SERVICES

Tuesday December 17, 2008

Sweet Sixteen

Crayonsmith

The Best Irish Albums Of 2008 (Part One)

By Joe Kavanagh

Carly Sings

The Glove Thief
Known to her parents as Carly Blackman, it is a telling sign of her quirkiness and the times, that this young artiste settled upon her stage name when she discovered that it was the only "Carly" available to her on MySpace. A true chanteuse, her life has been divided between her native Wicklow and France, giving her a distinct style which borrows from the traditions of both countries. An exponent of something she refers to as "gypsy pop", her music harkens back to the singer songwriters of the 60s, whilst remaining assuredly forward-looking, and critics have likened her to a cross between Bob Dylan and Bjork. For me, her voice and style is similar to ex-Catatonia singer, Cerys Matthews, while her music contains elements of pop, jazz and more eclectic traditions like bossanova, giving the album a diversity that often eludes others in the singer/songwriter tradition. It is also given vitality by her brave, and ultimately inspired decision, to record every song in one take and rumor has it that she never plays any song the same way twice live. Bittersweet and alluring.

David Holmes

The Holy Pictures
When the history of music in Ireland is written, it will be a travesty if David Holmes does not feature near the very top of the list of the most influential talents that the island has ever produced. From his days as a precocious youth all but instigating the club music scene in his native Belfast and beyond, through a recording career that began with 1992 single, DeNiro, through the seminal Let's Get Killed, an album that undoubtedly gave club music a certain legitimacy which it often lacked, his has been a career that spans the history of club music and one that has produced 20 albums in the form of original works, deejay mixes and soundtracks. Over ten years in the making, his latest is among his most accomplished, and certainly his most personal to date, offering yet another side to an artist that continues to evolve before our ears. Incorporating elements often associated with bands like My Bloody Valentine, Jesus & Mary Chain and Spiritualized, Holmes even provides the vocals on certain tracks on an album that is more organic than any from his illustrious past. At times raucous, at times breathtakingly beautiful, The Holy Pictures offers a window into the very essence of an artist, which is precisely what good art should do.

Rarely Seen Above Ground

Organic Sampler
Having been lucky enough to catch them live a few years back, I would openly agree with the many people who continue to lament the demise of Kilkenny band, Blue Ghost, whose inventiveness and knack for a melody surely deserved more attention than they ever received before their split, but their fans will be delighted to know that their spirit lives on in the debut album of band member, Jeremy Hickey a.k.a. Rarely Seen Above Ground. And then some. As a vocalist/multi-instrumentalist, Hickey's total control over his work has led to an album that bristles with ideas while remaining utterly purposeful, leading to an opus that is quite possibly the most courageous Irish album of the year. Driven by Hickey's Ian Curtis-esque vocals, the overall tone is quite dark but never depressing, as he takes the listener on a musical voyage that makes stops in African percussion, early-80s post-punk, modern electronica with a dash of essence of New York for good measure. If it sounds pretentious then it's only because I'm not doing it justice with my words and I just cannot recommend Hickey's outstanding Gorillaz-like, one-man live show highly enough, as it is quite simply one of the best things about the current Irish music scene.

Jape

Ritual
As a sometime member of David Kitt's backing band and a full-time member of Redneck Manifesto, Jape a.k.a. Richie Egan, has cut his teeth with some of the most storied acts to emerge from the nation's capital in recent times. Under his solo guise, he has also been behind two of the most critically acclaimed albums in contemporary Irish memory and even seen his celebrated track, Floating, covered by Jack Whites's side project, The Raconteurs, who notably used it to close their live set each night on tour. Four years on, and a host of record company troubles later (he signed with V2 who then went bust), Jape returns with his sometimes eccentric, but always heady, blend of indie and electronica, which calls to mind acts like Flaming Lips and Hot Chip. Tracks such as the dreamlike Graveyard, pulsating I Was A Man and the quirkily reverential Phil Lynott, which pays tribute to his fellow Crumlin bassist, are examples of an artist that brims with ideas yet still manages to package them into arresting tracks capable of appealing to the mainstream.
Quite simply, one of the most beguiling Irish indie acts that we have.

