We headed out to Dublin’s kitch Suger Club venue last night to catch downtempo electronica act Halfset. Halfset boast guitar and vocals from singer songwriter Jeff Martin , furious drumming from former Jubilee Allstar Cillian Mc Donnell, bass and backing music from electronic composer Stephen Shannon, and alternating harp and keyboards from Sinead Nic Gearailt.  The band played a moodily laid back show to riotous applause from a crowd of friends and industry musos. It was great to see a small Irish act using projection to spice up their visuals (even it it made the show that much harder to photograph). Halfset’s second album should be released early next year. Support act Dry County, featuring Trinity FM‘s own Derek Cosgrave on synth, were even better – really hope to hear more from these guys in the future.

After the show we got embarrassingly excited to meet some genuine Irish writers, in the form of Irish Times journalist and award winning blogger Sinead Gleeson, whose site has introduced me to more great (and fucked up) music and movies over the years than I care to remember; top Irish music blogger Nialler9 (whose hastily elicited picks of the current Irish scene in no particular order include Jape, Super Extra Bonus Party, Terrordactyl, and chiptunester The Vinny Club) and the absolutely lovely Phantom DJ and Independent columnist Edel Coffey, who drunkenly promised to have us on her show. Mental note: must not approach the hip with outstretched hand and fixed zombie like grin.