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 new songs from emerging artists that deserve to be heard by you.
For more extensive Irish, and Northern Irish coverage, follow our Spotify playlist or hit up the Irish section for individual track features.
1.
Paper Clap
Airplane Mode
Paper Clap are a new rap duo from Meath comprising of Morgan Sloggett (lyricist, rapper and trumpeter) and John Gough (producer). ‘Airplane Mode’ harks back to old-school ’90s boom-bap rap with a carefree positive vibe with a lo-fi casual rhyme delivery. It was written by Sloggett on the plane from Australia to Ireland.
2.
Sara, Greg Tisdall
In June
Dublin R&B singer Sara (we may need more individual distinction on that name) hooks up with the indie-pop artist Greg Tisdall on a song produced by Cheesmore, Isaac Jones, Grubby and Dan Coyne. ‘In June’ trades in lilting guitar tones and somnambulist live band arrangements as heard in a lot of R&B at the moment, but there enough dynamic shifts and string and brass instrumentation added to lift the song (which is about toxic relationships) beyond those sleepy beginnings.
3.
Lucy Gaffney
Send Me Away
First featured here as part of Belfast brother/sister duo MMODE, Lucy Gaffney’s second solo single ‘Send Me Away’ is a floaty indie guitar pop song that could have been released any time in the last 30 years. The song was produced by The Coral’s James Skelly.
4.
Dark Tropics
Moroccan Sun
Belfast duo Dark Tropics reach for a light pop sound on their second single. Their first single ‘Badlands’ was more pop-noir piano ballad, but ‘Moroccan Sun’ is markedly sunnier, a bop to splash to in brighter places.
5.
Synthia Nixon
After The Peak
After the excellent ‘Quarantine 001’ track, ‘After The Peak’ is the North American/Irish duo’s third feature in this column, due to their penchant for making bubbly and imaginative electronic music like this.
6.
Lydia Ford
A Year
Over a decent number of singles, Lydia Ford has established a delicate electronic-pop style that slightly changes direction here with the more live-band feel of ‘A Year’. Now based in Berlin after moving from New York, the Mayo artist hasn’t quite hit breakout hit status just yet, but ‘A Year’ remains in the decent category.
“I wrote ‘A Year’ about a party I went to in Brooklyn where I was drinking and flirting with someone I was starting to develop feelings for and I was kind of, viscerally, struck by how much I wasn’t over my last heartbreak and not ready to get hurt again. So the lyrics of the song are me trying to talk myself out of pursuing anything. Telling myself it’s too complicated, you’ll regret it; Asking myself: Do you really want to spend another year getting over someone again?”
7.
Travi The Native
Cool
Belfast artist Travis Gilbert turns the judgement of others into a self-reflection of himself on a hooky pop-rock song.
It’s a song about no one ever really knowing what’s ‘cool’ and what’s not. Being comfortable with who you are is probably cooler than seeking the approval of
strangers – but that’s not so simple in practice.
A lot of people are quick to make a decision about you based on your clothes, your walk, your job or your Instagram account. I do that too, so I wrote a song about me coming to terms with being exactly like the other 20 something folk I judge from afar. It’s also about drugs – I probably shouldn’t say that though.
