On this week’s episode, we report from the Red Bull Music Academy in Berlin, we talk dodgy covers thanks to Metallica, Wolf Alice win the Mercury and have a strong reaction, Cat Power explains her label woes, songs of the week from Yaeji, Laoise, Lana Del Rey and more; and albums of the week from Villagers (The Art Of Pretending To Swim) and Noname (Room 25).
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Songs played
Metallica – Dancing Queen Metallica – When Doves Cry Kodaline – Digital Love
Songs of the week
Yaeji – One More Laoise – Again Jaakko Eino Kalevi – People In The Centre Of The City Whenyoung – Given Up Lana Del Rey – Venice Bitch
Albums of the week
Villagers – Love Came With All It Brings Villagers – Ada Noname – Blaxploitation Noname – Ace
RBMA Berlin
Nina Kraviz – Ghetto Kraviz Tiger & Woods – Rockmeloveme Jlin – Never Created, Never Destroyed Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson – The Bottle AE Mak – Love Flush Tiger & Woods – Bash At Jack’s Nina Kraviz – Walking In The Night
Lots of great new singles and releases coming out this week. You’d be forgiven if you were struggling to keep up. Don’t worry, we got you. Here are our favourite new tracks from this week.
As always, follow the Nialler9 Weekly playlist for access to the freshest new music.
1.
Noname
Blaxploitation
A powerful examination into the state of race relations and racial tensions in America right now. Chicago MC Noname’s ‘Blaxploitation’ is littered with flashes of lyrical genius. Simultaneously autobiographical and allegorical, Noname jostles between delving into her own experience as a black woman and criticising the sterotypes which plague society at large. Oh yeah, last but not least, the jazz instrumental is absolutely blistering. Track of the week.
2.
Marie Davidson
Work It
An instructional life coach and dance banger all at the same time, Marie Davidson’s ‘Work It’ is ten tons of fun. It’s impossible to not move to that beat, with plenty of additional percussion adding groove atop groove. “Sweat to be a winner” is the motto this song lives and dies by and if you are going to exert yourself this week, do it to this song.
3.
Yves Tumor
Honesty
The surprise release of Safe In The Hands Of Love from experimental noise artist Yves Tumor managed to create quite a stir amongst fans of all things art-pop, ambient and industrial. The album is a mixed bag with plenty of forgettable tracks. However, when Tumor gets it right on Safe In The Hands Of Love it’s total immersion. ‘Honesty’ is the best track from the record, a gritty industrial number infused with a sexual tension. Get your fix now.
4.
Charli XCX
Focus (Yaeji remix)
One of 21st-century pop’s standout talents, Charli XCX has managed to utterly dominate the charts since the turn of the decade. Her influence is everywhere, from solo projects to mega features to numerous songwriting projects.
‘Focus’, one of her singles released earlier this year, gets the remix treatment from ultra trendy Korean-American DJ and producer Yaeji. Considering the strength of the material the DJ had to begin with, it’s no wonder the end product is as lush as it is.
5.
Villagers
Ada
Villagers’The Art Of Pretending To Swim has been the focal point of much critical discussion amongst Irish listeners this week. With so much to unpack and a ton of depth in quality to analyse, it’s hard to pick just one highlight. We’re going to go with ‘Ada’. Written about English mathematician Ada Lovelace, this sprawling track showcases the best qualities about the album as a whole. O’Brien’s wistful lyricism, top-notch production and the clever blend of acoustic and electronic aesthetics.
If you’re interested in finding out a little bit more about The Art Of Pretending To Swim, check out our in-depth review of it here.
6.
Mutual Benefit
Come To Pass
Melancholy folk music from New York-based recording artist Jordan Lee, better known as Mutual Benefit. Taken from his newest LP Thunder Follows The Light ‘Come To Pass’ is warm, haunting and heartbreakingly beautiful.
7.
