Set to feature in physical form in our forthcoming January magazine, we continue 15 for ’15, a feature looking at fifteen Irish acts we’re absolutely convinced are going places in 2015. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph by our wonderful team of photographers.
Next up is Cork dream-pop band Elastic Sleep.
Photo by Brid O’Donovan.
There is much to be said for patience. After well-loved Cork pop combo Terror Pop abruptly bid adieu in mid-2012, the band’s core membership took their time about regrouping. Quietly and subversively working away, Elastic Sleepemerged in mid-2013 with debut single ‘Anywhere’, an weighty shoegazer with a celestial mantra at its core, before punctuating their statement of intent with a chilling, reverberating take on Nancy Sinatra Bond-theme confection ‘You Only Live Twice’.
All this was prelude, however, to a 2014 that saw the band unleash their near-spectral debut EP, ‘Leave You’ on Cork co-op FIFA Records, featuring an eponymous title track that boasted the appropos amount of spacey distance while prominently featuring some colossal hooks. Nailing their colours to the mast, Elastic Sleep have been touring hard all year, opening their festival accounts with Indiependence, Hard Working Class Heroes, Knockanstockan and more. Their hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed by their influences either, with My Bloody Valentine ex-drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig stopping at their headliner at (sadly now-defunct) Dublin venue The Joinery.
The ‘shoegaze’ tag wasn’t going to hang heavy for too long, though, and undesirous of pigeonholing, the band’s most recent single, ‘Slip’, is a booming volley of harsh percussive discipline, a noisier edge to their considerably layered six-string assault, bluntly fuzzy Kim Deal-esque bass and in Muireann Levis’ progressively more distorted vocals throughout, the sound of dreams falling beautifully asunder. It sets a stunning precedent for what surely has to be a breakthrough year for one of Ireland’s most dedicated and visionary musical propositions. Mike McGrath Bryan
