Every Dublin music fan’s favourite micro-festival returns for its tenth year running. The shebang hits the streets from the 4th to the 6th of October and as usual features a plethora of up and comers and well established acts alike to keep you running around venues between pints.
The usual locations reappear this year (Workmans, Twisted Pepper, Mercantile, Grand Social et al.) but we also see the addition of the criminally underused and positively charming Meeting House Square; a spot that more than proved its worth during the Fringe festival.
With over 100 acts performing, there will be some tough decisions to make- but to save you culling through the line up, here’s our picks.
Faws
Channelling the atmospheric production of beat makers like Shlohmo and Nicolas Jaar but taking a darker turn along the way, anonymous Dublin producer Faws is adept at blending downtempo grooves, ambient jaunts and sinister vocal loops. With two EPs under his belt, the nameless man will have plenty of material to choose from as he closes the Twisted Pepper on Saturday. Not to be missed for those who like their beats nefarious and edgy.
Ginnels
Taking inspiration from expansive double albums like The Magnetic Fields ‘69 Love Songs’ and The Clash’s messy and misunderstood ‘Sandinista’, Grand Pocket Orchestra and No Monster Club’s Mark Chester third solo album ‘Crowns’ is a sprawling, demented work of mad genius. “I’ve always wanted to make an over the top, flabby round the middle, divisive record, so I did”, Mark AKA Ginnels told us last month. A combination of breezy pop and fuzzy experimentation, ‘Crowns’ provides both cheap thrills and moments of incredulity and is sure to stay interesting in a live setting.
Simon Bird
Dublin (by way of South-West England) experimentalist Simon Bird is nothing if not prolific, releasing five self-produced EP’s in the space of a couple of years- each one more weirdly wondrous than the last. Following an impressive set at last year’s HWCH, Simon brings his mixture of oddly upbeat ambience and lovely noise to The Workmans Club on Friday.
Si Schroeder
Alternative veteran Si Schroeder (or Simon Kenny to his mum) plays the delectable Meeting House Square on Thursday. Following the massive critical success of his debut album ‘Coping Mechanisms’, Si returned last year with two singles ‘Jump Ship’ and ‘Clocked’ from eagerly awaited follow up, ‘Holding Patterns’. If these tunes are anything to go by, it’s sure to be a richly contemplative affair and the chance to hear a sample of its wares is not to be passed up.
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The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock
Best described as the bastard lovechild of The Dubliners and Opeth and named after a poem about a haunted canal, Spook of the Thirteenth Lock take the notion of modern-trad music and re-jig it (literally). Crafting conventional folk rock with a contemporary ominous feel, the band play live as a potent five-piece, overlaying intricate folk melodies with swirling squalls of feedback and delay and soaring three part harmonies.
