica tinged with electronica. Hardly then the most popular of genres. Furthermore both groups have also suffered from a wildly exuberant live sound that has failed to translate well onto record.

If you’ve ever seen The Redneck Manifesto or Jape live you’ll understand. Their shows are intense high energy affairs, which Egan directs with ineffable charm. However their albums, although technically perfect, seem flat and austere in comparison. But has the time come to address these wrongs? On June 6th (or 9th, Egan wasn’t sure) Jape will release their third full length album Ritual. With any luck it will right Egan’s track record of underperforming albums. If the show at Crawdaddy last monday is anything to go by the new material is gold.

Support was provided by Robotnik who on first appearances seemed to be a karaoke act, however his set quickly developed into a boisterous electro-folk medley. Despite obvious resemblances to the headliner, Robotnik’s crowd invasion antics and his musical tale of an affair he had in prison: ‘I Found Jesus in the Year 2027′, won over most.

Jape launched straight into ‘Chirstopher and Anthony’ before steaming ahead into a set mostly made up of new material that hinged around the monumental ‘Floating’. Their sound was heavy, with a lot more electronics and rubbling bass than The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me, despite the fact that Egan shunned his trademark instrument in favour of a guitar. ‘I Was a Man’ and the crowd pleasing ‘Phil Lynott’ especially stood out as future singalong favourites. The night was wrapped up with an acoustic two song encore culminating in a repeat performance of his self-professed favourite ‘Technology’.

If anything this show proved that they’ve still got the live appeal in buckets and spades. After an appearance at SXSW in 2007 Jape made some international waves for themselves. One year on hopefully Ritual will capitalise on on the recent momentum they’ve built up through shows at home and abroad. Let’s just hope that this time they can nail the album too.

Jape - myspace

Electro-pop from Kilkenny? That’s what Supernova Scotia provide. It’s catchy, quirky and light on the vocals. David Sheenan is the man behind the music, and with a little help from his friends, especially Jazz Panda’s Neil Quigley (who’s own lovely song ‘Chritmas Eve’ is destined to be pillaged by mobile phone marketing execs), he records and perfoms live.

Tracks such as ‘Bad Party’ and ‘Tron’ remind me somewhat of Soft Cell, while at the more instrumental end of things, between ‘Oxen’ and ‘Boredom Abroad’, Supernova Scotia’s obvious talent for making great little electro-pop gems shines. They just go to show that as more and more young Irish electronic artists emerge there is no dilution of quality. In contrast, home-grown electronic music is currently blooming and with the endeavours of such acts is becoming a stronger genre by the day.

Supernova Scotia - myspace

Boredom can lead to terrible things. However it can have unexpected results if properly channelled. So to complement Gareth’s post below about Sigur Rós’ movie Heima, I bring you to other end of the earth to showcase the results of boredom, in just as breathtaking surroundings, at the south pole.

At the British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera Research Station a group of scientists recorded a great song made entirely with household implements and the few acoustic instruments they had to hand. They then filmed a short video for it and uploaded it to YouTube for the world’s perusal. Considering how it was made it’s actually a lovely track.

Who ever said there was only one cure for boredom?

Warning: there’s no sound for the first bit so don’t blow your eardrums by turning the volume up.

This year is a leap year. That means there are 29 days in February. Imagine that, one whole extra day to just take off and do as you will! So I decided a day of musical indulgence would be best. But it seems that the gods have once again ruined all my plans for fun, for Menomena, Fuck Buttons, SebastiAn, I Was A Cub Scout and You’re Only Massive all play Dublin the same night!

This Friday Menomena bring their brand of post-rock goodness to The Sugar Club, while Fuck Buttons create some ‘euphoric noise’ at Whelan’s. Meanwhile indie pop-rockers I Was A Cub Scout will be playing the Voodoo Lounge and the Shell 2 Sea Benefit at the Lower Deck boasts Herv’s breakcore, You’re Only Massive’s techno rapping and more post-rock from Hounds. Later on SebastiAn will be laying it down at Spy, but only if you’ve already bagged some tickets cause it’s already sold out.

Do you see the predicament? So what will I be doing this Friday? Probably sitting at home cursing the calendar and the heavens for this astrological anomaly and the conflicting scheduling it has inspired, while trying not to imagine the musical delights I could be enjoying if i wasn’t so indecisive.

