Japanese legend Cornelius returns with REFRACTIONS,my album of the week. Julia Holter delivers yet another singular record, Denzel Curry and Kenneth Blume link up on a great short rap album, Manchester’s Westside Cowboy arrive with a retro-inspired debut album, Sault’s Cleo Soul releases a fifth album, while Jorja Smith and Chelsea Wolfe all return in strong form. Plus new records from Space Afrika, Antony Szmierek, Rapsodt and Weezer and Irish releases from Softdrink Millionaire, Mischa And The Bear, Liam McCay and FINDS on Front End Synthetics.
Nialler9 keeps a rolling list of Irish album releases for 2026.
New Albums and Releases
New Albums + EPs
Album of the week: Cornelius – REFRACTIONS
Cornelius is the Japanese producer and composer Keigo Oyamada who is now three decades deep turning everyday sounds into intricate, playful, immaculately detailed pop. Where his recent work turned inward, REFRACTIONS opens outward, built through collaboration: Sean Ono Lennon sings on ‘Aeons’, with Arto Lindsay, Bid of The Monochrome Set and longtime foil Shintaro Sakamoto also contributing.
The album draws from psychedelic pop, ambient music, Brazilian tropicália, kosmische experimentation and minimalist composition, while resisting categorisation. It is the poppiest and most immediate thing he has made in years, and a potential highlight of the summer.
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Denzel Curry & Kenneth Blume – ii
A new collaborative album from the Florida rapper Denzel Curry and the producer Kenneth Blume fka Kenny Beats Following their UNLOCKED EP in 2020. Curry remains among the most ferocious and versatile voices in modern hip-hop, moving between rage-fuelled intensity and genuine lyrical depth, and he sounds like he’s on his MF Doom shit here, with Blume’s bright soulful rhythmic productions keeping things light and bright and clocks in at 25 minutes.
Cleo Sol – Gentlewoman
The fifth solo album from Cleo Sol, the West London singer and Sault member whose hushed, spiritual neo-soul has made her one of British music’s most revered voices. Produced, as ever, by her husband Inflo, Gentlewoman is her first solo record since 2023’s back-to-back Heaven and Gold, and led by ‘Woman’s Prayer’ it continues her tender meditations on “love, support and loyalty”. A balm of a record.
Not on Qobuz yet.
Westside Cowboy – It Goes On (Island)
The debut album from Westside Cowboy, the Manchester four-piece who have become among the most talked-about new British bands in barely three years. Produced by Loren Humphrey (Geese, Cameron Winter, Wunderhorse), It Goes On filters American roots music through scrappy, joyful, community-minded DIY indie rock, all tangled guitars and four-part harmonies, that has been dubbed “Britainicana”, (like Americana but clunkier).
They play Whelan’s in September.
Julia Holter – Materia
Los Angeles composer and artist Julia Holter is among the most singular voices in contemporary art-pop. Holter builds intricate, chamber-like worlds out of voice, synth and orchestration, and her records reward deep, patient listening. Materia is a sequel of sorts to Something in the Room She Moves with the title track originally released on that record, and two versions on this one. Baroque, gauzy library pop music.
Jorja Smith – What Are The Odds
The new album from the Walsall singer Jorja Smith, among the most gifted voices to come out of British soul and R&B this decade. Since her 2018 debut Lost & Found, Smith has moved between jazz-inflected soul, garage and lovers rock with a rare ease, and her writing carries real emotional weight. What Are The Odds was made with producer P2J and puts her R&B songwriting in a club spotlight.
Chelsea Wolfe – The Dark
The new album from Chelsea Wolfe, the Californian artist whose music moves between doom-laden folk, gothic electronics and crushing heaviness. Described as sharper and heavier than ever, The Dark features appearances from Robin Finck (Nine Inch Nails), Matt Chamberlain (Pearl Jam), Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens Of The Stone Age), Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint), and Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, St Vincent)
“The Dark” is an album imbued with mystery, symbolism, and solace. Drawing inspiration from the idea of entering the woods at the darkest point and becoming the thing you fear in order to feel more brave, Wolfe began writing with cowriter Jennifer Decilveo alongside long term collaborator Ben Chisholm, intentionally stripping away the sonic layers to give deserved space to what would become the finest songwriting of her storied career.
Rapsody – God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops
The fifth studio album from Rapsody, North Carolina rapper widely regarded as among hip-hop’s finest living lyricists, an XXL Greatest Female Rapper and a BET Lyricist of the Year. God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops leans into spirituality and Afrofuturism across sixteen tracks with George Clinton and the Karabo Ya Morena choir featuring. Dense, dexterous and deeply felt, it is the work of true rapper’s rapper.
Tyondai Braxton – Splayed Werks
A new album from the American composer and musician Tyondai Braxton, a former member of Battles and a restlessly inventive figure in experimental music. Splayed Werks works his signature blend of electronics, composition and rhythmic complexity into something knotty and immersive, and rewards the adventurous listener.
The album brings together mostly newer works alongside pieces composed across the past decade, some of which appeared previously as standalone releases. Here, they are re-edited as newer versions and remastered by the excellent Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios in London and woven into a continuous narrative.
