This Week’s Pick of Irish Talent
Ryan Vail & Conor Walsh at The Unitarian Church, Friday 12th
Ryan Vail’s music is a cross-section of disco, electronica and ambient sensibilities. His style of repetitive mantra-like lyrics sung in a half-whisper over driving rhythms and expansive synth result in both hypnotic and cool electronic tracks. Conor Walsh performs touching and expressive minimalist piano pieces that are subtly honest and personal. The pieces contain a beauty and a fragile tenderness that is heartbreakingly human, notably cathartic to audience and artist alike. At once intimate and grand, no better venue suits these two expressive and mesmerising acts than The Unitarian Church for what will be an exceptional gig.
Rarely Seen Above Ground, Plutonic Dust, Dear Dessert and White Collar Boy at The Grand Social, Friday 12th
The Grand Social host an motley selection of great Irish acts in celebration of the first anniversary interactive radio show, The Co-Present. The onstage set-up of multi-instrumentalist and particularly impressive drummer Jeremy Hickey is surprising and entertaining in equal amounts, as he drums and sings with gusto while a virtual band made up of projections of himself play behind him. The experimental ambitions of disco band Plutonic Dust produces music that is at times funky, at times dramatic and intense, and always intriguing. Dear Dessert and White Collar Boy are definite crowd-pleasers of the evening. Dear Dessert are a band that make authentic, atmospheric and polished 80s style synth-pop, while White Collar Boy, a Dublin electronic two-piece, play some early-morning irresistible grooves in the form of warm, satisfying electronic sounds paired with a 90s garage influence.
Words: Cara Spelman