Laoise
Again
Yes yes yes. Galway native Laoise has released some heavenly pop music in ‘Again’. From the very first time you hear that synth progression you’re totally invested, you can’t help it. The artist’s vocal delivery is sleek, as is the very 80s inspired beat behind the track. Directed at an absentee lover, the lyrics definitely follow a pop formula but remain effective all the same. If you like the Charlie XCX track you’ll love this one too.
8.
Fia Moon
Take
This isn’t the first single release from Fia Moon to catch our imaginations this year. The artist has been making a strong push toward acclaim and ‘Take’ is bound to only help keep pushing toward that direction. An EDM pop fusion, Moon teamed up with producer Slang to give us this new banger. We’re certain there are plenty more exciting things to come from the Irish artist.
9.
Whenyoung
Give Up
Limerick group Whenyoung put out their strongest material to date last week with ‘Give Up’. There are all sorts of style and genres being blended on this new single. Pop for sure, but a healthy dose of indie-rock too. Coupled with a compelling music video, the track gives the group a tangible sense of being on the up and up.
10.
Maria Kelly
June
Maria Kelly is one of our favourite new Irish artists. We’ve featured her music plenty of times this year, including ‘Dark Places‘, her single which focused on mental health issues. Kelly headed over to Berlin at some stage in the summer and ‘June’ is the first of the material, written over there, that we’ve been treated to.
A sweet folk melody compliments the themes of alienation and loneliness presented in the lyrics superbly. With an EP on the way, titled Notes To Self, Maria Kelly is an artist who should be on the watch list of music fans across the nation.
2018 marks ten years since the birth of Villagers. Three studio albums have earned Conor O’Brien a Choice Music Prize win and an Ivor Novello award and widespread admiration in that time. In the very loose hierarchy of success and influence in the Irish music scene, O’Brien is up near the top.
The fourth studio album The Art Of Pretending To Swim is an affirmation of the songwriter’s talent while providing evidence of a leap in sonic progress. The acoustic folk of and straightforward songwriter arrangments on Darling Arithmetic do not return.
O’Brien wrote, recorded and produced the album in his Dublin studio and there’s a sense of a new chapter. He sets out that stall with the first track ‘Again’ straddling O’Brien’s signature folk sound with the sort of underlying textured electronic aesthetic that features an android-like vocal sample, and some subtle effective synthesizers and production nous that reinforces the track’s core message – of self-renewal and the process of beginning that feels quietly giddy with hope. The repeating robotic hook contrasts starkly against O’Brien’s expressive vocal performance.
O’Brien isn’t afraid to expose himself in his lyrics, dating all the way back to the uncomfortable confessional in ‘Becoming A Jackal’, but this album showcases a directness in his phrasing, an obvious sea change in the way the artist presents himself and his thought process.
Take ‘Fool’, as self-reflexive as it is tragic. A genuine statement of vulnerability among a screen-washed sea of sardonic observations. “And for now I keep my head down / But one day I will precede / My reputation”. ‘Fool’, like much of the material on The Art Of Pretending To Swim is actually profoundly sad, only becoming more so with repeated listens and closer observations.
The song’s bridge of “So here is my bleeding heart / Will you be my falling star? / Will you take the pain away?” strikes as a dramatic and desperate attempt to get someone’s attention while they’re distracted by technology, reinforced by the Bob Gallagher video in which O’Brien literally offers us his freshly plucked heart.
As much as these to-the-point lyrics work so well in tandem with the themes and aesthetic of this new LP, there’s still a part of me that misses the poetic and detailed penmanship of previous Villagers albums.
At it’s rare worst, some of the messaging on The Art Of Pretending To Swim plays a little like sloganeering, even the chorus of ‘A Trick Of The Light’, as much as it is a superb tune, is guilty of that.
