First Cuts: Madison Ray, The New Messiahs, Kerr In The Community, Delboy Larkin, The DMZ

Madison Ray, a seven-piece band from Tyrone, offer up a relatively predictable mix of r’n’b and musicianly soul-funk. The CD opens with the self-titled ‘Madison Ray’, dominated by slinky keyboards, a decent guitar solo from Niall Rice and tuneful vocals from Ray himself and two females. Otherwise, this feels like production line stuff.

So it was a relief to turn to the less predictable The New Messiahs (not to be confused with The Mail Order Messiahs) from Cork. Their vocalist Chris Skindagger sings with real, rather than contrived, conviction backed by a band who offer a nourishing stew of grunge, punk, Nickelback, The Smashing Pumpkins and that something indefinable that must be their own. ‘Of My Precious Heart’ opens with a throbbing guitar riff that immediately prompts you to turn up the volume. It turns up the heat too, but then drops it as appropriate to maintain the dynamic tension. These guys are promising.

Kerr In The Community are from Craigavon and they too can conjure a rich dish from a variety of ingredients, including electronica, country and various shades of rock. ‘Journey To The Centre Of Your Heart’ suffers only from the cliched title. It has a naggingly catchy chorus, a solid beat and an intriguing mix of menace, madness and Hendrix in the vocals, all in under three minutes! ‘Johnny Was Here’ has a magnificently throbbing bass line, cutting guitar stabs and the wailingest harmonica this side of the boy from Hibbing.

Delboy Larkin (obviously a fan of actor David Jason?) from Drogheda has sent a tape of two songs. The first one, called ‘Clare Coast Big Time’, veers so close to Jimmy MacCarthy’s ‘Neidin’ it could attract the copyright vigilantes, while ‘Two Furlongs Out’ is strongly reminiscent of Christy Hennessey’s ‘Don’t Forget Your Shovel’.

With sales of dance records by Irish artists falling off the bottom of the “units shipped” graph, this seems an odd time for The DMZ to make their appearance round this way. ‘Topical Tropical’ has lots of luxurious, sun-drenched grooves and luscious synths washing in and out, but it’s so long it could be still playing for all I know. ‘Low Gear All The Way’ is (perhaps intentionally, given its title?) a pedestrianised kid brother of Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’, but in the end it makes you wish they’d taken the bus.