Nialler9's New Irish Music: Róisín O, Talos, Rocstrong, Æ MAK and more

SONGS OF THE WEEK

Róisín O - Warn Me Of Silence

As featured as the closing song of RTÉ’s

Striking Out

in January, Róisín O’s new single continues the musician’s gift for creating grand sweeping modern pop music. The lyric video was shot in Dubai recently.

Rocstrong - I Gotcha

Andre Bangala kicks off his 2017 release account with a new single that moves his R&B funk sound into more poppies territory, specifically one that sounds like The Weeknd, which can only be a good look. Rocstrong will release a song a month for the remainder of 2017.

Mix & Fairbanks - Girls

It’s quite a ridiculous thing to realise that

Girls

is the first original song from the Kildare duo Rob Smyth and Gary O’Reilly. As Mix & Fairbanks, the guys have been nailing electronic disco sets and DJ edits and here, they have crafted a perfectly calibrated dance floor track with the DNA of Daft Punk and Todd Terje. Whopp. Er.

Floor Staff - A Love Sublime

Anthony Donnelly’s Floor Staff project released the

Convictions

EP on Friday and it marks a leap in ambition, craft and production. The EP’s first track

Choice

makes that step clear with its dynamic shifts and big falsetto vocals wrapped up in alt-pop atmospherics.

Ailie Blunnie - Beat Of Your Heart

A Leitrim singer-songwriter with a debut album on the way,

Beat Of Your Heart

is a track that moves between bright handclap pop, urgent guitars and piano-lead passages. The song was written “ a response to auditory disturbances accompanying migraine episodes.”

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Talos - Wild Alee

Since appearing with

Tethered Bones

, an emotional electronic ballad three years ago, Cork man Eoin French has been refining and developing that style with every release. Now, on his debut album, produced by Ross Dowling, French makes the case that patience is a virtue for building slow-moving anthem-leaning songs flourished largely with guitar, synths and drums.

Tethered Bones

is the centrepiece of the debut album but its surrounded by equally beautifully-scaped sounds. Bringing it all together is the supple falsetto of the man himself, a brittle, powerful voice that can move between engulfing glacial shades and warm tones.

NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Autre Monde

Taking major inspiration from a very specific style of vintage rock is a path that bands often tread but in Autre Monde’s case they’ve chosen some of the most esoteric of early 1980s guitar music to mine: Television, ESG, Suicide and The Slits among them. So far, the two songs from Paddy Hanna along with members of Land Lovers, Ginnels and No Monster Club are conjuring a fresh sound out of well-worn strings.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
AE MAK - I Walk

Directed by Ellis Grace

Aoife McCann and Ellie McMahon’s avant-pop music has been developing with effervescence since 2011. Alongside that is their visual aesthetic which is explored in the video for their new track, which doubled as their single artwork. Photographer Ellius Grace and set designer Ciara O'Donovan worked on the shoot and central to the video is “a group of women displayed as ornaments, placed decoratively in a set. From the onset they appear similar in a white uniform wearing blue masks but their uniformity highlights their differences. They may find comfort in unity but their strength lies within their individuality.”