Martin emailed me yesterday to let me know about Irish indie band, Dark Room Notes.

The Dublin based quartet are our first recommendation for 2008, and you should go and check out their MySpace (just as soon as you’ve read this page!). They’re really quite excellent.

Dark Room Notes: Who’s Who?

DRN is made up of:

• Ronan Gaughan: Vocals, Guitar, Synth, Programming
• Ruairi Ferrie: Vocals, Guitar, Synth, Programming
• Arran Murphy: Vocals, Synth, Glockenspeil(?)
• Darragh ‘Camera’ Shanahan: Vocals, Drums

Based on the band’s name and the drummer’s nickname (Camera), you should be able to guess that this foursome like their photography. And because the Irish names might be confusing to some of you reading this, the girl in the group is Arran Murphy.

Musical Style

With three members working various synths, you get no prizes for guessing that these instruments strongly influence the Dark Room Notes sound. You’ll hear this most clearly on tunes like Oh How Your Roses Wither Fast.

I especially love the crisp bass sound on tunes like Shake Shake My Ceiling, which the band describe as “electronic AC/DC played as soul music”.

Critical Reviews of DRN

DRN have received a number of glowing critical reviews in the industry. Here are a couple:

• Clare People: “Polished doesn’t even come close to describing it… In ‘Slow Puncture’, DRN look to have found an easy successor to breakthrough single ‘Love Like Nicotine’ in the anthemic stakes. But its in the EP final track ‘Shake Shake My Ceiling’ that I think DRN will find a way into mainstream success and radio playlists. You see if I’m wrong. 8/10″
• Edel Coffey – The Irish Independent: Dark Room Notes, true to their name, sing dark songs of obsession, addiction, lust and passion. Despite this, they manage to be strangely uplifting, the songs buoyed along on a wave of electro-indie and male-female vocals calling to mind Human League and Joy Division. Dark Room Notes are a smart and stylish young band, exciting and exhilarating with sophisticated tunes to boot.

Dark Room Notes Videos

A quick search on YouTube reveals a number of DRN videos for the viewing. I’ve included a couple here. If you want more Dark Room Notes, just head on over to their MySpace page.

Love Like Nicotine:

Shake Shake My Ceiling: