On the record

JIM CARROLLon music

THERE’S ONE kind of story which is sadly becoming all too familiar on the live music beat. The recent fatalities at a Steve Aoki show in Madrid and a Linkin Park show in Cape Town show that the health and safety concerns around live music events are not something to be taken lightly.

The reports from Madrid cite gig-goers talking about slack security and overcrowding at the 12,000-capacity arena. In the wake of the event, official reports from 2006 and 2010 were uncovered which criticised the venue’s health and safety provisions.

In Cape Town, it was the collapse of an advertising hoarding erected by Lucozade in the parking area outside the venue which led to one death and many injuries.

These incidents follow the incidents in summer 2011 when deaths occurred at Belgium’s Pukkelpop festival and a Sugarland show at the Indiana State Fair. Stage collapses occurred in 2011 at shows by Cheap Trick and the Flaming Lips, while a stage collapse at a Radiohead show in Toronto last June caused the death of a member of the band’s crew.

Concern about health and safety and security issues will not be new to Irish music fans, following the brouhaha around last summer’s Swedish House Mafia show in the Phoenix Park, or the problems which marred the Oasis show in Slane in June 2009.

While fans may feel that some security measures are over-zealous and unnecessary, it should be remembered that the alternative is not very wholesome . Irish promoters of all sizes and stripes have a good track record when it comes to health and safety at live shows so let’s hope that’s one area which isn’t cut back to save costs in the future.

New music

RATKING

New York collective fusing bratty hip-hop and exuberent hardcore attitude along similar lines to Odd Future and early Beastie Boys. Album due from from MCs Hak and Wiki (aka Irish-American Patrick Morales) and producers Sporting Life and Ramon in 2013 on XL.

[ twitter.com/ratking ]

PARADISE

London duo Paradise’s latest track, Endless Wave, is a bit of an instant earworm, one of those nigh-on-perfect indie anthems which promises much greatness to come. You’ll find yourself returning to its blissful sway time and time again.

paradiselovesyou.band camp.com

MØ

Sweet, charming and robust electropop with a little touch of Grimes here and a little dab of Lykke Li there from Danish vocalist Karen Marie Ørsted. Tunes to date such as Pilgrim and Maiden show Ørsted already knows her way around sophisticated, soulful pop.

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