Rory Sweeney's top songs of 2025

Best of 2025 | Albums | Guestlists | Irish Albums | Irish songs |

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Rory Sweeney is a Dublin producer, DJ and sound artist who last year released his debut solo album Old Earth – “a meditation on time, decay, memory, and myth in the digital age. The album maps a dream logic that connects the natural world, early internet mysticism, Irish folklore, and the quiet violence of technological evolution.”

Guests on the record include RÓIS, Saoirse Miller, Emby, Curtisy, Ahmed, With Love.; Ushmush, Roo Honeychild, Risteárd ÓhAodha, Emily Beattie and Julia Louise Knifefist.

See Rory’s list from 2024 and 2023.

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1.

Rat Heart – Grey Skies, Lies & Meat + Potato Pies

I could talk about Tom Boogizm aka Rat Heart for years. The legendary local Manchester DJ who makes heartbreaking soul music. Has basically no presence online, no narrative about his artistry, no pictures of him. His party ‘Shotta Rave’ is the greatest club night I’ve ever been to, his Unsound Festival set is the greatest DJ set I’ve ever heard and his music might even be better than all of that. His DJ sets unpretentiously cover all corners of dance music, from James Brown to Autechre to RP boo to Gunna and Future. Somehow crowd-pleasing and boundary pushing at the same time. His music is a gorgeous and idiosyncratic mixture of soul music, folk, glitch, electronica, blasted out dancehall and so much more.

Tom Boogizm is pure artistry and music love, its just self expression without the baggage of marketing, careerism and reels.

Dancing in the streets is my album of the year 2025. This track shows his gorgeous northern vocals.

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2.

St. Paul – Colder (Belters Only Remix)

I know it was a meme but this song was a heater, have always been a big fan of Belters Only, but this one is special. Love the midi guitar in the 2nd half of the chorus.

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3.

Jawnino – Sweden Freestyle

Non stop rotation. Jawnino untouchable as always. Wraith9 on production. Video is super funny too.

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4.

Wraith9 – Forza

The producer who defined the sound of 2025 through his production for surprise chart toppers Esdeekid and Fakemink, riding a knife edge of trashy and avant garde. He released his first and only solo outing Designer this year, and its one of the freshest sounding records I’ve heard in years, flawed but very exciting.

Not surprising to see Rainy Miller on Mix and Mastering duties, as he feels like a big influence on this. The opening track’s contrast of dark, atmospheric new age elements with Wraith9’s crisp autotune is so cool sounding and feels like a progression music generally has been waiting to make. Excited to see what he does in the future.

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5.

WaWaWa – DJ Lag, Djknator ft. Thobeka

DJ Lag is untouchable to me. His discography is pretty untouchable. My favourite DJ set I’ve ever witnessed was seeing him at the White Hotel a couple years ago. This one is my fav dance song of the year, off of his incredible ‘Southside mixtape’. A very exciting and crazy evolution of gqom music I’m here for it. Amazing call and response vocals on the chorus.

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6.

Ian Nyquist – Alchemy

Track of the year for me, this song is beyond description. Just magic, Irish album of the year undoubtably. Ian Nyquist for president.

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7.

X CLUB – Stay With Me

I have to say I’ve had a real guilty pleasure for X CLUB for the past four years, despite being a part of an intensely boring mainstream techno scene. They have an incredible ear for melodies, with genuine emotional and mood.

As the lad techno world limply drags itself into some of the most boring UK bassline to ever come out, X CLUB remain exemplary. The title track from their newest EP, ‘Stay With Me’ rides a knife edge of euphoria and despair, with its heavily detuned Reese bassline and janky off beat midi piano stabs. Those wailing vocals get me every time.

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8.

X CLUB – We Need To Do Something About That Horse

Another X CLUB one I’m afraid. What an insane lane switch from them, lad techno into the strongest dubstep song to come out this year. Very insane. Love the combo of the weighty techno with the insanely slimy Dubstep section in the middle. A lot of artists like DeGrandi and Verraco have been trying to mix dubstep and techno to varying degrees of success the last two years, whereas this feels seamless enough to not draw attention to itself as a genre crossover song, only as a banger.

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9.

Olan Monk – Down 3 (feat. Maria Somerville)

A guitar riff and vocal line that was hard wired into my head for months after it came out, Olan Monk’s newest album features a lot of their best work. Another contender for track of the year. Maria Somerville’s backing vocals add so much to the track and shout out my buddy PT (of Trá Pháidín) who plays violin on the track. Love the drums from Michael Speers on this one too.

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10.

Joy Orbison & Joe James – Bastard

Joy Orbison’s production remains as precise and groundbreaking now as it was when I first heard him in my youth, it feels like Joyo has taken inspiration from the likes of mike and slums, but put his own precision, sound design and delicate minimalism to that sound. My favourite thing Joe James has done for sure.

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11.

Gorgon City – 5AM At Bagleys

This one is cheesy and maybe is bad, but I heard it on the radio for the first time on an amazing day, and I loved hearing it out or playing it with friends. Lots of gr8 memories. I used to try really hard to like Gorgon City as a teenager to fit in, fair play to them for coming through with a gorgeous trancey bassline banger thats undeniable.

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12.

Raisa K ‘Stay’ ft. Coby Sey

Gorgeous song from Raisa K of GoodSadHappyBad, one of my favourite bands ever. Her and Cobys singing and duets are so comforting and earthy, the song is so simple. So much to like. Great debut album from Raisa too. Adore Coby Sey too, long time inspo to me. Perfect morning music.

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13.

Oklou – Obvious

Oklou broke the 2025 trend by making a quiet pop record. This one in particular is a highlight for its muted dancehall elements that imply so much rhythm and groove while being so stripped back and precise. Incredible record.

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Best of 2025 | Albums | Guestlists | Irish Albums | Irish songs |