With a new decade beginning, there’s a lot of assessment of the old decade’s music going on right now. But it’s also a good time to think about how things stand now for the Irish music scene, and how that makes its future look.
Dublin’s Unsigned… The Best Of, is a compilation CD that was released last month. Of the 14 acts featured, I only know a handful, like TCD perennials Killer Chloe. But, I know a lot of other Irish bands – bands that I’d rank alongside any international acts, and among my personal favourites, for whatever either of those honours are worth. I think it’s a good sign of the health of the scene that you can’t even fit all the good bands on one best-of CD (although some of the best do already have record deals). The Irish music scene is starting a new decade with a great variety of top-calibre music, some other strengths, and, unfortunately, at least one weakness that I can think of.
As the Dublin’s Unsigned website proudly announces, the compilation “combines a plethora of genres from contemporary folk right through to electronic pop”, to showcase the great variety of “aptitude” in the Dublin Music scene. Unfortunate word choice aside (I can’t imagine they intended to imply that they were showcasing the variety of the ability Dublin’s musicians possess), it’s true: Irish people are making a lot of different kinds of music. Older friends remember dark days when all that was on offer was legions of Damien Rice clones; if that was ever true, it certainly isn’t now. There’s the frantic noise rock-influenced sound of Richter Collective bands like Adebisi Shank and BATS, the chilled electronic music of Hunter-Gatherer and Trinity’s own Angkorwat, small but respectable hip-hop and metal scenes represented by Messiah J and The Expert and Primordial, twee-pop and punk from bands like Jonny Fun and the… Hesitations, Ugly Megan, Chewing On Tinfoil, Duck-Proof Chimney, straight indie-rock like The Funeral Suits and Land Lovers, and post-rock from Halves, Gran Casino, Dublin veterans The Jimmy Cake. I could go on, but this is already enough of an exercise in namedropping.
The scene isn’t isolated, even without considering the biggest bands like The Script and The Coronas. Fight Like Apes are touring regularly abroad and Heathers have linked in to the American folk-punk scene, touring with Ghost Mice and releasing their album on Plan-It-X records. Chewing On Tinfoil’s debut album, Get Rich Or Try Dyin’, is being released for download on a donation basis by arch-DIY band Bomb The Music Industry’s online record label.
For all that, the Irish scene is still pretty compact, even relative to Britain’s. But even this is one of its strengths, it means you get more eclectic line-ups at gigs and that bands get to know and help each other out. In bigger cities, a band is likely to be supported by bands playing the same genre. In Ireland, there sometimes just aren’t enough to go around, so I have posters on my wall from gigs where BATS were supported by singer-songwriter Squarehead, and dance/hip-hop duo You’re Only Massive were supported by Land Lovers and RSAG’s solo blues-rock. Gigs in The Lower Deck can be even more eclectic, and even from personal experience I’ve found it’s sometimes the only way to find enough bands who are free on the night. But it makes gigs much more fun, and lets the audience in on a much wider variety of music than they might otherwise find out about.
The support system for the Irish music scene is pretty good, and improving in some ways too with companies like Raised by Wolves PR adding that extra punch the scene needs. The closure of Eamonn Dorans is the end of an institution, and its successor and whatever they’re calling The Hub these days are charging much more than they used to. But they were never particularly pleasant venues; the Academy 2 and The Twisted Pepper are both nicer and cheaper for an independent promoter to hire. As well as that, with the opening of Exchange this year there’s finally a place where alcohol-free, all-ages gigs can be held in the city centre. It’s not an issue for most Trinity students anymore, but I remember well the needless hassle of trying to get into gigs that could only be held in bars before turning 18. Ireland has its own independent labels like the Richter Collective and Hide Away Records (and their Hide Away House is another great informal venue, but it’s all the way out in Deansgrange).
The one weakness I can think of is that Ireland’s recording studios can never seem to capture the energy of our bands’ live performances. Bands like Adebisi Shank and even Fight Like Apes (who recorded their album in Seattle – maybe it’s some sort of curse) are far more intense live. Even BATS, whose 2009 album Red In Tooth And Claw (produced by a member of Converge – one of the Three Metalcore Bands You’re Allowed To Like) bristles with tension, are explosive live. It’s not a universal problem; quieter, more introspective bands like The Holy Roman Army or The Hollows fare pretty well, but it is a sad feature of the scene that most fans I talk to sigh and agree with.
So, what does this all add up to? The Irish music scene is entering the new decade with a huge variety of top-quality bands and performers, increasingly linked into the wider world, playing eclectic shows together, looking out for each other and with a growing number of new places to perform. Maybe I’ve painted too idealistic a picture, but whatever way you look at it, we definitely have a good thing going right now.