The Spook Of The Thirteenth Lock

The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock

Jape Gets Out On The Road

Music, like life in general, must evolve if it is to flourish and Irish traditional music is no different to any other genre. So it was that Planxty gave purists palpations even as they breathed life into a dying genre, while The Pogues induced kiniptic fits in many traditionalists two decades later, yet goodness knows how many young people they inspired to follow in their steps. Essentially the brainchild of Allen Blighe, The Spooks' may not have earned the right to be counted among such names just yet, but this is as vital and progressive an Irish traditional album as there has been in the past decade, overflowing with ideas and experimental in a manner that few have ever been brave enough or - crucially - talented enough to take on. Fusing elements of trad, folk, psychedelic and full-on rock, the band has succeeded in creating an album that almost perfectly captures the Ireland of today, which struggles to define itself, clutching desperately to its past even as it embraces a future that appears startlingly different. It is dark, it is challenging, it is teeming with innovation and guile, but most of all, it is a thing of utter beauty that borders on the visionary.

The Japanese Popstars

We Just Are
As deejays in their own right, Derry men, Declan McLoughlin, Gary Curran and Gareth O'Donoghue, have been tearing up dance floors all over Ireland since their teenage year but it wasn't until, in their own words, a "number of drunken discussions and attendance of a number of large music festivals", that the trio of friends decided to pool their talents and strike out as a band. The decision proved a prudent one as they built up a strong cult following in their hometown that saw their gigs packed to the rafters before they ever got their record deal. Now signed with UK label Gung Ho Recordings (Gus Gus) and Japanese label, Beatnik (Underworld, Aphex Twin), the band recently released their critically-lauded debut album, which has already picked up a host of awards and compliments around the globe. Forget nu-rave, neo-dance or any of these other silly sub-genres, this is an unapologetic club album in the rave tradition, with a freshness and variety that has not been heard on the rave scene in perhaps a decade or more. Energetic, captivating and definitely of the here-and-now, this album washes up on American shores on February 24 of next year and pundits are already referring to them as "the Irish Justice". If there's any justice, they'll be just as big.

Crayonsmith

White Wonder
Now joined by friends and collaborators, Ruadhan O'Meara and Ronan Jackson, Crayonsmith was initially the moniker used by Dublin songwriter, Ciaran Smith, and his 2006 album Stay Loose, showed an abundance of endeavor but lacked slightly in focus, such was the plethora of ideas he attempted to squeeze into one sitting. This time around, all the loose edges have been firmly knocked off, and his skill as a songwriter has grown immensely, leading to an album that still is prone to taking flights of fancy, the difference being that this time around, they are in all the right places. Deeply imaginative, the album probably most resembles the work of now-defunct US indie rockers, Grandaddy, with hints of Belle & Sebastian and Pavement, all given an injection of pace and attitude by driving, innovative beats. Moody in the most flattering sense of the term, White Wonder is Irish indie at its imaginative best.

Fight Like Apes

Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Gold Medallion
Hyped in some quarters as the greatest band to hit the Irish music scene in the past decade, it was always going to be difficult for Fight Like Apes to live up to expectations and, ultimately, they do not. That is not to say, however, that this is a poor album, quite the contrary, as the fresh potency and sense of fun imbued by their so-called "riot pop" offers a refreshing change to the oh-so-serious strands of indie music that have dominated the past few years. At times lyrically absurd, the band are often like an early version of the Pixies with lyrics provided by Edward Lear, which - like the girl with the curl - veers between sublime and ridiculous, with the former winning by a good margin. Tracks like Lend Me Your Face and Jake Summers are superb while others like Lumpy Dough make you want to scream that the emperor has no clothes, and on balance, the band are certainly not head and shoulders above the rest, just another good contender in a strong field.