How good is ‘Ada’ as an album closer? Sprawled out over a full six minutes, progressive and understated in one half and blistering in the other, it’s a song about the English mathematician and computing visionary Ada Lovelace. Wistful lines like “Ada did you know? / that you are the hole in which I hide” rise out of the mix like steam out of the water, floating perpetually upwards. That transition into white noise and glitchy drums is a standout moment and is among some of the best production I’ve heard this year. The deluxe version of the album offers an extended and expanded version with extra collaborators drawn from the Irish scene like Lisa Hannigan, I Have A Tribe, Stephen James Smith, Jape, Cian Nugent, Maria Sommerville, Saint Sister and those further afield like The Staves and John Grant.
‘Love Came With All That It Brings’ is the album’s most individual all-around track. The vocal manipulation is oddly unnerving, totally at odds with the lo-fi hip-hop drum loop, which gives this otherwise bleak song a strong sense of groove and rhythm. O’Brien’s vocal delivery on the chorus is among his finest on any of the Villager’s recorded material, completely heartbreaking.
The first couple of Villagers LPs had an unshakable otherworldliness about their lyrics. As if they were written by someone who hadn’t quite accepted the rules and conditions of modern society (think of a track like ‘To Be Counted Among Men’ to understand). For all it’s sharp eco-activist undertones and historical awareness, it doesn’t quite fit into reality.
Dealing with real life is the currency The Art Of Pretending To Swim trades in. On it, O’Brien has proved himself again to be an outstanding songwriter who isn’t afraid to tackle the existentialism that comes with modernity. The fact that the results are so moving, so beautiful are testament to his artistic vision and talent.
The Villagers album The Art Of Pretending To Swim is released on September 21st this month and we’ve so far heard two songs ‘Fool’ and ‘A Trick Of The Light’.
It’s shaping up to be an exciting release to hear in full, with today’s release of ‘Again’, the opening track from the album, which finds a sweet spot for acoustic-lead folk music and textured production and is a song about renewal and readying yourself to create. It’s a hopeful song. “I’ve found again a place in my heart again / For God again in the form of Art again.”
Villagers – The Art Of Pretending To Swim Tracklisting
1. Again 2. A Trick Of The Light 3. Sweet Saviour 4. Long Time Waiting 5. Fool 6. Love Came With All That It Brings 7. Real Go-Getter 8. Hold Me Down 9. Ada Villagers live dates
VILLAGERS TOUR DATES
Mon 24th Sept – Banquet Records, London Tues 25th Sept – Rough Trade East, London **SOLD OUT** Wed 17th Oct – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham Thurs 18th Oct – Garage, Glasgow Fri 19th Oct – Gorilla, Manchester **SOLD OUT** Sun 21st Oct – Wardrobe, Leeds Mon 22nd Oct – O2 Academy 2, Oxford Tues 23rd Oct – Hackney Arts Centre, London **SOLD OUT** Thurs 25th Oct – Arts Club, Liverpool Sat 27th Oct – Metropolis Festival, RDS, Dublin Tues 30th Oct – Trinity, Bristol Wed 31st Oct – Old Market, Brighton **SOLD OUT** Thurs 1st Nov – La Madeleine, Brussels Sat 3rd Nov – Zoom, Frankfurt Mon 5th Nov – Vega, Copenhagen Tues 6th Nov – Gruenspan, Hamburg Thurs 8th Nov – Kesselhaus, Berlin Fri 9th Nov – Hybrydy, Warsaw Sat 10th Nov – Futurum, Prague Mon 12th Nov – Doornroosje, Nijmegen Tues 13th Nov – Melkweg (Old Hall), Amsterdam Wed 14th Nov – Trabendo, Paris Fri 16th Nov – Le Boucau, Biarritz Sun 18th Nov – Kafe Antzokia, Bilbao Mon 19th Nov – Chango, Madrid Tues 20th Nov – Razzmatazz 2, Barcelona Thurs 22nd Nov – Ridotto Teatro Regio, Parma Fri 23rd Nov – Spazio 211, Turin Sat 24th Nov – Port-Franc, Sion Mon 26th Nov – Papiersaal, Zurich Tues 27th Nov – Kulturkirche, Cologne Wed 28th Nov – Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht Mon 10th Dec – Empire Music Hall, Belfast Wed 12th Dec – Dolans, Limerick Thurs 13th Dec – Black Box, Galway Fri 14th Dec – The Set Theatre, Kilkenny **SOLD OUT** Tickets
2019 Thurs 28th Feb – The Roundhouse, London Fri 1st March – Cathedral, Manchester Sat 2nd March – Wylam Brewery, Newcastle Tickets will go on general sale Fri 14th Sept
Villagers have announced some Irish gigs for Belfast, Limerick, Galway, Kilkenny in December to coincide with Conor O’Brien’s new album The Art of Pretending to Swim, which is due on September 21st.
