Over the last few years, the Jameson Connects: The Circle stage at All Together Now Festival (August 2nd to 4th) has been the spot at the festival offering an oasis of music in a genuinely intimate setting in the trees on the grounds of Curraghmore.
Speaking of collaboration, This year’s Jameson Connects collaboration will see Shiv joined on stage by a very special guest to debut their new song live at The Circle for the first time ever. Keep your eyes on Jameson socials for the reveal coming soon.
Jameson will also be hosting a pop-up merch store The Circle Store featuring artists and Jameson merch, the latter created in collaboration with Irish designer Sarah Moloney which includes t-shirts, long sleeve tops, hats and more.
Sales will be donated to Arts & Disability Ireland (ADI), an organisation which promotes engagement with the arts at all levels, for people of all ages and disabilities of all kinds.
Here are Nialler9’s picks from the Jameson Connects The Circle, and this is just a short selection of our favs on the stage this year…
1.
Morgana
Morgana MacIntyre has taken on a new mantle while Saint Sister is on a break.
With the Instagram handle of ‘Morgana’s Party Hits’ and a subtitle of “prepared to party, ready to cry”, Morgana’s music swings in the other direction from her previous duo with a six-piece live band and electronic pop tracks full of heart and some Italo-disco synth pop flavour.
Solo material is incoming, and there’s a collaboration with Sorcha Richardson called ‘Naked and Swimming’ out in the world, but so far, live is where Morgana is at, with a previous live show, also featuring an extra dimension of an audio-lead therapy session among the songs.
Irish artist Anita Ikharo is making moves with indie-rock pop fun.
Ikharo has created her own world of Efé through her hook-inflected bedroom pop songs and world-building music videos over the last couple of years, but recently has pivoted to more of a guitar rock vibe on recent songs.
With new single ‘2000Seven’ premiering on Zane Lowe’s Apple show and released on The Fader Label, Efé is an artist on the upswing.
3.
Just Mustard
The surprise headliner addition to this year’s stage.
The Dundalk band have perfected their own brand of abrasive shoegaze and industrial atmospheric alt-rock in recent years, and their live show matches the dynamics of 2022’s Partisan Records-released second album Heart Under, with Katie Ball’s hypnotic vocals floating among the sonic fog.
4.
Sloucho
Just watch his recent insane Boiler Room set.
An Irish producer of hyperpop bass Cloudclore-parallel electronic music with dips to Latin dance and garage rap, Sloucho is an enigmatic artist who likes to play with form.
His debut album NPC features guests EMBY, Rory Sweeney, Curtisy, Zack Oke, Yamagōchi, Rhosi, Vaticanjail and k-Caz, and NPC explores the duality of his main character, identity, and non-playable lives through club and minimal sounds.
Live, the producer is doing the same with costuming, live dancers and MCs like Emby and Lil Skag gracing the stage for the live show.
5.
Optimo (Espacio)
There is no better visiting DJ duo to have at The Circle this year.
Optimo are two legendary DJs JD Twitch and JG Wilkes, whose Sunday club Optimo (Espacio) and the parties, label and reputation that have spun out of their Scottish club origins, are still reverberating around many corners of modern music culture.
With a healthy disregard for genre, and an ability to turn any party inside out with ecstatic fervour, Optimo are as likely to play Madonna as they are Model 500.
Optimo are heroes of the scene, still inspiring with every must-see set.
The Cuban-Irish artist is make beautiful music often out of difficult experiences.
“If you’re not laughing, you’re crying,” is an unofficial mantra of Qbanaa’s work. Whether it’s exploring mental health, insecure attachment, addiction or self-representation, the singer’s music has often been accompanied by intricately pleasing bright productions displaying a fine smudge of neo-soul, jazz, Latin, Cuban influence and West African desert blues.
7.
Mathman
The Dublin producer Adam Fogarty has always loved breakbeats and rave, and his latest project brings them together with a Dublin flavour.
SK83 – The Prequel is described as a “sonic coming of age tale through Dublin life and the city’s rave culture,” and is Mathman’s first solo record since the cessation of the Mango x Mathman project.
SK83 The album draws on jungle, drum & bass and breakbeat sounds to tell the story of growing up in Dublin in the late 1990s culminating in the magnetic pull of rave music.
8.
Sahana
The Midnight Disco DJ resident and co-promoter.
New York City-born and Dublin-based DJ Sahana is a house and techno DJ who is resident at Dublin club The Midnight Disco, and pops up monthly on Dublin Digital Radio, hosting Mast Hour a show spotlighting DJs, musicians, and creatives of colour.
Sahana knows how to work a dancefloor, filtering subgenres of club music through an energetic and bass-heavy style, that can dip into a surprising old skool siren blare, trance classic or a garage house banger.
Line-Up by day
Friday
The Murder Capital
Shiv & Special Guest
Morgana
Qbanaa
Sloucho
Sahana
FYNCH
Saturday
Optimo (Espacio)
Rachel Lavelle
Ezra Williams
Chalk
Lemoncello
Sweetlemondae
Dublin Modular
The Ryan & Podge Show
Sunday
Just Mustard
Aby Coulibaly
Nealo
MathMan
Efé
Uly
Eve
The Ryan & Podge Show
Please enjoy Jameson responsibly. visit www.drinkaware.ie for more information.
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Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
