It has been a golden year for Irish music. With this in mind, we asked four of our critics to flex their journalistic muscles and apply the hack mantra of five Ws and one H to the year’s finest
O EMPEROR
WHO?The Waterford quintet have been attracting critical acclaim since debut single Po in late 2009. They are led by frontmen Paul Savage and Phil Christie. They started out in a band called Saviours of Space, before morphing into one of the country's best folk-rock bands.
WHAT?What's so special about them? Their songwriting nous is startling for a relatively young band. Their piano- and guitar-focused songs are crafted with subtlety and warmth. Don't dismiss them as woolly-jumper folkies.
WHEN?We knew O Emperor were a bit special the first time we saw them, at last year's Hard Working Class Heroes festival. Their harmonies were striking, the musicianship tight. That performance also impressed Universal Ireland, which offered them a deal.
WHERE?To begin? Debut album Hither Thitheris a very fine starting point, nodding to classic songwriters Neil Young and James Taylor, and contemporary acts Grizzly Bear and Midlake.
WHY?Bother? Because they're the perfect band to see you through the chilly winter nights. Their music is as snug as a hot-water bottle filled with gloopy hot chocolate. And a shot of whiskey, for that extra kick.
HOW?How can they build on their Irish success? By getting the right support tours, radio shows and press coverage in the UK. We have every faith they can triumph.
CAP PAS CAP
WHO?This Dublin four-piece have been around since 2005, although their current line-up isn't the one they started out with. Vocalist Gavin Duffy departed in 2008, and the remaining members decided to forge ahead. Guitarist and sometime vocalist Grainne Donohue took the mic full-time, giving them a fresh dynamic.
WHAT?What sort of music? They're in thrall to the kind of angular guitar riffs and quirky grooves that Krautrock bands Can and Neu! perfected in the 1970s, yet there's a very modern quality to their sound too, buoyed by the big, fat streak of danceable electronica running through their new material.
WHEN?They first came to our attention with excellent debut EP Not Not Is Fine. Its driving post-punk melodies, yelping vocals and unrelenting pace stood out from an Irish scene that was still finding its feet at the time. The excellent, long-awaited debut album Haunted Lightsees the foursome tread new ground.
WHERE?Their past material has been picked up by Japanese label Rally/Klee. With the right moves, they could make inroads into the American underground, too.
WHY?Bother? Cap Pas Cap are a genuinely exciting band, unafraid to experiment, dripping in potential, and are one of the finest acts on the Irish underground scene.
HOW?To hear them? The album is out on Skinny Wolves Records (run by bassist Jamie Farrell), and available on iTunes and Spotify. Gig details at myspace.com/cappascap
OTHER FAVOURITES
The Ambience Affair
Strands
Enemies
Not Squares
Grand Pocket Orchestra
LAUREN MURPHY
TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB
WHO?Three electropop stars from Bangor, Co Down who've had a brilliant year with their Tourist History album.
WHAT?It seems as if Alex Trimble, Kevin Baird and Sam Halliday have gone from zeros to heroes overnight – the band have said parental pressure to get real jobs spurred them on.
HOW?Tunes such as Something Good Can Workand I Can Talkhave pushed them to the top of the queue. Their snappy tunes go oops-upside-your-head every time.
WHERE?Aside from becoming a favourite fix for radio DJs looking to send out good vibes, you'll also have heard them soundtracking a ton of adverts, seen them selling out venues all over Ireland, the UK and Europe and perhaps caught them on various festival stages.
WHEN?While there has been a spot of next-big-thing fuss around the band since forming in 2007 and signing to French label Kitsune last year, 2010 was when everything went supernova. A year ago they pulled about 100 people to a show in Dublin. Now a sell-out Irish tour in much larger rooms is on the cards.
WHY?Their Electric Picnic appearance that put the lid on it for us. A rammed big top on Sunday evening with everyone and their kid sister going hell for leather as the band played one perfect pop tune after another. If the band continue to write tunes as good as Something Good Can Work,the sky's the limit.
