Who are Cork’s Rising Music Stars?
This post was written by Gary Meyler from The G Man World
The riotous rock of Hope Is Noise’s ironically entitled “Peace and Quiet” ; the glorious indie-pop shimmy of Hooray For Humans’ “Chevy Chase”; the cleverly constructed delight that is KVX’s “Graphs”; Merely three songs plucked from the first cd of Cork Rock City (a compilation compiled and released by the folks over at Drop-d in 2010, with the intention of providing a snapshot of Cork’s vibrant and diverse music scene) and we have barely scratched the surface of four fat discs full of free music.
Cork Songstress Sí
The collection proved to be a resounding success and those Drop-d devils have announced that a second compilation will be released this year (November 1st to be exact).
Yet who do we expect to see on the 2011 edition of CRC? Through their own releases we have already witnessed the evolution, maturity and refinement of acts such as Agitate The Gravel, Zombie Computer, Versives and [R]evolution of a Sun who all appeared on the 2010 release. Below are my predictions of bands/artists that did not feature on Vol I but I expect/hope to see on Vol II :
Ten Past Seven
An exhilarating yet, more importantly, successful race against time over on fundit means Ger, Mat and Rory are now back and armed with awesome new material i.e. The Black Box Recordings. An incendiary live act that must be witnessed to be believed, the instrumental trio have long established themselves as one of Cork’s big hitters and will set the bar very high for CRCII.
John Blek & The Rats and Monorail
Of all the genres (from doom-metal to grindcore to pop) featured on the first edition, alt-country and folk found themselves a little in the minority. This gap should be filled healthily this year; John Blek and The Rats have been touring non-stop, winning fans wherever they go with their energetic and melodic alt-country; Monorail have a secret weapon in David Murphy’s pedal-steel and their superb single “Hearts Of Gold”, the highlight of their debut album Sleepers, features the vocal delights of fellow Ballyporeenian Gemma Hayes.
Dave Nelligan has quietly gone about his business over the years creating melodic indie rock that Elliott Smith would be proud of – see 2010’s Everything Matters which was never released in the tangible world but can be downloaded for free over on Alonetone. Nelligan has since assembled a full band and is expected to release his already recorded follow-up album in Autumn 2011.
In this humble bloggers opinion, Mayday (a five track e.p. released in the later stages of 2010) is the best recording from a Cork-based band that has been released in the past twelve months. Instrumental rock with a touch of class, (aided by various members of Bona Fide Federation who add strings and piano to the recording) the opening track, also called “Mayday”, is a masterpiece.
Cork loves instrumental bands as much as a friend of mine (who thankfully introduced me to these guys) loves cake and, despite not strictly being 100% instrumental, The Great Balloon Race, who have baked up a treat for us with their eponymous E.P, should easily cater for this city’s cravings. Ingredients in the mix include a spoonful of gypsy folk, a dash of pyschadelia and a nice big dollop of jazz.
Pop with a classical twist and completely free of those “boring” ole gee-tars, Bona Fide Federation are a Cork School of Music-trained ensemble so, from the get-go, there is a serious amount of talent oozing through the band. 2011 has been a busy year for the quintet, touring vigourously including appearances at festivals including Indiependence Festival in Mitchelstown (Cork) and the Sea Sessions in Bundoran (Donegal) as well as decent radio-play for single “Festival”.
Another artist to emerge gloriously from the Fundit battlefield. Síle Ní Dhubhghaill, aka Sí, will unveil her debut offering Great Expectations with an Irish mini-tour this October. Recorded over the last two years in Bunker Hill studios with Fergal Lawler (The Cranberries) on mostly on piano and harp, Sí’s gothic folk is set to add yet another dimension to Cork’s diverse live music scene.
Officially Saint Yorda do not actually have any releases yet the potential shown on a collection of demos entitled some songs that we recorded with cathal is very promising indeed. Dark, haunting vocals soaked in reverb set an eerie atmosphere on the majority of the tracks featured on some songs…
Acts interested in featuring on Cork Rock City Volume II have until October 17th to get those wav files in. For contact details click here!
