12 acts to see at Ireland Music Week

The Cliffords

Friday – The Button Factory – 21.55

The Cork band have shown themselves to be purveyors of fine melodic indie-rock since their first song ‘Sleeping With Ghosts’ which was released in February.

Their debut EP Strawberry Scented collected the band’s first five songs in April and they’ve since picked up management with Tara Richardson (ex Q Prime)

Ireland Music Week is a great opportunity to see them in Dublin this week, ahead of their Dublin and Cork shows in November.

The band are guitarist and singer Iona Lynch, bass and trumpet player Gavin Dawkins, lead guitarist Harry Menton, drummer Daniel Ryan and Locon O’Toole on keys.

Ahmed, With Love.

Thursday – Button Factory – 20.50

Dublin/Sierra Leonean rapper Ahmed Karim Tamu is already prolific on the Dublin rap scene, having collaborated with Curtisy, Lips2Ears, Kojaque, Chameleon, Rory Sweeney and Khakikid among others.

With his debut mixtape just over a week away, Ahmed, With Love is taking the spotlight for himself, with thoughtful and vibey hip-hop tracks, drawing influence from Tyler, The Creator (clue is in the name) and Brazilian bossa nova and tropicalia too.

Daire Heffernan

Friday – Grand Social Loft – 20.20

The Dublin songwriter Daire Heffernan’s music has taken on a sheen of vintage indie dream pop and shoegaze.

Alongside that, Heffernan has displayed a Phoebe Bridgers melodic vocal sound, that is anything but one-dimensional.

The most recent release since May’s The Wolf Called Desire EP, is the just-out starry indie single ‘I Have the Fear’.

DeCarteret

Thursday – The Button Factory – 19.50

Another fruitful collaborator is the Clare artist Decartet who has released songs with Khakikid, Qbanaa, Ahmed, With Love  1000 Beasts, and Bricknasty.

Decarteret’s music draws on lofi beats, R&B, classical, pop, jazz and neo-soul.

I Dreamed I Dream

Friday – Button Factory – 20.55

The Cork ‘experimental no-wave bitch-punk’ five-piece marked themselves as ones to watch with their debut EP Why Say a Lot?

The 2023 EP featured shoegaze, sean-nós-style vocals, blistering anti misogyny noise-rock with meme-able lyrics (“We’re going gigging girlies”) and a catchy punky ode to the bass guitar.

FYNCH

Thursday – Crowbar Terrace – 21.20

The Dublin rapper says his 2024 debut album Youngfella “deals with a raft of issues which are directly impacted by Dublin’s housing crisis, with topics of emigration, nightlife, family, friendships and relationships.”

The album captures the essence of a young man navigating early adulthood, making plans with friends, living with your parents and bigging up your parish, with a soft focus Dublin brogue and a gift for a great line in the mix.

Patricia Lalor

Friday – Crowbar Terrace – 20.30

Wexford artist Patricia Lalor arrived as a 14 year old in 2020, and is back releasing music.

It’s still early days for this artist, whose early music quickly graduated from acoustic covers to bedroom singer-songwriter to a more full-fledged songcraft so it’ll be intriguing to see what’s next.

Still Blue

Friday – Grand Social Ballroom – 20.50

The Dublin  indie-pop band are one of more fully-formed new Irish bands of the last couple of years.

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Vocalist Nicole Lyons, guitarist Ruairi Forde on guitar, and drummer Greg Kearns have consistently released indie pop earworms since arriving in 2022. Just great indie pop smarts every time.

Annie-Dog

Thursday – Button Factory – 21.50

Annie-Dog’s debut single released on Leeds indie label Dance To The Radio, was named after a Smashing Pumpkins B-side.

‘The Pressures Of The Heart’ displayed a commanding indie bedroom sound meets garage beats, and since then it’s been an expanding blueprint consuming overt electronic pop into the fold as heard on the excellent latest single ‘Have I Been Listening’.

DOSE

Thursday – Grand Social Loft – 20.30

As intro’d last week, Dose is a new four-piece band featuring Lizzie Fitzpatrick, Australian bassist Lauren Heron (of Merpire), synth player and actor Aoife Spratt, and drummer Nicki Meehan.

First single ‘Cuckoo’ is a sign of things to come, drawing stated inspiration from acts like DIIV, Cocteau Twins, Beach House, Mount Kimbie, St Vincent, Dry Cleaning, Alvvays, and Slowdive, and touching on 90s grunge, post-punk, shoegaze, and synth-pop sounds.