Ahead of All Together Now’s imminent return to the fields of Curraghmore in Waterford this August Bank Holiday Weekend, the festival has announced much of its music offering.
The winner of the Festival of the Year Award at the IMRO Awards this year, All Together Now is building up to a big return, with promises of a bigger lineup and stages, fleshed out with offerings beyond the music, with comedy, wellness areas, and food and drink among them.
With much of the lineup now announced, it’s time for some handpicked Nialler9 recommendations.
1.
Glass Beams
Recently signed to Ninja Tune with some massive organic listening figures and trailing hype, the enigmatic trio of Glass Beams are a Melbourne band who draw inspiration from their South Asian Indian heritage, creating an infusion of slithering psychedelia and worldly rhythms.
Much like Khruangbin before them, Glass Beams create new sounding worlds with the collision of old ones, with inspirations including traditional Indian artists Ravi Shankar and R.D. Burma enhanced with modern polyrhyms and studio recording techniques.
It’s bound to get hot in those masks for them at Curraghmore for their Irish debut.
2.
Confidence Man
Can you get a more fun festival set than Con Man?
We think not.
The Australian electro-pop four-piece are still shining bright on stages since the release of their 2022 album of absolute bops – Tilt.
Since then they’ve been teaming up with electronic producers on the forefront of dance music like Daniel Avery, DJ Boring and DJ Seinfeld, and there’s likely much more to come soon from these buzzers.
An unmissable addition to All Together Now.
3.
Yaya Bey
The New York artist exploded onto the scene with 2022’s album Remember Your North Star on Big Dada, marking her card as one of a new vanguard of R&B artists adept at creating magnetising music and stories through the genre.
Hadaiyah Bey is about to drop Ten Fold on the label on May 10th. It features tracks like soft glow psychedelic R&B style of ‘chasing the bus’ and the clubby swerving celebration of Yaya Bey’s genderqueer self-identity ‘sir princess bad bitch’.
She is “no other thing but the thing I am.” No labels.
Explorations of self, alongside meditations “on the external conditions of her community,” have us looking forward to the release, and the Yaya Bey ATN live set this August.
4.
Rachael Lavelle
Simply one of Nialler9’s favourite voices in Irish music.
The ease at which the Dublin artist conjurs fantastical, ethereal realms in her music is something to behold.
As heard on last year’s album Big Dreams, one of my personal favourites of 2023, Lavelle fulfils the artist’s longstanding promise as a uniquely talented musician and singer, crafting immersive spaces for her unconventional yearning compositions. Her style pays homage to predecessors like Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush while resonating with contemporaries such as Weyes Blood.
The album’s presence includes the Luas announcer Doireann Ní Bhriain, enhancing the dreamlike ambiance, and dreamy quality.
Rachael Lavelle is the kind of artist you bring your friends to see at a festival to be blown away by.
5.
Slowdive
The shoegaze originators have reignited their recorded output last year with the release of their fifth studio album everything is alive, their second since returning from a 22 year hiatus seven years ago.
After their Irish shows last year demonstrated the love for the band is still alight, a whole new generation have discovered the band’s gauzy dreamy indie rock, and ATN will be the band’s first festival appearance in many yonks in Ireland.
6.
ØXN
An experimental doom folk band featuring Radie Peat (Lankum), Katie Kim, Eleanor Myler (Percolator) and John ‘Spud’ Murphy (Percolator / Lankum producer), ØXN’s debut album CYRM is one of the latest addendums to renewed love of Irish trad and folk in this country.
Along with folk songs, ØXN create intepretations of themselves and their peers with Katie Kim’s own music and Majia Sofia covered, alongside Scott Walker and in al live setting, Billie Eilish.
While the presence of Peat and Murphy draw comparisons to the darker doomier side of Lankum’s sound, there’s more of a reliance on heavier rock guitars and experimental music sounds.
7.
Joy (Anonymous)
Close pals of Fred Again.., the duo of Joy (Anonymous) are well-named, as their sound is one of euphoric dance music. No wonder there’s a kinship to Fred.
Their sets feature life-affirming dance tracks with a soulful vocal borne out of outdoor lockdown sessions on London’s South Bank.
Their anthemic music has an explicit aim of building a community around sharing joy, like all good dance music should.
8.
NewDad
Galway band NewDad kicked off the year right with the release of their debut album Madra.
The album builds on the foursome’s indie-rock credentials to date, with a collection of superfluously produced songs, that just happen to feature the band’s best work, while delving into topics of self-doubt, inner turmoil and disconnection, all written with Julia Dawson light diaristic touch of the subject matter.
Sometimes a band’s debut album allows their sound to coagulate in longform, and Madra is the perfect distillation of where NewDad are at, with nods to Pixies, Wolf Alice and Mazzy Star.
