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.
1.
Nell Mescal
In My Head
Paul Mescal’s 19-year-old sister continues to develop an interesting pop discography with the third single from the London-based Irish artist.
‘In My Head’ is the best of the three Nell Mescal singles so far.
“In My Head is a song about searching for a love you had in the past, a feeling you’re never sure you’ll find again so you seek comfort in relationships that are emotionally draining and one sided” explains Nell. “It’s about thinking that it must always be your fault and eventually leading to resentment towards the other person. We all have that person we look back on and miss, this track captures the moment they slip into your head”.
Nell Mescal Live dates
April
23 London Eventim Apollo *
25 Dublin 3Olympia (sold out) *
May
06 Glasgow, The Road to The Great Escape
12 Brighton The Great Escape Festival
27 Bristol Dot to Dot Festival
28 Nottingham Dot to Dot Festival
July
30 Kendal Calling Cumbria
August
13 Boardmasters Festival Newquay
28 All Points East London
- – supporting Birdy
2.
Offica
Dedication
Dundalk drill artist Offica is one the country’s most likely to blow up from the scene at the moment, as he’s steadily been building momentum and listeners in the UK and Australia.
Offica is well on his way, having collaborated with KSI and featured on the highest streaming UK Drill freestyle of all time, (the A92 x Fumez the Engineer 100 milli-streamed ‘Plugged In’ and 50 million video views), and with 80 million streams already to his name
‘Dedication’ is the lead single from a mixtape due out in October called Hokage (the name itself a term taken from the Naruto anime, meaning the leader of the local village), a track with New Jersey club influence, and an Anime sample.
Offica was one the 10 most viewed Irish music artists on Tik Tok in 2022
3.
Maverick Sabre aka Micheál Dear
Dutch 1
Micheál Dear was a surprise beat tape dropped by Irish/London artist Maverick Sabre last Friday. While Mav is known primarily for his soulful voice, the release shows another side to the artist that is worthy of further exploration if ya ask me.
Maverick Sabre did a Taylor Swift, and re-recorded his 2012 debut album Lonely Are The Brave last year, in order to gain back ownership that he says he’s never been paid any royalties for.
Listen to the full volume 1 beat tape here:
4.
Jealous Of The Birds
Morse Code
Naomi Hamilton is back with the first Jealous Of The Birds tune in two years with the first single from an album called Hinterland, due on Atlantic / Canvas Back on May 19th.
Hamilton reminds me a bit of Sorcha Richardson in the obvious high-level songwriting in everything she does.
“We often find ourselves navigating what exactly our place is in the world, especially in our twenties and thirties. Suddenly things get serious and there’s a simmering pressure to figure things out. ‘Morse Code’ taps into that and acts as a gentle encouragement.”
There’s a Jealous Of The Bird Irish tour and a Father John Misty support in the Iveagh Gardens coming up. See tour dates.
5.
Graham, Hikii
Irish Gold
Graham and Hikii have released a 16-track album together of Dublin rap called Irish Gold on OutStraight Records.
It features a turn from Belfast artist Becky McNeice on ‘Broken Wrist’ and M>YA on ‘Question’.
The title track stood out to me as a fine intro to the style of the release.
6.
1000 Beasts, Malaki
Brigitte Bardot
1000 Beasts is on his collab game again this time with Dublin rapper Malaki on ‘Brigitte Bardot’, a track with an old-school ’90s hip-hop flavour in its production.
It’ll feature on album two from 1000 Beasts alongside ‘Burning Flower’.
7.
Clay Pigeon Shooting
I Win!
New Dublin art-punk five-pice band clay pigeon shooting released their second single ‘i win!’.
It’s a rumbly muddy lo-fi rock song with a voice that may be familiar to frequent visitors of Nialler9, with Aaron Lawlor as the singer of the band.
The song is a follow up to ‘vincent van pox.’ Add them on Spotify.
clay pigeon shooting :
8.
Pastiche
Appetite
Irish pop artist Pastiche is not waiting around to take hers, with the immediate new single ‘Appetite’, a track inspired by the cult classic 2009 film Jennifer’s Body starring Megan Fox.
“The track is full of cannibalistic imagery, not only paying homage to Jennifer’s Body, but also exploring how women are seen as meat in this animalistic world. I think all women from any background can relate to this feeling,” Pastiche says, who wrote the song after moving to London and falling into a trap of trying to please others in her writing.
