Swimmers – Countryside
Featuring Niall Jackson, bassist of Dublin indie pop quartet Bouts on guitar and vocals, Swimmers are released their impressive three-track debut EP Swimmer’s Year at the start of the year. Playing the same sort of starry-eyed, slacker guitar-pop as Bouts but with a darker and more introverted edge, the band are worth hitting up if you’re a fan of U.S. indie rock heroes Sebadoh and Irish alt-rock band Music For Dead Birds. ‘Countryside’ is a highlight from the aforementioned release.
Kyron Bourke – If I Lost My Legs
Once of Kyron and the Strangels, Kyron Bourke is a Belfast singer-songwriter whose lounge-inflected jazz shtick sees him channel the bluesier sides of Tom Waits, Howlin’ Wolf Mark Lanegan amongst others. With a wonderfully whiskey-soaked croon at his disposal, Bourke’s material to date has promised some great things in the making. The most prophetic and hard-hitting of his two lead singles – the other being the impressive ‘If I Was King – ‘If I Lost My Legs’ reveals a new take on an old style, done masterfully well.
Floor Staff – The Guest
An alternative-pop two-piece hailing from Dublin, Floor Staff is the music-making moniker of Anthony Donnelly and Stephen Murphy. Having released their superb debut five-track EP in July – The Good Luck EP – the pair play an understated, intelligent and deceptively catchy brand of unravelling alt-pop that is surely set to come to full fruition over a full-length album. My favourite – and arguably the best – track from their EP, ‘The Guest’ is a four-minute slice of exceptional songwriting very much in the vein of Field Music.
