October A&R Department: Evie, Eiza Murphy, Spooklet & more

If it’s some gently strummed acoustic loveliness you’re after, look no further than ‘Wondrous Odds’, the new single from Dublin alt. folker Evie who was raised on a healthy diet of Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen and Paul Brady.

It’s the first taster of a new collaborative project that also boasts the considerable talents of Ber Quinn and Ye Vagabonds man Brían Mac Gloinn.

“I think we made some cool choices in production,” Evie reflects. “Cohen’s Songs From A Room was referenced a lot. The work he did with Bob Johnston on vox – both stark and entrancing – I really took to that.”

A doff of the A&R Dept. headphones to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council for helping to fund the Sonic Recording Studios sessions.

Coming on to our radar in 2024 with her equally exquisite EP Shiny Things, Evie has sold out Whelan’s, Galway Folk Festival, TradFest, Inishbofin Arts Festival and Sligo Arts Festival shows to her credit, and a number of Irish TV and movie syncs…

Eiza Murphy trails her debut Against Good Advice EP with ‘The Girl’s Bathroom’, a cinematic track about female solidarity.

“The title has always been stuck in my head, and I wanted to write about the chaos that every girl knows,” reflects the singer who’s added tasteful synths to her musical armoury.A collaboration with her sister Lenni, it explains why Ms. Murphy has had her music featured on the likes of Netflix’s Riverdale. Not afraid to take risks, she moved aged 15 to New York to study Logic Pro Music Production in the Dubspot School of Electronic Music, where she was the only female in a class of twenty men…

Also on ‘repeat’ in HP Central is ‘Autofill’, the latest from Holly Munro which jingles and jangles in all the right places.

Her PR people describe it as “sitting somewhere between the pop instincts of CMAT and the candid songwriting of Julia Jacklin and Adrienne Lenker” and, well, they’ve got a point.

The Tipperary singer’s vocal range is impressive, as is Really Good Time, Thumper and Saint Sister man Rian Trench’s sparkling production.

Holly will be showcasing more songs from her upcoming album on October 11 at the Music In The Mountains Festival, which is spread across eight elevated venues in and around Dublin...

Galway alt. rock outfit Noble return with new album The Witching Hour, which is produced by kindred spirit Ed Harcourt.

The taster is a kaleidoscopic slow/fast epic which showcases Noble’s considerable songwriting skills…

Exciting our man with the golden ears, Terry McNally, is young Donegal singer-songwriter McGrath, who’s supported the likes of George Ezra and Cian Ducrot and also gigged at the wildly successful Belfast Fleadh.

New single ‘Home’ finds the Rathmullan man straying into Amble/Kingfishr/Dermot Kennedy territory, but putting his own stamp on things.

Catch him at the Ruby Sessions, Dublin (November 24); Whelan’s, Dublin (25); and Róisín Dubh, Galway (26)…

The Love Buzz return with ‘The Message’, which could just be the Cork outfit’s finest offering yet.

Self-styled purveyors of ‘punkadelic pleasures and everything heart-pounding’, it’s followed in October by their Earworm album, and a long run of European shows – among the Róisín Dubh, Galway on

October 17 – booked by Luke Rea at Trust Artists who also look after the likes of Meryl Streek, Peer Pleasure and Fizzy Orange…

Jeorge II renews acquaintances with Dok Beats on sulphurous new single ‘Doktors Note’.

Blending dark, silky production with deft yet gorgeously melodic bars, it’s another R&B stunner from the Artist Also Known As George Adegbuyi…

Chilean-born, Dublin-domiciled producer and DJ Vaticanjail treats us to ‘BUBU’, a vocodered-to-infinity banger, which is accompanied by a tour of hipster Dublin video...

SPOOKLET takes a walk on the weirdside with ‘Press Down Cheer Up’, a dark, slow-burning track from her HAVE YOU SEEN MY BODY? EP which fair rattles your bassbins and has earned her favourable comparisons to FKA Twigs.

Which isn’t to say that the 26-year-old French-born, Dublin-residing music teacher doesn’t have her own genre-bending thing going on.

If there’s an artist deserving of a big, fat, juicy major label deal, it’s the BIMM graduate who also answers to the name of Hannah Worrall.