Featuring Jessy Lanza, The Streets, Soda Blonde, CMAT, John Grant, DJ Premier, Westside Gunn, Danny Brown, JPEGMAFIA, Mutual Benefit, I Have A Tribe, Becky McNeice, Aluna.
Today is New Music Friday, which means there’s loads of new songs in the world.
Here are the 10 single songs released this week I loved the most.
See the New Music section for all the of tracks and albums featured this week, and the end of the post for the Spotify playlist featuring much more than 10 tracks released this week.
We are an independent publication – become a member and support Nialler9
1.
The Streets
Troubled Waters
Mike Skinner has announced his first album from The Streets since 2011’s Computer and Blues, and it arrives with news of a feature film of the same name and a new single ‘Troubled Waters’.
The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light is to be released on October 20th this year on 679 Recordings/Warner Music UK, along with a feature film to accompany it. Skinner has been working on the project for seven years.
‘Troubled Water’ is the project’s first single, a cut above the loosey singles released over the last number of years. It features euphoric synth stabs, a soulful vocal and skittering drum and bass pads.
2.
Soda Blonde
Bad Machine
Soda Blonde have announced their second album Dream Big, the followup to 2021’s Small Talk. Dream Big is the title of the record, and the band say it’s also a mantra…
“… a mission statement from four lifelong friends. It’s their promise to themselves, and a message to all who come along for the ride: A reminder that life is precious, fragile, and fleeting, so we might as well dream big and hold nothing back.
Lead single ‘Bad Machine’ marks a fresh sound for the band.
3.
CMAT, John Grant
Where Are Your Kids Tonight
Following on from recent singles ‘Have Fun!’ and ‘Whatever’s Inconvenient’, ‘Where Are Your Kids Tonight’ is a duet from the pairing of CMAT and John Grant, which started when CMAT says she has realised “I had turned into my mother.”
“It’s kind of inspired by this image i had of entering a waterfall-like portal from an Irish kids’ show called ‘Foreign Exchange’ where I’m looking at 1988 and 2023 at the exact same time every time I look at myself in the mirror. To quote a TikTok comment I saw recently: ‘The human experience is absolutely fucking wild.’”
John Grant was top of the CMAT’s wishlist for the song…
4.
Jessy Lanza
Limbo
After their song of the summer contender ‘Keep It Secret’, Tensnake returns the favour on the new Lanzy single ‘Limbo, from the album Love Hallucination, out 28th July on Hyperdub.
“The Limbo video stars our neighbour Conrad who moonlights as a web-cammer for a living. He revealed that he sometimes uses an inversion table in his webcam sessions and it seemed like the perfect visualisation of the themes in the song. We wanted Conrad’s performance to be a cross between Frank Booth from Blue Velvet and Jane Fonda Workout Videos.”
Winston H Case, Director of the video.
5.
DJ Premier, Westside Gunn, Rome Streetz
Runway
Classic NYC rap producer DJ Premier meets the city’s current lynchpins – Griselda’s Westside Gunn and Rome Streetz for a cinematic orchestral rap track that really works both styles well.
6.
Aluna, Tchami, Kareen Lomax
Running Blind
Full disclosure, I left this off last week’s list by accident, so I’m including it this week. From Aluna’s solo album MYCELiUM, ‘Running Blind’ is effervescent electronic pop with a thudding piano-house beat.
7.
JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown
Guess What Bitch, We Back Hoe!
More unhinged rap music following JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown’s recent Scaring The Hoes album, with a “DLC pack” that dropped this week.
8.
Becky McNeice
Flatline
More nice tunage from Northern Irish artist Becky McNeice. ‘Flatline’ was made with Eulogy Beats, a track which draws from lo-fi chilled beats and soft electronic pop melodies.
“‘Flatline’ is about encapsulating the raw emotions and vulnerability of seeking closure, especially when it is too late to repair the bonds that were once cherished. Ending cycles is something that is unavoidable in our lives but, with this song, I wanted to touch on the consequences of leaving emotions unexpressed and how it can possibly change you forever.”
Becky McNeice:
9.
I Have A Tribe
Fly Like A Bird
A typically elegiac song from songwriter Patrick O’Laoghaire, aka I Have A Tribe.
Patrick announced a second I Have A Tribe record called Changing of the Guard on October 6th. The majority of the album was recorded over the course of several sessions with producer Willi Sieger in Berlin, with some moments recorded live with a full band in Dublin.
‘Fly Like A Bird’ has rather accidental beginnings…
“I had no idea that this song was actually being recorded. A man stuck his head out of a studio and said he was looking for someone to play a piano so he could check if he had the microphones set up correctly. So I sat down and played and sang a tune. Afterwards he said, ‘I hope you don’t mind, I recorded that.’ And he played it back, and another man passing by heard it and said, ‘Hey, I like that, mind if I add some trumpet?’ And then it was done. It was only afterwards that I realised they were both musicians who’s playing I’d been enjoying for years: David Chalmin [Thom Yorke, Rufus Wainwright] and Trevor Hagen [Bon Iver]. I never knew what they looked like.”
Follow I Have A Tribe:
10.
Mutual Benefit
Little Ways
A gorgeously gentle song from Jordan Lee aka Mutual Benefit from the New York-based songwriter’s fourth album Growing at the Edges, which is released October 6th on Transgressive.
“‘Little Ways’ came out of a period in my 30’s where acquaintances were buying houses and starting backyard gardens while I was still in a cramped Brooklyn apartment wondering if my life was stuck in place. I eventually found contentment through staying in the present moment and noticing how our inner and outer landscapes change a little each day and that it is our relationships that make a place meaningful.”
Jordan.
Growing at the Edges features co-production from multi-instrumentalist Gabe Birnbaum along with a cast of including violinist Concetta Abatte, guitarist Jonnie Baker (Florist), vocalist Eva Goodman (Nighttime), standup bassist Nick Jost (Wilder Maker, Baroness), and drummer Sean Mullins (Wilder Maker, Sam Evian).
Nialler9 Weekly Playlist
Nialler9 New Music Playlist
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.
