Nialler9’s favourite songs of the month, all in one place. See the Spotify playlist at the end of the piece.
Featuring: Bon Iver, Róis, MJ Lenderman, Maria Somerville, Adore, Bricknasty, White Denim, Annie-Dog, Silverbacks, Henry Earnest, Floating Points, Nilufer Yanya, cumgirl8….
MJ Lenderman
Wristwatch
What a year the North Carolina-based songwriter and indie rock guitarist MJ Lenderman is having. He is the guitarist in the punky Southern rock group Wednesday and has also featured and played with Waxahatchee and Indigo De Souza. Autumn is his time to shine.
Manning Fireworks, his fourth album of alt-rock and country songs, sounds like the best of ‘90s indie rock with some Neil Young in the mix.
Lenderman is a wry observational storyteller written with an economy on this album, a little bit tragic, a little bit hilarious, and very insightful of a young man of the age of 25.
RÓIS
CAOINE
Fermanagh composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and electronic artist. blends sean-nós, folk, experimental sounds on the darkly stunning ‘Caoine’.
With additional dark-edged production from John Spud Murphy (OXN/Lankum),the MO LÉAN EP was inspired by recordings of keening songs.
Floating Points
Fast Forward
There are plenty of reminders of Sam Shepherd’s noted gift for tough dance floor sounds drawn from his analogue music-making setup, for which latest Floating Points album Cascade is a fine document of his work in the field, a return to the sound that made him after his much-lauded Promises album made with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra, made before he was working on a ballet score for the San Francisco Ballet (and an upcoming anime score for Adult Swim).
‘Fast Forward’ is a fine example of his dancefloor electronics, a twisting arpeggio line that rolls around tension-filled percussion that meets some Moroder-esque synths throughout – a cosmic orbit around the Floating Points planet.
Bon Iver
S P E Y S I D E
‘S P E Y S I D E’ is the Wisconsin singer-songwriter’s first of three from the EP Sable, out October 18th on Jagjaguwar, and a return to his acoustic sound that made For Emma, Forever Ago such a smash hit breakthrough way back in 2007.
‘S P E Y S I D E’ begins with an apology to someone he hurt, written during a moment of clarity in 2021 – – “I know now that I can’t make good, how I wish I could’, ‘I got the best of me…. really damn been on such a violent spree.”
Cumgirl8
ahhhh!hhhh! (I don’t wanna go)
Previously dismissed (by me) as a band with an edgelord name and average songs, the questionably-named Manhattan four-piece cumgirl8 have twisted my arm with their latest ‘ahhhh!hhhh! (I don’t wanna go)’, a dark no-wavey tune about not wanting to go to that social engagement, as far as I can tell.
It’s from their forthcoming (checks notes and groans) album called the 8th cumming on 4AD now.
They also released a song called ‘Karma Police’, no not that one.
Nilüfer Yanya
Call it Love
Nilüfer Yanya has yet to make a bad record. The just-released My Method Actor is her most low-stakes record of the three so far, but it frequently hits the mark with memorable songs. ‘Call it Love’ is lilting track from the record that I have on repeat, alongside ‘Like I Say (I runaway)’ in particular.
Silverbacks
Giving Away An Inch Of
The Irish indie-rock band Silverbacks have a third album Easy Being A Winner out on October 18th.
Previous singles ‘Selling Shovels’ and ‘Something I Know’ have set up the six-piece’s stall really nicely, and new song, also sung by Emma Hanlon, is another winner from the record, with Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks mentioned as an influence.
Freak Slug
Spells
Spindly indie-rock from the Manchester musician and artist Xenya Genovese aka Freak Slug who I discovered at The Great Escape Festival in 2023. It’s taken from a forthcoming album I Blow Out Big Candles, out November 8th.
“Spells is a track I made with Alex from Jadu Heart and it’s the first song we ever made together on the album. We worked fast together in a hyper environment where the sun was shining through the windows and I was stealing his cigarettes smoking in the garden in excitement from making the song.”
Mogwai
God Gets You Back
The Scottish post-rockers return with news of a world tour (no Irish date as yet but they were here in the summer at Lankum’s IMMA show of course).
New song ‘God Gets You Back’ follows up the band’s 2021 chart-topping album As The Love Continues. Across 6 plus minutes, the song builds in gentle increments with textured arpeggios, bassline and percussion, and vocals, from drummer Barry Burns’ seven year-old daughter in the mix.
It’s really lovely stuff.
Along with the world tour, a documentary about the band called Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound – directed by longtime collaborator Antony Crook has been doing the film festival rounds.
Echo Northstar
creatures
Ex of HappyAlone, Paddy Hennessy has been making some fine solo music under the name Echo Northstar, as recently as January.
‘creatures’ has an earwormy bassline and whispery gossamer vocals and gentle but dominant drums that add up to an insistent shoegazey pop track.
Henry Earnest
Country
The Irish alternative producer’s debut album Big Blue was quietly released last month, and ‘Country’ is an emo-acoustic track about liminal geographic.
Other than the treated vocals, the song could have been released any era in the last 30, a surprising bright and light tune from Earnest.
The song and record was no doubt inspired by its making – “written on the open road and recorded between Phisborough and inis oírr,” including on the 32 counties All Ireland tour last year.
Big Blue features contributions from Ev Carm, Passersby, Róisín berkeley, Isaac Jones, Banríon and more.
Ahmed, With Love.
Yes, Of Course.
