Here’s a rundown of new releases out today, including new albums and EPs on DSPs and physical releases in record shops this week.
Nialler9 keeps a rolling list of Irish album releases for 2025.
New Albums and Releases
New Albums
Daphni – Butterfly
Caribou’s Dan Snaith returns to his Daphni project – the moniker he started to differentiate the smudged psychedelic electronica work of his main gig as his forays into DJing and dancefloor service grew.
The gap between the two projects have decreased as the sensibility of 4/4-lead dance music has become an increased commonality across Caribou and Daphni projects, particularly on the 2024 Caribou record Honey, which could have easily be confused for a Daphni record.
Butterfly is the fourth Daphni album, the follow on from 2022’s Cherry, released on his own Jiaolong label. The album feels slightly looser than its predecessor, sure – the hypnotic and approaching utilitarian dancefloor tracks like ‘Sad Piano House’, ‘Josephine’ and ‘Talk To Me’ released in advance suggested a collection of bangers, there is range across the 16 tracks – from the French House / Daft Punk ‘Hang’, the near-sinogrime of ‘Lucky’, the soft Ethiopian jazz of ‘Napoleons Rock’ and the classic anthemic reacher – ‘Waiting So Long’ – effectively a Caribou collaboration with himself.
The album’s lack of coherence is a strength in one way – it’s not a singular vision but feels like a collection of workouts and experiments in the form – more like a DJ compilation record – “no concept or theme or whatever tying it together other than just the joy of making whatever music excited me in the moment, but somehow i think it all fits together,” Snaith says. Whether that will make you go back to it, time will tell.
Mandy, Indiana – URGH
Industrial experimental noise techno band Mandy, Indiana ‘s new album on Sacred Bones, was co-produced and co-mixed by guitarist and producer Scott Fair and Daniel Fox of Gilla Band.
URGH roars out of the gate with frenetic electronics, beats, the French vocals of Valentine Caulfield rub off digital distortion and Death Grips-leaning hardcore. Billy Woods features on the track ‘Sicko!’, and Caulfield sings of “sexual assault, systemic indifference, and the omnipresence of pain.”
Puma Blue – Croak Dream
I was a fan of one of the two albums that South-London born, Atlanta-based artist Jacob Allen released in 2025 – the acoustic torch burning antichamber (didn’t get a chance to listen to the other).
Croak Dream was recorded at straight-to-tape sessions at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios with co-producer Sam Petts-Davies (The Smile, Warpaint) with segments of songs brought to the band to improvise over and make loops off – that were then made into the final resulting songs. The sound of this record then is more experimentally minded once again with the spirit of cerebral trip-hop, Radiohead textured songwriting, John Carpenter cinematics, Portishead blues and ached soul.
“A Croak Dream is a prophetic dream where you see a vision of how you die,” shares Allen, “Half the songs on this record allude to how you might decide to live, act, if you somehow knew your awaiting fate. Being daring, romantic… Saying what you really mean.”
A world tour was also announced with the dates ending in Dublin in Opium Rooms next June 1st.
Ordnance Survey – Autotelic
The Irish electronic composer and producer Neil O’Connor’s new Ordnance Survey album was recorded in his studio at the National Concert Hall.
Autotelic was made with a gang of modular synths, systems, tape machines, piano and percussive instruments fed into software that enabled the use of machine learning models, a core feature used in AI to make decisions – in this case – the decisions were musical.
‘Autotelic’ describes an activity, entity, or experience that is an end in itself, pursued for its own sake rather than for an external reward and in the production of an album in this case, the process is the reward.
Autotelic was developed using the musical software, Max/MSP through an operation called a Markov Chain. On a very basic level, it’s a mathematical system that transitions from one state to another. Once trained, machine learning models can be used to make predictions on new data or make decisions and on this LP, Markov Chains were used to make musical decisions (pitch, tempo and timbral).
The end result is also pretty rewarding with the komische and motorik vistas of opener ‘Hyperfantastic’ with synth and percussive psychedelic experimental forays.
David deBarra – Rest in Peace, Brian Wilson
Gross artwork aside, Dublin singer-songwriter David deBarra’s second album features the disarming confessional songwriter calling himself a “moan bag” for starters with the DeBarra’s endearing accented vocals sounding like Ian Lynch from Lankum playing weirdo lounge pop music backed by A Lazarus Soul, aided by a big cast of musicians including Stomptown Brass and Phil Christie (The Bonk) on piano and organ.
The album is co-produced with James Strain (Aux Phoenix) who also plays drums and bass throughout.
The album is dedicated to the titular Beach Boy (the Gaeilge-sung ‘Caoineadh Brian Wilson’ features) and DeBarra’s friends and close compatriots who clearly inspire him, and features an eclectic collection of songs – there’s a piano rock song about David Beckham, an acoustic ballad informed by OCD (‘Nina Knows the Script’), an acapella harmony number (‘No Hang-Ups for Me’), brassy rock (‘Johnny and Naomi’) and folk (‘The Day the Music Died’).
