The best new tracks of this week, as curated and chosen by Niall.
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Fcukers
I Like Like That
This is the kind of thing that Brooklyn band Fcukers excel at – nonchalant indie sleaze dance bangers, the kind that got me so excited about their music when they first arrived only last summer with ‘Bon Bon’ and ‘Homie Don’t Shake’. (?!!)
‘I Like It Like That’ was produced by Kenneth Blume fka Kenny Beats not the band who appear to have become a duo since drummer Ben Scharf is no longer around.
In-between they released the drum’n’bass ‘Play Me’, also produced by Blume, the more pensive ‘I Don’t Wanna’, their percussive MIA-style ‘UMPA’.
The band did a recent Boiler Room that kicked off with Death Grips, who I’ve been listening to a lot, and keep cropping up this week serendipitously.
Daniel Avery, Julie Dawson
The Ghost of Her Smile
Galway singer of NewDad, Julie Dawson made a mini album with Space Dimension Controller in between her main squeeze band’s albums one and two last year.
Here she is again then on an intriguing collaboration with Daniel Avery, mostlyy known as an electronic producer but who for the upcoming album Tremor on Domino next week, has taken things into a industrial guitar sonic palette zone, with the album mixed by Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails) and David Wrench (FKA twigs, Frank Ocean, Caribou).
‘The Ghost of Her Smile’ isn’t a milion miles away from NewDad’s alternative rock style but it feels like it was dragged through the mud and left in sludge before it ended up as it sounds here.
“The longer I live with Tremor, the more this track feels like a shining light on the horizon after a night in the fog. I’ve been a fan of NewDad from the moment I heard them – one of those stop what you’re doing and turn up the radio moments – so I’m truly excited to have Julie Dawson on this record. To me Julie is the embodiment of a modern rock star: enigmatic and formidable yet utterly beguiling. Her energy, her light, make the world of Tremor shine for everyone to see.”
Avery plays Dublin’s Opium on November 28th.
Hear also: the metallic ‘Greasy Off The Racing Line’ with Alison Mosshart of The Kills or the poppy atomspheres of ‘Rapture In Blue’ with Cecile Believe from the record.
Alex Cameron
Short King
Australian singer-songwriter Alex Cameron could be your stepdad, he could be your stranger’s kiss, but what he couldn’t be is your ‘Short King’.
“Somebody come get her she’s in love with a short king / That boy is under 5’9
Every since I met her I’ve been ducking through doorways
I’m angry all the time.”
The man is 6ft 4″ and feeling sorry for himself because he can’t compete with the 5ft 9′ short king.
Julianna Barwick, Mary Lattimore
Melted Moon
Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore have made an album together called Tragic Magic where the synthesizer-producer-singer and the harpist’s complementary ambient and electronic styles composition styles combine.
The album was made in nine days at the Philharmonie de Paris, co-produced by Trevor Spencer (Fleet Foxes, Beach House), with access to the Musée de la Musique’s instrument collection – harps and analogue synths, in partnership with the French label InFiné.
‘Melted Moon’ is the album’s closing number, a spirited eight-and-a-half minutes of a cosmic transportive arrangement.
Westerman
Nevermind
The third single from Westerman’s new album A Jackal’s Wedding on Partisan Records on November 7th after the synth-pop of ‘Adriatic’ and the The Beta Band-esque piano-lead track ‘About Leaving’.
‘Nevermind’ is a circular kind of song – with title repeated and the guitar chug rolling around until it comes back to the start point, which the songwriter memorably describes as “a smirking, bitter little song ruminating on the denigration of meaning by bad agents.”
Westerman has a listening party in Fidelity in Dublin on November 4th with myself hosting the Q+A and a Dublin date at Opium on February 15th 2026.
Songs I also loved this week:
- Emma-Jean Thackray – Save Me – Radio Edit
- Olan Monk – Pomegranate
- DARKSIDE – One Last Nothing
- Armand Hammer; The Alchemist; billy woods; E L U C I D – Super Nintendo
- Ain’t – Long Short Round
- better joy – steamroller
- Disgusting Sisters; Hot Chip – TGIF – Hot Chip Remix
- C.Y.M. – Milazzo
- Puma Blue – Desire
- JPEGMAFIA – Manic!
- DJ Seinfeld; Confidence Man – The Right
- Oklou; FKA twigs – viscus (feat. FKA twigs)
- Emma-Jean Thackray – Save Me – Radio Edit
- ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ – ཬɷԾㅍ ꉺლ༽༼இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞☼⃝◞⊖◟☼⃝ ◉፨∷▲∵⣎⡇ ⃝͢ oOo▲༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؙؖ⁽⁾ا⦁⁾⁽ؙۜؖء؞ૣ࿆˜☼⃝◞⊖◟☼⃝ ◉፨∷▲∵⣎⡇ ⃝͢ oOo▲
- Armand Hammer; The Alchemist; billy woods; E L U C I D – Super Nintendo
- Ain’t – Long Short Round
- DARKSIDE – One Last Nothing
- Disgusting Sisters; Hot Chip – TGIF – Hot Chip Remix
- Olan Monk – Pomegranate
- BOLD LOVE – All The Lives
- C.Y.M. – Milazzo
- Kraak & Smaak; IVAR – Travel Light
- ASA MOTO – MJ Complex
- Ruthven – Kiss Goodnight
- Bantum – Big Flute
- R.A.P. Ferreira; Kenny Segal – by the head
- I Dreamed I Dream – Banana Sushi
- Clara La San – News
- Rochelle Jordan – Ladida
- Clark – Civilians
- Just Mustard – ENDLESS DEATHLESS
- Dry Cleaning – Hit My Head All Day – Edit
- Pebbledash – Cell
- Daphni – Josephine
- Empress Of – Blasting Through the Speakers
- hikii; Curtisy – TIT FOR TAT
- Unique Freaks – Hairy Frog Fish
- Martina and the Moons – Laundry Mat
- Geese – Husbands
- Danny Brown – Starburst
- Shampain; Bethany – Realm Of The Living
- UFOs; Braxe + Falcon; Phoenix; Alan Braxe; DJ Falcon – UFO
- Morgana – I’m Not Going Anywhere
- Indigo De Souza; Mothé – Serious
- Blawan; Monstera Black – Rabbit Hole
- Daniel Avery; Cecile Believe – Rapture in Blue – Midnight Version
- Rochelle Jordan – The Boy
- TEED – My Melody
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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.
