New Irish songs you should hear: For Nina, Chósta, C2, Video Blue & more

For Nina

Labour Of My Love

Dublin trio For Nina are getting better with every released song – there’s some gorgeous resonant indie-rock music emanating from their early records, and ‘Labour Of My Love’ is no different, drawing on a similar emotionally-charged wavelength to English Teacher.

Upcoming gigs?
April 16th – with Burglar and Nialler9 DJ set @ The Grand Social Dublin
April 25th – Belfast -The Oh Yeah Music Centre
May 17th – TBA – London

Chósta

Killing Time

Since the release of Chósta’s Twilight Transmission album in 2023, Conor Kelly has taken a more direct approach to his music with recent singles including newly-released ‘Killing Time’ featuring New Order-esque basslines and synth-leaning post-punk with Kelly singing up front and centre. The video is by Adam Kelly.

“I wrote this song from the perspective of my younger self, but as time has progressed, I realise it easily applies to people at any stage of adult life. At junctures in the past I’ve drank or consumed to excess when going through stress rather than tackling a problem, and occasionally had no recollection of even getting home from a night out when I was in my 20s. Oftentimes we can try to disengage from life or suppress difficult emotions, and this can be applied to doomscrolling and screen addiction too; obsessively refreshing Whatsapp waiting for a response, flicking through a dozen videos in a minute without watching any of them, zoning out of conversations with people to feed an algorithm. At the same time, companies producing these devices have us hooked to our screens, be it through the 24 hour depressing horror of world events or rose tinted nostalgia. It all prevents us from living in the present in our daily lives.”

Chósta plays his first Dublin headline show in three years in Curveball at the Button Factory on Thursday May 7th with a full band featuring Eanna Harrison (Skinner) on bass and Sam Martin (Odd Morris, April) on drums.

aoif3

Every Time I Close My Eyes

London-based Irish artist Aoife Nic Uidhir just released a debut EP under the name Aoif3 – showcasing an coldwave electro style of songwriting across four tracks – with metallic drums, brooding bass, chasmic synths, textured guitar and layered vocals.

All four tracks are worth your time, but I’m singling out track two – Every Time I Close My Eyes’ for its superbly effective take on shoegaze-leaning electronic music.

Video Blue

Exhibition Wine

Jim O’Donoghue Martin will release his fourth Video Blue album Eyes On Sticks on May 1st and its preceded by new single ‘Exhibition Wine’, which is a stream-of-consciousness word association paired with an airy synth backdrop.

“‘Exhibition wine’ is a chronological word-association game with myself, charting the years from when I first picked up a guitar to now,” says Jim.

The title, Eyes On Sticks, comes from a line on the record – ‘’…all I wanted was art, with my eyes on sticks watching Euro ‘96..’’‘

The album was recorded in his new home of Bray, and Hackney in London with contributions from Gavin Murray of Trick Mist, art historian Evie May Hatch and poetry frrom Low Fidelity Section (Dave Phelan) does poetry on ‘Hydra’. and Gökhan Demirdöğmez on clarinet.

Buy on Bandcamp.

c2

C2Riddim

The Luas-bell ident rapper from Dublin c2 links up with Armagh’s fonsi for this wild dub wub wub production by lean sixam that absolutely slaps.

I rinsed ‘2 Secs’ – C2’s collab with Beddyminaj from last year. This one’s from the upcoming Green Line Mixtape – which also features Carson Clay aka Sign Crushes Motorist.

The Sei

Whale Song

Alt-folk electronica trio Stace Gill, Ross Dowling and and Maria Nilsson Waller and Maria Nilsson Waller make up The Sei, who have returned after a hiatus with news of a new EP called We Must Be Still Alive? due on April 23rd via Paragon Records, six years in the making.

‘Whale Song’ and the EP, was born out of stream-of-consciousness writing, and makes an epic track out of sporadic minimal sounds.

The track was originally almost titled ‘We Must Be Still Alive?’ which was a question Gill sang to a close friend who had recently passed away. This question ultimately became the title of the EP.

“My belief in our species has been deeply challenged, and I resist judgement or conclusion, because ‘who thinks they see what God is doing?’ (Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle). These songs, and the time and process that goes into them, keep me open. They are cocoons for company as I come to terms with our reality — the brutal and the stunning.” – Stace Gill.

Live dates:

29 April – 2 May — Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland – The Peace Process by Flora Fauna Project + The SEI

7–8 May — SpringMoves Dance Festival, Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford, Ireland

May 28-31 — C:NEN, Östersund, Sweden

24 July – 16 August — Vaasa City Art Hall and Gallery, Vaasa, Finland

Cicada

voicebox

‘Voicebox’ is the debut single from the Dublin indie folk four-piece Cicada, and it’s a song teeming with melodic life and harmony, as each member vocally adds layers to the song.

It’s taken from the band’s upcoming EP Isla’s House.

“voicebox” centres on the tension between silence and expression, the pressure of holding something in, and the moment when it finally breaks through.