Villagers Tour Dates
28-29th September – Other Voices, Ballina 27th October – Metropolis Festival, Dublin Mon 10th December – Empire Music Hall, Belfast Wednesday 12th December – Dolans, Limerick Thursday 13th December – Black Box, Galway Friday 14th December – Set Theatre, Kilkenny
The annual Other Voices festival takes place every December and is regarded as one of the most intimate and prestigious festivals Ireland has to offer. This September will see the festival expand outside Co. Kerry with a new edition in Ballina, Co. Mayo.
The two-day festival will follow a similar format as the Dingle edition with over 30 free gigs of original, Irish music taking place in venues all over the town.
Music trail gigs are free while tickets for the St. Michael’s Church TV recording performances will be given away through competitions in national and local radio, press and online yet to be announced.
Announced today were big names like Villagers and Julien Baker.
The line-up so far includes:
Little Green Cars
Villagers
Seamus Fogarty
Maria Kelly
Tamino
Julien Baker
Elaine Mai
Malojian
Robert John Ardiff
ROE
Paddy Hanna
Montauk Hotel
EHCO
Gaze is Ghost
Cherym
JyellowL
Beauty Sleep
Pembroke
More acts to be announced.
Also, Other Voices is also confirmed for the dates for a seventeenth outing in Dingle, Co. Kerry at the end of the year, running from November 30th to December 2nd, 2018. Further details will be announced in October.
Having announced the release of The Art Of Pretending To Swim on September 21st, Villagers have released a new single and a video to accompany it.
‘Fool’ is that single. The track feels like the confession of a naive lover, With O’Brien repeatedly singing “Cause I’m a fool”. However, rather than being cynical, the song retains an ardent sense of hope, still hoping for the “promise of eternal life in heaven”.
With some tight production work and a pop-esque vocal melody, ‘Fool’ takes up where ‘A Trick Of The Light’ left off musically, blending elements of dream pop, folk and electronica.
The video, directed by Bob Gallagher, seems to take its cue from the lyrics. It portrays a marriage proposal gone wrong. The surrealist and often shocking imagery used throughout is typical of Gallagher’s previous work, including the video for ‘A Trick Of The Light’, the single which preceded ‘Fool’.
If not the best album of Ye Season, then definitely the most consistent, Pusha T’s Kanye-produced Daytona is one of the essential rap albums of the year (even with that Drake feud aside). ‘Come Back Baby’ is a meld of old-school soul samples and low-end rumble with Pusha dominating the beat. Luscious.
2.
Nas
Cops Shot The Kid
Continuing with highlights from Ye Season from the opposite end of the spectrum, with the much-hyped but ultimately disappointing Nas album. When Yeezy and Nas get it right, as they do with this urgently produced Slick Rick-sampling banger with substance.
3.
Waffles
Come and Get It
The Soulwax brothers return for yet another must-own in their Waffles edit series. Side A is apparently an edit of ‘Tokimeki’ Japanese artist Akiko Yano and has an immediate effect with its swirling synthline and bassline that ascends with its ‘why don’t you come and get it?” chorus.
4.
Phantastic Ferniture
Fuckin ‘n’ Rollin
Julia Jacklin is an Australian singer-songwriter whose 2016 album Don’t Let The Kids Win won her much critical acclaim. Emboldened by solo success and with clear ambitions to not to just pick one lane, Jacklin has teamed up with friends Elizabeth Hughes and Ryan K Brennan as the band Phantastic Ferniture, which they are describing as a “lighthearted project”.
