Also featuring Kendino, Deleon, Sushee, Artsipolo, Famille Rose, banríon.
The best new Irish songs this week feature emerging tracks we’ve selected from artists from the island of Ireland, with more playlist additions below the main list.
Explore the best new Irish songs alongside our curated playlist for the week.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, follow our Spotify playlist or hit up the Irish section for individual track features.
deathtoricky
motives
deathtoricky is a Celbridge artist at the vanguard of a new younger movement of alt-rappers coming up, squeezing through the Tik-Tok virality queue.
‘motives’ is the calling card, a BXXXY-produced song that surprisingly takes its sample from a pitched-down version of Dragonette and Martin Solveig’s ‘Hello’ and it’s got a casual booming cloud rap sonic buzz to it that could easily be subtitled ‘sick of parties’.
If the sound is familiar to you, that’s because you’ve heard this kind of cloud rap / underground hip-hop knocking around the deep reaches of Soundcloud and Youtube before, but there is a growing movement of (mostly white) artists playing live and making tunes in Ireland now that could be labelled as such, along with a revival of witch-house rap? (didn’t see that one coming).
‘motives’ is an undeniably fun take on the aforementioned sound that is catching fire and surfacing deathtoricky to the point where he is playing a live debut headliner at Whelan’s on July 30th and Don Toliver dropped it in Dublin last week at the 3Arena.
More tunes on Spotify.
Video above by Cian Bolger.
Kendino, Deleon, Sushee
Rust
Tallaght singer, songwriter and producer Sushee appeared on a track with two others recently – Jeorge II and Selu – that I loved, and here she is again, this time with another duo of artists – Deleon and Kendino, the collaborators whose newest track ‘Rust’ cites garage, trance, Prodigy and Die Antwoord and Sade.
“I don’t dance at the club / I drown my demons with this toxic cup / I look so pretty / I feel so numb / 20/20 vision but I can’t see much.
‘Rust’ is definitely body music, a clarion call of frustration from Filipino/Irish vocalist Kendino on buzzing low-end, garage beats and electro from Filipino/Irish producer Deleon, with vocalist Sushee’s verse adding some melting R&B warmth to the colder beginnings.
Artsipolo
Slow Down
Dublin duo Luke Dunning and Aaran McCullagh aka Artsipolo bring indie, spoken rap style and melodic vocals together on one compelling track that serves as the band’s second single.
Last Apollo
Dandelion
The now London-based Irish artist and composer Lucy Rice, builds on the ambitious live show with a chamber orchestra from last year, with new single ‘Dandelion’, anchored by a yearning magnetic vocal performance, brandishing an intensity in its songwriting.
It’s Last Apollo’s first song since the debut EP in 2022.
Famille Rose, banríon
Changing
When not finding himself glamoured by a fashionista at a party under his other guise Lord Ormond, Paddy Ormond makes music as Famille Rose.
‘Changing’ is a beaut of a song with the sweet vocal of banríon the emotional heart of the somnambulist bass-heavy minimal track.
Far Caspian
An Outstretched Hand / Rain From Here to Kerry
Fermanaghman Joel Johnston is a Leeds-based indie musician who records and performs all his own music, two albums at this point, performed live as a six-piece – with a third called Autofiction on the way on July 25th.
‘An Outstretched Hand / Rain From Here to Kerry’ from the record unfurls as a diptych, a barrelling acoustic indie first half reminscent of Duster, Broken Social Scene or Sparklehorse and a reflective ditty in its contrasting half.
The album arrives after Johnston’s diagnosis Crohn’s disease in 2021 which he says “I’m now at the point where I don’t really let it define me.”
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, check into the Irish section for individual track features…
For this and more Irish songs, follow the Nialler9 New Irish Spotify playlist.
Otheer Playlist additions this week:
- DREAM BOY – bleed
- Dirty Faces – Homemade Kite
- Junk Drawer – Pell Mell
- Kean Kavanagh – Texas Tea
- Shampain; Bethany – One Royal Morning
- Junior Brother – Welcome To My Mountain
- Curtisy; hikii; shiv – Left, Right!
- mischa and the bear – Get Away
- BICEP – CHROMA 010 BRILLO
- katie phelan – bug
- LAAHFER – BUTTERFLIES
- RuntheRed – Madeline
- J Smith – Bassinet
- DuckyProd; GNS – On The Hill
- Fizzy Orange – Fools Live for Free
- Mark Wolfson – Too Much
- Cruel Sister – IRON PILLS
- Picture Postcard – Returning
- OWLS – Give Me Your Stare
- Siomha Hennessy – Unexpectedly Unfamous
- CARSTEN2X; chameleon – POPULAR
- i n n e r l i z z a r d s – i want to cry but i cant
- Elephant – Cure Wounds
- Blimp; Gleezy – Keep The Party Moving
- Alex Gough – 2Survive
- Goldbug – Pendulum
- Isaac Jones – Can’t Get Up
- Cliffords – My Favourite Monster
- Kiing Sequence – Jury
- Laurie Shaw – Please Can You Cut That out (And Stick It in My Almanac)
- Jillelli – On My Very Own
- YINYANG – The Dao
- Good Skin – Basements Below
- Birthday Problem; Jess Kav – Venus Calls
- David Keenan – Amelioration
- Chris Wong – Phoenix
- Forg.ie – A Place.
- How I Became A Wave – Cycles
- 49th & Main; mustbejohn – Rewind – Edit
- Colin Walsh – watching me
- Jack Madden – PLASTIC
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, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
