Rising Damp

One of the Irish undergrowth’s most febrile live acts, Rising Damp, makes music to be shook to. We first heard her at Banger Cliff, on the Sunday of Open Ear 2019, when she played an appropriately head-scrambling live set of post-punk and EBM. The Dublin artist’s effect-soaked howls and propulsive rhythms injected a final burst of frenetic energy into the festival’s final day, and presented an uncompromising performer most comfortable in the wide-eyed buzz of the rave. Petrol Factory offers the most song-led work Rising Damp has produced to date, while clinging to its tough electronic edge, invoking everyone from Joy Division, Suicide and Carter Tutti Void to Blawan, Puce Mary and Laurel Halo. Lyrics, echoing and assertive, tackle societal disarray, violence, the rise of fascism and the banking crisis, and place her among the likes of TPM, Girl Band and Gross Net with their manic, darkly humorous approach to prominent issues in Ireland, 2020.