SHIT ROBOT
WHO?DJ and producer Marcus Lambkin.
WHAT?A beautiful, groovy-as-hell album called From the Grave to the Rave, which brings two decades of house, techno and electronic music together under one glitter ball. The album features production from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and collaborations with Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor, The Juan MacLean's Nancy Whang and The Make-Up's Ian Svenonius, all put together with love and devotion by Lambkin.
WHERE?Lambkin was born in Dublin and now lives in the German countryside, but it was in New York City that he turned into Shit Robot, when he began DJing, running Plant record label and producing there.
WHEN?Though he landed in New York in the early 1990s, it's only in recent years that Shit Robot records have begun to appear. Lambkin wouldn't have got started without James Murphy shouting at him to start producing his own tracks. Lambkin and Murphy shared space in a New York building before DJing at Shit Robot parties in the Plant bar.
WHY?The grooves. There's depth and width here, ranging from brawny disco wig-outs such as Tuff Enuff to album standout Simple Things, which builds into a totally unexpected, wonderful hands-in-the-air house anthem.
HOW?Lambkin will continue to promote Shit Robot as a DJ – he supported LCD Soundystem in Dublin last weekend and is doing the same tomorrow for Underworld at the RDS. But he won't be doing a live show: "I think it would be very difficult to put together a live show for that record", he says. "If I was going to do it, I'd want to do it right. I'm not going to stand onstage with a laptop. That would be foolish."
OTHER FAVOURITES
Melodica Deathship
Jennifer Evans
Niamh de Barra
Cathy Davey
Cloud Castle Lake
Imelda May
DJ Kormac's Big Band
Squarehead
The Casanova Wave
JIM CARROLL
RICHIE EGAN
WHO?The bassist with instrumental post-rockers The Redneck Manifesto. Makes half-pensive, half-party music as Jape. Richie Egan has been making music most of his life, but it's his willingness to almost invert his past work on each subsequent project that makes him so interesting.
WHAT?Apart from releasing the best Redneck Manifesto album yet ( Friendship) this year, he has just launched a project called VisionAir. Teamed up with fellow Redneck Niall Byrne, the duo is all about old-school synths, cosmic compositions and subtle beats. Their recent EP, Autumn, is available for free download – worth it for the oriental pulse of Trolls Hat and the hypnotic Totem alone.
WHEN?Last year he won the Choice Music Prize as Jape, and if the judges know anything, this year The Redneck Manifestoalbum should be on the shortlist. After the release of VisionAir's EP, there will be a much-anticipated full-length in 2011.
WHY?Why is he so good? Egan is a musical shape-shifter, happy belting out frantic tunes with The Redneck Manifesto, gearing down to heartfelt compositions as Jape and now creating bleeping, woozy masterpieces as VisionAir. He is a prolific collaborator and remixer, and a regular live performer. Why isn't he bigger outside of Ireland?
WHERE?The Redneck Manifesto play Dublin's Button Factory on Wednesday, December 1st. Jape plays the same venue on December 17th. VisionAir play the Somadrone launch on December 18th at Block T, Smithfield, Dublin.
NOT SQUARES
WHO?Michael Kinloch, Keith Winter and Ricki O'Rawe have a predilection for non-geometric killer tunes. They released single Asylum(with Bi Kan Na on the flipside) earlier this year, and followed it up with the stomping Release the Bees.
WHAT?Belfast has spewed out some of the best Irish bands of the past two years. From And So I Watch You From Afarto Girls Names, the city's noise ethic has distinguished itself.
WHEN?They formed in Belfast in 2008, and built their frenetic sound by playing a lot, and throwing themselves around practice rooms with various instruments. Today sees the release of their debut album Yeah OK, an electro-frenzy of beats and synths.
