A & R Department: Sarah Crean, Monjola, Cardinals and more

Sarah Crean returned from her songwriting foray to Los Angeles with ‘Compliments Strike’, an off-kilter indie pop song that strikes back at an online troll.

“The day I wrote it I had a session pencilled in, but I got quite a vile and graphic hate comment about my physical appearance the morning of it,” the Clondalkin singer explains. “It really threw me for a loop, mainly because of how much it sat with me and how I couldn’t shake it. I went to the session and the only way I could actually shake it was by writing about it. It’s me taking the power back.”

It’s the latest in a string of quality singles from Crean who last month pulled out of the Great Escape showcase festival in Brighton due to one of the sponsors, Barclays, having Israeli ties…

If it’s supremely soulful RnB you’re after, look no further than Monjola’s summer breeze of a single, ‘Go Wrong’, which he describes as “a journey through the labyrinth of past relationships.”

A former 2fm Rising Star, the Dubliner has set up Chamomile Records with his younger brother Moio and Aby Coulibaly with the second edition of their Garden Party taking place on July 27 in The Complex, Dublin…

Monjola supporting Kojaque at Set Theatre Kilkenny. Copyright Trevor McGrath.

Three years after releasing her debut The Sum Of The In-Between album, Maria Kelly releases a new single, ‘Drive’, which is featured in the trailer for Robert De Niro’s upcoming Ezra movie.

Written as “a comforting daydream as I looked back on my past relationships,” it makes sense of the boygenius, Daughter and Laura Marling comparisons that have been coming her way.

Wanting a “more authentic artist-listener connection”, Maria embarked on a DIY Living Room Tour, playing to 40-50 people every night in private homes, which is fairly common in the likes of Holland and Germany but a relatively new concept here. Catch her live on June 6 in Dublin’s BelloBar…

Maria Kelly, Photo Credit: Ciarán MacChoncarraige | @ciaranshoots

Reared on a healthy diet of Stevie Wonder and other classic Motown artists – his dad was a club DJ – and further fuelled by his love of Kanye ‘n’ Kendrick, Jesse June drops the supremely soulful ‘Aura’.

Nigerian-born and Dublin-domiciled, his previous ‘Maybe Next Time’ and ‘Yesterday’ singles suggest that Travis X Elzzz/Sello-style breakout success awaits…

Jesse June

Dublin noisemakers Gurriers limber up for the September 13 release of their Come And See album with ‘Close Call’, which the Hot Press New Irish Songs of the Week crew – with some justification – describe as “the perfect backing track for a prison riot.”

What also needs emphasising is the quality of the musicianship on display – these boys can really play – and their ability to insert big pop hooks into the melee. With BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders and his 6Music colleagues among their champions, you wouldn’t bet against Gurriers following the likes of SPRINTS, NewDad and Fontaines D.C. into the mainstream UK chart.

Catch them live in November when they play Limerick, Belfast, Listowel, Dublin, Galway and Cork shows…

Gurriers by Grayce Leonard.

Taking her name from a Smashing Pumpkins deep cut – Billy Corgan Co. have subsequently bigged them up on social media – Annie-Dog has been generating lots of cross-channel interest with her self-produced Grimes-esque electropop.

That’s likely to ratchet up another gear with the release through Leeds’ Dance To The Radio label of ‘violence 66’, which also contains trace elements of Garbage and Pink Pantheress and is already receiving radio love from BBC DJs Deb Grant, Tom Ravenscroft and Jess Izatt…

Annie-Dog. Photo: Omero Mumba

Cardinals continue to impress with ‘Nineteen’, which trails the June 7 release of the Cork outfit’s self-titled debut EP.

Commenting on its brevity, frontman Euan Manning says that it “came from a desire to write a song that was shorter than two minutes. I’d been listening to lots of Buddy Holly and he’s got some great short songs.”

That he does. Helped by Grian Chatten namechecking them as one of his favourite new bands, the Cardies –as absolutely no one calls them – are signed to So Young, the London label that also has the excellent Slow Fiction, NIGHTBUS and Lime Garden on its roster…

Cardinals - Photo: Ali Quinlan

Staying in the Real Capital, Midsummer Festival has added a New Blood strand, which sees the likes of Hot Press fave Ezra Williams, I Dreamed I Dream, Rua Rí, Eternal Youth Eternal Beauty, Luke O’Neill, Gerron, The Love Buzz, The Cliffords, Pebbledash and Abbie Lee playing in assorted Leeside venues on June 21 and 22.

Find out the who, where and whens here.

Named we presume after the Sonic Youth track, I Dreamed I Dream impressed with last year’s debut four-tracker, Why Say A Lot?, which runs the musical gamut from sean-nós to shoegaze.

Purveyors of experimental no wave bitch-funk, the quintet say they’re on a mission to make every teenage Irish girl start their own band. We can think of few more noble causes…

Check out this and more of what is going on on the ground in Irish music in this month's issue of Hot Press: