Turnstile, Loyle Carner, Lil Simz, Junk Drawer, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Kean Kavanagh and more
An overview of my recommended albums for listening from the month of June.
As ever, I’m always listening through a big list of releases (Irish list) that is neverending.
The albums below are the ones that have resonated the most from the month so far.
Album of the month:
Turnstile – Never Enough
Four years on from Glow On, the Baltimore hardcore punk band Turnstile release Never Enough, an album that continues the band’s expanding vision of punk rock music, while drawing on classic rock sounds, gilded bright synthesizers, bleeps, house music, 80s soft rock, a poppy sheen, TV show The Wire, phaser effects and some awesome rock drumming.
Turnstile are refreshing, bringing me back to the rock music of my teens by sounding a bit like Jane’s Addiction, Beastie Boys, Bad Brains, and Rage Against the Machine but by placing their rock music firmly in the present day landscape.
The songs on Never Enough are not neat three minute songs, they blend into – at various times – housey bleeping outros sampling The Wire, glitchy bits, dips into flute ambience on ‘Sunshowers’ from The Comet Is Coming’s Shabaka Hutchings, BadBadNotGood ‘s Leland Whitty adds sax on ‘Dreaming’, and Dev Hynes (who also guested on Glow On) lends cello to the title cut and joins Paramore’s Hayley Williams on the excellent ‘Seein Stars’.
Despite all this potentially messy expansiveness it’s a hoot of a record, a rare fun rock album, with singer Brendan Yates leading the emotionally connected charge sometimes sounding like Perry Farrell and occasionally Sting, which works.
Turnstile have clearly nailed a vibe and sound so much so that there’s a spot-on meme going around of how to make a Turnstile song.
A big part of its appeal is drummer Daniel Fang, the booming kicks, phased rolls and percussive passages, they sound HUGE, and are really some of the best rock drumming on any record I’ve heard recently. This will be my rock album of the year, barring some big surprise.
Turnstile play Ireland on their EU tour this year.
Loyle Carner – hopefully!
hopefully !, the fourth album from UK rapper and lyricist Loyle Carner finds the artist in reflective fatherhood mode, who sings for the first time (after Grian Chatten ghosted his request) and the result is an album buoyed by the joys of life experiences.
Loyle Carner formed a new five-piece band for the record, and their playing dynamic is a big part of the appeal of hopefully !. It moves his sound into a new realm, it’s softer, gentler and more intimate, and as last week’s Glastonbury set showed, it’s one he can bring to big stages.
Carner has a 3Arena show later in the year.
Little Simz – Lotus
The sixth album from Little Simz marks a sea change for Simbi, who has navigated music industry turmoil and her falling out of a key creative partner in Inflo which left a 2.2 million-pounds loan unpaid and aired in public.
Lotus introduces a new production crew to work on the record, with punk, jazz and afrobeat brought into the Simz sound more readily with chief producer Miles Clinton James, while still sounding like the recognisable artist that has made her name to this point – so stirring strings and Cleo Soul-esque backing vocals (from Lydia Kitto) are still present, as is a burning anger at her former collaborator, but there’s also a lot of fun and playfulness on this record.
Obongjayar returns on two tracks and Moses Sumney, Little Dragon’s Yukimi, Sampha, Michael Kiwanuka, Yussef Dayes, Miraa May, Wretch 32 and Moonchild Sannelly also appear.
Junk Drawer – Days Of Heaven
I’m going down the chip shop and I’m taking you all with me.
Belfast alternative psych-rock band Junk Drawer released their second album on Pizza Pizza Records, and it’s the sound of a band doubling down on what makes them tick, through a rounded collection of their best songs yet.
The album was recorded over seven days at The Meadow Studios in Wicklow with producer Chris Ryan and is Junk Drawer’s “attempt to make a work of weird, cosmic Ulster music….taking inspiration from the way Gram Parsons, The Byrds, Grateful Dead and the likes created a language and pathway for cosmic American music by drinking in what came before and spitting it out via the inherited angst of growing up in a post-war world.”
Gelli Haha – Switcheroo
LA alt-pop artist Gelli Haha (Jelly Haha) revels in the kind of dayglow electronic pop music that I find hard to resist. Recent track ‘Spit’ comes on like early Confidence Man, while ‘Bounce House’ and ‘Funny Music’ sounds like 2010s indie blog pop and bands like Yacht. New song ‘Normalise’ was influenced by “80s Nigerian soul boogie” (I’m gueasing the Doing It Lagos compilation has a far-reaching influence) and channels a similar vibe to the synth pop of Blood Orange, Washed Out and Nite Jewel.
