Child Of Prague, Florence Road and Madra Salach steal the Thursday night honours at Eurosonic

Moody rock ‘n’ rollers are great but I also like ones who have shit-eating grins on their faces, so gleeful they are to be up on stage performing.

Falling into the latter category are Child Of Prague, the shapeshifting Dublin six-piece who will soon be gracing the pages of Hot Press’ Hot For 2026 special issue.

I say ‘shapeshifting’ because over the course of forty glorious minutes, they run the full gamut from folk, indie and math rock to jazz, punk and grunge.

They weren’t born when it came out, but it reminds me of The Frames’ equally genre-bending Fitzcarraldo album.

With three of their members sharing vocal duties and fiddle and sax both prominent in the mix, the only band Child Of Prague really sound like, though, is themselves.

I have “Fuck me, they’re good!” scrawled in my somewhat alcohol-fuelled notes from last night, and in the cold light of day feel no need to update my position.

There are high security bank vaults that are easier to get into than Madra Salach’s Nieuwe Kerk gig, which is the talk of Thursday night.

Despite arriving thirty minutes before kick-off, the scrum outside the church is impenetrable, so you’ll have to make do with this photo of the chaps raising hell on holy ground.

Madra Salach at Eurosonic Nieuwe Kerk on January 15th, 2026. Copyright Jessie Kamp

I'm more successful at strong-arming my way into Huize Maas for Florence Road, another of the Irish acts who've piqued the interest of industry heads and sane people alike.

Their 'next big thing' status is fully deserved with the Bray outfit all Fleetwood Mac-y one moment and doing a fair old Nirvana impersonation the next - albeit given their own unique twist.

I must say I love the quartet's down 'n' dirty side, as highlighted by the opening, guitars-set-to-stun 'Figure It Out'. Heads all around me are banging - and rightly so.

Able to go from a whisper to a scream in the same breath, singer and guitarist Lily Aron oozes charisma and is at her most dazzling on 'Break The Girl', an earworm redolent of Hanson's 'MMMBop'. Which is a serious compliment.

You'll be able to see 'em yourself on February 6 when Florence Road join the star-studded Hot Press History In The Making line-up in the Dublin 3Arena.

Florence Road at Eurosonic Huize Maas on January 15th, 2026. Copyright Ben Houdijk

If any country musically punches above its weight more than Ireland, it’s Iceland who've always had a strong showing in Groningen – and this year is no exception.

There’s an especially big buzz surrounding Elin Hall, a young singer-songwriter who’s had four number one singles at home and is now starting to make serious waves overseas.

First, let’s get some of the cliches out of the way - she’s not elfin, otherworldly or sounds anything like Bjork.

She does, though, have a song named after a type of flawed volcanic lava rock, ‘Taklite’, which she uses as an analogy for “love that burns too fast and becomes shit.”

This, as we learn over the course of her set, is an indie folk artist who gives zero fucks as she eviscerates ex-boyfriends - albeit in a gentle, half-whispered acoustic way which captivates the packed room from the get-go.

Another example of her steel fist in a velvet glove approach to songwriting is ‘Wolf Boy’, which tells one of those exes: “I’m a big shark/ Blood in my teeth/ I’m a killer baby/ Pushing you away from me.”

Who knew that dark malevolence could sound so beautiful?

Draws also drop when she covers David Bowie’s ‘As The World Falls Down’, her favourite childhood song which she steers into Cyndi Lauper ‘True Colors’ territory.

‘America’ isn’t about Trump’s Disunited States but what it’s like coming from a tiny dot of a country that most people know nothing about.

I'm not sure if the Cranberries are an influence, but Hall’s half-yodel during it is positively Dolores O’Riordan-esque!

Also in confessional mode is English-Indonesian singer Nadia Kadek who admits that, "I can be a jealous cow sometimes, but aren't we all?" and then plays a new song, 'Jane', which introduces us to her little green monster.

In Groningen courtesy of BBC Introducing who picked her out from the thousands of demos they get sent, she's a master storyteller in the vein of Joni Mitchell who one suspects she's an admirer of.

The London-based singer is definitely a member of the Glen Hansard Fan Club, saying in a recent interview that she'd love to collaborate with him. Over to you Mr. H...

She also talks about dumping somebody and being a control freak, which suggests that for Kadek songwriting is a form of therapy.

For all of her '70s influences, 'Lemonade' is a thoroughly modern pop song - think Phoebe Bridgers with a side order of beabadoobee - that bodes extremely well for her debut album this year.

In the unlikely event that Bono leaves U2 and forms a grunge-y emo band, they’d probably sound like The Clumps, a Norwegian threesome who rock out in spectacular fashion.

Recent single ‘**** (Save Us)’ - the asterisks are theirs - boasts a killer chorus while ‘Citizens’ could fill baseball stadiums if given the chance.

I’m really not sure about the name though…

The winner of the Faroese Music Prize with Ja/Nei – Og Restin Av Vikuni - try saying that after a few advocaats - Ragnar Finnson admits to being a massive Bon Iver fan and has the same knack for dissecting the human condition as Mr. Vernon.

‘Who Are You?’ is an absolute peach of a song, with the 26-year-old bathing his alt. folk in warm ambient noise.

Indeed, the Tórshavn singer is constantly throwing out little sonic curveballs to ensure that he transcends his obvious influences.

Somebody needs to bring him over to Ireland pronto!