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 for individual track features.
1.
Jeff The Human
Trenches
One of those tracks I can’t recall how it came to my ears but ‘Trenches’ is a slice of percussive Bonobo-esque electronica from an Irishman called Jeff with a Thailand connection according to Insta.
2.
NewDad
Cry
As featured on today’s podcast, NewDad are a young Galway-based dream pop trio and this is their third single of velvety rock band loveliness about a breakup. Get the song on Bandcamp.
3.
Tension.
Lifelines
Purveyors of hard drum, the Cork label Flood, dropped a full-length from Tension last week entitled In Cascade. These are big percussive magnified sounds with avant-garde sound design with rhythms informed by techno, trance and experimental genres.
4.
Animal Party
Assassin Bug
Almost a year to the day, we featured the electronic work of Dublin-born Ontario-based Sinéad Bermingham aka Animal Party on this site. A year later and the progression on this new track is a big jump.
Released on the Quorom Sensing EP from Toronto based label Stereo Ferment alongside Australian producer Oreku, and Caribou drummer and producer Brad Weber AKA Coy Haste, ‘Assassin Bug’ sounds huge, drawing from multifaceted subgenres of dance music to create something that is both intimate and big-room at the same time.
Bermingham is a multi-instrumentalist with a hardware heavy live show; Animal Party performs using live harp, synthesizers, samplers, drum machines and a variety of analog audio effects to compliment the dreamy and abstract melodies and lyrics. Harnessing her experience touring across Ontario and hosting shows, producing for a variety of different musicians and doing studio session work both instrumentally and through beat production, Animal Party dedicates her life to her art and is always seeking new challenges and experiences.
5.
Roisin El Cherif
Cross Your Mind
The Irish/Palestinian singer Roisin El Cherif has been a name on many lips for a while now and this week she returned with a new single ‘Cross Your Mind’, a moody bright ambient pop track, recorded in Jordan while travelling in the Middle East.
Her new record depicts that “Sometimes the most hurtful place is your mind. I think, like many people, I suffer from overthinking. ‘Cross Your Mind’ is about acknowledging that black cloud and welcoming it. The mind wanders and we wander with it”.
6.
EFÉ
Seven
Anita Ikharo aka EFÉ comes through with this sweet R&B summer track. She followed that up last week with the Frank Oceany ‘Girl 4 U’.
7.
Tebi Rex
I Got My Whole
Max Zanga and Matt O are back with a soft summer vibe rather than a hard rap banger about getting your hole.
8.
Sun Collective
Swallow
A gorgeous vocal from Caimin Gilmore leads this lilting new song from Cork-based Sun Collective.
‘Swallow’ is the second single out from Sun Collective’s forthcoming EP, calledMOVE ||REMOVE, out August 10th which involves some Irish music royalty. It was produced and mixed by Ross Turner, recorded by Ber Quinn and the video and visuals are by Myles O’Reilly and Donal Dineen.
9.
Reggie
My Accent
Dundalk rapper Reggie’s new track ‘My Accent’ is an aspirational song proud of being Irish and black while recounting earlier hardship and seeking more uplift, with a video that reinforces the theme.
10.
Jordan Run
Gold
Bright acoustic harmonic pop from Jordan Run, the second single from the upcoming Lockdown Tapes EP out on July 10th.
11.
Seba Safe
Drip
An earworm of a track from Galway artist Michael D’Alton AKA Seba Safe.
12.
KEHLI
Hypnotised
More big Dua Lipa dance pop vibes from young Dublin artist Kehli.
13.
Niamh Regan
Save The Day
Galway singer-songwriter Niamh Regan teases her debut album Hemet, out in August, with this immediate full-band folk track.
14.
Clodagh
You Got Me
Cork singer and vocal coach Clodagh O’Sullivan released this smart and soulful pop track last week.
“I love theory and was trying to play with more advanced concepts like modes in a context where it didn’t stand out as a modal song,” Clodagh says. “You Got Me is about growing as a person and the struggle that can present when you have to let people go in life, that feeling of people being infatuated by a person that you shouldn’t and resisting temptations.”