Now that the renovations are all finished, Whelan’s is looking better than ever. Although some may lament old-worldy messiness of old Whelan’s the extra space means more room for all at the busier gigs, surely a good thing even though there’s still a bottleneck at the bar. So to break it in and to acclimatise myself to these new surrounds I spent the week going to gigs all in the same venue. Well technically it was more like eight days, but that’s not the point though because over the week I caught Super Extra Bonus Party, Nouveaunoise,You’re Only Massive, Boss Volenti, New Amusement and Sons and Daughters all at Whelan’s.

This all started last Saturday with Nouveaunoise. Although their live show has little to recommend it, they are as interesting as two guys behind laptops can be on stage, their music redeemed them. It isn’t for everyone but their sprawling live electronic collages are hypnotic and enjoyable if you like that sort of thing. Certainly one to watch for the future and one for fans of Four Tet to check out. On the other hand although Super Extra Bonus Party can seem a bit dull on record, for these guys the live show is where it’s at. They were like a deranged circus troupe, dancing, jumping, thrashing guitars and hammering out beats with such enthusiasm that you couldn’t help getting swept up in the energy. I do have one gripe with them tough, I just wish their songs were a better. Sure they’re fun, but they’re not going to be blowing minds anytime soon despite the Portuguese rapping.

The next double bill then was Boss Volenti being supported by You’re Only Massive. This was a strange pairing and the crowd who mostly seemed to be there for Boss Volenti knew it. Their lukewarm response to You’re Only Massive’s electronic stylings was in stark contrast to the warm reception they gave Boss Volenti. However in my books You’re Only Massive were easily the better act. Sound and image wise Boss Volenti are stuck in a time warp, they desperately seem to want to be the new Thin Lizzy. However even the presence of ex-Therapy? drummer Graham Hopkins can’t save them. In contrast You’re Only Massive are so fresh for an Irish act that putting them on the same bill as Boss Volenti’s nostalgia parade seemed ridiculous. The result was that they rightly showed up the headliners and played a great set despite the crowd’s ambivalence. Since talking to Analogue in Issue 1 they’ve made plans for their summer 32 County Tour, a fantastic idea, and their musical-walking tour of Dublin DISCO-NNECT in June.

Finally the week ended last night with Glasgow’s Sons and Daughters, supported by New Amusement, another young indie rock band. This proved to be the one show of the week where the support act didn’t show up the headliner. Sons and Daughters were on form. They are currently touring on the back of their latest album This Gift, so a lot of new material was the order of the day. It’s a lot rockier than their previous output, but it lends itself well to the stage because they really seemed to be enjoying themselves playing in this harder mould. It was met with mutual enjoyment, for Whelan’s was packed to the gills with fans who held out to the end on this cold Sunday night. Once they were gone however it still wasn’t the end for me as there was some sort of country and western hoe-down going on in the main bar, but it had been a long week and from here on in it all gets a bit fuzzy…

What comes to mind think of when you think of Neil Young? A pacifist folkie strumming away with Dylan and Mitchell, a hard rocking guitar hero, the Godfather of Grunge? Maybe you remember him for Trans…. Whichever it is, you wouldn’t think of Young as a lecherous old geezer; a hard drinking, womanising, troublemaker. Nonetheless this is the persona  which Young assumes for his best song in years: Dirty Old Man, a pure slab of Crazy Horse wonder which out-shines all the other tracks on his latest album Chrome Dreams II.

Young’s been very prolific in recent years, especially considering his close brush with death due to a brain aneurysm in 2005. However all his recent albums have had a very conceptual basis. This began with Greendale back in 2003, his astonishingly good melodramatic hillbilly opera. Since then they all seem to have been experimental exercises in theme or genre. Prairie Wind was a hark back to Harvest era folkieness, Living with War was his attempt to reinstate the power of the protest song. Chrome Dreams II however is an entirely different kettle of ferrets. It’s a sequel to the unreleased original Chrome Dreams, which was planned but unfortunately shelved in 1977 in favour of American Stars and Bars. The original included Like a Hurricane, an acoustic version of Powderfinger, Welfare Mothers and Pocahontas to name just the very best. As a result, the title of this release is striking statement of Young’s belief in these songs.