Classic Hiss – A Rasher Each: Longmiles & Laneways
A second compilation of covers and interpretations of songs by Pavement, Silver Jews/David Berman, and Gary Young, as reinterpreted by artists from Ireland’s underground and DIY scenes. Volume 1 was released in September.
Volume 2 features covers by Skinner, Soft On Crime, The Bonk, White Sage, Aofie Wolf, Henparty, Americhord, Sci-Fi Carpark and more.
All proceeds to charities operating in Gaza.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland – Laughter In Summer
The singer, composer and transgender artist Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s renewed career in the wake of the re-release of his 80s pioneering ambient classic album Keyboard Fantasies is a heartwarming true story.
These days the musician deals with dementia and his wife the eco-poet, theatre actor and producer Elizabeth Copeland is his musical collaborator and their loving relationship is a key theme in this record featuring renditions of songs they have been singing live, recorded with producer and engineer Howard Bilerman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Vic Chesnutt, and Wolf Parade) at the Montreal studio Hotel2Tango.
Charlotte Day Wilson – Patchwork
Canadian singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Day Wilson’s new album fuses contemporary R&B, jazz and classic soul sounds with Wilson expressive voice anchoring rich arrangements. Saya Gray features on Lean and co-writes two songs – Selfish and High Road.
J. Cole – The Fall-Off
The final album and seventh studio album by the American rapper J. Cole. arrives as a double album. The project is split into two distinct narratives: “Disc 29” recounts his 2014 return to Fayetteville at age 29, while “Disc 39” provides a deeply personal look at his psyche ten years later as a 39-year-old father, husband and elder hip-hop statesman.
A.S. Fanning – Take Me Back To Nowhere
Berlin-based Irish singer-songwriter A.S Fanning’s fourth album got its start when he broke his wrist, disabling absent minding guitar playing and enabling stream-of-consciousness hand-written lyric writing that filled him with anxiety and paralysis – “the tyranny of endless words, floating in chaos and disorder,” as he describes it.
Further reading of the science fiction writing of Ursula K. Le Guin and J.G. Ballard with themes of faith in established realties and psychological landscapes making its mark on this record which brandishes music influences from 60s and 70s psychedelic pop, Scott Walker, rock ‘n’ roll and folk.
“I think a combination of all these things led me to some of the themes of this album,” Fanning explains. “Accepting that there is no objective reality, and that each of us are profoundly isolated from one another, unable to reach any common ground or understanding. Struggling to rectify our individual experience of the world into any unifying concept, or agreed shared reality. Embracing disorder seemed to be the healthiest way to deal with this.”
Music City – Welcome To Music City
When not punching out short sharp garage rock with The Number Ones, London-based Irish musician Conor Lumdsen’s writes power pop songs as Music City.
This self-titled debut album is a rock release that throws back to a simpler time of guitar solos, ultra melodic hook vocals and bright classic rock sounds, with contributions from members of Sheer Mag (‘Common Sense’), Dick Diver, Cian Nugent and Dan Fox of Gilla Band plays on a couple of tracks.
“I didn’t set out with a theme or story arc, but looking back the album feels like a constant fight between hope and disappointment, says Lumsden “It’s the peaks and troughs of just trying to get by, in love, against the outside forces, or the ones inside your own head.”
A Dublin launch happens February 26th at The Grand Social.
Teishi-1 – Púca
Irish producer Teishi-1’s latest album is pitched as a “haunting, low-lit exploration of memory and structural decay.. a series of skeletal, loop-based transmissions that feel less like compositions and more like sonic ghosts.“
Imbued with tape hiss, sub-bass and vinyl crackle – the record features ambient jungle, nods to the 90s leftfield underground electronic scene and minimalist production – “for those who enjoy the methodical, interrogative spirit of artists like Taylor Deupree or the more isolationist fantasies of Autechre.”
The Expert – Extra Visions
Irish rap and beat producer The Expert drops a darker reimagined Bandcamp only version of last year’s Vivid Visions album featuring reworked tracks, new instrumentals and some brand new collaborations with artists Norm Regular and mary sue.
Deborah – Black Swan EP
A three-track release from a band formed in 2017 by sound designer and multi-instrumentalist Paul Finan and musician and producer Rian Trench (Solar Bears / Rún / Leo Drezden / Panikatax) with guitarist Stephen Byrne, bassist Ben Kavanagh and Robert “Scan” Watson on (Panikatax).
The newly-released EP was recorded live and features three songs of dirging low-slung dark atmospheric rock sounds with industrial edges, with the title track rolling on for 15 minutes. The tracks were originally recorded in 2017.
Also released this week
- Alice Costelloe – Move On With the Year
- Karen Power – language land sea
- Kavari – Plague Music
- Ratboys – Singin’ To An Empty Chair
- Somewhere Press label compilation – The Black Hill, The Glass Sky
- Ulrika Spacek – EXPO
Recent posts on New Albums:
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.
