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.
1.
All Tvvins
I Heard You
The time is fast approaching for alternative pop duo All Tvvins’ new LP Just To Exist, due out April 12th. In the meantime, we’ll have to make due with ‘I Heard You’, the third single out from the group in 2019. The track posses a latent motion, a momentum which rolls one bar into the next. Whether it’s the splashy tom fills or the strictly-to-the-grid guitar pulse, the track is saturated with kinetic energy. When the ambience momentarily subsides, leaving just the autotuned vocals to carry the chorus vocals, it’s impossible to ignore how strong the songcraft on ‘I Heard You’ is.
2.
Baby Witch
Boat Or Bike
Dublin-based duo Baby Witch capture plenty of steely Motown vintage on new single ‘Boat Or Bike’. Built around an arpeggio figure on the keys, the track finds rhythmic punctuation on its plucky bassline, highlighting all the right off beats. The vocals, strikingly, seem to have drifted away from the fore of the mix and threaten to become lost at any moment in a cloud of reverb. What a vocal delivery it is though. High and clear, the female lead line is more than strong enough to cut through the track’s high end and straight into the memory.
3.
ORLA
Breathe
Breathe
18-year-old Meath native ORLA gets her second feature on our Irish tracks list for the shimmery ‘Breathe’. Another instrumental combining electronic elements with organic instrumentation, ‘Breathe’ works best when guitars and pianos are pitted against the more pop orientated aspects of the arrangement. The fuzzy synth leads take up the reigns for 16 bars or so, then it’s a Tycho-esque clean guitar figure. It’s this call and response idea that give this track such a strong sense of purpose and shape. Some aspects of the mix need tweaking – a little more time invested into the mix so the claps and hi-hats don’t sound as straight from the box, but ‘Beathe’ has more than enough charm in bags.
4.
Krisdeberg
Again
Electronic four piece Krisdeberg come through with all the feels on their second single ‘Again’. It’s an electronic twist on a power ballad, without all the grating artifice. There’s something very James Murphy in the lead vocalist’s delivery. Whereas the sunken bass synth line reminds the mind of some golden 80s nostalgia. A slow track that demands your attention the whole way through. When it does kick off at the halfway mark, you’re already long sold on the idea.
5.
Nicolas Kluzek
SL^^PY ^Y^S
This one snuck up on us a little bit. Nicolas Kluzek is making leftfield lo-fi hip-hop in the absolute right way. ‘SL^^PY ^Y^S’ is rainy and neon, a dreamy look out on the cityscape late at night. That snare sound is proper too. The very subdued synth lead, swaddled in reverb, is proof that not everything in your mix has to be shiny and vibrant to steal the show. The stuff that talented producers make on a laptop can be a bit mindblowing.
6.
Smokey
Captain Caveman
A member of Dublin rap collective Róg Poets, Smokey branches out with his first solo mixtape Live From Somewhere. ‘Captain Caveman’ is a highlight and archetypal of the gritty storytelling presented throughout the release. Urban tales of young life in the playing fields where the grass is not always so green. As such, ‘Captain Caveman’ is underpinned with a retrospective sadness as much as it is filled with fond nostalgia. The boom bap production style, while not a fresh sound, is the right choice for the message and tone the artist is trying to convey. Catch the Róg Poets play on Friday night in the Bernard Shaw.
7.
Dan Ryan
Remember When We Used To
Very nice rave tune from Dublin producer Dan Ryan. Blends the tonal sensibility of a classic house track with the sort of drum rhythms you might find on UK inspired stuff. The video is a laugh too. One day we’ll all have as good a night as the gentleman speaking at the beginning of it.
8.
Roberto
Brookvale
Dublin-based producer Roberto comes through with some densely layered downtempo techno. ‘Brookvale’ retains the urgency of the genre its spawned from while infusing enough emotion, a lingering moodiness, to give the track depth and personality.
