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.
2.
Bambie Thug
Kawaski
Hyperpop and industrial rock combine on the new song from East London-based Irish artist Bambie Thug.
“The track is not explicit but is about sucking dick, I christen it ‘radio-friendly sex music’”, they say.
Hear previously featured tracks – ‘P.M.P’ (Pussy Money Power) and ‘Birthday’.
3.
Daniel Blume
The Way I Love You
Daniel Blume is an industry onto himself, writing, singing, playing and producing, dance pop music and collaborating with artists like Cheat Codes and TCTS on mega hits. His track ‘Rapture’ with Alok has 48 million listens on Spotify.
‘The Way I Love You’ is Daniel’s own, a euphoric-leaning rush of blood and yearning. There’s also a live performance video shot in Dublin.
4.
Solis
Jungle
Solis is an Irish songwriter based in Manchester, and ‘Jungle’ is an alternative dreamy pop song that feels like Stereolab crossed with Cate Le Bon.
It’s from a five-track EP Open, out now.
“I wrote this song when I realised there’s always an option, always a way out, the hardest part is realising that. The EP as a whole was written from a place where I didn’t feel I belonged and was dreaming of something else “Jungle” and “Osmosis” in particular are about living in the city and being part of the rat race, the never ending cycle of work and spend and very little time for living.”
The songs were written a few years ago but Solis had a serious car accident and had to recover for a long time before she could release them.
5.
piglet
it isnt fair
Piglet is the solo project of Belfast-born South London-based songwriter and producer Charlie Loane, who has a handful of singles and a collaboration with Porridge Radio.
The release is piglet’s first with London label Blue Flowers (Puma Blue, Nilüfer Yanya, Westerman), ‘it isnt fair’ rallies against the injustices in the British healthcare system for trans people, drawn from personal experience, as recounting on Tumblr.
Patients in the UK’s NHS are usually entitled to treatment within 18 weeks of referral. Current official waiting times for a first appointment at a Gender Identity Development Service are over 2 years, although current waiting lists mean most wait 5 years or more for surgery. At the point of writing there are at least 13,500 trans and non-binary adults on these waiting lists in England alone, for what should be considered emergency healthcare: as 45% of trans young people have attempted suicide at least once and 84% of trans young people have self-harmed.
“Once you’ve made it through the excruciatingly long wait to be seen you’re met with more bureacracy and gate-keeping – some of the questions they asked me would be funny if they weren’t so overtly harmful and dehumanising. To get through to the process of actually attaining healthcare you need to put forward a version of yourself in which you seem to be inhabiting the mental and physical space of being the ‘good trans person’ , the ‘passing’ trans person , the binary trans person – and these lines of perception are inextricably linked to classist, racist, ableist and highly binary ideas of what a ‘real’ gender looks like . i have no doubt that my class, race and ability as well as my understanding that i would have to lie a LOT and present myself in an ill-fitting way in order to get the care i knew i had needed for many years has a lot to do with the fact that I am still here now, well enough to write songs about it.”
The video by trans filmmaker Harv Fros was made possible with the support of NTS Radio and their Work In Progress artist development opportunity.
All Bandcamp sales of the single, plus show profits and merch go towards trans charity We Exist.
6.
Thee U.F.O
Transparent Seed
Thee U.F.O are Dublin-based garage-psych duo of Darragh Hansard and Beth Doyle, who have a new album coming out in September called Ponderous Fug on their own label Gelatinous Records, with a vinyl to come on Irish psych label Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records.
‘Transparent Seed’ is a fuzzy psych lo-fi song with distant vocals from the record.
You can see the band live at Electric Avenue, Waterford on Saturday, August 13th, alongside Chrome Yellow and Sun Mahshene, and an official album launch show at The Thomas House, Dublin on Friday, September 23rd.
7.
Echo Northstar
Someone Else
Paddy Hennessy is the Waterford artist formerly of Cork band HappyAlone, and ‘Someone Else’ is the London-based artist’s debut solo single as Echo Northstar is a hazy alt-rock song.
Hennessy comes from a talented family who have all featured here. Paddy co-wrote and produced ‘You are here’ with his sister Stella along with ‘Comrades’ from the Horoshokino project with his brother Oisín during lockdown.
Look out for a debut Echo Northstar EP soon.
8
Siobhán
Black Hole
Five of the Irish artists on our lists this week are based in the UK, including Siobhán, a new London based Irish singer-songwriter, whose debut single ‘Black Hole’ with its lilting Phoebe Bridgers-esque sound, has done quite well in a short time, featuring on Spotify’s New Music Friday UK Our Generation playlist, and Fresh Finds (Cover Artist Today), among others.
Siobhán says:
“While trying not to write ‘another sad song’, inevitably, I did. My debut single ‘Black Hole’ is about a relationship ending unexpectedly and how that can cause you to fear being vulnerable with someone again. Although the lyrics are heartfelt, I wanted to make it a song I would also want to dance to, so my producer Jack (Shute) and I included electronic pop beats and indie rock inspired guitars that were the soundtrack to my teens – bringing the song into the addictive sad-bop genre. Written last summer when I was going through a difficult time, ‘Black Hole’ articulated my feelings in a way that I couldn’t when speaking to those closest to me. Making this song has been an emotional journey, and I hope that people experiencing a similar situation feel less alone when they listen to it.
9.
Celia Tiab
Too Hard
After the release of a couple of singles on Soft Boy Records, Celia Tiab has dropped her debut EP on the label entitled Cécé, which leads with this short track from the French Belfast-based soulful acoustic artist.
10.
ROE
Cold Feet
Derry artist Roe has announced the release of a debut album That’s When The Panic Sets In on September 23rd. The first part is already out to hear.
‘Cold Feet’ is a pensive piano indie pop tune from part two of the record.
“I wrote Cold Feet about my imposter syndrome. Regularly I feel like a stranger in my own body and start to doubt my own actions. It’s difficult to feel like you’re worth something when there’s a voice in the back of your mind saying that you don’t really belong here. It’s also something I struggle talking about with anyone, so I guess this song is my way around that. Every time I play it on stage the fear gets a little smaller.”
11.
OJ Smith
Funky Touch
OJ Smith is a new Irish pop artist from Limerick who comes through with these lovely song called ‘Funky Touch’ with a bumping bassline and an upbeat R&B twist.
12.
Tom Healy
Happy Milkman
What would Yard Act sound like if they were from Ireland? Tom Healy has the answer.
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.
