Now Reading
The best new tracks released today: Kelis, Bonobo, James Blake, Aonair, Big Thief, Uly, Negro Impacto & more

The best new tracks released today: Kelis, Bonobo, James Blake, Aonair, Big Thief, Uly, Negro Impacto & more

Avatar

It’s New Music Friday, which means there’s loads of new songs out. Here are the highlights of the day’s new tracks.

See the New Music section for full selection of tracks and albums featured this week.

Nialler9 Weekly Playlist:


1.

James Blake, JID, SwaVay

Frozen

I really enjoyed my morning listen to James Blake’s new album Friends That Break Your Heart today. It’s nothing you wouldn’t expect from the man but it’s sonically interesting and hardly seismically different but the songs don’t drag. Along with the SZA feature ‘Coming Back’, the rap-heavy ‘Frozen’ is an easy highlight.


2

Aonair, Caoi De Barra

Think Twice

I was very impressed with Aonair’s Ireland Music Week performance this week.

Brendan McGlynn’s music is a catchy mix indebted to ’80s pop and radio hits, and I like that he’s really leaning into a slightly cheesy sound and making it work.

On his latest single ‘Think Twice’, he enlists Wyvern Lingo’s Caoi De Barra for an anthemic song that leans into the bombastic choruses, retrowave and both a sax and guitar solo. I love the excess.


3.

Big Thief

Change

Big Thief are releasing a double album in 2022 and maybe there will be one bad song on it for once. The band play the National Stadium next February.


4.

Laura Duff

Good Form

Limerick artist Laura Duff comes through with ‘Good Form’, a playful-sounding alt-pop song, the second song after ‘Wayside’ from her upcoming second EP. Duff is joined on the track by JJ Lee (bass), Christopher O’Sullivan (drums) and Finn Fogarty (lead guitar).


5.

Negro Impacto

Mini Excursion

I’m loving the tunes from Dundalk duo Negro Impacto aka StrangeLove and Chi Chi as featured here.Mini Excursion’ is a vibey R&B pop tune from their five-track debut titular EP.


6.

Uly

I Wouldn’t Mind A Boogie / I Can’t Believe I Nearly Didn’t Save This

Uly released a new EP of instrumentals today and as he tells it, the collection was a way back into music for him. ‘I Wouldn’t Mind A Boogie / I Can’t Believe I Nearly Didn’t Save This’ sparkles with bright keys, trumpet and percussion.

‘vol. 1 – ‘cuan’ is a collection of instrumentals largely written while I was living out on Achill island during the 3rd/extended lockdown in 2021.

It marked the first batch of songs I was able to write in nearly a year, so it was a welcome return to music.

Before that, I couldn’t even really look at my instruments. Again, music wasn’t really clicking with me. I wasn’t feeling good at all about it while in Dublin. I brought some gear to Achill and started playing around, making small beats & throwaway instrumentals, as opposed to tracks similar to those which had been released previously.

This is like a ‘welcome back’ for me. I’ve recently quit my job, and decided that I will solely focus on music for the foreseeable. This marks the first release of hopefully many in that time.’

See Also
Villagers. By Andrew Whitton.


7.

Jungle

All Of The Time (DJ Streaks remix)

Jungle reworked for the dancefloor by the English producer.


8.

Kelis

Midnight Snack

Kelis loves food analogies and her first album in 1999 so she’s gone back to both for inspiration for her first song in seven years since 2014’s album Food – and ended up sounding a bit like Kelela.


9.

Bonobo

Rosewood

Bonobo has announced a new album called Fragments will be released on January 14th 2022 that features Jamila Woods, Joji, Kadhja Bonet, Jordan Rakei, O’Flynn and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.

‘Rosewood’ is a typically textured rhythmic track from Simon Green with a sampled vocal bringing some soul.

“It’s about the dancefloor in many ways, about how “I remembered all over again how much I loved crowds and movement and people connecting with each other. But the positivity isn’t just in the uptempo rhythms: even the most introspective and melancholic pieces have joy in them.”



Nialler9 Weekly Playlist:


Hey, before you go...

Nialler9 has been covering new music, new artists and gigs for the last 19 years. If you like the article you just read, and want us to publish more just like it, please consider supporting us on Patreon.

What you get as thanks in return...

  • A weekly Spotify playlist only for patrons.
  • Access to our private Nialler9 Discord community.
  • Ad-free and bonus podcast episodes.
  • Guestlist & discounts to Nialler9 & Lumo Club events.
  • Themed playlists only for subscribers.

Your support enables us to continue to publish articles like this one, make podcasts and provide recommendations and news to our readers, and be a key part of the music community in Ireland and abroad.

Become a patron at Patreon!

Sign up to the Newsletter

Get music news, features and new music into your inbox twice a week.

Please wait...

Thank you for sign up!