The Jane Parker Band are from Manchester, home of some of the finest music to come out of England in the last four years. From the Happy Mondays to Oasis, it has been something of a musical Mecca. While the Jane Parker Band are not quite rubbing shoulders with such illustrious company yet, they are certainly making interesting music.

The band is comprised of Jane Parker on vocals, Tim Walsh on guitar, Jez on bass and Chris on drums. The opening track here is ‘Inertia’ and the first really striking thing about it is Jane’s voice. Sounding not unlike a cross between Bjork and Harriet Wheeler (The Sundays) she flits from whooping high range styles to gently sung melodic passages. The band knock out the music in requisite style, a tight rhythm section and some intelligent, illustrative guitar work, providing just the right backing. ‘Bleeding On My Floor’ and ‘Violent Fun’ carry on this fine work and Jane’s lyrics are consistently strange and interesting. Her imagery is intensely personal but it draws you in nonetheless. ‘Hatemail’, the final song, builds up slowly and creates a sort of suffocating feeling with its downbeat melody and vocal delivery. Will we hear more from

Jane Parker? On this evidence, we ought to.

Back in Dublin we have ‚‚ a three piece guitar rock/pop group. The band are Jonny Rowen on vocals and bass, Eddie Reynolds on guitars and Mick Goss on drums. Their four-song Consenting Spacey Grey Talented Wind (The Stano Revival starts here – Ed) demo opens with ‘Lazy Head’. It is an altogether brilliant first salvo, as it blasts in on a giddy rush of a riff, all wall-of-sound guitars, pumping bass and relentless drumming heralding a great, fresh pop thing with an extremely catchy melody. ‘Looking Through You’ is slower, a love gone wrong song, building to climatic choruses with their great swells of backing vocals and slashing guitar chords. A manic flanged verse contrasts well with the melodious chorus. In general, ‚ keep it short and sweet showing a deft understanding of the old “keep them wanting more” axiom and it works! They finish up their demo with ‘Cold’ and its a weepie. Jonny Raven recounts a sad tale in his idiosyncratic high pitched voice to a well-realised, gradual musical build up. Excellent stuff.

Also from Dublin we have Taking the Veil and their five song Satelite demo. Dermot O’Callaghan is the prime mover here, writing the material and playing guitar and keyboards. He is helped out by Aingeala de Búrca on violin, Finn Higgins on bass and backing vocals and Aidan O’Grady on drums. Satelite opens the proceedings in fine style. The sound is big with keyboard strings and drum roll fills aplenty and some beautifully apt violin playing. O’Callaghan’s voice is warm and tuneful. ‘Over II’ opens with guitar and violin, before being joined by that yearning voice. Here the instrumentation is kept sparse leaving the vocal melody line to carry the sad song. ‘Over III’ carries on the feeling but adds bass and drums to the mix. This piece is instrumental with a strange choral keyboard sound appearing intermittently. ‘This Is’ features a heavily affected spoken vocal over a panoramic soundscape. It’s got that sort of Robbie Robertson ‘Somewhere Down That Crazy River’ feel to it and is carried off convincingly. ‘In A Grey Garden’ brings the proceedings to a close. It’s a very short, very pretty instrumental piece and a nice closing shot. Atmospheric, moving and damn good!

Finally from Clonmel come Swerve. They are a four piece alternative rock band made up of Paul Walsh on vocals, Gavin Teggart on guitar, Andrew Kennedy on bass and Paul Ryan on drums. They are relatively young, average age 18, and have been together for a little over a year. This nine song collection was produced and financed the band by themselves, on a very limited budget. ‘Stoned Halo’ sets the ball rolling. The sound is full and belies the humble origins with Paul Walsh proving himself a fine singer. In fact, to these ears, he sounds not unlike Martin McCann (Sack) and that’s a compliment!

The band’s playing is really together and the arrangements utilise the tight line up superbly. ‘Generation Gap’ is a great little pop song, although the lyrical inaccuracies (JFK was shot in ’63, Manson and the moon landings were ’69) give it an, I presume, unintended humorous slant. ‘All About Time’ introduces some tasteful piano from Walsh into the pot pourri, broadening the sound. ‘Ailment’ rocks out the style and ‘Delude’ has some truly lovely vocal melodies. ‘When I Die’ is uptempo with Walsh’s voice soaring high in the mix and rightly so. When it comes to good singers, if you’ve got it, flaunt it!! ‘Unlock the Door’, ‘Grain’ and ‘Fall’ are three more gems from a young band with a lot of potential. Watch out for Swerve. n

• Don’t forget to tune into the City Limits Youth Affairs show on Anna Livia Radio, 103·8 FM, Dublin, this Saturday (and every other!) from 10am-12 noon for the complete low-down.