The Butterfly Effect are a four piece group from Thurles who have recently returned from playing around London. This four song Babylon E.P. is their second offering, the first being the well received Fly E.P. The group confidently show a variety of styles ranging from the white reggae of ‘Babylon’ to the rocky riffing of ‘Everybody Laughed’. The E.P. ends with ‘Isn’t She The One’ — a lovely melodic pop song. It’s good stuff this.

From Naas, Ultimate Sin are a young (average age 18) group. This three track demo shows them to be a surprisingly accomplished outfit in the heavy rock mould. The band veers towards a heavier Pearl Jam style, thanks to great, strong vocals from the lead singer. I found some of the lyrics on ‘Hell Alley’ highly dubious (and sometimes offensive) to say the least. Perhaps Angel Ford, who plays lead guitar and writes most of the songs, could be a little more original and could avoid the more obvious nasty clichés.

Hello to Shane Supple, who’s Eyes of Blue E.P. is unapologetically old-fashioned. This is good old blues rock, played well with catchy tunes, ideally suited to the cabaret circuit. If this is what you want to do, Shane, then do it. I believe there is an audience for every type of music.

A four-piece rock group from Dublin, Wildest Dreams’ two track demo tape is composed of two, well recorded, live tracks and one studio track. The first live song ‘Hope and Prayer’ is a catchy, if not awe inspiring, number which shows what a good tight band they are. ‘Back On The Street’ is up next and opens with a wash of wah-wah guitar. This is a groovy funk-rock thing which again shows their live playing abilities and their fine singer who raps a snatch of ‘The Message’ towards the end. ‘Give it up for You’ is the studio track and is very good. It’s a mid tempo rocker with a great chorus. If they continue to write material like this, their wildest dreams may come true.

After seeing Reckless Pedestrians play at Tower Records last Sunday, it struck me how much more impressive they were live than on tape. Or to put it another way: I don’t feel the group captured their exciting live essence on demo. They didn’t do themselves justice which I think applies to a lot of the material I hear. It’s a point for everyone who’s making demos – bands, studios, engineers, producers – to ponder over the Christmas period.

Other bands to play at Tower Records in association with Demo Parade recently were Slack and LMNO Pelican. The Hot Press/Heneiken collaboration with Tower Records has gone down very well and will be continuing after Christmas, so keep your tapes rolling in.

My favourite unsigned band of the year? Well I’m forced to say Serious Women (because one of my communion photos has gone missing!). But really, I have to admire the creativity and ingenuity exhibited by this bunch, whose album 38 SCR is highly original and very strong both musically and lyrically. The man responsible for the programming, incidentally, is Martin Clancy, formerly of In Tua Nua. Gigs are rumoured for next February — I strongly advise a look in.

It’s great to see Sack making up so much ground this year with the excellent ‘What Did The Christians Ever Do For Us’ gaining an NME Single of the Week and earning them a clatter of good reviews. Hopefully 1994 will see even greater things happen for them.

So until 1994, Happy Christmas and don’t forget, Santa is real.

• Kathryn McKinny