1. Lowly
Body & Soul main stage, Friday
Textured a music from a Danish five-piece who mix guitars, electronics and skirling percussion under the magnetic voice of Nanna Schannong. The band have an ethereal quality and are one of the few decent indie-rock acts topper in recent years, as heard on their Bella Union debut album Heba.
2. HMLTD
Body & Soul main stage, Friday
HMLTD are what happens when a rag-tag collection of musicians have grown up on Rocky Horror, glam-rock, Adam Ant, electroclash and alternative rock. Formerly Happy Meal LTD, HMLTD are uninhabited theatrical six-piece from all over Europe who are perfect misfits for stealing the show at the Body & Soul main stage on Friday with a bacchanalian live performance.
3. Ships
Body & Soul main stage, Friday
While not the type of band to shout about themselves, Sorca McGrath and Simon Cullen’s long-in-gestation band Ships reached the debut album milestone this year and it really sets them apart from their peers. Precession is a sonically-detailed record of synth-pop, cosmic disco and electronics that is rooted in old-fashioned songwriting and the soaring voice of McGrath.
3. Mr Jukes
Cosby stage, Friday
The biggest shock of listening to God First debut album from Mr Jukes is realising that the creator behind the moniker was Jack Steadman's Bombay Bicycle Club. This is anything but an English indie-pop record. The kaleidoscopic release draws from a love of soul, hip-hop and R&B and features musical heavyweight like BJ The Chicago Kid, Charles Bradley, Lianne La Havas, Horace Andy and De La Soul. Rather than come across as a pale imitation of the Gorillaz-style super-group, Steadman uses his jazz background to provision the record with a big-band swing that could work wonders in Stradbally.
4. Versatile
Little Big Tent stage, Saturday
While the charge of inauthenticity around a crew of Dublin lads rapping about tired tropes of selling drugs, fast cars and making booty-heavy music videos hangs heavy, there’s no denying that the Dublin duo of Versatile have captured the imagination of their peers with their viral-baiting tracks and videos. A line of absurd humour runs through their raps that acknowledges beneath the braggadocio and juvenile leering, there’s a potential for Rubberbandits-style surreal music comedy. For now though, Versatile are the reason for that big crowd on Saturday.
5. Erica Cody
Body & Soul bandstand, Saturday
Part of an exciting new generation of soulful singers, Erica Cody is a 21-year-old songwriter and producer whose debut song Addicted suggests one to watch and we're not the only one. RTÉ have enlisted Cody to perform alongside Mo-K, the Concert Orchestra and more at their the Story of Hip-Hop show on Friday night. For her regular set, expect a six-piece live band.
6. IDER
Body & Soul main stage, Sunday
Having recently signed to Glassnote Records, the English duo of Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville have built up a splendid collection of singles to this point. IDER's sound is rooted in harmonic electronic pop with a classic sensibility, not too dissimilar to Maggie Rogers. Electric Picnic marks IDER's Irish debut but it likely won't be their last.
7. AJ Tracey
Little Big Tent stage, Sunday
The success of Stormzy and Skepta has opened the gates for a new generation of grime MCs to follow them onto the world stage but only time will tell if the UK’s next wave will have what to take to go beyond their postcode. AJ Tracey is among the most hotly-tipped of them.
8. Nick Hakim
Body & Soul main stage, Sunday
An under-the-radar artist from Washington DC, now based in New York, Hakim’s debut al-bum Green Twins debuted in May to a cult following. It’s easy to hear why - a delicate collec-tion of soul music with smudged psychedelic edges and a classic intuition.
9. Mango & Mathman
Cosby stage, Friday
A former member of Dublin rap collective The Animators, Mango has been taking inspiration from UK grime across the channel. Along with producer Mathman, he’s cultivated a hard-edged version of grime anchored by his Dublin swagger.