It seems to have paid off. The album, comes out on July 27th on Transgressive records and the real excitement comes in the form of F—kin and Rollin’, a Warpaint-esque giddy indie pop song and one of the most immediately memorable of its ilk this year.
5.
Chaka Khan
Like Sugar
The surprise comeback we didn’t know we needed. Chaka is back and working with former Major Lazer producer Switch on her first album in 11 years and by the sound of the summer dance-funk of Like Sugar with those trademark soul power vocals, we’re going to want all of it. Khan is playing the inaugural All Together Now festival on the August Bank Holiday weekend in Curraghmore in Waterford.
6.
Kids See Ghosts
Reborn
The surprise hit of Yeezy Season / the Wyoming albums, was Ye and Kid Cudi’s emotionally-charged psych-rap album Kids See Ghosts album. ‘Reborn’ is typical of the album’s questioning shouldering spirit.
7.
Kanye West
Yikes
While ‘Ghost Town’ is clearly the hefty emotional highpoint on a scattered, flawed yet immediate album, ‘Yikes’ is the song on the album that encapsulates Kanye’s strengths in production and rap with his ability to write hooks while dropping clangers of lines (the titty shop line for example). Add to that the vulnerability and exploration of mental health (also the hook here). Maybe it’s that manic dragon energy he’s been going on about.
8.
Teyana Taylor
WTP
There won’t be a more definitive version of the Ye-produced K.T.S.E from Teyana Taylor it has emerged due to sample issues. The R&B singer’s album definitely suffered from the quick-fire way in which it was recorded and released. The album is also notable for this song – an outlier of shady 90s style drag electro-pop which featuring samples from the 1991 documentary about drag queens in Harlem Paris Is Burning and Mykki Blanco as announcer.
9.
Kamasi Washington
Street Fighter Mas
An easy highlight from the new jazz vanguard’s sprawling triple album Heaven and Earth. I still haven’t had time to hear it all yet.
10.
Jafaris
Found My Feet
The based rapper and singer is back after a brief break with a bouncy number that further asserts him as one of Dublin’s best musical talents right now. Complete with an infectious afro-beat rhythm that renders it difficult not to dance to, ‘Found My Feet’ is a promising track from the artist that makes us excited for what’s to come next.
11.
Villagers
Trick Of The Light
Conor O’Brien returns with his anticipated single ‘Trick Of The Light’, taken from his upcoming album The Art Of Pretending To Swim. The song is the first release since 2015’s Darling Arithmetic and return to the more fully-arranged band style on previous records. It was all written, recorded, mixed, produced and mainly, performed by O’Brien in his Dublin studio.
12.
Pushing Movies
Thinking About You (Lauer remix)
Pushing Movies is Jeffrey Sire and Dimitri SoEmotional and their collab dives into some of my favourite sounds – “Italo disco, synth pop and all things slick and 80s.”
My favourite take on this track is on the B-side by Lauer (Fort Romeau also offers up a take), which amplifies the energy and ’80s verve with an immediacy that drives the dancefloor even harder.
13.
J Colleran
And the Sky Cracked For the First Time
J Colleran, formerly known as MMoths, has established himself as one of the most captivating experimental electronic composers in Ireland right now. ‘And The Sky Cracked For The First Time’ from his album Gardenia stands out as the highlight. The track gradually layers texture upon texture, building tension until the autotuned vocals send out a huge release. Haunting and emotive, the song is an example of contemporary classical music at its very best. He plays The Complex this July 21st.
14.
Mind Enterprises
S.H.A.K.E.
The latest italo-inspired modern dance pop by the Italian artist based in the UK.
Villagers are to headline and curate the Saturday at Metropolis Festival this year.
The festival happens on the October Bank Holiday weekend Saturday 27nd & Sunday 28th at the RDS, Dublin and its promising music, art and installations for its third year.
