Our feature profiling sixteen Irish acts we’re very confident will do great in the months ahead, we continue 16 for ’16 today in the company of Kildare’s Planet Parade. Words by Brian Coney. Photo by Brian Mulligan.
Striking a shrewd balance between the blither side of Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend and Mac Demarco, Maynooth duo Michael Hopkins and Andrew Lloyd AKA Planet Parade admittedly caught us napping back in August with the release of their impossibly earworming single ‘Blue Sky’. Something of a should-have-been late Summer classic, its chilled and billowing quasi-tropical indie groove laid bare the pair’s ever-assured command of pattern and texture, not least via its slinky guitar shapes and perfectly restrained, subtly shifting rhythms. Having played in bands together since childhood – and eventually forming in their current nominal guise back in the halcyon days of 2006 – whilst Planet Parade are by no means a new-fangled, fledgling proposition, with a new album written, recorded and said to be set for release in the coming months, it’s safe to anticipate much bigger and better things for the Kildare duo throughout 2016 and far beyond. Brian Coney