WHY?You should like them for insistent blitzes like Yeah!, Ojos Para Volarand Don't Do Nothing(all on Yeah OK) but you should really, really go and see them play. The Not Squares live experience is squared to the power of nth.
WHERE?They're touring with Two Door Cinema Club, and play Belfast's Mandela Hall on December 7th, Dublin's Tripod on December 8th and Galway's Black Box Theatre on December 9th. They also play the Richter Collective Christmas party on December 22nd at Dublin's Button Factory.
Yeak OK is CD Choice
OTHER FAVOURITES
Meljoann
Dinah Brand
Villagers
Cloud Castle Lake
Sacred Animals
And So I Watch You From Afar
Babybeef
Solar Bears
At Last an Atlas
Angkorwat
SINEAD GLEESON
STRANDS
WHO?Strands is the umbrella title of Dublin-based producer and musician Stephen Shannon, who has overseen sonic adventures by Irish acts Adrian Crowley, Babybeef, David Turpin, Cap Pas Cap and many others. He is a sometime member of Adrian Crowley's live band, a member of the excellent electronic act Halfset and the go-to geezer if you want your album to sound like it's going somewhere, while his recording studio, Experimental Audio, is well-named.
WHAT?Strands is the man, and the man is Strands. The indivisibility of the two is what makes their/his debut album (also called Strands) so pleasurable. The album is stuffed with largely instrumental music that references not just the open-ended sense of experimentation that Shannon clearly loves, but also innate melodic sensibilities and a special sonic ambience. Could Shannon be Ireland's Daniel Lanois?
WHERE?Where does the music come from, you mean? Well, we hear clear references dating back to the halcyon days of the Virgin record label, when exploratory bands such as Henry Cow and Slapp Happy were engaging in fusing alt.pop music (though it wasn't called that then) with a strict experimental, wilfully anti-commercial edge.
WHEN?There is nothing anti-commercial about any aspect of Strands, although we have yet to hear any of the album being played on daytime radio. When can we expect to, then? When pigs fly, perhaps?
WHY?Shannon had to make a solo record, probably because he was becoming more associated with being a background technician and musician than a focal point.
HOW?Collectively, Strands proves that Shannon is as sure-footed incognito as he is uncovered.
OLIVER COLE
WHO?He used to be in an Irish band called Turn, who in the early Noughties were tipped by quite a few as being definite contenders, ones to watch, and so on. There was a slight problem, however, in that Turn weren't really much cop. Without waiting for the ship to sink, Cole – then known chummily as Ollie, but now rather more officiously as Oliver – eventually jumped overboard, faffed around for a year or two, and then travelled over to Freiburg, Germany. After several months, he had the nuts and bolts of his debut solo album, We Albatri, which he released in March of this year to much acclaim and a prestigious Ticket CD Choice slot.
WHAT?They say heartache and a long, stern look in the mirror are ideal for firming one up to accept home truths and admitting deceit, and We Albatri is nothing if not scorchingly honest.
WHERE?In six months' time, hopefully Cole will be holed up in another small European town, his heart broken, his beard bristling with bitterness, his mind buzzing with doubt, his head throbbing with displeasure.
WHEN?We first heard raw imprints of the songs from We Albatri at Other Voices in Dingle late last year. Having disliked Turn so much, seeing Cole deliver songs of such simplicity was a salutary, surprising lesson.
WHY?Affectations of the rock-band format have been sent packing, and in its place is a bloke, broken yet unbowed, who has managed to channel the good, the bad and the decidedly ugly into a collection of songs that match Elliott Smith for their candour, and a batch of power-pop bands for their melodies.
HOW?You mean how does Cole write such good songs? Simple – he's a man out for emotional revenge. His pain equals our joy. A fair exchange.
OTHER FAVOURITES
Ham Sandwich
The Flaws
Brad Pitt Light Orchestra
Halves
Redneck Manifesto
Villagers
Cathy Davey
Adebisi Shank
Divine Comedy
TONY CLAYTON-LEA
