Here’s a rundown of new albums and releases, including new albums and EPs on DSPs and physical releases in record shops this week.
Nialler9 keeps a rolling list of Irish album releases for 2025.
New Albums and Releases
New Albums
DJ Haram – Beside Myself
Brooklyn producer and “multidisciplinary propagandist” DJ Haram’s Hyperdub debut album’s title references the rage and grief felt living in a time of war and weaponised entertainment, using that strong emotion as a starting point for an album of Eastern-inspired jungle, Jersey club, punk, noise breaks and drum and bass with featured guests including MCs Armand Hammer (billy woods + ELUCID), Bbymutha, SHA RAY, her 700 Bliss partner Moor Mother, Dakn, through to co-producers like Underground rapper August Fanon, Egyptian producer El Kontessa, Jersey Club producer Kay Drizz, musicians like trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, and guitarist Abdul Hakim Bilal.
DJ Haram says “we have to start organising outside the frame. Music is a liberation technology, a vessel of truth and resistance.”
“This album is the antithesis to ‘joy is resistance’. I make the music that I need. No music has healed me yet. No music has healed the earth. No music inherently subverts fetishisation.”
Madeline Kenney – Kiss From the Balcony
Californian singer-songwriter Madeline Kenney’s fifth album on Carpark Records, was created in collaboration with Ben Sloan and Stephen Patota, during a two week-long studio sessions in Oakland, wht Sloan, with his background in experimental percussion and sound design, added an electronic texture to Kenney’s songwriting, while Patota’s guitar work provided a grounding warmth.
Alex G – Headlights
Wildly popular singer-songwriter Alex G releases puts out his tenth studio album ahead of two Dublin dates this November.
His latest draws on soft rock, indie and Americana folk rock. I’ve never really got the appeal but that’s me!
Two Shell – IIcons
A surprise album from the London electronic duo who have signalled this release as a closing chapter, which sounds like they want to be less anonymous and masked in future. It’s giddy hyperpop rave mjusic with fizzy sound design.
In a message to fans on Instagram, the band said after their Glasto Icon slot:.
“anonymity sometimes feels like a mistake. when people message us saying “we know it wasn’t you up there! classic!!” it feels sad. the intention was never to troll. it was to question what we are, and whether it matters.
the world is a hard place. there are so many horrible things going on, and from our perspectives, our recent music is an expression towards that. a lot of it has been difficult to play. though through making the darker music we are lucky to have realised that it is not what we are only here to make.
there are few places that are as important to us as glastonbury. it is an epicentre of connection, and really an honour that it is in the UK. Over the years many people have asked us when will we play IICON, and what feels like from unexpected circumstances and with the passion of some incredible people, we were invited to play this year… in a perfect slot and thankfully, just before the fallow.
it was us, and we put our hearts and minds into it. over the next couple of weeks we hope to show it.
Billie Marten – Dog Eared
The fifth album from the British singer-songwriter and contemporary folk artist was recorded New York in the summer of 2024 to record with producer Phil Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Laura Veirs) at his Sugar Mountain studio.
She was joined by an all-star cast of musicians, including Catalan singer-songwriter/guitarist Núria Graham, bassist Josh Crumbly, guitarist Mike Haldeman, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, indie-rock musician Sam Evian, former Dirty Projectors vocalist/folk musician Maia Friedman, Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Vishal Nayak, and acclaimed folk musician Sam Amidon.
Branwen – Mirrormouth
The debut album from Branwen Kavanagh who is one-third of a capella vocal trio Rufous Nightjar and scrapyard folk duo Twin Headed Wolf, both projects released albums in 2024.
This album is the second solo release from the West of Ireland artist which was recorded with Simon O’ Reilly who also plays synths and glockenspiel, adding to Kavanagh’s vocals, guitar, synths and waterphones.
It’s more of a meditative songwriter vibe than their other work.
Seamus O’Muineachain – Cage Of Time
A collection of ten solo piano pieces from serve as the eighth album from Belmullet composer Seamus O’Muineachain – his first to be entirely written for and performed on solo piano.
After first recording the songs digitally with a MIDI keyboard, O’Muineachain realised the essence of the songs was missing. He deleted the first draft and returned to the busted-up old upright piano the pieces were written on, recording his most stripped-back, raw, and intimate collection yet.
Written in his hometown of Belmullet while waiting for a long, drawn-out bureaucratic process to finish, O’Muineachain muses on the constraints of time and how using it as a metric traps us in certain psychological patterns. The old piano—weathered and imperfect—mirrors this idea. It becomes both a relic of the past and a tool for unravelling it, evoking a lo-fi world now confined within digital infrastructure: a cage of time in both sound and spirit.
Bodies – Ores
What started as a solo project of Dubliner David Anthony McGeown in 2016 has formally become a fully-fledged band.
Ores features 11 songs of indie-rock with influences from post-punk.
“Ores” is a raw examination of collapse and endurance, born from the intersection of personal crisis and societal decay. Written during a period when frontman David Anthony’s health deteriorated alongside his witnessing of Dublin and Ireland’s mounting social failures, the album serves as both an indictment and a testament to human resilience. Through an angst-ridden experimental post-punk soundscape, the record splits its focus between two devastating realities: the institutional failures crushing Ireland’s most vulnerable, and the intimate struggle of living with chronic illness.
Rather than offering solutions, Ores confronts these parallel breakdowns with unflinching honesty, creating space for listeners to sit with complexity and find their own meaning within the chaos.”
Daddee – Weekend at the Martello
Dublin synth heavy, four-piece rockers inspired by Queens of the Stone Age, LCD Soundsystem, Courtney Barnett, and Viagra Boys,
Weekend at the Martello is a concept album set in a seedy pub by the sea — The Martello. Each track offers a glimpse into the life of a different, often troubled or absurd, patrons. The result is a vivid gallery of characters rendered with dark humour and blistering energy. Several of these personas are portrayed in the album’s striking artwork.
The album was recorded primarily in a DIY home studio/bedroom, with drums tracked at Beardfire Studio, and mixed by Gary O’Reilly.
An album launch happens tonight at Sin É.
Also released this week
- Benny the Butcher – Summertime Butch 2
- Forth Wanderers – The Longer This Goes On
- Hard Life (formerly Easy Life) – Onion
- Jade Bird – What Wants to Talk About Love?
- Jim Legxacy – black british music
- Lord Huron – The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1
- Raekwon – The Emperor’s New Clothes
- Ruby Francis – Pages Of Philosophy
- Slikback – Attrition
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.
