The 10 best songs of the week

Kneecap

I bhFiacha Linne

The debut album from Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Provaí is finally here, and it goes HARD.

It’s a riot of sound and a cacophony of energy – drawing on rave, hip-hop, dub and ragga with lyrically dexterous raps as Gaeilge, that is the most compelling argument for learning the language I can think of in quite a while (the film out in August is similar), and it also feature Radie Peat and Manchán Magan.

‘I bhFiacha Linne’ (“In our debt”) channels the frantic dance music of The Prodigy with lyrics from the perspective of drug dealers taking what’s owed to them.

Please, man, it’s an Aquarius Supermoon tonight
That means I’m coming into money!

Heartworms

Jacked

I love the intense experimental synth rock setting of ‘Jacked’ (Speedy Wunderground) the latest track from London post-punk artist Jojo Orme aka Heartworms, it’s a song that feels liked it’s being chased.

Which is appropriate as the song is haunted by a spectre – “a darkness or entity which you are running away from… but it is really you that holds it.”

I also loved ‘May I Comply’ from last year.

Ciaran Lavery, Morgana

On My God (No, Your God)

Northern Irish singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery returned with two songs recently, and ‘On My God (No, Your God)’ with Saint Sister’s Morgana is the third, a big song that hangs on a phrase, that can be two sides of the same coin.

“The song deals with the very unique and divided history in Northern Ireland, and how it is to be raised in a society where such things as inherited beliefs and family names have a lasting effect on which paths are open to you in your life.”

All three songs are from an album to be released later this year.

James Vincent McMorrow

Look up!

Clearly freed from expectation on his new album where he did things backwards and played the launch gig before he recorded the album, James Vincent McMorrow’s Wide Open, Horses has a bright exploratory feel to it, no where more present than the dusty banjo fuzz of ‘Look up!’.

Martha Skye Murphy

Spray Can

The debut album from the London songwriter Um is released on AD 93 today, and Murphy’s music remains beguiling, elegaic, melancholic, sparse, and a bit eerie.

‘Spray Can’ is a bit of a piano dirge, an unsettled kaleidoscopic trudge that is still beautiful to behold.

Nilüfer Yanya

Method Actor

Nilüfer Yanya’s second song from the forthcoming album My Method Actor, out September 13th on Ninja Tune, continues the artist’s penchant for skittery rhythmic songwriting, as on recent single ‘Like I Say (Runaway)’.

Both songs have had a tougher guitar sound than we’re used to from Yanya.

“I was researching method acting – and from what I read, it’s based on finding this one memory in your life, a life-altering, life-changing memory. The reason why some people find method acting traumatic and maybe not safe mentally, is because you’re always going back to that moment. It can be good or bad but you’re always feeding off the energy, something that’s defined you – and that’s what helps you become the character. It’s a bit like being a musician. When you’re performing, you’re still trying to invoke the energy and emotion of when you first wrote it, in that moment. It definitely feels like you’re having to recreate or step into that headspace.”

Monjola

Often

The Dublin Camomile Club rapper and singer dropped his 8-track EP, t’s Not That Deep, of lo-fi soul and rap vibes featuring ‘Go Wrong’ and this pensive track.

Monjola has a popup collaborative store this weekend on Exchequer Street in Dublin with Emporium Dublin.

See Also

The New Irish Music Playlist: Jena Keating, Plus One, K3:lu, The SMC & more

And So I Watch You From Afar

North Coast Megafauna

The Belfast post-rockers have announced their seventh album is out in August, and track number two is a shining example of why they’re still among the best to do it, drawing on weird musical shapes and free jazz.

“One of our favourite tracks on the record. A love letter to the North Coast, our friends there, the energy, the cold days skateboarding, the long summers in the sea, our beloved music venue, the closeness of it all. It has the heart of the land there with the weight of the North Atlantic” 

And So I Watch You From Afar will release their new album Megafauna on Berlin’s Pelagic Records on August 13th.

Hundred Waters

Towers

Well this was a nice surprise. Hundred Waters dropped a four-track EP called Towers on Spotify. It’s the first time they’ve released music since 2018, so maybe it’s a restart? The title track is suitably dreamy alt-pop music from the band, something they particularly excel at.

The vocalist Nicole Miglis has some solo material out on Sargent House too.

The Redneck Manifesto

Hidden Hands

The band are consist of founding members Niall Byrne (no relation), Richie Egan and Matthew Bolger, and ‘Hidden Hands’ is the band’s first bit of music since 2018’s The How, with an album forthcoming.

‘Hidden Hands’ was recorded along with the other new material over three weekends with James Eager at the Clinic in Dublin and subsequent recordings were made across two sessions in Malmö, utilising Richie’s RARN Studio and Studio Möllan. Additional drums and percussion on the recordings comes from Markku Hilden and this song was mastered by Sean MacErlaine in Dublin.

TRM are playing Beyond The Pale in Glendalough next weekend, Sunday June 23rd.