The Irish under-the-radar acts you need to listen to right now

Chalk

Belfast band Chalk don’t just blow cobwebs away, they obliterate them. If you like music that emanates, rocket-like, from other music acts such as The Murder Capital, IDLES, Gilla Band, Savages, and Death Grips, then you will have some idea of what to expect. The trio certainly know how to do things right: working with producer Chris Ryan (Robocobra Quartet, NewDad, Just Mustard), picking up plaudits from the likes of Dan Hegarty (RTE 2FM), Gemma Bradley (BBC Radio 1) and Steve Lamacq (BBC6 Music). The band’s most recent single, Velodrome, displays shades of The Prodigy and The Birthday Party, so clearly aren’t for the faint of heart. They play Irish shows very soon, so prepare yourselves.

Gemma Cox

Kildare singer-songwriter Gemma Cox ended 2022 with the release of her debut EP, Tall Stories, and with it heralds a new phase for her. Cox is no ingenue but has spent the past few years dividing her time between studying at TCD, busking on Grafton Street, performing at numerous venues and winning various music/song competitions. Such a wealth of experience (with, ironically, a low media profile) feeds into the four songs on Tall Stories. Immune, Hard to Heal, Lost for Words, and Walking in the Snow offer some respite from the usual lacklustre singer-songwriter pop/folk fare due to their robustness and all-around arrangements.

Crybabyamy

Late in 2022, Crybabyamy signed a substantial publishing deal with BMG, and if you’re the kind of person that has been listening to her songs over the past two years, you won’t be at all surprised. Little is known about her, however, as she keeps her identity masked with animated or inked images, but the songs? Oh my, the songs speak so much about her. The recently released Validation is a scrupulously contemporary pop song that outlines the negative cycles of online scrolling. “I see it as an anthem for young people,” Crybabyamy says, “who are going through the motions of having a love/hate relationship with social media.” There are plenty more songs by Crybabyamy as finely wrought as Validation, and 2023 will the year to hear them.

Lauren Ann

Indie-pop of the highest order is what Lauren Ann is all about. The Newry singer and songwriter loved Nirvana when she was a teenager (“they completely shaped my taste in music”, she recently told Belfast-based music blog chordblossom.com) but now she has veered into just-as-smart but somewhat less fractious music. Signed to Irish label Faction Records (home to, among others, James Vincent McMorrow and Sorcha Richardson), songs such as Blatant and How it Works tip the hat to classic pop/grunge templates, while Adelaide is a sheer delight in indie-pop terms.

Def Nettle

Not everyone in this batch of music acts to keep an ear/eye out for this year has to be in the first flush of youth, as Def Nettle proves. Dubliner Glen Brady has been in the business of making music for over 30 years, most recently as a member of DARK (who also featured former Smiths drummer Andy Rourke and the late Dolores O’Riordan). Brady’s latest musical incarnation presents, musically, a rugged mix of funk and punk and, lyrically, a reflective sensibility that, perhaps, owes a debt to his experiences. He is, he says, “hugely influenced by my roots but pushing my way into the future – it’s as much late ‘80s as it is 2020s”

Sorcha Durham

Unless you were (or, indeed, still are) a fan of the Dingle band Walking on Cars, you might not be familiar with Sorcha Durham, but as the former lead singer of the band (which split up suddenly more than two years ago) she was, at the height of the band’s commercial success, one of Ireland’s best known female vocalists. As she has admitted, getting back into the thick of it wasn’t easy. The music was settling into its right place, but (as she writes in one of her Instagram posts), “finding the confidence to put myself out there and release my own music to the world was actually the biggest challenge of all…” Durham does not need to be concerned – her debut solo song, Fireside, is a stirring, swooping dramatic tune that augurs well for what’s to come this year.

Brad Heidi

A teenager quitting school to pursue his dream of making it in the music industry? Such things are feature films and documentaries made of, but Galway-based singer-songwriter Brad Heidi did just that, parents’ disapproval or not. With a suitcase, an acoustic guitar, a plentiful supply of socks and underpants and a can-do/must-do attitude, Heidi travelled around the country (and the UK) busking his songs. With his street-performing days behind him, he has spent the past while supporting the likes of former Walking on Cars songwriter Pa Sheehy, Róisín Ó, James Blunt, Gavin James and Lisa Hannigan. For some, the songs might tread too firmly on the toes of Ed Sheeran and Dermot Kennedy, but if there’s a prize for commitment then Heidi would take it.

