The best new Irish songs this week feature emerging tracks we’ve selected from artists from the island of Ireland, with more playlist additions below the main list.
Explore the best new Irish songs alongside our curated playlist for the week.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, follow our Spotify playlist or hit up the Irish section for individual track features.
Therapy Horse
Love / Mercy
Featuring members of Cork band Pebbledash (who are featured below), Therapy Horse cut a sharper silhouette of noise-rock with ‘Love / Mercy’ echoing Sonic Youth and Just Mustard along with Lingua Ignota, Wednesday, Mogwai, Slint and Percolator.
Emily Dollery (vocals/bass) says, “The lyrics draw upon a range of non-musical influences, interweaving references to the poem “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath with Gothic imagery. I wanted to juxtapose images evoking passivity and femininity – “I move soft and slowly” “Take my blood, take my breath / Put your hand to my dress” – against more foreboding, animalistic ones – “I curl up at your feet”. Our writing approach is often very jam-based; Cormac and I tend to improvise lyrics in a stream-of-consciousness manner during sessions, and I wrote my masters thesis on Gothic literature, so the lyrics that do spill out often tend to draw from that vocabulary. I was particularly interested in Machen’s The Great God Pan, which is about a beautiful demigod born of a botched experiment who seduces and destroys men, and how her characterisation mirrors medical notes on female hysteria. In the same way, I wanted to balance the sensual with the disturbing, and have the lines expressing sacrifice – “I could never change you / All I give and I get?” contrasting the anger with which they are delivered.”
Upcoming Gigs:
16.10.25- Dolan’s w/ The Low Field
20.11.25- Grand Social Ballroom w/ SLYRIDES
14.01.26- Grand Social Ballroom, ISSUE showcase
Dove Ellis
To The Sandals
With just one single under his belt, the Galway-born Manchester-based artist Dove Ellis has made enough of an impact to find himself with a Other Voices Dingle Church slot and an American support tour for buzzed NY indie-rock band Geese.
This all came after an apparent DIY-built fanbase through Instagram and sold out live shows in Manchester and London, which lead to live agent and label attention.
‘To The Sandals’, Ellis’ debut label single released on AMF Records/BlackButter (there was a Bandcamp release last year) is a relatively low-key acoustic tune with fizzing production touches that channel Bon Iver’s experimentalism, with Ellis’ voice recalling a softer Jeff Buckley.
Genesis Fawn
Vile
Atmospheric EMB from Dublin artist Genesis Fawn, last featured here in 2022.
“Vile” is a song about a relationship gone rotten that drags you by your hair into a destructive cycle. I don’t really know what else to say about it beyond that but hopefully some of ye can dance away your feelings. Maybe lol xx <3
Bantum
Big Flute
Cork producer Ruairi Lynch aka Bantum drops a new one for a favoured niche category of mine. I love a good flute loop with tunes from Beastie Boys and Prodigy coming to mind.
Bantum’s most recent release was a self-titled album last year , and recent single ‘Carousel‘.
Bog Band
Apryl Fools
Bog Band are the London-based Irish duo of Stephen Sorensen and Isaac Clarke, old childhood friends making soft rock soul and pop music of the 80s – The Style Council, Prefab Sprout and The Blue Nile.
I previously featured ‘Midnight Chancers’, and ‘Apryl Fools’ also recalls Steely Dan and yacht rock with its breezy melodies and sounds.
The album Mocashno Days is out October 30th and the dup are playing shows at Tengu in Dublin on November 8th, and Avalon Cafe, London on November 13th with Officer John and polyp.
Godwin
Suns Out!
A percussive and insistent club ripper from Shannon producer Godwin, brother of God Knows, from his recent 4-track EP of the same name on Limerick label 4 The Heads That Know.
He also produced the Afrobanger ‘It’s Been Too Long’ from God Knows’ recent A Future Of The Past album.
Oisín
You Look Class
The spirit of Todd Terje, Aphex Twin and ’90s electronica is in this sprightly tune from the Irish producer Oisín Hughes.
Art Of Algebra, Breezy Ideygoke
Felonious Monk
The rapper and producer have reconnected five years after their collab on ‘Praying On A Gamble’ with the brooding blunted jazz trip-hop of ‘Felonious Monk’.
Joshua Burnside
Nicer Part Of Town
The Belfast-based singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside’s recent album Teeth Of Time employs a lush fingerpicked folk sound with nods to Irish traditional music and electronic textures.
It’s the former you can hear on post-album single ‘Nicer Part Of Town’ which Burnside says is “a daydream song, following thoughts and memories around, some nice, some not so nice.”
Many sparks of inspiration for a song occur to me first thing in the morning when I’m sitting on my back step trying to hijack myself awake with caffeine and nicotine. So that’s where this song begins, before we head back in time to my childhood kitchen, and then up into the heavens on an old spaceship. We then sleep rough under a bridge, get blown up by a car bomb and end up in the garden of Eden. It would be nice to say that this one is about this thing or that, but some songs just aren’t so easily pinned down. I guess one theme is the unfairness of life, and in the chaos of it all you may wind up living in the nicer part of town, or sleeping rough.”
