The best new tracks of this week, curated and chosen by Niall.
John Talabot, OR
Nokik Messiah
John Talabot’s debut album fin was a defining record of the 2010s electronic landscape when it was released in 2012 but the Barcelona man never actually followed it up with another full-length album until this forthcoming one as OR.
Having released music with Axel Boman as Talaboman and continued to be one of the unmissable eclectic DJs on the European circuit, he returns with Music For Empty Stadiums a new album under his given initials (his actual name is Oriol Riverola) on October 30th.
Clocking in at 95 minutes long, Music For Empty Stadiums is a COVID-made album, created in the Hivern Discs office during lockdown, and craving music that created adrenaline and cortisol – he asked himself the question “What might the most euphoric possible variant of ambient sound like?”
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Music For Empty Stadiums is the answer – a beatless album made with ambient instrumental ethos but escapist and space-filling – it filled his own void then but he put it away when things re-opened.
A chance email from AD 93’s Nic Tasker looking for music for his NTS show that people made during the pandemic and there was a realisation that people might want to hear this. What followed was a chronological edit of material that took a few years – with Riverola, moving between Barcelona, Mallorca and Japan – taking 18 months to mix and master this accidentally ambitious work.
So far, there’s just ‘Nokik Messiah’ to hear – a stunning polyrhythmic synth Tangerine Dream-esque track that my pal Gav, highlighting the effectiveness of the title, suggested is a fine soundtrack for this stadium-set Dominik Szoboszlai goal. Oof, OR, oof.
Andy Stott, Elaine Howley
Something in Mind
Manchester producer Andy Stott is to release Late Loop, his first album since 2021 on October 30th on Modern Love. Each track on the record either features the vocals of Cork musician Elaine Howley or longtime cohort Alison Skidmore.
‘Something in Mind’ with Howley is indicative of the album’s modus operandi of limitations – no basslines, no reverb, no effects except for a delay unit – with sketches turned to textures turned into full-throated crisp and minimal songs.
Logic1000, Christine And The Queens
The Only One
![Logic1000 - The Only One (ft. Christine and the Queens) [Official Video]](https://nialler9.com/wp-content/cache/flying-press/864ced00c478a2d07bddf13577774f6b.jpg)
It’s been a while since a Christine And The Queens tune landed with me, and this collaboration with Australian producer Logic1000 is an evocative ’80s electronic pop throwback of a song with one of Rahim Claude Redcar’s finest vocal in a long time.
Party Dozen
Euro Stomper
Sydney noise-rock-pop duo Party Dozen, Kirsty Tickle (saxophone, vocals) and Jonathan Boulet (drums, loops, production), will released their fifth album 21 Bum Salute on November 6th on City Slang. With influences from ESG and Bikini Kill, it promises to be a riot of sonics – if the recent single ‘Euro Stomper’ a chest-baring squad car chase of a song, it’s riotous cacaphony underscored but Tickle’s preference for wailing gutteral sounds over actual lyrics.
Charlotte Adigéry, Bolis Popul
Googoo Gaga
As a dad of two boys, with the youngest just three months, I can relate to the Belgian duo ‘s Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Popul’s new synth wavy banger about being a new parent.
“It takes a village / And yet you’re doing it alone,” Adigéry sings of the siloed nature of modern parenting on a song that captures the routine monotony of the tasks associated in bringing up a baby. It’s a relatable electro tune and it’s biggest success is making the words “googoo gaga” and “pee and poo” genuinely sound sonorous in the process. It’s their first song together in four years, written in light of both having become parents.
Navigating in fight–flight mode
Constantly rewriting my own parenting code
Assess, process, guess, clean up the mess
Must enjoy all of it ’cause time flies slowly
Other Songs on rotation this week:
- Son Lux – No God Like A King
- Cyst, Iglooghost – Needle
- Marina Herlop – Bliss
- Palms Trax – Soft Trance, Hot Gossip
- New Jackson – Losing My Religion (with Rita Lynn)
- Sarah Crean – Calypso
- Gilla Band – Aglio
- Robocobra Quartet – HaHa
- MAC GIOLLA GHUNNA – ‘GWAN’
- Kate Nash – ‘Spilt Milk’
- Babyrat – Roses
- Alex Kassian – Hidden Tropics (Revisited)
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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.