Aoife Wolf

Offaly singer-songwriter Aoife Wolf clearly likes the paths less travelled – over the years, she has absorbed music by the likes of PJ Harvey, Lisa O’Neill, Kate Bush, Nico, and Cocteau Twins, and has arrived at a point where her charmed style of psych-folk has captured listeners who didn’t think they liked psych-folk at all. The trick of entrapment is one of Wolf’s creative superpowers, and it’s on full display in compelling songs such as The Woman Who Shot Andy Warhol and The Screaming Waltz, both of which are on her 2022 EP, Wetlands.

Kazms

Have you heard the one about an Irish folk singer-songwriter, an electronic producer and a traditional Irish musician? They walk into a bar, buy each other a drink, and toast to their future as a hybrid blend of music that, they hope, will mean something to people. Eoin Keely is the guy whose songwriting sets the storytelling tone, Ciarán Byrne is the expansive sound architect, and Seán Ó Casaide is the uileann piper, pianist and sean-nós singer that earths the music to Ireland. The outcome of songs such as The Flood, Beacon, Fragile, and Amoral is close to hearing Dermot Kennedy or Hozier backed by The Gloaming. In other words, it’s a bit disconcerting, yet the music is so sure of itself that the feeling passes soon enough.

Kez

Kez: her latest song is an intense, smouldering ballad

Starting a band at the age of eight might lead one to believe that a precociousness alert is about to sound off in your ears, but Dublin songwriter and singer Kez doesn’t seem to be the kind of person to shout about her multiple talents. A self-taught musician who spent several years in California trying to make a mark, she returned home stronger, more resilient and with ambitions to use her music influences (from Sharon Van Etten to Joan Baez) to advance her music. With songs as strong as her recently released debut single, How Can You Not See – an intense, smouldering ballad that ebbs and flows and then erupts – expect 2023 to be the year when mainstream comes calling.

Paper Clap

Hip-hop and trumpet, anyone? Morgan Sloggett and John Gough teamed up in March 2020 from extreme ends of the earth (Sloggett in Australia, Gough in Co Meath), swapped dance/jazz beats and raps, called themselves Paper Clap, and in just over a year released their debut album, Walk it Off. Since then, they have been ducking and diving, playing summer festivals and, pretty much, any gig they can get. Their latest song, Whatcha Mean, released in December 2022, is a fine example of the duo’s fusion of socio-realistic words and thigh-slapping thumps.

Nell Mescal

There aren’t many teenage singer-songwriters who can ask Phoebe Bridgers for creative guidance, but if you have a brother named Paul (who just happens to be Bridgers’s boyfriend), then whyever not? Maynooth’s Nell Mescal is now London-based and has been wowing whoever sees her perform. Some might point, all too obviously, perhaps, to the fact that having a famous brother has smoothed her path into the music biz somewhat, but the strengths of songs such as Graduating, Cruel, Homesick, and Missing You (over 600,000 plays on Spotify) can’t be glossed over.

Les Salamandas

Based in the West Cork village of Ballydehob, Les Salamandas are Julie O’Sullivan and Colyne Laverriere, who teamed up a few years ago, hunkered down to write songs with little else in mind other than the enjoyment of it, and crowdfunded their debut album (which is scheduled for release in February). With little or no musical experience behind them, initially, their music is refreshingly unmarked by obvious influences. At a stretch, you might say it has hints of Tegan and Sara, touches of folk here, traces of pop there and weaves of Americana running through it all, but the result is music that is innately melodic and adorned with high-quality harmonies to hum along to.

Daniel Luke

Anyone that has been hardwired into Daniel Luke’s Instagram feed will know that his Erik Satie-like covers of CMAT’s I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby, and Fontaines DC’s Jackie Down the Line blend WTF seconds with subsequent moments of pure tranquillity. A former member of Gypsies on the Autobahn (and a brother of that band’s James Smith, and Kevin Smith, aka Kojaque), his forays into original compositions are similarly serene, as his recently released single, Heather, proves. Resting (without a care in the world, apparently) in Luke’s love of contemporary classical, neo-classical and piano-calm jazz, his imminent debut album, Shadow Dance, is highly anticipated.

