Nialler9’s favourite songs of the past month, all in one place.
1.
Little Simz, Obongjayar
Point and Kill
Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be An Introvert was my album of the month on our recent podcast.
2.
The War On Drugs, Lucius
I Don’t Live Here Anymore
Adam Granduciel and The War On Drugs can continue making this kind of stadium dad-rock IMHO if it’s going to be as pleasing as this. ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’ is the title track from the new record, out October 29th, and it’s anthemically pitched with the singers of Lucius providing sumptuous backing vocals. Blissful rock.
3.
Charlotte Adigery and Bolus Popul
Thank You
A banger of a tune aka “a cheeky and cynical revenge for all the unwanted unsolicited opinions some people generously offer us”.
4.
Charli XCX
Good Ones
Charli XCX and electro-pop bangers are a match made in heaven. Charli goes Gaga on this one. It was produced by Oscar Holter.
5.
Overmono
BBY
It’s true, Overmono are my favourite new electronic act of the last year.
“For the past 4 years our studio has been in an old magazine printing building. after moving in we ripped up the carpets to expose this amazing wooden flooring and thought to ourselves – ‘why the fuck would anyone cover this up?’ – turns out ink from the old print presses that used to be there still comes up through the floor and makes these grimy swirling patterns that slowly shift over weeks and months.
Earlier this year we found out the building was being sold for re-development. We had two weeks to get out. Packing down the studio was left till the very last night and we spent the rest of the time making one last tune there. The chords in “Bby” are those ink stains. Woozy and morphing, feeling like they might swallow you up.”
6.
Westside Gunn
Hell on Earth, Pt. 2
A track from Westside’s curiously-named Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Side B, ‘Hell On Earth Pt. 2’ featuring Conway the Machine and Benny The Butcher encapsulates how well Griselda can wear this style of Mobb Deep-inspired 90s rap style and make it feel current.
7.
M(h)aol
Gender Studies
M(h)aol’s last single ‘Asking For It’ addressed male violence , and the band whose members are based in Dublin, London and Bristol, are addressing gender on their new song ‘Gender Studies’.
The short song employs a simple repetitive riff over a persistent percussion that dips into a low-end rock sludge that is really quite nice. The song is, in their words: “a response to how gender changes throughout our lifetime, and how some people wish to force the gender binary. It’s about going on a intersectional feminist journey where you become less palatable to wider society, but more palatable to yourself.
8.
Houseplants
No Stopping Me
An album track beaut from Bell X1 singer Paul Noonan and producer Daithí’s album Dry Goods as House Plants. ‘No Stopping Me’ grows and swells with its subject matter beautifully.
9.
Spider
I’m Fine! I’m Good! I’m Perfect!
I loved the debut single ‘Water Sign’ from London-based Irish artist Spider, and again, here on the new track ‘I’M FINE, IM GOOD, IM PERFECT!’, Spider brings an off-kilter weirdness to a big pop hook.
10.
El Michels Affair
Masterclass
Just a lovely new El Michels Affair jam that was used by Virgil Abloh in a Louis Vuitton campaign.
11.
ABBA
Don’t Shut Me Down
ABBA are back. A new album out on November 5th with 10 new songs, a potentially weird or amazing live show involving hologram versions of the band accompanied by a 10-piece live band, in a custom-built arena at the Olympic Park, London. It’s the kind of escapist lunacy we need right now. I mean, look at them!
ABBA released two new songs from the record so far, the highlight of which is the classic string-soaring ABBA melancholy of ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, which pips the more gloopy Eurovision-ready ballad of ‘I Still Have Faith In You’.
12.
Monjola
Pain Don’t Die
‘Pain Don’t Die’ only Monjola’s fourth solo single released (there’s also a collaboration with Aby Coulibaly, also on Chamomile Records) but the Dubliner is also making music that feels a cut above a lot of Irish modern R&B, and that’s down to the overall package. The repeating guitar line and distant sax give this song an “awake at night thinking too much” feel, and the song has a on-repeat quality that buries deeper than most.
13.
HAAi
The Sun Made For A Soft Landing
The Australian producer HAAi is known for dizzying DJ sets and her music that sounds like dark techno and bright rave music all at once.
Time away from the clubs has allowed Teneil Throssell to make something a bit different again and ‘The Sun Made For A Soft Landing’ is closer to Jon Hopkins with breaks than anything you’ve heard from HAAi before. It also has a distinctly ’90s comedown feel.
“The Sun Made For A Soft Landing is a gentle listen that was made when club music felt very dormant. It comes as part of a two sided single with both sides showing the night and day of the music I’ve been making lately.”
