April A&R Department: Florence Road, Venus Grrrls, The Marra and more

Sounding like the real fully formed deal are Florence Road, a Bray four-piece who first came on to the Hot Press radar when they opened in 2023 for The Academic.

Good then and even better now, they’ve signed a licensing deal with Warner Music UK who are giving their debut ‘Heavy’ single a major promotional push.

Musically, you’re talking prime time Cranberries mixed with Wolf Alice and a dash of ‘60s garage band rock.

Big on TikTok –we’re talking 817.4k followers and 26.3m likes – Lily Aron, Emma Brandon, Ailbhe Barry and Hannah Kelly join Kasabian and Bloc Party at July 24-27’s Truck Festival in Oxfordshire and are also part of the August 22-24 lineup at Victorious in Portsmouth which boasts the headlining talents of Queens Of The Stone Age, Vampire Weekend and Kings Of Leon.

Their growing fan club includes Dermot Kennedy who invited them to play at his Misneach bash last month in Boston where Florence Road absolutely killed it

Another A&R Dept. favourite Reii returns with ‘Chemicals’, a heavily vocodered 3mins 5secs of irresistible hip pop, which makes us even more convinced that the genre-bending Dubliner is going to be huge…

“The Ronettes meet The Strokes” is how our man Terry McNally describes The Marra, a five-piece Derry outfit whose new single, ‘What She Does To Me’, lives up to the billing.

Partial as well to The Verve and The Beatles, they’re being booked by Primary Talent’s Matt Bates who also takes care of The 1975, Supergrass, Amble and Wolf Alice tour itineraries and have spent quality studio time with Gordon Raphael who produced the aforementioned Julian Casablancas and Co’s This Is It debut.

If you’re looking for them on streaming platforms, note that there’s also an Australian rapper called The Marra who sounds extremely different…

As chilled out as it is catchy, Awesimon and Pat Lagoon’s ‘One And Only’ collaboration is a summer hip hop anthem par excellence.

The former Irish/Nigerian spitter has received copious amounts of airplay on Near FM’s excellent Saturday night 8.30pm-10pm Irish To The Core show, which goes out in Dublin on 90.3FM and globally on nearfm.ie/livestream…

We’re loving ‘Me & Vincent’, the latest from Frames drummer Dave Hingerty’s Side 4 Collective which features guest turns from Colm Querney and Keith Margo and has a baggy Madchester feel.
Lyrically, though, it’s all about Dublin with the accompanying video a fast ‘n’ furious run around the capital…

Ahead of their sold-out April 19 visit to Whelan’s, Venus Grrrls treat us to the goth ‘n’ emo flavoured ‘Eighteen Crows’, a co-write with You Me At Six’s Max Heyler which kicks considerable butt.

One of our Hot Press Hot For 2023 picks, the Leeds-based band are fronted by exiled Dubliner Grace Kelly who tells us that the song “comes from a recurring fantasy I had while sick (with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia), where I wished not necessarily for death, but for a different life. I developed a real fascination with the crows that appeared outside the hospital windows, given the symmetry of my ill health and the association of crows with death, and longed to be one of them instead of myself”…

Irish radio is all over ‘Rom-Com’, the latest from fast-rising Tipperary pop singer Jessica Brett whose previous ‘I’ll Come Back Better’, ‘Your Karma’ and ‘It’s Always Been You’ singles make sense of the Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa comparisons she’s been getting…

Marching Celtic drums and wormy synth lines combine to glorious effect on ‘Fags’, the latest from Cork quartet I Dreamed I Dream.

It “conveys the messy realties of love, loss and starting over again” through past cigarettes smoked together and once heard will not be forgotten!

It’s from their imminent BOYOPOISONING EP, which gets a live airing on May 3 when they pay a headlining visit to Dublin’s Bello Bar…

Celebrated maths rockers Adebisi Shank are back with ‘Start A Band’, a first taster from their This Is The Second EP Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank which follows later in the summer.

Following a quick sprint round England, the Co. Wexford trio pay August 22 and 23 visits to the Dublin Button Factory, which are their first Irish shows in eleven years.

We don’t think there’ll be too many complaints if they decide to make the comeback permanent…

• Check out the New Irish Songs To Hear This Week playlist every Friday afternoon on hotpress.com