A lot music from Ireland and Northern Ireland comes Nialler9’s way and every week, we listen through it all and select the tracks from emerging artists and some 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.
1.
Bklava, Jamie Boy Bassline
It’s Your Time
Big fizzy garage pop music from recent Other Voices Music Trail Brighton-based, Irish-Lebanese performer Bklava. ‘It’s Your Time’ is a song about “owning your emotions and letting everything go in the rave.”
The song is from the Khalas EP (meaning “stop/enough” in Arabic) due this Summer on Ministry of Sound.
Speaking on “It’s Your Time” and the EP title, Bklava says:
I feel more in control and confident now than ever before. “Khalas” tells me to own that confidence. That’s the message I want to get across with this first single from the EP, “It’s Your Time”. It’s one for peak time dance floors. It’s about owning your emotions and letting everything go in the rave. I love nothing better than being behind the decks, or in the crowd, and noticing the ravers that are so in the moment, not caring about anything around them. They’ve got their eyes closed, throwing their hands in the air and they are just feeling it! This one’s for that exact moment.
Bklava.
Spring/Summer 2023 Tour Dates
March 20 – Snowboxx Fest – Avoriaz, France
Apr 29 – Queens Yard Summer Party – London, UK
May 26 – Life Festival – Co.Meath, Ireland
May 28 – In It Together Festival (CYNT Stage) – Port Talbot, Wales
June 11 – Parklife Festival – Manchester, UK
3.
Odd Numbers
Parkgate Street (feat. Graham)
Dublin rapper/producer Odd Numbers‘ is back after his 2021 release The Golden Éire Tapes Vol. 1. ‘Parkgate Street’ is a song about addiction and grief featuring Clondalkin rapper Graham, written from the perspective of two childhood friends on different paths of life, with one eventually succumbing to suicide after getting into trouble.
“I’ve had close friends and family go through very similar events and I know many who have too, so hopefully anyone who hears the track might think twice about the path they’re taking.”
It’s from an upcoming EP called Colours on new label Golden Éire Records.
4.
Boa Morte
Hard to Know
The Cork alt folk band Boa Morte have returned with ‘Hard To Know’, the first single from a forthcoming new album The Total Space, due March 3rd.
It was recorded with Texas producer Daniel producer at Black Mountain Studio and there are hints of ambient, drone and synths in there among the more rootsier sounds.
5.
Montauk Hotel
Dive (Come Afloat)
Perky indie pop from the Dublin trio Montauk Hotel, bringing shimmering ’80s guitar sounds on their first track since 2019, with references to “friendship, insecurity and feelings of homecoming in a motionless town.”
6.
Post Party
Kimbo
Four-piece Dublin indie pop band Post-Party bring a Killers-esque indie-rock melodic feel on new song ‘Kimbo’, which comes from a Philip Magee-produced EP to come this year.
Where else can you hear the band? On the Ryanair in-flight audio programme of course!
“‘KIMBO’ speaks to the chaos & intensity of shared moments born out of everyday chance encounters. Raw emotion, brewing tensions in crowded clubs, heightened conversations & snapshot passion, KIMBO captures the intense claustrophobia that we feel in the turn of these sudden encounters”.
Guitarist Matthew O’Reilly
7.
Brian Ring
Roller Trisco
Berlin-based Cork dance producer Brian Ring is bringing some chugging synth and percussive hit ’80s dance energy on the edifying ‘Roller Trisco’.
8.
No Photos
Exhausted
Dublin five-piece No Photos impressed me twice last year with their music, and an under-the-radar debut mixtape.
‘Exhausted’ is a glinting laid-back song drawing form alt-R&B and indie sounds. It’s a song that “explores being stuck in a failing relationship, but not wanting to leave it all behind.”
9.
The Flavours
Other Song
Cork four-piece The Flavours play it slow and loose with ‘Other Song’, with big vocals from Ella Compton with sax, soul, funk and indie persuasions baked in and production by the Grammy-nominated Chris O’Brien.
“The song is ultimately about a breakdown of a relationship. This breakdown is not because the protagonists don’t love each other but because their own individual mental health isn’t at the right place to give each other what they need. The first verse and chorus mirror the simplistic opening stages of the relationship, followed by a rhythmically and harmonically different bridge to represent changes in the protagonist’s feelings. The final crescendo takes place sometime after the relationship is finished, with a retrospective horn idea mirroring the backing vocals.”
The Flavours on Insta.
10.
EeOo
I Held Back Most Of My Tears (I Thought I Was Supposed To)
Ian McDonnell aka Eomac will return to his EeOo moniker for the first time since 2018 with two EP releases on Eotrax in 2023. Pt.1 is out on February 7th and track one is the soft summer day feel of ‘I Held Back Most Of My Tears (I Thought I Was Supposed To)’.
Ian says the music is “dancefloor music inspired by the idea of hope, taking in house, techno, Erasure-esque pop and even Balearic.”
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.
