Featuring: Havvk, Jehnova, Slightly Dishevelled, Stupid Son, R.F. Chaney, James J. Clarke, Winter Aid, Hannahbella, Syano, Fintan James.
A lot of music from Ireland and Northern Ireland 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.
Slightly Dishevelled
Molasses pt. 2
At first impressions ‘Molasses pt ii’ is a 20 minute piece from the minds of the Dublin punk band Slightly Dishevelled which is at once, a Fringe Festival play, a demo tape recording, spoken word, post-punk journey.
Which isn’t far off what it actually is, an improvised score recorded in the cottage on Achill, for Saoirse McGarry’s film of the same name, which is now showing in IMMA until 3rd of March 2024.
Previously: ‘Dublin Not London’
Havvk
You Say You Won’t
The Dublin grunge rock band Havvk have been gearing up to the release of their third album To Fall Asleep lately with a series of single drops, most recently ‘City Creep’.
Their newest song ‘You Say You Won’t’ pares a slow rhythmic shoegaze arrangement with a song about “how easy it is to apologise, but how hard it is to actually change your habits.”
“If you have ever found yourself apologising for the same kind of behaviour over and over again, then you’ll know how hollow and trivial that apology becomes when you hear those words repeated. The lyrics are about now knowing where to turn when those words have lost all meaning, when you know that you have truly hurt or disappointed somebody, and that you have to be able to sit with your own conscience before you can expect anybody else to.”
To Fall Asleep is released on Friday, 15th March, 2024 .
HAVVK will play some live dates this March in celebration of the third album. HAVVK will play Club Áras na nGael in Galway on 15th March and The Workman’s Cellar on 22nd March, as well as London and Bristol dates later in the month. Tickets for the shows are available here.
Jehnova
Situation Blues
You just have to watch out for new releases on Bandcamp from the Nuxsense Collective MC Jehnova as they typically drop there first before anywhere else, and you don’t want to sleep on these rhyme-dense beat productions (by Sivv) on this latest 8-track release IOU5 from Jehnova.
They wanna feel me so they gotta listen
Large inscriptions
God will prolly place it into rhyme tradition
Signs and Symbols
Mindless systems
Locked inside this loop it’s like timeless prison
Situation blues feel like my life is ticking
Fintan James
Basketcase
The Derry singer-songwriter brings a Mac DeMarco lo-fi lilt to this fine new track ‘Basketcase’.
Follow on Insta.
Stupid Son
Black Mould
Superb lo-fi alt-rock from Dublin DIY punk band Stupid Son. ‘Black Mould’ is the sound held on a forgotten cassette or the pin badge on that cooler friend’s rucksack.
Lyricist Conall Loughney says it is “a song about mould and feeling like it. It paints the scene of lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling. I wrote it during a pretty hard time so it’s kind of special for me; it’s almost confessional. It describes a feeling of helplessness; being unable to put a finger on what’s wrong but seeing the reflections of that feeling on the environment.”
It’s the band’s third single from upcoming EP Comedy, which was recorded, mixed and mastered alongside the rest of the seven-track EP by Darragh Hansard (Thee U.F.O) in Orc’s Lair studios.
R.F. Chaney
Plume
An album that got lost in the end of year / best of haze was the debut from Dublin multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Ross Chaney (who you might recognise as drummer with John Francis Flynn.
Tropism is his solo record, that takes a ‘chamber-electronic’ approach which on ‘Plume’ and other tracks means electronic music with the sensibility and arrangements of Nordic-jazz.
Dorian Concept is an artist I think of as a leader in that particular field, but Chaney’s take takes in the breath, air and clack of instruments like saxophones, clarinets and double bass among the synths and electronic instrumentation. that strives to tastefully combine rich textures of synthesisers and electronic instruments with Nordic jazz inspired acoustic instrumentation of
Chaney says:
”When I set out to make Tropism I knew I wanted to explore ambiguity and ‘the inbetween’ in several aspects. Firstly, I wanted to blur the lines between acoustic and synthesised sounds. I was inspired by a kind of ‘1+1=1’ conceptual approach to the instrumentation, viewing two instruments blending together to create a single new sound rather than just two instruments playing at the same time.”
The album is on Bandcamp.
James J. Clarke
Kaverian
After announcing his return in September, Meath songwriter James J. Clarke (The Ambience Affair / Divan) released his new album last week, a release informed
Along with a feature with Ailbhe Reddy ‘White Roses’, this dooming booming cut ‘Kaverian’ stood out to me on a record stated as a “deeply personal meditation on family, grief, and change.
Also on Bandcamp.
Winter Aid
Interlude For Shankill
Winter Aid is the project of former Irish music writer Shane Culloty who wrote on the now-defunct site The Torture Garden.
A Winter Aid track released 10 years ago went on to receive 300 million streams since, so San Francisco-based Culloty is now releasing new music, his first thing in five years, after a fresh version of his first EP in November.
‘Interlude For Shankill’ is a sumptuous piano instrumental from the new Inner Sunset EP.
Hannahbella
Spin
Buzzy and fizzy electronic pop from new Cork artist Hannabella with a lovely switchup at the end into a softer style.
A new producer / singer to watch out for, Hannabella recently supported Baby Queen in Dublin and sold out a first Cork show. Watch out for upcoming shows in Dublin in February and March.
“Spin” is a song that captures the feeling of spinning out of control when you are ready to be fully vulnerable with someone you care about deeply.
I wanted to paint the overwhelming feeling when your guard is down and your trust is fully in this person. The instrumental was built on a Bminor scale whirling around the listener’s ears (it’s the basic things!)- I built a more relaxed synth-based beat and glitchy details around it, really leaning into mellow minimal techno, D&B, jungle, contemporary pop, and a splash of synth-pop.
Syano, SYGH
Outside
Cork artist SYANO is making psychedelic indie beats to rival Lil Yachty’s latest left turn. SYGH offers the sweet vocal counterpoint on ‘Outside’.
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.
This week’s playlist updates includes the songs above along with new additions:
- Froman – Rún
- Video Blue – Monday
- Nerves – Empty
- Hygashy; hikii – RITCHIE
- True School Records; Willhouse – Smoke and Poetry
- Alex Gough – Runnin’
- Type Face – Riders of the Sidhe
- Rex Arcum – Corruption’s Last Victim
- Chequerboard – Vermilion
- Anna Mieke – Red Sun – Live
- Lucy Gaffney – Locked Up Never Fade
- CABL – See You In a Year and a Half
- Lucy McWilliams – Follow Me
- CAOIMHÍN – Saoirse Don Phalaistín
- Stray Planets – Glowing Rectangles
- The Swedish Railway Orchestra – Obelisco
- CABL; Lifts – Movies
- jarjarjr – Somethin’ Special
- Syano; SYGH – Outside
- Curtisy – Tree Sap
- Arvo Party – MAZE
- Blimp; Sideluv – Sleepless
- Echo Northstar – waking up
- Aby Coulibaly – Big Pharma (Withdrawal)
- Brigid Mae Power – Rose Marie
- Junior Brother – The Men Who Eat Ringforts