Villagers just announced a new album and a new song ‘Trick of the Light’.
Tickets for Metropolis will operate in tiers and go on sale this Friday, June 22nd at 9am via Ticketmaster.ie.
Conor O’Brien has announced the fourth Villagers album is called The Art Of Pretending To Swim and will be released by Domino on Friday 21st September.
It’ll be the followup to 2015’s Darling Arithmetic and return to the more fully-arranged band style on previous records. It was all written, recorded, mixed, produced and mainly, performed by O’Brien in his Dublin studio.
“Myself and Bob got together and discussed the song thematically and came to the conclusion that there was no other option but to make a short film in which we follow a disheveled shamanistic protagonist who mysteriously triggers an altered state of consciousness in everyone he meets, or at least believes that he does. We also wanted lots of dancing and to inspire a general feeling of “what the hell did I just watch?” in the viewer.”
Villagers – The Art Of Pretending To Swim Tracklisting
1. Again 2. A Trick Of The Light 3. Sweet Saviour 4. Long Time Waiting 5. Fool 6. Love Came With All That It Brings 7. Real Go-Getter 8. Hold Me Down 9. Ada
The Art Of Pretending To Swim is available to pre-order on Domino Mart-exclusive deluxe LP (includes 10” of a 12-minute version of ‘Ada’ and B-side ‘This Is The Art Of Pretending To Swim’ plus signed lyric booklet), Deluxe LP (includes ‘Ada’/’ This Is The Art Of Pretending To Swim’ 10”), Standard LP, CD and Digitally.
The new festival on the summer scene, All Together Now which takes place from August 3rd to 5th at Curraghmore Estate, County Waterford has added a load of new artists in addition to its first list of acts announced in February which included Fleet Foxes, Underworld, Nils Frahm, Chaka Khan and more.
Today’s adds are:
Villagers
Yasiin Bey Fka Mos Def
David August Live
Hercules & Love Affair
The Go! Team
J Colleran
Isaac Gracie
The Lost Brothers
Elder Island
The Bootleg Beatles
Oscar Jerome
Maria Kelly
The organisers have been talking up the festival’s grounds which for the weekend will include “10 stages including an alfresco crystal ballroom, Spiegeltent and a multitude of hidden and quirky gems. This 3000 acre world is home to lakes, fields, tree lined lanes, an intricate shell house, stone circles, crystals, courtyards, streams, fountains, woodlands, lawns – scenery truly befitting an festival of this nature. ”
Tickets
Tickets are available via installments until Friday, 27 April. Tier One and Tier Two tickets are now sold out!. Limited Tier Three Tickets are now available from €169.50 + booking fee Tickets available from Ticketmaster
After their debut tribute band to American punk-leaning ’80s rock band The Replacements sold out last year, Seen Your Video a band featuring Peter Toomey (The Immediate), James Vincent McMorrow, Conor O’Brien (Villagers), Danny Snow (Villagers), Thomas McLaughlin (SOAK) and James Byrne (SOAK) will do it all again for Womens Aid.
The show takes place in Whelan’s next Tuesday December 19th with Pillow Queens and Young Hearts Run Free DJs. Tickets are €15 from Whelan’s.
A Co-Present Christmas is a compilation of Christmas songs put together by Dwayne Woods who hosts the Irish music radio show The Co-Present on Dublin Digital Radio.
The 15-track compilation will donate all proceeds to Pieta House , and features songs from Villagers (White Christmas), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Have Yourself A Merry Christmas), Ailbhe Reddy (Stay Another Day), Jack O’Rourke & Graham White (The Power Of Love), Columbia Mills (Blue Christmas), Marlene Enright (Auld LAng Synge) and I Have A Tribe doing his own Christmas song.
The compilation is available on Bandcamp for purchase and CDs will be available from December 8th at Tower Dublin (Dublin), Classified Records (Dundalk), Steamboat Records (Limerick), Plugd (Cork), OMG at Zhivago (Galway) and Record Room (Sligo).