Pebbledash
Cell
The Cork band Pebbledash continue their forays into shoegaze haze with ‘Cell’, a track from their To Cast the Sea in Concrete EP, out on November 5th.
It’s a gently hypnotic track, that benefits from its looping interlocking vocals.
It was recorded by Cathal MacGabhann of Altered Hours, who put out the excellent ‘Such A Steal’ last week.
“This song is both an exploration of facing the parts of you that are usually hidden away from view, the parts of you that scare you whilst also being a comment on the futility of life itself and the fact that none of this matters and the frustration that this can bring. Asha’s chanting vocals resonating with the screeching feedback of guitars echo these exasperations, perhaps my favourite moment in the EP is on this track dropping with the instrumental break a vicious and searing guitar feedback. It just brings delight to my ears every time I listen back to it, I really think people will get a sense of our live shows from the track and the dynamics we bring to the stage.”
Fionnbharr Hickey
Thumper
Bad Mood
Dublin double-drumming rockers Thumper dropped this earworm of a guitar tune at the end of September, and it’s one of their best yet.
Says frontman Oisin Furlong Leahy:
I once worshiped the sun, now I take my cues from a screen. My phone alarm wakes me, and I’m being sold something within seconds. Am I a relic of the past or a victim of the present? Bad Mood weighs the human experience against the black mirror in my pocket. Boiling the mental health conversation down to a glib soundbite. “I’m so sorry but you’ve caught me in a bad mood”
Incidentally, Oisin’s solo project Anamoe Drive releases a solo album on Noviember 7th called thank god it’s friday. See our list of upcoming Irish albums for release.
Crying Loser
Flesh Interface
Cork no-wave punk band burst into 2023 with ‘Friends’ and their Oaf Milk EP later that year, and after a quiet two years, they have returned with the barking skronk ‘Flesh Interface’ which sounds a bit like an angry industrial Sultans Of Ping with James Chance on sax.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, check into the Irish section for individual track features…
For this and more Irish songs, follow the Nialler9 New Irish Spotify playlist.
Other Playlist additions this week:
- Just Mustard – ENDLESS DEATHLESS
- Bricknasty; F3miii – i hope you’re ready
- The Altered Hours – Such a Steal
- Willzee – Travelling Man
- Delac – Gecko
- Gareth Quinn Redmond – Saol na Cathrach
- David Keenan – We Live, We Learn, We Love
- Dan J. Wilcox – MICRODOTS
- 7th Obi – Easy 4 Me
- iNNUENDO – Rosemary
- In Athens – Tides
- YARD – Lawmaker
- deathtoricky – thrice
- Stray Planets – Hallucinations
- Ac3 – Superman
- Morgana – I’m Not Going Anywhere
- pôt-pot – I AM!
- Confamm Charlito; HuXsH; A9Nikz; Forg.ie – BLUEPRINT
- Big Sleep – Don’t You Wanna
- NewDad – Other Side
- hikii; Curtisy – TIT FOR TAT
- Cace! – For Grace
- SPRINTS – Need
- Olan Monk; Maria Somerville – Down 3
- Elaine Mai; MayKay – With Me In It
- Zaska; jarjarjr – The Papez
- How I Became A Wave – Fading Out
- Kormac – Hazy
- Altara – NOSTALGIA
- Rosie Carney – Here
- Alex Gough – 2nite
- Joshua Burnside – Nicer Part of Town
- Tolü Makay – I Am
- Credence – Purple
- lxverboy – Memory Castle
- Dani Larkin – End Of It All
- IMLÉ; Ríona Sally Hartman; Fergal Edward – Fáilte 2025
- i n n e r l i z z a r d s – the one
- YourCuzMarcus – Amsterdam
- Cace! – Learning
- Jordan Nocturne – Feels so Real
- roe – Lydia
- PureGrand – Irrelevant
- Unique Freaks – Hairy Frog Fish
- Interplanetary Criminal; Travy – Fón Póca (feat. Travy)
- Martina and the Moons – Laundry Mat
- Shampain; Bethany – Realm Of The Living
- TOOTHPICK – Ivory
- Colm K – A Blue Line In A Red Sky
- God Knows; Dreddy – It’s Been a While
- Vaticanjail – KAHLUA KISS
- DUG – Cumberland Gap
- Peer Pleasure – Rooms
- bbft – FLOWEREMOJI
- SELL EVERYTHING – girls, girls, girls
- JayaHadADream – Bug
- Tomike – Eyes Wide Open
- Cardinals – Masquerade
- anamoe drive – walking the cow
- hikii; Mick Jenkins – HICK N MICK
- Evan Miles; MYFAULT – YOUR EYES
- Bálordabreen – 39 DAN
- Ailbhe Reddy – Align
- MayKay – Busted
- Junior Brother – Start Digging
- Long Island Sound – CV／Gate
- Throwing Shapes – Calyx
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