Last Apollo

Lucy Rice has risen way above the mark that is usually the norm for emerging songwriters. She emerged as Last Apollo exactly two years ago, and waited until the summer of 2022 to release her debut EP, Ordinary Matter. Like many other emerging artists, Rice gained traction via her social media channels, notably Instagram, on which she is particularly adept at that little ole’ thing called “engagement”. “I value connecting with my listeners on a personal, transparent and candid level,” Rice writes, “and so, particularly on my Instagram page, I am entirely open about my struggles, triumphs and any emotions/experiences that I feel may comfort, encourage and validate other people’s experiences.” As we all know, however, the proof of anything is in real life (that’s IRL, kids), and thankfully, Last Apollo does not disappoint with songs such as Apologies, Reservoir, Moonboots and Lucy’s Song riveting the listener on the spot.

Laytha

Enniskillen-based indie-folk duo Laytha (cousins Niamh Carney and Philana Nolan) have an album (self-titled, released in November 2022) tucked under their belt, so they are one of the more experienced music acts listed here. Leaning towards the music styles of Saint Sister, First Aid Kit, and The Staves, harmony-driven songs feature notably empathetic nods to topics such as broken hearts and renewed bonds, the divine feminine and (appropriately enough) the importance of family.

Moondiver

No, it isn’t a “supergroup”, silly, but rather a group of musicians that have played (and still do) with the likes of Soda Blonde, Kojaque, Gemma Dunleavy, and Jafaris. In other words, they’re mates that decided to join up the dots instead of hanging around twiddling their no doubt skilful thumbs. Still in their relative infancy, the band’s collective experience shows – with just one released track (Gretchen) to their name, we detect judicious, delicious hints of Weather Report, Steely Dan and (have we got this right?) Mahavishnu Orchestra. Let the straggly beard twiddling commence!

One Leg One Eye

As one of the founding members of Lankum, Ian Lynch knows a thing or two about not only subverting expectations but also exploring options that might never occur to ordinary mortals like you and me. One Leg One Eye is one such route. The first result of Lynch’s digging is his debut album, …And Take the Black Worm With Me, which ineradicably fuses the descriptive terms ‘folk’, ‘black metal’, ‘traditional’ and ‘drone’. In short, it’s headphones music as your space rocket starts its journey to Alpha Centauri.

Katie Phelan

We all need a duvet day now and again and, from what we’ve heard so far, Co Meath’s Katie Phelan’s songs provide a sonic equivalent to being covered from chin to toe, warm and perhaps just that little bit defenceless. Phelan has, of course, a song called Duvet Day. She has others by the names of Guessed It Was About Me, Just to Please Me, and For Good (over 200,000-and-counting Spotify plays), and if your thing is unadorned indie pop/folk tunes that ring true with honesty and no small vulnerability, then take them to your heart.

The Rosecaps

Are The Rosecaps the best thing to come out of Loughrea since the road to Galway? Only the band members (Daniel O’Malley, Shane Fahy, Emmet Feerick) can answer such an evil question, but what we will say is that with songs as good as Empty Wrappers (their most recent track release), No Guts No Glory, 1800 Hours, and Daisy’s Party, they are well on the way to seeing their hometown disappear in the rearview mirror.

Siights

Dublin multi-instrumentalist Mia Fitzgerald and Glaswegian songwriter Toni Etherson first met in Los Angeles several years ago (Fitzgerald was on a songwriting break from touring with Hozier, Etherson was biding her time as a session songwriter), paired up and proceeded to develop not only their mutual passion for songwriting but also to be more than just backroom people. It is only in the past 12 months that Siights (the use of two ‘i’s represent, they say, their respective identities) have made inroads to commercial crossover. In April 2022, they signed with Insanity Records (part of Sony Music UK), and since then have developed a pop/soul style that is tailor-made for the charts. Their most recent single is Fake It, with much more music expected in 2023.