Nialler9's New Irish Music: Basciville, TooFools, Villagers and more

SONGS OF THE WEEK

Villagers

- Wichita Lineman

Taken from their new live album Where

Have You Been All My Life?

Conor O'Brien and co have covered the Jimmy Webb-penned

Wichita Lineman

, made famous by Glen Campbell. O'Brien brings an emotional orchestral edge to the cover, as heard on his last year's stripped-back

Darling Arithmetic

.

Basciville - Blues In Red

The Irish music scene is a small place, and in the past few years - and with more eyes on Ireland than ever - it has become more difficult for an artist to maintain the necessary space to develop. Brothers Cillian and Lorcan Byrne's music holds the kind of rare promise of something great. It doesn't hinder the music that the Wexford band's vocalist sound

A LOT

like Hozier on the surface, but it might affect the amount of attention they're getting. Dig below, however, and there's more of an orchestral dynamic and an old-timey blues feel to their nascent discography so far. 2016 will be an interesting one for Basciville.

Sea Pinks - Yr Horoscope

Trading in rhythmically taut surf pop that is bursting with pop influences and melodies, the music of Sea Pinks is a perfect soundtrack to an adolescent-style jump-around bop. Just listen to all 118 seconds of

Yr Horoscope

for a ray of vintage sunshine. Neil Brogan releases his sixth independent album this week.

Bear Worship – Our Friends

Karl Knuttel formerly made music as Ivan St John but reappeared last year with a synth-driven sound that recalled Animal Collective. Newest song

Our Friends

has less of a narrow line to its influences, sounding like Antony Hegarty hitting high notes while Beach House play a starry-eyed indie cover of Berlin's

Take My Breath Away

.

Ódú - Different

An immediately likable and impressive debut track from singer-songwriter Sally Ó Dúnlaing, who is promising much more music of the ilk of the tropical pop of

Different

in 2016.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Morning Veils - Her Kind

Released on December 30th - when hardly anyone was paying attention to new music releases - the debut album from the Cork three-piece (made up of Roslyn Steer, Aisling O'Riordan and Elaine Howley of The Altered Hours) is  fittingly understated in tone and production. Moving between folk and lo-fi guitar rock with psychedelia, experimental and ambient touches, the 13-track album feels like an introduction to a band's sound rather than a fully fledged offering. That it was also released on cassette seals the ramshackle throwback sentiment in the music.

NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK

TooFools

It's not every week a nine-piece band rolls around with an impressive debut track. TooFools is the brainchild of Lorcan O'Dwyer and Steven McCann who formed at BIMM college in Dublin. The pair roped in a gaggle of friends to play (including McCann's Planet Parade bandmate Michael Hopkins, Cian Hanley on drums, Kevin Corcoran on keys, Andrew Lloyd on synth/guitar, Oisin Murtagh on Sax and backing vocals from Remy Naidoo and Ciara O’Connor) a bacchanal of funk, pop and soul. The band made an appearance at Turning Pirate annual NYE mixtape - expect more live outings from them in the near future. Their debut single proper Touch is out laterthis month.