Featuring Niamh Bury, Bobby Basil, Ugolino, Sharkett, Shee, 49th & Main, Lar Kaye, Maria Kelly, Really Good Time, Cable Boy, Good Company.
A lot of Irish music comes our way and every week, we listen through it all, sift the list down to a manageable list and share the best new tracks from emerging artists and some more established acts that deserve to be heard by you.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, follow our Spotify playlist or hit up the Irish section for individual track features.
Sharkett
Silence (Ciúnas)
Fiona Sharkey aka Sharkett is an Irish musician, vocalist, producer and classically trained pianist who is about to release a debut EP called High Line.
‘Silence (Ciúnas)’ is a sweet whispery-vocal song from the release, with a celestial electronic production.
Sharkett is performing with full band featuring Saint Sister’s Gemma Doherty, Ben Bix and Cian Hanley at the Bello Bar on Friday April 5th.
Ciúnas means silence in the Irish language. Sharkett captures the moment you meet someone on the dancefloor on a night out and time stands still. All you can see and hear is the person for whom you hold an attraction.”
Sharkett
Ugolino
Drift
Ugolino, aka Shane Richardson and composer/producer Oran Hurley continue their forays into alternative jazz-rap music with the lush new one ‘Drift’.
Drift explores the fleeting nature of transactional relationships, weaving together themes of temptation and indulgence inspired by the narrative of Adam and Eve.
London shows and an EP in September follows.
49th & Main
Self Sabotage
Kilkenny duo 49th And Main release their first music since last year’s 9-track collection B.O.A.T.S (Based on a True Story) on Ninja Tune imprint Counter Records.
‘Self Sabotage’ continues the band’s penchant for pop-vocal-centred house tunes, with both members returning to the fold after Ben O’Sullivan took a break to have a bone marrow transplant that involved a lengthy stay in hospital.
The band have already sold out two Lost Lane Dublin shows before I could write about this tune. Glasgow, Manchester, and London also on the cards.
Lar Kaye, Maria Kelly
No Need To Cry
All Tvvins’ Lar Kaye enlists Mayo singer-songwriter Maria Kelly for this uplifting slice of headphone-friendly electronic music.
It’s the first of a series of collaborations between Kaye and singers.
Bobby Basil
I’ll Die First
Every now and then, the Dublin hip-hop artist Bobby Basil (Isaac Nelson) comes through with a diaristic entry about what he’s been up to, and ‘I’ll Die First’ is no different, laying out his mindset in the wake of six months of sobriety and spiritual connection.
“A suicide letter to God,” is how he puts it, “a cathartic purge of the old self to make way for a new beginning in the name of Jesus Christ. “
“I created this track in my mate’s studio drunk off whiskey after six months of being sober and a dedicated Christian.”
An album is forthcoming later this year.
Really Good Time
The Dread Sorcerer Peterson
Dublin band Really Good Time released a 15-minute diptych of tunes called ‘Beware, The Wish’. Alongside ‘Monkey’s Paw’,
‘Monkey’s Paw’ is a song informed by a period of grief, while the 10-minute ‘The Dread Sorcerer Peterson’ “about life and death under late capitalism,” which doesn’t sound too far away from late era Radiohead. and both songs are fine examples of a band who know how to write and play a good tune.
Good Company
Empty Room
The Dundalk group of beatmakers, DJ and lyricists Good Company’s debut single features a fine turn from an unnamed vocalist over a bright funk-inflected beat.
Niamh Bury
Bite The Bridle
The Dublin folk singer-songwriter’s debut album Yellow Roses came out on Good Friday on Claddagh Records, and a Myles O’Reilly directed video also came out the same day.
The song was written after an encounter Bury had with a horse in touristy Temple Bar in Dublin.
“It was a hot summer evening, and the driver had just loaded six large men into her carriage. She wouldn’t budge, but started to stomp her hooves on the cobblestones, as sparks started to fly. The driver simply remarked, ‘She’s not happy about something’. It made me think of the ways we ignore the needs of ourselves and other beings just to keep the cogs turning. There comes a point when the bridle must be broken and we run for the hills.”
Cable Boy
Smoke And The Light
‘Smoke And The Light’. is dreamy soft glow melodic indie from the Lucan five-piece band Cable Boy.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, hit up the Irish section for individual track features…
For this and more Irish songs, follow the Nialler9 New Irish Spotify playlist.
New additions not featured above:
- HousePlants; Paul Noonan; Daithí – Every Flower Is a Field
- David Kitt – Sleep
- KNEECAP – Fine Art
- Niamh Bury – Pianos In The Snow
- Fizzy Orange – It Hurts Me Too
- JOSSLE – Anchor
- Local Boy – Speculate
- orro – ikigai
- Lwny – SHE SAID
- Becky McNeice; T.Tokz – Melting
- Jamie D’Arcy – Why?
- Social Interaction – How can I have a good time with all this destruction around me?
- Awkward Z. – Right Now (Prod. CeeDee)
- Smilez – Me V Me
- Bless – Devious Ways
- Banba – Feel
- Annika Kilkenny – Stone’s Throw Away
- Absentee – LOST
- OWLS – Body Bags
- Holly Munro – Dead Ends
- Cardinals – If I Could Make You Care
- R3D – OUT FOR THE NIGHT
- RUNOFFBROKE – CHALICE
- Ama Millieir – Say Less
- TraviS; Elzzz; Monjola – NOTICE ME