Dublin/Sierra Leonean rapper Ahmed Karim Tamu is already prolific on the Dublin rap scene, having collaborated with Curtisy, Lips2Ears, Kojaque, Chameleon, Rory Sweeney and Khakikid among others.
Ahmed, With Love is taking the spotlight for himself, with thoughtful and vibey hip-hop tracks and a new mixtape, drawing influence from Tyler, The Creator (clue is in the name), Brazilian bossa nova and tropicalia too.
Moin, Olan Monk
Guess It’s Wrecked
Post-punk and Mount Kimbie come to mind listening to ‘Guess It’s Wrecked’, a song from the forthcoming album You Never End, the UK trio of Moin (Valentina Magaletti, Tom Halstead and Joe Andrews) out 25th October 2024.
Galway artist Olan Monk is one of the featured vocalists on the record alongside james K, Coby Sey and Sophia Al-Maria.
Skinner
Tell My Ma
Aaron Corcoran aka Skinner drops a second single of the year, ahead of a forthcoming EP release on Faction Records.
After the scene-setting no wave ‘New Wave Vaudeville’, Skinner returns with a recording of a live favourite in the form of a short and sharp take on the Irish traditional children’s song ‘I’ll Tell My Ma’
Gainfully twisting the playground song into a more foreboding take, Skinner’s ‘Tell My Ma’ is a blistering 86 seconds of punk-rock no-wave saxophone discordant noise turning the innocent sentiment of the song on its head for a 21st century aggravated reckoning.
The Alchemist; Action Bronson; Big Body Bes
Minnesota Fats
A highlight on The Alchemist’s new album The Genuine Articulate which also features Schoolboy Q, Larry June and Conway The Machine.
‘Minnesota Fats’ is named after the fictional pool player who inspired the film The Color of Money, and features a big dirty bassline as its central motif.
Annie-Dog
Have I Been Living?
As recommended for Ireland Music Week, Dublin artist Annie-Dog brings bright electronic pop styles to the fore on her latest song.
Adore
Supermum!
A cool blast of melodic garage punk pop from Adore, a band who are from Galway, Donegal and Dublin. I loved their debut grungey single ‘Postcards’, these guys weren’t hiding behind a wall of noise, and a catchy chorus.
‘Supermum!’ is no different, and tackles the trigger warning topic of sexual assault with satire, a deft touch and depth.
I grew up in a time
Where I can’t decline
Yeah it was rude to refuse
He said honey
You’re looking alright
I’ve got some spare time
I’ve got something to show you
It makes a lot of sense that Adore are supporting Sprints on their November UK tour. The song was produced by Dan Fox of Gilla Band.
Adore play their own Dublin show at Whelan’s on November 2nd.
Adore are Lara Minchin (guitar, vocals), Lachlann Ó Fionnáin (bass, vocals) and Naoise Jordan Cavanagh (drums).
“Supermum! tells the tale of moments where power is lost due to the conditioning of others stronger than you. The lyrics come from my perspective of being raised as a quiet and polite young woman and how as I grew older, it became increasingly more obvious to me that I never learned how to say no, and even when I did, some of those around me had never learned how to take no for an answer. The tone of the song is satirical, which mimics the manner in which people talk about stories of assault abuse in their lives as a way to cope with the horror of it. This playful manner in which we talk about these problems shows that although we may be progressing by actually speaking up about assault, it is obvious that the issue at hand occurs so frequently that assault and abuse remains to be normalised. I hope that this song can continue the conversation of education surrounding sexual assault and abuse. I hope for people to feel safe enough to speak up about it. The fact is that sexual violence has remained a normal part of the majority of peoples lives and it shouldn’t be.”
Bricknasty
mouthy
Dublin collective Bricknasty follow up their 2023 EP Ina Crueler with a mixtape called eh, XONGZ አስቀያሚ ጡብ. on FAMM.
The press release says captures “the band’s journey through loss, recovery, and the embrace of the unknown.
“The majority of these formative experiences occurred on tour shortly after the release of their first project.”
‘mouthy’ is the first track from the EP, with Bricknasty’s trademark textured ambient live punk band jazz and electronic music combining with rapped verses and melodic hooks, with snippets of personal recordings that illuminate the difficulties of life, with Fatboy discovering that his mother needed life-saving surgery and close friend and photographer Ross McDonnell (who did the INA CRUELER cover), died in New York.
White Denim
Light On
I love how, every now and again, Austin rock band White Denim release a yacht rock Steely Dan soundalike song in disguise, although songwriter James Petralli says the influences are John Coltrane’s drummer Elvin Jones and Chicago storyteller Shel Silverstein.
‘Light On’ is from their twelfth album, titled appropriately enough 12, out December 6th on Bella Union, which took shape in the wake of COVID, after Petralli and his partner Elaine cared for her father who passed in 2021. They then moved to LA where Petrailli home-schooled the kids, all experiences that inform the record, and its recording.
“It was out of the window with even the idea of a band,” says Petralli. “On this record, there are many bands, sometimes in the room with me, sometimes miles away in a remote collaboration, and that process opened up a lot of possibility for me. This is the first White Denim record where I’ve engineered and been the main producer. I’ve touched every sound that’s on there.”
Every week, the Nialler9 Spotify Weekly Playlist is updated with new music, and in this corner, we share the playlist and highlight some some select songs from the list below.
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See the homepage for all Spotify playlists: New Music | Irish | Monthly
