10 best new Irish tracks of the week

TraviS, Elzzz, Sello

Franklin Flow

When ‘Blockbuster’ dropped, I said the drill rap duo of Travis & Elzzz were circling the ring for a big year to come.

This week, the pair have a number 1 album for Doghouse, and the collection of music features a high-bar collection of Irish rap music that extends beyond the duo’s previous drill templates.

Guests include Sello, Reggie and Monjola and production by Liam Harris keeps that bar set high, as heard on the one of the highlights ‘Franklin Flow’.

Fizzy Orange

Choo Choo

Brandishing 60s guitar pop and classic rock styles, Fizzy Orange’s latest song ‘Choo Choo’ is a Beach Boys-esque hoot.

The band’s debut EP Fizzy Orange in Mono is released on Friday March 29th.

“We first played this tune during a writing session in an attic in co. Leitrim last year. Kev (lead singer) had penned the lyrics about the experience of using our local train service in Dublin. The Dublin-Area-Rapid-Transit or the DART as it’s better known. Always late, northbound or southbound, we all got his experience straight away.

It was originally played as a fairly stripped-back blues. But once that distorted repetitive guitar riff came in from Jack (lead guitar) we knew this track had to come up to that energy. We recorded it a few days later in Sonic Studios back in Dublin. It’s our heaviest playing so far, the bass and drums could have filled out the track by themselves! Complemented with classic boogie-woogie piano playing and 60’s vocal harmonies, our own style and sound really starts to creep in.”

D*mp, Pippa Molony

Rotterdam

Cerebral puslating electronica from Ryan Dwyer aka D*mp and vocalist Pippa Molony, whose voice moves around the track like smoke underpinning the acid synth lines.

Papa Romeo

World Of Paint

Coming on like the chillwave side of Washed Out, London-based Dublin band Papa Romeo’s new track is a lush float in a summery sea waves.

It’s from the band’s forthcoming album out May 24th, on their theirown Cracked Skull Records label.

Papa Romeo is Paddy Rogers, Mark Rogers, Rob de Boer, Chris Wong and Dan Coyne.

Fears

Times

Connie Keane’s second Fears album affinity continues in a vein of introspective delicately-spun electronic textures and confessional songwriting, with guest contributions from Ailbhe Reddy, Aga Ujma, Jemima Coulter and Sophie Gwen Williams (a friend who passed away and who ’16’ is dedicated to, whose cello playing is featured on the track)

‘Times’ is a desolate song with a delayed synth line that carries the brittle nature of the song through.

Fears plays The Sugar Club on Wednesday April 3rd.

Wed 3rd April – Dublin, IE – Sugar Club
Wed 1st May – London, UK – Oslo Hackney
Fri 10th May – Glasgow, UK – The Hug & Pint

Tickets.

Donkobz, Brale

Virus Jox

From Dublin based hip-hop artist Colin O’Brien aka Donkobz’s latest 9-track collection of music on Outstraight Records, ‘Virus Jox’ kicks off the album with a Cannibal Ox dragged down the sewer beat scene-setter.

The album also features Pager The Sloth, Beano, Brale, GI and Clbrks.

Kormac, MayKay

Waiting On You

Ahead of this weekend’s big NCH Always The Sound: A Retrospective show on Saturday with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and lots of stage guests, Kormac teams up with close collaborator MayKay (who also features on his recent soundtrack for The Diplomat).

‘Waiting On You’ is a string-assisted stomp with a sweet sampled vocal hook of MayKay.

“There are three completely different uses of MayKay’s voice in the track; the sombre, delicate opening where it’s simply her voice and piano, the chorus hook made to sound like a sample, and the chopped up, glitched, distorted snippets of her voice”

New Jackson

Like

‘Like’ is the third song from David Kitt’s New Jackson project’s new album after the classy ‘Out of Reach’ and ‘The OK Hole’.

The track features hypnotic looping Kraftwerk-esque vocals from Rita Lynn and Yenkee.

“’Like’ is a silly little tongue-in-cheek parody song that pokes fun at the state of all us saps on all our stoopid apps in the spirit of Zapp, Funkadelic, Moodyman, Dam Funk, Egyptian Lover, and Wham, always a little bit of Wham.”

OOPS!… POP is out April 19th on Permanent Vacation.

Darcy Faith

Bubbles

‘Bubbles’ is a fine R&B track from the Dublin songwriter and singer Darcy Faith originally released back in 2021.

The accompanying EP Self-Medicated just landed last week, and was a gentle bump reminder for the song and artist.

“After taking a short break, I found my way back to the studio in 2022, fully immersed in crafting my debut EP, ‘Self-Medicated’ and laying the groundwork for future projects. My musical roots are deeply embedded in R&B, Hip-Hop, and Pop, but lately, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the process of experimenting with different genres. This exploration is not just about diversification but about refining and solidifying my own sound.”

Darcy Faith on | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Youtube

Melts

Waves Of Wonder

Dublin band Melts do their synth-rock Horrors-esque thing on new song ‘Waves Of Wonder’, from Field Theory, out April 12th via Fuzz Club.

The band also announced some live dates:

19th September – Coughlans, Cork
20th September – Mike the Pies, Listowel
21st September – Dolans, Limerick
26th September – Galway, Roisin Dubh
27th September – Belfast, Ulster Sports Club
28th September – Dublin, Button Factory