A lot of Irish music comes Nialler9’s way and there’s little time to feature everything we think is worthy of a thumbs up or more ears. Every week, we collate the songs that pass our writers that deserve to be heard by you. For more extensive Irish coverage, follow our Spotify playlist or hit up the Irish section.
1.
Nimrod
Like This
Nimrod are Leah and Gary, two cousins from Dublin that make urban rap music. ‘Like This’ is the first single to see release form their upcoming debut EP set for release in early 2019 and it gives a pretty good indication for what’s to come: brass combos blend with string sounds underneath thick Dublin accented rhymes (which we’ve been seeing more and more of recently). They’re bringing a real fun element to the Irish rap scene and it will be interesting to see where the duo go from here.
2.
PureGrand
Pink
PureGrand is the moniker of Dublin based artist Luke Faulkner. The 22-year old’s latest EP Swallow Your Doubt was released in the latter end of 2018 and it “deconstructs the idea of queer masculinity as well as a frank exploration of the complexities of dating and sex for gay men”. ‘Pink‘ is the second single from it and it is full of pure synth pop goodness: 808 drums meet melodic, analogue synth lines while Faulkner croons overhead with vocals full of character and poignancy. The accompanying video (also made by Faulkner) is inspired by 90s retro, surreal pop videos and features him in a set of pink saturated scenes and outfits. We like a lot.
3.
FOZSA
Lungs
FOZSA is the alias of Luke O’Brien, a new Irish producer and songwriter from Dublin. We featured his single ‘Talk Less‘ here last year, a track built around atmospheric samples that he recorded while travelling around the world. His first release of 2019 comes in the form of ‘Lungs‘, an irresistible blend of synth textures and vocoders that starts and ends with voice notes about the song’s melodic inception. A strong start to 2019 for this producer.
5.
JyellowL
Me N Me Too
If you’re familiar with Nialler9, you’ll know that we’re fans of JyellowL. The rapper is a member of the Word Up Collective and has impressed us with tracks like ‘Cold In The Summer’ in the past. ‘Me N Me Too’, taken from his EP of the same title, was released in December but it deserves a mention here: the Dubliner makes freestyle look easy with the track coming in at almost 4 minutes long. More of this in 2019 please.
6.
Comfy Coffin Afterhours
Good to Know It’s Ending Soon
Comfy Coffin Afterhours is the brainchild of Bobby Mink, but that’s about much as we know about him: the artist creates music under a different name for each respective genre, and has christened his dance music Comfy Coffin Afterhours. Music released as Comfy Coffin is here and is considerably more light hearted than his Afterhours counterpart. ‘Good To Know It’s Ending Soon’ is a superb track that came to be through a collaboration with America poet Leo Dunsker and Icelandic artist Birna Stefánsdóttir. Sonically, it blends electronic percussion beats with harpsichord melodies and a compelling bass line, infused with spoken word poetry from Dunsker.
8.
James Joys
Fugitive Wound
9.
KILNAMANA
Kill The Kool
Start your January the right way with this feel good track. KILNAMANA are electronic duo Enda Gallery and Miguel Garcia Soler, currently based in Berlin but hailing from Kilnamanagh in Tallaght (which served as name inspiration) and Spain respectively. ‘Kill The Kool‘ is taken from their upcoming album and provides social commentary on the way lives are lived in 2019 juxtaposed by irresistible, bright guitar chords and shimmering synths.
10.
Marcus Woods
Saturn V
Ryan Cullen AKA Marcus Woods first piqued our attention with his debut album Demo and now he’s back with new material being released under his own new label Burner Records (home to FYNCH, Sick Nanley, ARBU and Local Boy). ‘Saturn V’ is the result of a project initiated with no sonic boundaries or limitations, “I made this track with no sense of what genre I was making, but had the concept of space, hence the NASA outro sample and the track title.” The track fuses electronic and experimental elements with ambient sounds and there’s a sure trap undercurrent running through it. It will be interesting to see where Woods goes from here.