It starts with a harmonica, some lilting guitar and suddenly we’re wondering whether Beautiful Bluebird is a cutting floor victim from Harvest. Is this 1972? The second track Boxcar gets things moving a bit, it’s got an Ohio vibe to it and ghostly backing vocals, nonetheless it still feels dated. This is because the first three tracks of Chrome Dreams II are all relics of the eighties from the This Note’s for You era.  Ordinary People is the third of these, an eighteen minute long dirge of traditional Young verse/solo composition. Bombastic horn arrangements smother all the instrumental passages and even when we do get to hear a bit of Young’s guitar licks they seem tired and worn, with none of the fieriness of Cowgirl in the Sand or Cinnamon Girl. Although these have been live standards for years, they’ve never been recorded before, and in truth there’s no real need to air them now. Despite this Ordinary People has been a firm favourite in Young’s live repertoire for years. We were bound to see it released at some stage, though in this current form it’s only a chore to listen to.

The rest of the album is melange of new songs in different styles, but two themes thread all the tracks together: old-age and, Neil’s old favourite, the open road. Shining Light, The Way and The Believer all tie in the old-age theme in a slightly corny but soul-infused way. This is a style that Young has flirted with before but never fully embraced. The Way especially encapsulates this, with its very lo-fi Beatles-esque sound. It’s a wonder to hear Young trying something that for him sounds fresh. It’s a sweet sixties-pop gem. Whereas Spirit Road and No Hidden Path run the same gauntlet of hippie-rock nostalgia that he’s tread countless times before. Dirty Old Man is without a doubt the highlight of Chrome Dreams II. It rocks. Really hard. In the way you want Neil to rock; completely fuzzed out with lashings of blasted solos and that Crazy Horse pounding that sounds like the hooves of the great Lakota’s mount thundering across the plains. It’s also comic, try imagining Neil as filthy old man; drunk, sneering at women and starting fights he’s bound to lose. To top it off it has the haunting sense of melancholy that all his best songs contain, a sense that this may be a tragedy, but the feeling is too ambiguous for us to pin down.

Chrome Dreams II has been released at a time when many were expecting the release of the Archives box set they have been anticipating for years. An eight disc box set of live recordings, b-sides and rough cuts from Young’s long and meandering career seems like the perfect way to cap off the work one of popular music’s rock legends . This probably isn’t going to appear any time soon though. Young is like Madonna, constantly shifting, changing and looking for new creative outlets. Unlike the Harlot-Queen of Pop though, these aren’t motivated by any desire to conform to marketing department demands; he follows his own muse. Although in recent years she has led him astray, to create some boring and sometimes puzzling work; with Chrome Dreams II, Neil Young is back on track to creating not essential, and maybe not great, but certainly good and solid eclectic albums in the style of After the Goldrush. If he continues at this rate, don’t expect Archives anytime time soon. Mr. Young just remember; rust never sleeps.

Strawberry Jam sounds like an SNES drowning. That at least is the first impression you get from the opening synth freak-out of ‘Peacebone’. However gradually a lurching rhythm is beaten out of the messy salvo of noise, and as it turns itself inside out, clear melodic vocals catch you and transport you into the world of Animal Collective. Their world is dark and claustrophobic, but beams of light manage to pierce through the massing clouds overhead, lighting your way through the beast they have created.

The epic and hysterical ‘For Reverend Green’ builds into a disorientating and draining attack, but one which is laden with sweet hooks. It provides a fulcrum around which the other songs turn, on this relatively short album at nine tracks. The disappointing ‘Winter Wonder Land’ and the noise barrage of ‘Cuckoo Cuckoo’ are lumped into the second half of the disc. However the closer ‘Derek’, with it’s squelchy ‘under the sea’ a la Little Mermaid vibe, provides gentle release after the tumult of the previous forty minutes. But it is rather from ‘Peacebone’ through to ‘Fireworks’, that the real magic happens. ‘Unsolved Mysteries’, provides a ballad of sorts set to chopping beats and ‘Chores’ launches into attacks that constantly deconstruct and rebuild themselves. As for ‘Fireworks’ it is the beautiful come-down after the assault by the ‘For Reverend Green’

There is no doubt that this be could the standout album of the year. They have drawn a lot of their sound from the electronic meanderings of Black Dice, and Avey Tare and co-vocalist Panda Bear have started to sound like Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. These aren’t bad things especially since Animal Collective couple them with a perfect balance of the humdrum, the fantastic and the menacing in their often indecipherable lyrics. On a first listen it may seem at times senseless and primal, but it’s a definite grower and the rewards offered by Animal Collectives pop sensibilities are nothing short of majestic.

“Strawberry Jam” by Animal Collective is released on Domino on the 14th September.
Animal Collective play Tripod on the 4th November.