SESSION MOTTS are one of the most unusual bands to emerge from Ireland this decade. The Dublin trio are as far from fresh-faced, idealistic teenagers you’d expect to find in a new group, as you can imagine. Rather their age range is 35+.

At the latter end of this scale, bassist Ingmar’s CV includes studio work with the likes of Bob Marley, U2, Pulp and Suede. This experience shows as the Session Motts deliver a set of sleek, measured set of synth pop, taking its cues from Crystal-era New Order with lashings of dream pop and shoegaze debris, evoking the sensibilities of Ride, Talk Talk, The Cure and LCD Soundsystem, amongst others.

The unusual makeup of the band is echoed further by the lyrical content of their songs. There’s no saccharine boy meets girl expositions here, rather the bulk of Sessions Motts material is focused on murder – particularly the unsolved homicide of 18-year-old German backpacker Inga-Maria Hauser in Co. Antrim in 1988.

It was a murder mystery which prompted lead singer Keeley Moss to turn amateur detective; her investigation is chronicled in the blog The Keeley Chronicles, and was so fruitful that it yielded a large volume of new evidence which has subsequently seen her working closely with the PSNI to further the investigation. A heady unusual mix to be sure.

Plundered Past melds New Order-esque guitar stabs with disco-tinged bass, while Moss’ eerie vocal paints an unsettling picture of murder most foul, and promising to deliver justice to the victim. Chip Shop Fights commences with a glam rock shuffle which surprisingly meanders into a brisk deathly ballad, with the kind of ominous, descriptive lyrics you’d expect Nicky Wire to hand James Dean Bradfield – “Chip shop fights and freezing fog, triple-area-sightings are being logged/Another kill, another late-night shift, the countless hours of daily drift/The countless hours of daily drift.”

The pair are the standout moments from a sold-out set in Whelan’s upstairs venue, but even at this early phase, two gigs into their live career, Session Motts deserve to be gracing bigger and better stages.

There’s plenty here to indicate that Session Motts might just give sessions motts a good name.