See the New Music section for all the of tracks and albums featured this week.
1.
Overmono
Gunk
If you were to ask me who my favourite electronic producers were at the moment, the answer would be Overmono, the brothers adept at creating huge dancefloor tracks with seemingly little source material.
‘Gunk’ is a track from a forthcoming EP, Cash Romantic, out April 8th on XL, and is something like the Tom & Ed Russell version of hyperpop rave, with just a hint of Underworld.
“We found this box of old tapes we’d recorded when we were kids where we’d basically try and mashup old records of our parents with whatever records we were buying at the time. Gerry Rafferty mixed with London acid techno, Dr. Hook mixed with old weirdo trance tracks, and that sort of thing. The tapes are a proper mess but there was always something about trying to get two totally different worlds to collide that stuck with us. After listening to some of these old tapes, we wrote this record and realised our heads are still pretty much in the same space as when we were kids”
2
Pillow Queens
No Good Woman
As they head off to SXSW in Texas, ahead of their US tour, Pillow Queens share another new single and video from their forthcoming album Leave The Light On on April 1st.
Singer Pamela Connolly says the song is inspired by Sisyphus and ” tries to convey a perpetual hopelessness of debt and striving for an ideal that can never be achieved.”
They are playing two Dublin shows Friday and Saturday this week, both sold out.
3.
Fears
16
Constance Keane follows up last year’s Oíche, with a new song dedicated to her friend Sophie Gwen Williams who passed away recently, and whose cello playing is featured on the track.
Williams was a performer, trans activist, chair of queer art collective The 343 and co-founded the organisation We Exist.
The instrumentals were recorded during a live performance, the one and only time they played the track together.
An accompanying video directed by Zoe Greenway, was filmed in Maharees in Kerry.
“Sophie was an incredible artist and a very close friend of mine. We did a filmed performance together last March, thinking we’d get a chance to record it ‘properly’ in a studio, but she passed away before we could. Zoe and I dedicate the video for “16” to her memory. I had made her a dress for the original performance out of pink tulle – the same fabric I have with me in the video. She was a really inspirational and encouraging person, and I wanted to create something that shows how I carry her with me, even though I no longer have her physically here.”
4.
Tomberlin
Tap
I’ve been gently discovering the music of Sarah Beth Tomberlin lately. Just gorgeous songwriting and songs that have seeped in slowly. ‘Tap’ like forthcoming album title track ‘Idkwntht’ (“I don’t know who needs to hear this’) reminds me of the brittle and swooning work of The Weather Station and Half Waif.
Tomberlin plays Dublin’s Grand Social on May 8th.
5.
Mango X Mathman, God Knows
Rock n Rolla
Look if you had any doubt that God Knows could spray bars across a Mango and Mathman garage roller, then you need to look at yourself in the mirror.
This is from the nine-track EP, The Quiet Life out today also featuring MC Creed, Plantain Papi and Melina Malone.
6.
Automatic
New Beginning
Automatic have form in releasing high-BPM dance-punk tracks like one of my 2020 favourites ‘Calling It’.
‘New Beginning’ is from the trio’s second album Excess is out on June 24th. Automatic are Izzy Glaudini (synths, lead vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals).
7.
Warmduscher
Twitchin’ In The Kitchen
Warmduscher come across like a sleazier Soulwax on new song ‘Twitchin’ In The Kitchen’.
8.
Stephen James Smith
I’ve Had Lovers
The Irish poet Stephen James Smith has an album on the way called See No Evil on April 1st, and it’s a collection of music produced by Gareth Quinn Redmond that features a host of Irish musicians of repute including Conor O’Brien (Villagers), Jess Kav, Laura Quirke (Lemoncello), Cormac Begley, Camin Gilmore (Sun Collective / Crash Ensemble), Aidan Murphy, Conor Cunningham, and Albert Karch. It was
‘I’ve Had Lovers’ is the preview track from the album, which was recorded during lockdown in Wexford with Gavin Glass in Orphan Recording Studios.
Upcoming tour dates will see Smith perform with a band and visual artist Steve Simpson.
8th April – Pepper Canister, Dublin
10th April – Bennigans Bar, Derry
22nd April – Presentation Centre Enniscorthy, Wexford
23rd April – Monroe’s Tavern, Galway
30th April – The MAC, Belfast
6th May – Coughlan’s, Cork
18th May – London Irish Centre
19th May – Carole Nash Hall, Stoller Hall, Manchester
21st May – Thorner Victory Hall, Leeds
22nd May – The Hug and Pint, Glasgow
9.
Emma-Jean Thackray
Venus (Black Science Orchestra Mix)
A dance remix of ‘Venus’ from UK jazz artist Emma-Jean Thackray’s Yellow album from last year.
10.
Rebel Phoenix
All or Nothing
Dublin rapper Rebel Phoenix is going all on on new tune ‘All Or Nothing’ a song inspired by a conversation he had with his mother, who noted he doesn’t do things half-heartedly. Rebel ran with the idea for this track from a forthcoming album called Museum, which compounding the point, has taken two years to make.
Nialler9 New Music Playlist
