The annual Irish music conference and showcase returns with 50 bands performing across six Dublin venues tonight (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday).
If you asked me in person for the 10 acts I’d like to see the most this week, these are my top picks, in order of schedule appearance.
Full Ireland Music Week schedule.
1.
CABL
Day show, @ Grand Social Ballroom, 3pm
Thursday
The Dublin four-piece band CABL make shoegaze and sad girl pop indie-rock music, with lead vocals from Ava Durran.
They’ve put out a series of singles since 2022 and an EP last year called See You In A Year And A Half, which was produced by in-demand Irish producer Chris Ryan.
Elliot Smith, Big Thief and Sonic Youth have been cited as influences.
2.
Martina And The Moons
Day show, @ Grand Social Ballroom, 4pm
Thursday
All-female Dublin band Martina and the Moons have released four fine singles of bright and melodic indie-rock music to date, that have addressed the belittling male attitude of female-written music, and doing mundane tasks while violence proliferates in society.
The band are by Britpop and 90s alt-rock bands like Elastica, Catatonia and Blur, and singer-songwriters like Paul Simon, Carole King and Joni Mitchell.
The band are named after Scotland-born, Spanish-raised Martina Moon (vocals/songwriting) and the band features Sarah Morgan (guitar), Ruby Levins (bass) and Zahira Ellis (drums).
3.
Madra Salach
7:50pm @ Button Factory
Thursday
After a busy summer that saw them play multiple sets at a lot of Irish festivals The Dublin alternative folk six-piece Madra Salach’s debut single was only released last month.
Madra Salach features members of different bands in Dublin’s indie scene including Fizzy Orange, and have made a name for themselves for their traditional-rooted performances, with clear Lankum influences in the arrangements, but a bit more on the raggle taggle alternative Pogues kick.
‘Blue & Gold’ is an original song inspired by singer Paul Banks habit of buying scratch cards.
4.
Pôt-pot
8:40pm @ Workmans Club
Thursday
The Cork/Lisbon band pôt-pot are inspired by psych and kosmische bands like Neu!, CAN, Spacemen 3 and the motorik beats and drones of those forebearers, and bring psych-rock sounds with harmonium drones and vocal harmonies and those influences are widely felt on their excellent debut album.
The band features Mykle Oliver Smith, Joe Armitage, Elaine Malone (Mantua), Sara Leslie and Mark Waldron-Hyden.
They initially started as a solo project of Waldron-Hyden before the rest of the members joined after meeting in Lisbon.
5.
Stella And The Dreaming
10:30pm @ Grand Social Loft
Thursday
Brittle piano ballads and swooning songcraft, each song from Stella And The Dreaming to date has brandished a intensity and an immediate resonance that really, few artists possess.
Stella has just been announced as support for The Cure in Dublin next summer.
6.
Dream Boy
11:30pm @ Grand Social Loft
Thursday
Dublin band Dream Boy have emitted some confident shoegazey alt rock sounds to date through their singles and live shows, with the most recent releases being the Drowning In Blue EP in June, showcasing a shoegaze-first sonic perspective.
My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and contemporary alt acts Men I Trust and NewDad are stated influences.
7.
Vaticanjail
8:55pm @ Button Factory
Friday
The Dublin-Chilean artist has just dropped the debut 8-track Sweets Bar EP that showcases her bright and experimental electronic pop style – featuring previous singles ‘Miel’, ‘Angel’ ‘Next2U’, shot through with “sonic magic realism”.
Vaticanjail’s melding of disparate styles is a unique one – bringing her Chilean heritage, reggaeton, salsa style and electronics together in an effervescent package with lyrics inspired by Sean-nós storytelling.
8.
Delivery Service
9:40pm @ Workman’s Club
Friday
Delivery Service are a band that take inspiration from Riot grrrl bands like Le Tigre, Bikini Kill and alternative acts like The Breeders and The Sundays.
The band were formed when singer/bassist Becca Daly watched a documentary about Bikini Kill and expressed interest in starting a girl band of their ilk. The band feature Daly as singer, guitarist/keyboardist Ciara O’Neill, guitarist/vocalist Ashley Abbedeen (also of hotgirl) and drummer/vocalist Niall Thornton.
The single ‘Ghost’ definitely has a lovely Breeders vibe to proceedings was recorded and mixed with Skinner’s Aaron Corcoran, and an EP is to follow. The song was mastered by Jamie Hyland.
9.
God Knows
9:55pm @ Button Factory
Friday
The former Rusangano Family member and Zimbabwean-Irish rapper has just released his long-awaited debut album is out on narolane records. Same story, new journey.
Edited down from 50 tracks, with the the executive producer vision of Rusangango Family cohort MuRLi, you may expect a pure rap album from God Knows but A Future Of The Past is a much more varied record addressing Irish and African history shot through with a deeply personal perspective from Munya God Knows himself and of his family.
Black oppression and colonisation is a topic in the middle of the record on ‘The Heartless Stone’ and ‘Ode To The Ancestors’, in South Africa and Zimbabwe, the latter where God Knows illuminates the true story of his ancestor Chief Makoni who was beheaded by the British army in the late 20th century – and how the British took his head back to a museum where it still is stored to this day.
God Knows is already a don of Irish rap and he’s finally turned the spotlight on himself.
10.
THEATRE
11:40pm @ Workman’s Club
Friday
The only band on this list yet to release a single, Limerick alt-noise-makers Theatre have already received the seal of approval from their peers with Irish rock stalwarts Gurriers and international acts DIIV and English Teacher and choosing them for support slots and festival shows at Manchester Psych Fest and End Of The Road.
Influences cited include Lankum, Just Mustard, and Sinead O’Connor.
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, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