“I was trying to write something that would keep people happy; something punchy, but not TOO punchy. Something sexy, but not TOO sexy. Something authentic, but subtle enough so that I don’t come off as an ‘angry woman’ with an axe to grind. But what’s wrong with being an angry woman with an axe to grind? I soon realised that everything I was writing was trash because I was creating to please everybody else. It’s not my job to keep people comfortable. This song is the start of a turning point for me professionally and personally.”
Pastiche is also a Keychange artist for 2023 and you can next catch her at 3Olympia Theatre on May 26th as part of Rock Against Homelessness, with Lyra, Jack O’Rourke, Aimee, Toisin, Bobbi Arlo and more.
9.
HAELIUM, Peter Vogelaar
Sides
Waterford’s Peter Vogelaar and Paris producer HAELIUM met at a gig in Paris and bonded over the likes of Kiasmos, and there’s some of that cinematic feel on display on their collaboration ‘Sides’.
“Sides is the simple idea that conflict big or small comes from a lack of empathy and understanding of the others point of view.”
10.
Robert John Ardiff
Gimme All Of Your Money
It’s a stick up, says Dublin singer-songwriter Robert John Ardiff. Except it’s not him that’s robbing you, it’s *Spoiler Alert* the government. Ardiff writes a fine tune and ‘Gimme All of Your Money’ is a “a tongue in cheek response to our current financial/housing crisis. I imagined a character with a balaclava going into a bank and asking for a loan and the bank manager taking it off him and putting it on themselves.”
Ardiff recently has some music featured in John Carney’s Modern Love TV series, and this song features on a forthcoming album Once I Was.
‘Gimme All of your Money’ was recorded between Yellow Door Studios in Dublin, a house in Borris, Co. Carlow and a studio in Summerhill in Co.Meath. It was mixed and additional recording was done in Black Mountain Studios by James Eager (The Scratch, The Cope, James Vincent McMorrow) It features the wonderful musicianship of Gareth Quinn Redmond, Ben Duffy and Neil Murray. It was mastered by Ivan Jackman.
Robert John Ardiff on Insta.
11.
Badhands
For A Little While
Dan Fitzpatrick has announced his third album as Badhands, The Wheel is out on May 5th. ‘For A Little While’ is the opening song from the album, a self-described “gloomy” song, with a classic songwriting style.
“This song is a good reflection of the new album overall, it captures a really good, lively performance from the band, which we hammered out in two takes – Ken Mooney on drums, David Tapley on bass, Chris Barry on guitar and Aoife Ruth on synth. The performance is loose but full of energy, and the addition of Aoife and Paddy Hanna’s vocals on the choruses really allow the song to take flight by the end. Sonically I wanted a Blade Runner style synth to help give the music a bit of a dystopian sound to match the lyrics.”
Badhands will play live dates in Derry, Dublin, Kildare, Cork and Mayo throughout May.
Badhands has spent the past number years composing scores for wildlife documentaries in collaboration with some of the world’s largest TV organisations, including the BBC, PBS, and RTÉ. He soundtracked the BBC series The Wild Gardener in 2022, and some of his songs were recently used in Tommy Tiernan’s Epic West. In 2019, his score for the Wild Cuba documentary won an award at the prestigious Jackson Wild Film Festival in the U.S., as well as winning Best Score at the 2021 Green Screen Wildlife Festival in Germany. Badhands also collaborates with artists in theatre performances, working with Maud Lee and Zoe Ni Riordan on some of their acclaimed theatre productions, such as the recent launch of their Irish Language project Éist Liom in late 2022, along with Glasshouse ensemble, at the Project Arts Centre.
12.
XXXX In Stereo, Rory Sweeney
Second Skin
The electronic producer formerly known as Marcus Woods (actually Ryan Cullen) & the prolific Rory Sweeney are giving a D&B jungle workout to rival the likes of early Metalheadz.
I have been listening to this remix of Goldie from 1996 and ‘Second Skin’ feels not a million miles away from it.
It’s on Bandcamp.
Also, that banger of a collab between Pagan, Rory Sweeney and EMBY from last year is on the streaming trail. It was originally featured here in August.
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.
