First Cuts: Aine Duffy, Bengie, The Gurriers, Dart Evader, Adrift, The Riffs

There’s no shortage of female solo acts toiling away on the home front, and here’s another to place in your files alongside Gemma Hayes, Nina Hynes, Eleanor McEvoy et al. She’s Aine Duffy from Bandon, Co Cork, and her work reflects a myriad of influences, from the more ethereal wing of Led Zeppelin right over to Suzanne Vega. She applies a fine indie music sensibility to her lispy vocal on songs that are basically folksy, with ‘Staccato’ a real winner, albeit marred a little by occasionally poor diction that has you puzzling over this or that word. ‘Recycle Remend’ and ‘Interrupted’ are equally tasty, and she exudes a confidence far beyond her experience.
Bengie from Wexford are a rock guitar-trio who bring a classy inventiveness to their rambunctious sound, a sort of Nirvana with more intricate arrangements. You get some dynamite riffs in ‘Ambience’ and large lumps of heaviosity in ‘Crowded Room’. There’s also a nagging charm to ‘Nothing’, with its wall of squawling guitars and thrashing drums as it turns into a serious thrashfest. All three members of Bengie sound like dandy musicians, with a real feel for intelligent, raucous rock and the rhythm section of Will O’Brien and Richie Mason is astightasthis, but it would make more sense to let guitarist Johnny Fox off the leash, relieve him of his vocal duties and add a separate vocalist.
The Gurriers from Dundalk once had a deal with American label Cayenne that came to nought. They play high-energy pop-rock as if they’d just invented it. There are ludicrous steals from Lydon and Bowie in the vocal on ‘Kids On The Street’, but it gets by on sheer cheek. The pile-driving ‘One Reason Why’ tries to outrun (and outgun) The Ramones with Mr Rotten again in evidence. The quirky ‘The Butterfly Song’ at least shows the singer doing something a bit off-beat, but it only shows how cliched the rest of their stuff is.
Dart Evader (band name of the year?) used up all their creativity with their name. After that they could hardly be arsed even coming up with original song titles. ‘I Will Follow’ is standard Status Quo riffology with little sign of a melody. while ‘Yesterday’ is an instrumental that is basically a chord pattern (my guess is that it’s C, Am, F and G) repeated for days. I’m sure I’ve seen a sign in railway stations saying “Dart Evaders will be prosecuted”. I wouldn’t argue.
I’m not convinced of the wisdom of using a live CD as a demo. It can capture the feel of a band in full flight, but distractions often undersell the band’s real potential. Such it is with Adrift, a band with members hailing from various parts of the map. ‘Come Sit A While’ is full of pop-rock energy, but with the standard line-up it sounds as dated as, say, James. ‘Moon And Back’ suggests a band of all cake but no icing, workmanlife craftsmanship but not exactly creative overload.
The Riffs are not exactly offering anything wildly new either, but they bring such a level of zest to the proceedings that you have to pay attention. Produced by Pete Holidai, the demo opens in a rush with ‘E Song’, all fast, spanking guitars and celebratory vocals. They keep up the frantic pace with ‘My Addiction’s fast drum rolls, screaming guitar riffs and such attractive vim and vigour that you have to nail your feet to the floor. But just when you think it’s all riff and no raff they take a breather with ‘Follow Me Down’, a slow balladic track, complete with a decent guitar solo, and a song that has real commercial potential. There’s a lot of work to be done in The Riffs camp, but for sheer rock’n’roll energy they score 11 on the Garageland clapometer.