KATIE KIM & CRASH ENSEMBLE, Grand Social, Dublin, tomorrow.
Katie Kim’s 2016 album Salt was one of last year’s highlights, earning a Choice Prize nomination for its haunting ambient folk, full of raw emotion and droning electronics.
The album is only a few months old, but the Waterford artist is already deconstructing the work, with a special arrangement by Ireland’s eminent modern composition group The Crash Ensemble.
CRAIG DAVID, 3Arena, Dublin, tonight,
It’s over 10 years since UK garage smoothie Craig David was reduced to a catch phrase meme after Bo Selecta!, but his return isn’t a cringe-fest — he’s playing the 3Arena for starters.
David has saved himself from the nostalgia club and Rag Week circuit with his sixth album Following My Intuition — following 2010’s barrel-scraping Motown album Signed, Sealed. Delivered.
It’s got some chart house fluff (Ain’t Giving Up) and cringey drum & bass (Don’t Go), but the silky garage of One More Time and [] are the standouts.
Of course the money shots will be the older Cristal-soaked hits 7 Days and Fill Me In — and chants of Re-re-re-wiiiiind.
KEVIN ROWLAND DJ SET, Grand Social, Dublin, tomorrow, €10
If you spot someone knocking round Abbey Street at the weekend looking like an extra from Boardwalk Empire, it could be Kevin Rowland doing the rounds.
The Dexys frontman is in town for a DJ set, following his show at Grand Social last year.
Even if you’re not a big Dexys fan, you’ll probably dig all the music that inspired them, from David Bowie and T-Rex, to great Northern soul gems, Motown classics, reggae and dub.
And as an added bonus, he’ll the mic and he does sing along just whenever he damn well feels like it.
CHARLOTTE CHURCH’S LATE NIGHT POP DUNGEON: The Limelight 2, Belfast, tonight, & Academy Green Room, Dublin, tomorrow,
No laughing at the back — the former Voice of an Angel singer who has sang soprano for the Pope has a drunken karaoke roadshow that’s been a giddy hit at the festivals.
The Late Night Pop Dungeon is the former opera child star’s new lairy cover band, and what Charlotte Church is doing now will shock you etc etc.
Fronting her band, Church joins the dots between chart pop, hip-hop, disco, punk and metal, taking on Nine Inch Nails, Sugababes, R Kelly, En Vogue, Rage Against the Machine, Dillinger Escape Plan, Black Sabbath and loads more.
And proving that we’ve hit peak krautrock appropriation, she’s even been tackling Can’s Vitamin C.
THE JESUS and MARY CHAIN: The Academy, Dublin, Tonight, & The Limelight, Belfast, Tomorrow,
After reforming in 2007 and sporadically touring for years, The Jesus and Mary Chain have done the honourable thing and finally released an album — their first since 1998.
Damage and Joy is an understandable throwback to Jim and William Reid’s classic 1985 debut Psychocandy — fuzzy wall-of-sound guitar pop with nods to psychedelia, noise and 50s rock’n’roll. They’re still going heavy with the tambourine as well — all good.
Moo Kid 