Nialler9's New Irish Music: Girl Band, Loris, The Academic, Otherkin and more

SONGS OF THE WEEK

The Academic – Northern Boy

The Mullingar indie-pop band had a surprise radio hit with

Different

earlier this year, a song that grew in stature with repeated plays both on national and UK radio. The follow-up single wears its heart on its sleeve and slips into the skin of a band like Two Door Cinema Club at a slow tempo.

Slow Riot - Demons

After ripping it up with

[ their recent track City Of Culture ]

, the Limerick guitar band have followed it up with an Interpol-style track that's all maudlin baritone, slow arrangements and gigantic atmosphere. New EP

Cathedral

is out on October 23rd.

Otherkin – Feel It

There's no doubt to these ears that the Dublin band Otherkin have a direct line to the sound of British guitar-rock of the past 15 years. Their new single could be coming to a mobile phone ad near you very soon.

RELEASE OF THE WEEK

Girl Band – Holding Hands With Jamie

Ever since the Dublin band made the leap from homage-filled indie-rock to visceral gut-busting industrial techno made with the same instruments, they've become a more enticing prospect than anyone could have hoped. Live, they have completely slayed all competition to the point where they one of the best live bands in rock anywhere. Their debut album, released on Rough Trade, is a concrete document of that transformation. Guitars whirr, buzz, soar and cut, percussion punctures the claustrophobic air and Dara Kiely's vocals are even more nonsensically brilliant when put together in the format of an album. It's not an album for many occasions, focus can lag over the course of an album due to tracks that barely sound like they have surpassed demo form or first draft (

Baloo, Texting An Alien

) but when they hit (

Pears For Lunch, Paul, Fucking Butter

), man do they hit harder than anyone else.

NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Loris
This four-piece have demonstrated a penchant for creating catchy electronic pop jams since arriving on the Belfast scene with I've Been Quiet  in December 2013. Further singles Do It Right (below) and Yeah added a melodic indie quirk to their brooding electronic foundations, and they went on to support the likes of Sylvan Esso and Ballet School and receive BBC radio airplay. This week, the band release Crazy, a song which embraces histrionics to match the title, while adding a radio-friendly pop angle on the chorus. The band play Hard Working Class Heroes next Friday in Dublin's Bad Bobs.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Florence Olivier - Warriors

If you're going to describe your song as “the feeling of being lifted aloft by Patrick Swayze as you practice a dance routine in the middle of a lake”, you may as well go the whole hog and turn the video into a Swayze homage.