Saturday
Halves (Body & Soul Main Stage, 13:00)
Elegiac Irish/Polish post rock outfit. This year’s debut album It Goes, It Goes (Forever & Ever) was recorded in Montreal at Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Hotel2Tango studio. (IW)
Le Galaxie (Electric Arena, 13.30)
Show-stopping party tunes? Check. Mind-melting light show? Check. Stupidly early in the day time slot? Check. The ultimate heart-attack for your hangover, Le Galaxie will kick your Saturday straight into fifth gear with the perfect synth-pop disco. They caused mass insanity at Castlepalooza last month and are set to do the same this weekend. (IM)
RSAG (Crawdaddy Stage, 13:30)
Q: what do you call a guy who hangs out with a load of musicians? A: a drummer.
Part of the joy of watching RSAG, a loner with nothing but some silhouettes for friends, is realising, about 25 minutes in, that you’ve just been watching one man bang some drums, and it’s been fucking great. This is the sound of McCartney’s Ram played by Keith Moon. Epically conceived one man show.
Reason to see: to test the hypothesis that a drummer could be so interesting. (HG)
The sight of a very talented drummer really cutting loose and showing off his chops is always quite the sight to behold and the live show of Kilkenny’s RSAG, which sees him supported by backing tracks and projections of other musicians is pretty much just that for the duration. (IW)
Si Schroeder (Body & Soul Main Stage, Saturday, 17:00)
It’s 5 years since Si Schroeder released “Coping Mechanisms” and to be perfectly frank I’m not sure there’s been a better Irish record put out since. Though that’s hardly surprising, there weren’t many better ones put out before it either. There is a new one called “Holding Patterns” coming out soon though. (IW)
Jape (Electric Arena, 17:15)
Not content with playing bass in the best Irish band of the last decade Richie Egan’s Jape output has seen him produce outstanding tune out of outstanding tune all on his lonesome too. The follow up to 2008’s Choice Award winning “Ritual” is apparently all wrapped up and ready to go. (IW)
Tieranniesaur (Body & Soul Main Stage, 18:15)
Polyrhythmic pop with candy chants and summer sass. (SW)
Mundy (Crawdaddy Stage, 18:45)
Fat girls in rugby jerseys, big men, who stand with their legs spread, and their county colours tied around their wrists, lumberjack shirts once popular in 1992 around their waists, denim, as far as the eye can see. Cheap cowboy hats, bottles of west coast cooler and Bulmers being swung above their heads, the air thick with halitosis and sweat, the funk of a singles night in the Barge. A meat fisted fight over a thick necked bogger girl in the mud. T-shirts that say Feile 92 or Something Happens! Wonderwall as a ringtone, fumbling redfleshed, greasy humping in dilapidated tents. Wall to wall engineering students and nurses. Young FF. The future of this country, where all we have to offer is landfills and golf courses. The sound of tooth decay and obesity. The death knell of culture. (HG)
Spilly Walker (Body & Soul Main Stage, 19.15)
Melding classic house with the quirkiest of pop sensibility, the hooks and choruses of David and Robbie Kitt’s current project are not to be missed. While it might initially seem like a project of minor concern for Kitt the elder, the few tracks that have surfaced so far have displayed a distinct ability to grow on a person, revealing a little more with ever listen. The tunes exude the passion, curiosity and open-mindedness that have categorised Kitt’s best work to date and combine it with a sense of fun that is often missing from electronic music. Simultaneously erudite and enjoyable, it’ll be interesting to see where this project goes from here. (IM)
Katie Kim (Body & Soul Main Stage, 20.15)
The finest songwriter in the country? Probably. Few people anywhere have such an innate ability to charm and intrigue a listener like Katie Sullivan. The Waterford native maintains an intense aura of late-night fireplaces in her work, with empty bottles of wine strewn in the space between the notes. The kind of music you try to crawl deep inside of, intertwining yourself and the fragmented melodies until you can no longer find a way out. Not that you’d want to. Definitely not to be missed. (IM)
You Can Call me Frances (Body & Soul Love Letter Stage, 22:45)
Post punk minimalism, joins DIY electric sound theatre and barrier breaking dance downs. (SW)
Visionair (Body & Soul Love Letter Stage, 01:15)
Oh look, another quality project involving Richie Egan, this time it’s an instrumental synth thing he’s doing with Redneck Manifesto bandmate Niall Byrne. Dude is basically showing everyone else in Irish music up at this point. (IW)
Avant bleep drenched nightscapes wash against emotively glazed sprawls over widescreen synthetic horizons. (SW)
Catscars (Body & Soul Love Letters Stage, 02:45)
Ketamine tripping through a sea of dry ice under a liquid sky, speeding down the yellow brick road with blood dripping from the hole in your neck. (SW)
