Eight To Watch For In '08

Joe Kavanagh Highlights The Irish Bands Likely To Make A Splash This Year

Ham Sandwich

Hailing from the historic town of Kells, in County Meath, the delightfully named Ham Sandwich have been something of a cult phenomenon in Ireland over the past couple of years, charming critics and music fans alike with their brand of indie-inspired power pop. Aside from the undeniable strength of their music, the band also contains the type of irrepressibly effervescent characters that the music world is crying out for. Already, they have played support to such names as the Buzzcocks, Bluetones and, erm, Whitesnake, while Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan even personally requested several copies of the band's EPs, while he was in Ireland last year. Singles like the infectious Click, Click, Boom, have enjoyed massive airplay in Ireland and the imminent release of their debut album, Carry The Meek, looks certain to see this cult go mainstream.

Pugwash

Perhaps the most unlikely looking rock star since Christopher Cross, it is hard to believe that it has been almost a decade since the man known to his friends as Thomas Walsh emerged on the scene with the critically acclaimed album, Almond Tea. Almost a victim of his own success, 2002's Almanac was not quite up to the high standard that he had set, although 2005's Jollility once again saw him return to his best with a style that has seen him most accurately described by one sage as a "Beach Boys-loving Beatlemaniac." Now surrounded by a likeminded group of musicians that make this endeavor more of a band effort, their latest work has been hailed as a triumph by those in the know, who claim it will immediately elevate them to the very top of the Irish music scene, but you will have to wait until June to discover if it is deserving of all the hype.

Jape

As the expression goes, "better to be lucky than good", but better again to be both, as in the case of Richie Egan, who has shown his musical ability as part of storied Dublin act, Redneck Manifesto and under his solo sobriquet as Jape. The luck part came in when Jack White's other band, The Raconteurs, were in Ireland and happened to hear Egan's superb track, Floating, playing in a bar. So smitten were they with the tune that they ended up covering the song at the end of their set throughout their world tour and suddenly Jape was big news and the focus of considerable record company interest. Last year, he signed a multi-album deal with V2 records and an album is due for release later this year that will feature new tracks as well as a few culled from his own self-financed records, Cosmosphere (2003) and The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me (2005). Part Beck, part Beta Band and certainly one of the most exciting and intriguing artists to emerge from Ireland in recent times.

Si Schroeder

Described by his label as "a six foot hairy male who makes music", Si Schroeder produced one of the finest Irish debut albums in recent memory with 2006's Coping Mechanisms, which fused elements of electronica and singer/songwriting to devastating effect. He has since gone on to tour the US, UK and Europe, picking up fans with his intensely forceful tunes, rich in imagination without ever sounding in the remotest bit pretentious. Like a musical magpie, Schroeder has taken the shiniest elements from a plethora of genres, molding them into his own distinct style. Word is that he is just finishing work on his sophomore effort and it will likely appear on shelves later this year and if it is anything like his opener then it will only be a matter of time before the major labels come clamoring for his signature.

The Betamax Format

Another Dublin act, The Betamax Format's mission statement claims that they create "music from the future written from the perspective of ghosts", which will not make a whole lot of sense to anyone until they are lucky enough to hear their music. Yet another band driven by synths and electronics, (the future bit) their music also has a haunting quality (the ghosts) not unlike Robert Smith's Cure. Luckily, they also have an ear for catchy melodies just like Smith and their self-titled debut EP, swept them into the minds of the Irish music media, powered by the positively infectious single, You Are Welcome In My House. For me, the band sounds somewhat like an Irish Bloc Party, partly due to Darren Maloney's vocals, but also due to the fact that they write exceedingly good tunes that contain the perfect balance of gadgetry and down home rock n' roll.

Laura Izibor

For the first time that I can ever recall, Ireland has a bona fide female soul star in the making in the form of this Dubliner, who has already seen her music used on US TV shows and soundtracks for Hollywood movies, without even having an album out yet. Smooth, sultry and distinct, the piano playing songstress writes all her own music, has a voice to die for and stands on the precipice of international superstardom despite the fact that she has just turned 20-years-old, making the people at Atlantic Records look very prescient indeed. Comparisons are regularly made with the likes of Alicia Keys and Jill Scott and Izibor is certainly deserving of being held up in such company. It is not too much of a gamble to posit that she will be one of the biggest music stars ever to emerge from Ireland, probably within months of the release of her debut, Let The Truth Be Told, which is due to hit stores later this year.

The Aftermath

They must have been putting something in the water in Mullingar lately because the town's musical legacy was essentially the late Joe Dolan for the past 35 years, until the emergence of the Blizzards a couple of years back. Now the midlands town has another potential group of stars in the form of this four-piece who are acknowledged as one of the hardest working bands on the Irish and UK circuit. It is a work ethic that has paid off, as evidenced by the fact that they are the only Irish band in history to have two independently released singles sitting in the top 20 chart at the same time. They accurately describe their music as sounding like "Roxy Music fighting the Pixies in a Leeds back street", but it also contains a thoroughly modern edge and a distinctiveness that sets them apart from so many other also-rans. Their as-yet untitled debut album is due to hit shelves next month, and given the fact that they have extremely vocal fans such as Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs, it's fairly safe to assume that they will make a splash heard on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Straglers

The wildcard pick of the bunch, Straglers emerged on the scene in late 2005 with some aplomb when a demo of theirs began making the rounds on the Irish underground scene. Since then, they have won fans across the Irish and UK music media with their brand of pop-electronica, which travels the same musical highways as bands such as Massive Attack and Primal Scream, with a healthy dash of the music of yesteryear, dating all the way back to the Beatles. Their songs are imaginative, superbly textured and armed with more hooks than an avid fisherman, making them compelling listening and also in possession of a sound that is very much the here and now. Word is that they have been squirreled away in their studio on the north side of Dublin for the past two years working on their debut but they are now almost ready to unleash it on a public that will almost certainly lap it up in their droves.