Featuring: Thee U.F.O, Lemoncello, EFÉ, Flynn Johnson, Jehnova, Adam Garrett, The Cliffords, Nogymx, Leon McMahon, Róisín McKeown, svhymns, Peter Vogelaar, Cat Dowling.
A lot of music from Ireland and Northern Ireland comes our way and every week, we listen through it all, sift the list down to a manageable list and share the best new tracks from emerging artists and some more established acts that deserve to be heard by you.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, follow our Spotify playlist or hit up the Irish section for individual track features.
Thee U.F.O
Surveyor
The Dublin garage-psych duo of Darragh Hansard and Beth Doyle aka THEE U.F.O released a fine debut album Ponderous Fug in 2022, that went a bit under the radar and was an honourable mention in my best Irish albums list that year.
The band will release a new album Beaming A Moments Reflection on March 1st, and ‘Surveyor’ is an almost instrumental that sounds like drums and bass are fighting each other falling down the stairs, which is a lot of fun. The song is on 7″ record.
Thee U.F.O will play a launch show at The Workman’s Cellar on Saturday, March 2nd, with support coming from Mickey Chao, followed by McHugh’s Watchtower in Drogheda on March 9th with support from Some Remain and Stratford Rise.
Lemoncello
Harsh Truths
Folk duo Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella aka Lemoncello are the latest signing to Claddagh Records, along with Niamh Bury, Rónán Ó Snodaigh & Myles O’Reilly and ØXN.
‘Harsh Truths’ finds the duo leaning into a more alternative and expansive take on their folk songs.
We wrote ‘Harsh Truths’ as a sort of conversation with someone who is not really there, or not emotionally present. It became a conversation with the self, the multitude of different voices inside ourselves that guide our intuition.”
The video was directed by the band’s own Laura Quirke.
EFÉ
Truth☆Truth
Anita Ikharo aka EFÉ returns after a year off releasing with a shift from a bedroom pop style to a more guitar-based rock sound.
Flynn Johnson
Calen Made Me Do It
Dublin rapper Flynn Johnson addresses and features his son Calen as part of these confidently-pitched track on Golden Éire Records. It’s Flynn’s dexterous rap and starry-eyed production produced by Bitter ROC that lifts this to the next level.
Lyrics listed on the Bandcamp.
The Cliffords
Sleeping With Ghosts
Some fine melodic indie-rock from Cork five-piece The Cliffords, the third single. The band are guitarist and singer Iona Lynch, bass and trumpet player Gavin Dawkins, lead guitarist Harry Menton, drummer Daniel Ryan and Locon O’Toole on keys.
Nogymx
Flower Moon
It’s been a couple of years since we wrote about Nogymx – the Irish instrumental chilled beats artist based in South Korea with over 60 million streams.
The artist has jsut dropped his new album Pahdo (meaning Waves in Korean – 파도) and ‘Flower Moon’ is a sweet piano-lead instrumental with some of the local flavour, in which Jimmy says “Pahdo represents the ebb and flow of the last 10 years in Korea, a journey through life, culture, and nostalgia.”
Leon McMahon, Róisín McKeown
Back Of The Wind
A simply pitched folk duet between Leon McMahon and Róisín McKeown. More duets please!
svhymns
inmyzone
Nocturnal and nebulous, ‘Inmyzone!’ is indicative of the dank and dense electronic productions that Dubliner svhymns has been making for a while now, drawing on drill rap, garage, ambient, and modern dub sounds.
Peter Vogelaar, Cat Dowling
Let Love Happen
A soft-glow melodic house collaboration between Waterford producer Vogelaar and vocalist/ songwriter Cat Dowling.
These two grew up a half a mile apart and knew each other as kids and have done three songs together since they got to know each other 20 years later.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, hit up the Irish section for individual track features
For this and more Irish songs, follow the Nialler9 New Irish Spotify playlist.
