THE VERY cream of Galway and Irish rock, indie, singer-songwriter, and electro talent will ring out 2016 and welcoming in 2017 from the stage of the Róisín Dubh for the venue’s marathon New Year’s Eve bash.
Headlining will be indie-electro, techno, fiddle playing, DJ and producer Daithí. The Clare man impressed this year with his Tribes EP, which contained ‘Mary Keanes Introduction’. It sampled the voice of his grandmother, recalling her youth, and placed it with an electro setting. Last month, came the single ‘Falling For You’, featuring singer Sinead White.
“’Falling For You’ was one of the first tracks I wrote using my own natural samples,” says Daithí of the song. “The sea sound is from Inch beach in Cork, the bell sounds are cut up samples from a wind chime I found in Achill. Sinead recorded these vocals on Valentia with me. I think it’s my favourite vocal I’ve ever worked on. It’s so undeniably Irish, but feels modern at the same time, which is kind of my buzz.”
Daithí’s next release will be the Holiday Home EP in March. “It’s a five-track EP built completely in the west, using sounds from the west,” he says. One to look forward to.
King Kong Company winners of the Pure M Best Live Act 2016 Award, who “stole the Electric Picnic weekend,” according to 2FM’s Dan Hegarty, who also declared them “one of Ireland’s best bands”, are also playing.
Following the Pure M win and that Electric Picnic appearance, KKC signed a European record deal that saw their debut album distributed in Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg by Caroline International, and sold out a show at The Academy in Dublin. The band is working on new material with plans for a new stage show for 2017.
Mayo born electronic producer and songwriter, Elaine Mai will also play. Last month saw her release the single ‘Enniscrone’, taken from her forthcoming EP, The Colour Of The Night, set for release in early 2017.
‘Enniscrone’, named after the County Sligo seaside town, is an evocative, uplifting track, recalling childhood summer holidays spent by the sea. An accompanying video shot by Paul Mahon was released to accompany the song.
“Enniscrone was a place of total joy for me when I was a kid,” Elaine says. “I used to go there with my cousins every summer. For me, this track sums up that time in my life, the feeling of being young and not having a care in the world.”
It was a long time coming but it was worth the wait. Tuam garage-rock/pop-punk tro Oh Boland - Eanna MacDonnchadha (bass ), Niall Murphy (guitar/vocals ), and Simon McDonagh (drums ) delivered the Galway album of the year in Spilt Milk. Indeed, Brian Kelly of So Cow has declared it one of the best albums ever made by a Galway band.
Oh Boland have a real knack for punk rage, fused with anthemic choruses, earworm melodicism, and slice o’life lyrics. They are already working on the second album, let’s hope we see it in 2017.
The show takes place on Saturday December 31 from 8pm. Tickets are available at www.roisindubh.net, the Ticket Desk at OMG Zhivago, Shop Street, and The Róisín Dubh.