Liam McCay – Ardaravan Nights
Liam McCay, the prolific 21-year-old from Buncrana, Co. Donegal who has become one of Irish music’s unlikeliest online success stories. Best known as the slowcore project Sign Crushes Motorist, among the fourteen-odd aliases that have pulled in millions of monthly listeners, McCay steps out under his own name for Ardaravan Nights, named after his home estate. Twelve tracks of Donegal-accented alt-pop rap is a contrast to his slowcore project.
Antony Szmierek – Decoding Birdsong
A new record from Antony Szmierek, the Manchester poet turned dance-pop performer whose spoken-word-over-euphoric-house style made his 2025 debut Service Station at the End of the Universe a word-of-mouth favourite. Decoding Birdsong continues his warm, witty, life-affirming take on the dancefloor, with house, techno, electro and disco sounds baked in.
Szmierek plays Button Factory on October 28th.
Weezer – Weezer (Gold Album)
The 20th studio album from Weezer, and the seventh they have simply called Weezer, this time the “Gold Album”. Made with Klas Ahlund and Kenneth Blume (FKA Kenny Beats), it’s the first time frontman Rivers Cuomo and drummer Pat Wilson have written the basics of a song together since the band’s debut. Rivers Cuomo and co. return with another set of their reliably hooky, self-aware power-pop. One for the long-haul faithful.
The band play Dublin on Wednesday May 12th 2027 with Taking Back Sunday in support.
Finds – Night Year
26 years into their discography, Dublin electronic label Front End Synthetics is still releasing from the Irish underground. Finds is the project of John McMahon of Irish trio Rollers/Sparkers.
Night Year is chiefly concerned with unfurling warm ambient tones and dubby hypnotic productions across its seven tracks.
Lambchop – Punching The Clown
The seventeenth album from Lambchop, the shapeshifting Nashville institution led by Kurt Wagner, and their first since 2022’s The Bible. Sparked by a half-heard gospel song on late-night radio, Wagner fell deep into ‘lined-out singing’, an old Scots-Appalachian call-and-response tradition, and rebuilt his songwriting around it. Recorded in three days at Justin Vernon’s April Base studio, with Vernon on banjo and a six-part choir throughout, Punching The Clown strips away the Auto-Tune of recent records to put Wagner’s unadorned voice back at the centre. Graceful, wry and devastating in equal measure, it is already being called one of his finest.
Playing live in Ireland:
20 February – St Nicholas’ Church Galway
21 February – The Helix Dublin
Space Afrika – Quiet Storm
The new album from Space Afrika, the Manchester-rooted, Berlin-connected duo whose hazy, dub-inflected ambient collages have made them a distinctive force in British experimental music. Five years in the making, Quiet Storm pulls in a Grammy-winning soprano and a cast of collaborators including Kelly Moran.
Softdrink Millionaire – The Good EP
A new EP from the Bray/Dublin act Softdrink Millionaire, the one-time solo project of poet and songwriter Josh Fortune now a full alt-rock trio with Joseph Dillon, and Tombo Earls.
The Good EP is a collection of fuzzy slacker rock songs that were among the first the trio wrote together. It was recorded with Darragh Hansard (Unique Freaks, Stupid Son, Search Results) and featuring drums from Jack Lawlor (Madra Salach, Mountain Runner). ‘Good Skin’ is a wonky rock highlight.
Live dates:
- The George Tavern, London – 17 August 2026
- The Sound House, Dublin – 18 September 2026
Mischa And The Bear – True Colours EP
The second EP from Dublin electronic pop duo mischa and the bear after last year’s Even Unto The Next World EP, and these five songs brandish an energetic blend of electro and synth-pop with nods to indie sleaze electronics and electroclash throughout that is infectious, quality and unique in Irish terms. Mischa and the bear deserves more fans.
Lutto Lento – 2569 EP
Polish producer Lutto Lento closes his numbered-sequence EP with four tracks of off-kilter electronics, synths, ambient trap and barren dream pop with guests Taylor E. Burch and Steph Kretowic, ahead of a forthcoming full-length album.
Daniel Pineda – Landlocked EP
Daniel Pineda of Nguzunguzu, who produced Kelela’s early mixtape cuts, releases a solo EP on Club Romantico of lush percussive electronic cuts.
Born primarily out of that same surprisingly fruitful period, summer of 2024, after the birth of my son, navigating so many new uncertainties, anxieties, and joy. Produced primarily on the MPC, these tracks came together, refocusing my attention on percussion arrangement, chopping sonics, programming, sequencing, honing in on sounds that I felt would be impactful on club systems, while staying true to the rhythmic focus of this sort of continuum of hard Latin house, dembow, and bubbling. Remembering the ideal of the club as a place of collective catharsis, where these tracks could live.
Also released this week
- Black Marble – Life in Small Spaces
- Brandon Flowers – Thrasher
- Clark – Entity Stims EP
- DMA’S – DMA’S
- Lusine – Melting Days
- Mystery Jets – A Hole To See The Sky Through
- The Afghan Whigs – Soft Control
- The Linda Lindas – Gotta Get Out
- Tobe Nwigwe – THE BRIDGE
- Wild Pink – Still Coming Down
- Wolf Alice – The Clearing (B Sides) EP
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, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