14.
Fynch, Gaptoof
Canal Straddle
Drimnagh rap artist Fynch has been knocking them out of the park of late, and ‘Canal Straddle’, produced by Gaptoof, is another winner. “Can’t insure a SEAT, never mind a Benz”.
“I suppose with COVID, you get a lot of time to reflect on yourself, you weren’t really doing much else. I was thinking about my music and the strange two-pronged relationship I have with it. One minute, I think I’m the greatest wordsmith known to man and the next I’m reminding myself to not quit my day job.
“Ultimately, that’s what ‘Canal Straddle’ is, for me. This brash introduction that I’m an ‘underdog, still Goliath in the ends, a Leviathan’ encapsulates how I routinely view myself.”
15.
NewDad
How
The Galway four-piece NewDad immediately made an impression with their command of dreamy indie pop textures and melodic heft when they first arrived in 2020.
Since then, every new tune or EP has placed the band among the best new Irish acts around, and with live music returning slowly, they are back with a reminder of their early greatness, with a video for their first ever single ‘How’, which has since been re-recorded.
16.
Baby Keem
First Order of Business
Kendrick’s cousin dropped a debut album The Melodic Blue last month. The Kendrick-featuring ‘Family Ties’ is still the best thing on it despite the meme-worth King Kenny ‘top of da mornin’ line on ‘Range Brothers’.
After his feature on Donda, there’s a lot more to come from Baby Keem and ‘First Order Of Business’ with its story about Keem buying his grandma a house, has a heart to it that is rare.
17.
Silverbacks
Wear My Medals
The Irish five-piece art-rock band Silverbacks have signed to Full Time Hobby for the release of their next album, the followup to 2020’s Fad.
‘Wear My Medals’ features lead vocals from Emma Hanlon and is typical of the band’s fizzy guitar rock music, with Hanlon’s sweet vocals smudging the line of art-rock nicely.
18.
Anna B Savage
These Dreams
I’ve been craving music of a grittier disposition lately, and the title track from Anna B Savage’s new These Dreams EP and the buzzing industrial guitar falls throughout the track falls into that category.
19.
Low
White Horses
Low are one of those bands I know are great but I really don’t give them the time, and have only sporadically dipped in since their glut of great albums in the early 2000s. Thanks to Séamus in the Nialler9 Discord (access via Patreon) for reminding me to listen to their new album Hey What, which opens with this metallic industrial melodic boom.
It’s hard not to stay impressed at Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s continuous lack of settling into old musical age.
20.
Let’s Eat Grandma
Hall of Mirrors
Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth are back with their first Let’s Eat Grandma song in three years. ‘Hall Of Mirrors’ moves the story on from the excellent second album I’m All Ears, adding a greater accessibility to their sound without losing their music’s magnetic oddity.
21.
Nermin Niazi
Hum Tum (Moving Still Edit)
Jamal Sul is back at it again, remixing two tracks from the reissue of Nermin’s 1984 synth-pop album Disco Se Aagay with his deft HI-NRG electro style.
22.
Ouri
High & Choking, Pt. 1
Montreal producer Ouri follows up her collaborative albumHelena Deland collaboration Hildegard with a new solo album on October 22nd. FromFrame of a Fauna is the misleading ‘High & Choking, Pt. 1,’ which is actually a lush slice of alt-electronic pop.
Ouri also released ‘Chains’ which samples Aphex Twin’s ‘minipops 67.’
23.
Richard Fearless
Our Acid House
The former Death In Vegas man goes long with a track taken from a companion album Future Rave Memory (digital November 5th / vinyl December 8th) to his 2019 album Deep Rave Memory. ‘Our Acid House’ is a sprawling 15-minute track that holds its gaze.
The album is inspired by Fearless’ Metal Box studio surroundings in London.
24.
Súil Amháin
Incantation of Féile-Flow Funk
Having previously collaborated with Bantum on two tracks, the Listowel rapper Súil Amháin and the producer have made this unique Irish language rap track with a footwork-inspired beat.
25.
Kean Kavanagh
Summer Nights
Soft Boy Records’ Kean Kavanagh has released a new single last week called ‘Summer Nights’, just in time for the Autumn, along with an announcement of two gigs in Dublin and London.
It’s a lovely wash of a track, a bit smudgy and hazy and melodic all in all, and Kavanagh’s first followup to his Dog Person album.
Every week, the Nialler9 Spotify Weekly Playlist is updated with new music, and in this corner, we share the playlist and highlight some some select songs from the list below.
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See the homepage for all Spotify playlists: New Music | Irish | Monthly