Live gig
A live launch is happening on Saturday December 9th at Drop Dead Twice, Francis Street, Dublin 8 where we will sell physical copies of the album and see performances from contributing artists, Session Motts, Junior Brother, Columbia Mills, I Have A Tribe, Tanjier and more. Tickets for the live event cost €10.00 and are available from Dice Ireland via the event page.
A Co-Present Christmas Tracklisting:
Hvmmingbyrd – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Villagers – White Christmas
Montauk Hotel – 2000 Miles
Elephant – River
Session Motts – Oh No It’s Xmas!
Jack O’Rourke ft: Graham White – The Power Of Love
Maria Doyle Kennedy – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Cloud Castle Lake – Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire
Lemoncello – Walking In The Air
I Have A Tribe – I Have A Tribe Christmas Song
Ailbhe Reddy – Stay Another Day
Tanjier – Merry Christmas Everybody
Columbia Mills – Blue Christmas
Junior Brother – Oh Holy Night Marlene Enright – Auld Lang Syne
“Christmas is a time of year when friends and family come together and enjoy each others company. Unfortunately, for some, it is a time of remembrance for those we have lost and for others a time of loneliness and sadness. We at Pieta House are trying every day to break the cycle of suicide and self-harm and to comfort those who have lost a loved one.
This album, from the first note to the last chorus, signifies a great hope. Pieta House strives for an Ireland where suicide, self-harm and stigma have been replaced by hope, self-care and acceptance. Finally to everyone involved with the album we extend our gratitude, that you have given your time and energy to help those who need our services and to know that you are changing lives.” Pieta House.
This project is sponsored by Herbert Place Studios and Yangaroo Music Ireland and Atlas Language School. All media inquiries to Dwayne Woods : [email protected]
Loose Joints is a podcast where we talk to a guest and play music they like new and old. True to the name, the podcast features a loose collection of tunes, tied together by very little logic, just like our chats. Nialler9 and Sally Cinnamon are your hosts.
Another Love Story is the perfect gathering. A festival in a manor house in Meath where the audience was as integral to the vibe as the music and happenings. Lovingly organised with thoughtful programming (it finishes at 6.30 on a Sunday so it feels different to others) with attention to details down to the aesthetic of the bins.
Part of its intimacy extends to the library and front room where talks and performances happen and a sprinkle of spontaneity hangs in the air. Donal Lunny might show up and lead a folk club, your mate might start being a literal windowlicker when you’re recording a podcast as what happened when Loose Joints did a live recording of the pod with guests Conor O’Brien (Villagers) and Richie Egan (Jape).
Giddy tunes, Skin flutes, cowboy trousers, artists who are doses or not, dubstep remixes, being overshadowed by your duet collaborator, how to have a casual conversation with Bjork and outlier electronica are just some of the things we covered in our hour. Special thanks to Siobhan Kane for having us down in the Library and to the Another Love Story audience in the room and beyond.
A song that makes you feel giddy Ponyo Theme Song (Richie) Paul Simon – Wristband (Conor) New music picks Aldous Harding – Imagining My Man? (Sally) Alex Cameron & Angel Olsen – Stranger’s Kiss (Niall) Burnt Out – Dear James (Conor) Lanark Arterfax – Touch Absence (Richie) A song from your favourite festival experience Dungen – Festival (Richie) A post festival comedown song or album Águas de Março by Antonio Carlos Jobim sung by Elis Regina (Conor) A song from your favourite festival experience Solange – Cranes In The Sky (Conor) A song you wish you’d written Bjork – History of Touches (Richie) New music picks Moon King – In & Out (Sally) Wah Wah Wino – Paco’s Ode (Niall) Johanna Warren – Figure 8 (Conor) Lutto Lento – Gyal A Devil (Richie) A post festival comedown song or album William Basinski – Disintegration Loops 1 (Richie) A song you wish you’d written Big Star – Thirteen (Conor) Kendal Johannson – Blue Moon (Niall)
