Today is New Music Friday, which means there’s loads of new songs in the world.
Here are the 10 single songs released today I loved the most.
See the New Music section for all the of tracks and albums featured this week.
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1.
Lankum
Master Crowley’s
It’s early days in the listening stakes for Lankum’s fourth album False Lankum, but expectations are high after three superb albums and press reviews that have compared the album to modern folk’s equivalent of OK Computer.
No-one can quite truly know what that Mojo writer means, but a comparison in the same review to Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, is more apt, as first impressions of False Lankum is an album of world-building doom-folk that sinks into its drone mire on more than one occasion. There’s still plenty of beautiful melodies and traditional music here, but ‘Master Crowley’s’ is the best demonstration of this vibe, as a traditional song gets pulled into black quicksand and an empty void of steel clanks and noise engulf the reverbed song in its entombed pit.
2.
Debby Friday
So Hard To Tell
Spoiler, I had copped this song two months ago but sometimes songs fall through the cracks between release and reaching your ears but the album from the Nigerian/ Canadian artist Debby Friday’s debut album Good Luck is out today, produced by Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh. ‘So Hard To Tell’ has a magic alt R&B pop alchemy to it.
3.
Martin Hayes & The Common Ground Ensemble
The Boyne Water
A master of tradition and the contemporary fiddler Martin Hayes and his new band The Common Ensemble’s new album arrives with a poignancy to it. Hayes had made much from the creative well with his musical partner Dennis Cahill who died last June aged 68, and Dennis’ mother Peggy.
With this new band, featuring Hayes, Cormac McCarthy (piano), Kate Ellis (cello), Kyle Sanna (guitar) and Brian Donnellan (bouzouki / harmonium / concertina), marks a new chapter in his work, that can’t ignore the immediate past creatively and personally.
Peggy’s Dream released today is dedicated to Dennis and his mother Peggy, and there are songs here, like ‘The Boyne Water’, that undoubtedly are indebted to The Gloaming supergroup that the pair were central to, creating both a duality of sadness and recognition that they will never play together again.
Martin Hayes & The Common Ground Ensemble play Dublin’s Vicar St on October 20th.
4.
Benny Sings, Remi Wolf
Pyjamas
After their super-melodic collaboration on ‘Young Hearts’, Californian singers Benny Sings and Remi Wolf do it again on this breezy single from the Kenny Beats-produced album on Stones Throw out today.
5.
JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown
Fentanyl Tester
There’s a Kelis’ ‘Milkshake’ sample that anchors this track from JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown’s batshit album rap outsiders collaboration Scaring The Hoes, an album that’s pretty mind-altering. It’s a truly discombobulating listen anyway, but the skittery breakbeats on this one really amp up the feeling of slipping off the roof of your conscious, while the recognisable sample offers some grounding.
Brown said at SXSW last week that he’s checking into rehab.
6.
Léa Sen
Luv Him (About U)
Joy Orbison collaborator Léa Sen has shown some significant adeptness in creating intimately-spun ASMR songwriting as heard on last year’s ‘I Like Dis’.
‘Luv Him (About U)’ is a brittle beauty from a forthcoming You Of Now, Pt. 2 EP is out 21st April on Partisan Records, from the London-based Parisian.
“Love songs are not my favourite thing to write to be honest with you. This one is not exactly your typical love song tho, I hope you don’t relate lol cuz that’s sad”
7.
baby___asl
Hostile City
The sparse opening track from Londoner baby___asl’s Snakeskin EP, ‘Hostile City’ immediately recalls and channels the alternative electronic vocal vibe of Tirzah, and that’s a great thing, that’s hard to replicate through inspiration, and make your own.
The EP is on a label more known for drill – AP Life (ran by Bok Bok, a sister label of Night Slugs), so this is a curveball all round.
9.
The Cope
Oíche
Joe Furlong and David Anthony Curley’s electronic project The Cope follow up their trilogy of music videos and songs last year with ‘Oíche’, a song that they say is a precursor to something called Back on My Bullshit next week.
‘Oíche’ features vocals from Carlsbad and the pair say:
“At the end of the March we will release something big which we’ve been working on for almost a year and which we’re incredibly proud of… Oíche and it embodies a period of transition for us, marking a bit of a shift in tone from our previous releases.”
10.
Fortúne Igiebor, Danzi, Jafaris
Think About It
After tunes like last year’s ‘Piss In The Corner’, ‘The Prayer’ and a collaboration with Skull The Pierre and Callum Wall, Fortúne Igiebor enlists Jafaris and Danzi for a hard AF rap tune (aka what Igiebor calls ‘New Rage’) produced by Kwangz, with industrial undertones.
Nialler9 Weekly Playlist
Nialler9 New Music Playlist
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, hit up the Irish section for individual track features
For this and more Irish songs, follow the Nialler9 New Irish Spotify playlist.
