FRIDAY
I Am the Cosmos
Named after former Big Star member Chris Bell's 1992 solo album (although possibly just as equally inspired by This Mortal Coil's cover version?), and greased by Japanese motorik rhythms, Dublin's I Am The Cosmos aim hypnotically high and always hit the target.
Samaris
Icelandic trio create the kind of electronic sounds that Icelandic musicians create so well. Think dreamy glitches teamed up with lines and lyrics culled from 19th-century Icelandic poems. Warning: not as pretentious as it sounds.
George Ezra
Another young dude (just turned 21), another highly talented songwriter, another recently released debut album (Wanted on Voyage). Ezra's voice, like so many referencing the past, has been described as beyond his years, but that doesn't take away from the fact that his acoustic blues/folk/pop touches contemporary spots.
SATURDAY
Haim
San Fernando Valley sisters Alana, Danielle and Este Haim (and male drummer Dash Hutton – but, seriously, who'll be looking at him?) nail the folk-meets-Fleetwood-Mac-meets-'90s-R&B vibe like little you've ever heard before.
Hozier
You know the Wicklow boy by this stage – wiry of frame, long of hair, sweet of voice. He is also the humble writer of some of the best tunes this side of Stevie Wonder's shades.
Sam Smith
Londoner Sam Smith is yet another young bloke (just turned 22) out of the traps like a greyhound. Having first come to notice via Disclosure's tune, Latch, and Naughty Boy's La La La, Smith has hit real paydirt with his recently released unrequited-love-affair debut album, In the Lonely Hour. If he's channeling the likes of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding – with a soupcon of Mariah Carey – then so be it.
SUNDAY
James Vincent McMorrow
Those songs. That voice. This is all you need to know.
Banks
Los Angeles-based Jillian Banks makes her Irish debut, and anticipation is extremely high for the songwriter's display of smart beats, sinewy rhythms and insightful, confessional lyrics. Reference points are, perhaps, unnecessary, but if you like your Lana Del Rays and your Lordes, well, then…
First Aid Kit
Two twentysomething sisters from Sweden channelling the spirits of early Emmylou Harris and the lost souls of Laurel Canyon. And Klara and Johanna Soderberg have manage it so well that you'd swear they weren't where they say they're from.
New Jackson
There's no longer any mystery as to who New Jackson is, but those who think that Irish singer-songwriter David Kitt (who is also currently helping out David Gray on the live front) is something of a one-trick pony should listen sharpish to the propulsive likes of Sat Around Here Waiting and synth-dance tune Jam on Summer.