The debut album adds light and shade to the polychromatic pop on offer.
Brìghde Chaimbeul – Sunwise
The Scottish piper drones on beautifully on her experimentally-minded third album as the music explores tradition, folklore and mystery.
The album comes after recent collaborations with Caroline Polachek and Canadian composer/saxophonist Colin Stetson (who also features here), along with Chaimbeul’s occasional vocal, her brother Eòsaph and a spoken word contribution from her father Aonghas Phàdraig.
This record follows the embrace of winter time; the closing in of darkness, the cold, the pull to turn inward. But also, the customs of the season, and gathering for the ceilidh: songs and stories told round the fire; where the boundaries between reality and imagination blur.’
Joe Armon-Jones – All The Quiet (Part II)
The South London jazz pianist, songwriter, bandleader and producer Joe Armon-Jones is a founding member of the Ezra Collective, and All The Quiet is conceptually linked second half of a duo of albums.
Part I was released in March and Part II features Greentea Peng, Wu Lu, Hak Baker and Yazmin Lacey.
Annahstasia – Tether
Los Angeles alt-folk singer-songwriter pens intimate songs full of soul and shade, and arrives at this debut album on the drink sum wtr label having thoroughly road-tested these songs to audiences, friends and family.
The album was recorded as live in Valentine Studios in LA with producers Jason Lader (ANOHNI and the Johnsons, Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey), Andrew Lappin (Cassandra Jenkins, L’Rain, Luna Li), Aaron Liao (Liv.e, Moses Sumney, Raveena) and a range of musicians, including featured guests aja monet and Obongjayar.
Kean Kavanagh – The County Star
Despite the release of Dog Person in 2020 (now called a mixtape), The County Star is billed as Kean Kavanagh’s debut album with the Soft Boy artist embracing a hometown inspiration (Portlaoise) and a trilogy of Peter McGann–starring videos, for this more colloquial sounding indie and rock record with inspirations from Americana (Kean was born in Houston, Texas it has emerged) and Irish folk.
There’s no doubt Kavanagh has taken a leap both sonically, lyrically and artistically with this fine debut album.
Polygonia – Dream Horizons
I loved the Munich producer Lindsey Wang aka Polygonia’s 2024 EP of bubbly electronics and the latest album on Dekmantel, features kinetic rhythms, downtempo, deep techno and bright polychromatic sounds.
Dream Horizons is an instructive title — Wang approached her new album as a collection of different dream scenarios, with all the creative freedom the concept implies. From oceanic calm to artful propulsion, she was free to shift gears from track to track while relishing the strange and beautiful atmospheres her inspiration pointed towards. A multi-instrumentalist as well as a producer, Wang recorded her own voice, saxophone, flute, violin and percussion to inject organic, human vibrancy into the surreal spaces she was shaping out, capturing the uncanny sensation of alien and familiar that hangs over the places we visit when we sleep.
Błoto – Grzyby EP
Polish experimental jazz band are one I return to a lot and they’ve just dropped a new EP featuring broken jazz beats and funk-inflected trip-hop grooves three years since their last album.
Grzyby is Polish for “mushrooms” and the music is inspired by mycelium’s vast underground network—the “internet of the forest.” and maybe how it echoes musicians’ telepathically playing together, while encouraging connection in a divided world.
The album Grzyby features fungi with medicinal properties on Side A—and one parasite on Side B. These aren’t your typical mushrooms you’d throw in a culinary basket. “Wrośniak” helps fight autoimmune diseases, “Maczużnik” has antibacterial properties, “Chaga” eases digestive issues, and “Soplówka” stimulates the immune system. Side B brings “Pleśniak”—a toxic mold. Poisoning from this fungus can be dangerous, causing damage to the liver, skin, and mucous membranes. Yet even “Pleśniak” has a silver lining. It played a key role in the development of penicillin—the antibiotic used to treat tonsillitis, pneumonia, and more. Under controlled conditions, it’s even used in cheese production.
Deathtoricky – spring cleaning
deathtoricky is an Irish artist at the vanguard of a new younger movement of alt cloud-rappers coming up, squeezing through the Tik-Tok virality queue.
This seven-track collection follows recent smash ‘Motive’, and features some ear-catching sonic movements and melodies.
Other Albums I’m enjoying this month.
- Aesop Rock – Black Hole Superette
- Dysania – An Lá Ba
- Lil Skag – Type Shite EP
- Lael Neale – Altogether Stranger
- NewDad – Safe EP
- Search Results – Go Mutant
What albums are you enjoying? Join our Discord community with a Patreon membership and discuss albums with us.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
