October A&R Department: Florence Road, Sarah Brooki, Chalk & more

On the A&R Dept. radar for some considerable time, Florence Road knock it out of the park with ‘Break The Girl’, which was a BBC Radio 1 Hottest Record On The Planet last month – and rightly so.

Hailing from Bray, it’s taken from their debut Fall Back mixtape which has earned Lily Aron, Emma Brandon, Ailbhe Barry and Hannah Kelly comparisons with boygenius, The Cranberries, Olivia Rodrigo and Wolf Alice.

Already snapped up by Warner Music in the UK, you can catch them live at the Dublin Academy (November 30) and Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast (December 7)…

One of the bands who’ve opened for Florence Road, Sarah Brooki, have been snapped up by Primary Talent International whose roster includes The Libertines, Catfish And The Bottlemen, Pet Shop Boys and, er, Englebert Humperdinck.

Fronted by the highly charismatic Sarah Brookfield, songs like ‘Little Portland Street’ are the missing link between early PJ Harvey and Jeff Buckley with all the commercial possibilities that entails…

Space cowgirl Janet Devlin is picking up lots of BBC Radio 2 support with ‘Houston’, her new single which references Major Tom. The track was recorded at Abbey Road and sounds like a banjo-plucking cross between Dolly Parton and Margo Price.

A native of Gortin, County Tyrone, the A&R Dept. favourite made it through to the final stages of the 2011 X Factor with Louis Walsh and Tulisa (boo!) responsible for her eventual downfall.

Since then she’s supported Corey Kent, made standout appearances at C2C shows around Europe and built up a very loyal fanbase…

It may be autumn outside but the vibes on Caolan Ryan’s debut Love EP are all of the summer variety.

The pick of a very fine bunch is ‘Do It’, which weaves together 2-step rhythms, ambient textures and a guest turn from Jafaris.

Managed by Word Up’s Phil Udell and citing Fred again as a key influence – they’ve DJ-ed together in Dingle –the Dubliner is signed to Origins Inconclusive, the London independent run by Jess Glynne, Johnny Adams and Idris Elba collaborator Cadyn Lewis. Another of the EP cuts, ‘Where Ur Going’, was a Jenny Greene 2fm Track of the Week…

From Limerick with distortion pedals come Van Panther who address themes of emigration, national identity and cultural repression on ‘The Old Country’, which reminds the A&R Dept.’s more mature members of prime time Therapy?

It’s a gut-punch post-punk taster from their debut album, Icarian, which is out now and has us officially excited…

Fellow Limrockers Mother Of Pearl go the gothgaze route – yes, we’ve invented a genre – on ‘Flood Street’, which contains moments of both intense beauty and immense savagery.

Which is a pretty exhilarating combination…

Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim’s Enemy Of The Sun is the inspiration for ‘Sea Og Hypocrisy’, a gorgeous piano and acoustic number from Rodney Owl, AKA Lurgan resident Mark McConville who’s concentrating on music after a successful spell as an amateur boxer.

Variously compared to Lambchop, Nick Drake, Iron & Wine and early REM, he’s a songwriter of real substance…

More balm for the soul is provided by Stephen Star whose love thy neighbour ‘Sun’ single proclaims: “Oh, I hope you live as long as I do!”

Star is also one-half of bog band whose left-field pop betrays a love of The Style Council, Prefab Sprout and other more folk-inclined outfits…

They may have slimmed down to a duo following the departure of drummer Luke Niblock, but CHALK make as big a noise as usual on ‘Pain’, which is out now courtesy of New York’s ALTER Music and trails a 2026 album.

There’s been a sharpening up of the visuals with some Nine Inch Nails-y stage attire and an accompanying video that positively seers the retinas.

“We shot on the same camera they used for 28 Days Later,” the chaps reveal. “We wanted the footage to have an authentic, gritty-yet-nostalgic texture that emphasised the ideas of the song, and the album as a whole. This is the beginning of the new era of Chalk”…

Glitchy digital synths and Afro-inspired percussion combine to glorious effect on ‘No Joy’, a hook-up between DJ duo SX2 and Waterford rapper neighbour Pat Lagoon who helps them pump up the old skool volume.

Equal parts Bomb The Bass and The Prodigy, the 6 mins 12 secs monster of a track is deserving of international attention…

Finally, Belfast R&B and Afropop man Tanaka scores a bullseye with ‘FYA’, a sexy divil of a song which bumps, grinds and does other very suggestive things...