See the New Music section for full selection of tracks and albums featured this week.
Nialler9 Weekly Playlist:
1.
Denise Chaila
Might Be
It’s not a mixtape, it’s an EP called It’s A Mixtape.
Limerick MC Denise Chaila is back with a five-track release featuring previously-released tracks ‘061’ and ‘Energy’, and there’s a production leap on these tracks compared to the Choice winning actual mixtape Go Bravely.
‘Might Be’ is the unheard highlight of the EP today, with Denise flexing over a dark and searching beat. It’s got a playfulness to the delivery that feels relaxed and fun, while hitting hard.
‘Might Be’ is the unheard highlight of the EP today, with Denise flexing over a dark and searching beat. It’s got a playfulness to the delivery that feels relaxed and fun (with a callback to Strange Boy’s verse on Who’s Asking), while hitting hard.
This EP, for me, was about pursuing both play and purpose. I was thinking about what it means to relax, to be free, to do what makes me laugh, to do what makes me cry, to fly in the face of convention and just…do what I want. It ended up being a tapestry of anger, despair, hope, cynicism, defiance, braggadocious faith and quiet pain. It was about taking an opportunity to make sure that I could still ‘fingerpaint’ and allow myself to grow.”
Hear also ‘Return Of The King’.
2
SL
Playtime
I loved the playfulness of SL’s Kenny Beats-produced ‘Bad Luck’ last year, and the London rapper is back doing his wonky thing once again here on ‘Playtime’.
3.
April
Someone That I Made
‘Someone That I Made’ is April’s newest track, a sweet swooning ballad about being anchored to home wherever you are. It follows on the heels of ‘Piece Of Me’, the Kildare R&B pop artist’s first song on Atlantic Records UK.
The track was produced by Clarence Clarity who has also done production work with Rina Sawayama.
“Someone That I Made is about being away from comfort and missing family and safe familiar places, it’s about growing up and realising everything you need is already there no matter where you go. Clarence Clarity sent me a little loop, and I wrote the entire song in my old room in London. Clarence then fleshed out the music so that the entire song was made without ever having met each other in real life.”
4.
amy michelle
the bottom of the well
The Mullingar artist Amy Michelle has covered the Fontaines D.C and released a demo to date, but ‘The Bottom Of The Well’ is the musician’s first single that brandishes a full production (by Amy and Rich Cooper).
The song has Phoebe Bridgers and Elliott Smith inspirations but doesn’t skirt to close to either influence. It was originally written by Amy in her bedroom, and was written after some sleep struggles.
“I’ve always struggled with sleep, but was dealing with particularly intrusive nightmares. Seeing some sort of light from the bottom of a well – but not having the strength to reach it – became symbolic of insecurities, uncertainties, and heartbreak.”
A debut EP is coming next year.
5.
VANO 3000, BADBADNOTGOOD, Samuel T. Herring
Running Away (Time)
A remix of BadbadNotGood and Future Islands’ Sam Herring ‘Time Moves Slow’ by New York rapper-producer Vano 3000 on Innovative Leisure, which apparently did well on Tik Tok.
6.
Molly O’Mahony
Brother Blue
Mongoose member Molly O’Mahony’s second solo single is some of the music borne out of moving home to West Cork in March 2020 due to the you know what. ‘Brother Blue’ is a sweet folk-leaning song with pop melodies about pushing past established family communications, from a forthcoming solo album due in 2022.
“Brother Blue was inspired by a meeting with my younger brother some years back, which triggered a storm of sadness in me and frustration around my powerlessness to halt family patterns of self-criticism. I wrote it as a means of reaching out and closing a gap with him; to remind him of his inherent worth and esteem in my eyes, and to offer a sense of succour through the commonality of our experiences. I was reading Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things at the time, which is referenced in the final line of the song. It is ultimately a song of hope and a declaration of one’s birthright to live as one deserving of life in all its richness.”
Molly O’Mahony
Nialler9 Weekly Playlist:
