Hitting the road

It would be silly to lay blame for the absence of any independent record label of contemporary standing in Ireland solely on the care-worn shoulders of U2. Yet you can't help suspecting that the development in the mid-1980s of the former proto-Joy Division pretenders into a million selling Amnesty International with-guitars imprinted on the psyche of their Dublin contemporaries a success-or-bust mentality that endures to this day.

Contrast the unyielding obsession with chart rankings, bums-on-seats and unit-shifting potential exhibited by the capital's music industry cognoscenti (can you imagine any other city being so proud of Boyzone?) with the bustling underground scenes that prosper in other supposedly peripheral population centres of similar size, such as Glasgow - home to rock innovators Chemikal Underground, Sheffield - which gave us techno-boundary pushers, Warp records - or even far off Auckland, spawning ground of the 15-year-old Flying Nun label.

Could the emergence of Road Relish records - the new label born of an alliance between Road Records in Fade Street, one of Dublin's few remaining specialist vinyl stores, and the tiny Alpha records imprint - herald a renaissance in Dublin's flagging "alternative" scene? The portents are promising; a debut double A-side seven-inch - in which baroque cinematic instrumentalists The Idiots rub plectrums with the more traditional rock stylings of The Redneck Manifesto, has sold out its 500 limited edition run. The follow-up, a softtinged affair featuring languid, quasicountry strummers Jubilee Allstars, was launched at the end of last year. A third single, by long-running Irish dance luminaries Decal, arrives next week.

While the project's guiding light, Road Records owner, Dave Kennedy, is loath to make any grandiose claims for what he describes as "basically a bunch of mates interested in music, having a laugh", he confesses to modelling Road Relish on the seminal singles "club" founded by early 1990s grunge innovators, Sub Pop, nursemaid to then-unheard-of acts such as Nirvana and Mudhoney. The plan is to release a limited edition, seven-inch single every two months, with a compilation to follow late next year. What are the odds on Road Relish uncovering its very own Kurt Cobain?

"I wouldn't bet on it," says Kennedy. "We don't envisage selling huge numbers of records. This isn't about making a name for ourselves. We just felt that there should be an outlet for bands that we think are cool and we wanted to raise the profile of independent music in Ireland."

Kennedy hopes to provide a shop window for unsigned bands which, in a less atrophied independent music scene, could have expected to scrape a full-time living from gigging and record sales. The Idiots provide a case in point. Despite building up a moderate fan-base and garnering favourable critical reaction to their self-financed, eponymous debut album in 1995, the group had to be cajoled from semi-retirement by Kennedy.

"The Idiots had become disillusioned with the whole thing. They weren't really doing much. But we knew they had a few songs knocking about, so we got in touch. This is the sort of opportunity to reach a new audience that Irish bands at their level don't get that often."

Road Relish opted for the seven-inch format over compact disc for practical rather than aesthetic reasons, says Kennedy. "Our customer base won't buy CD singles. We brought in a ton of them when we first opened the shop and found we couldn't sell them. The public seems more enthusiastic about seven-inches. It's a cheap, easy way to check out new music. Your average seven-inch single costs £2.50 - which is less than the price of a pint. So you really can't go wrong."

Kennedy is reluctant to talk up the project's long-term prospects, citing the failure of most of its predecessors to stay the distance. And although his "we're just doing this for ourselves" line is the stuff of a zillion no-hoper guitar band interviews, his self-effacing honesty offers a refreshing contrast to the star-struck narcissism that so often drips from his major label contemporaries.

"We're not in it to support anyone's career. We give them the opportunity to show their wares. After that, it's up to them."

Sleeve Notes returns next week