We’re taking a look back on the month just gone by, recalling some of the best music to pop-up on our radars during it, mostly Dublin-based or Dublin-linked with a little splash of music from around Ireland thrown in too.
ALL TVVINS – DIVINE
All Tvvins second album Just To Exist came out just this year, but Conor Adams and Lar Kaye aren’t the type to indulge in laurel-resting, as they’re already back with a new single. Divine is a classic example of everything that’s good about the band – smooth ripples of rhythm fuelled by skittering guitar riffs, and melodies that stick in your head without ever needing to be over the top or desperately forced.
They even squeeze in a little saxophone for some extra flavour. Adams says of the song: “To see yourself from outside of yourself is one of the weirdest experiences you can have. The sensations you feel are of you and old but completely new at the same time. This song is about the outer body experience both in the literal sense and the figurative every day. I think it’s a good thing to try see yourself as others might see you. When I do this I feel more connected to everyone and everything else…. I don’t feel like this single unit anymore”.
SLANEY – 83
After releasing a dribble of singles over the past year, Slaney Power is back with a new one, and one overloaded with chill vibes at that. 83 takes things breezily, a pop song that taps strongly into early Vampire Weekend (think Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa) and through that to the Paul Simon that inspired the and the African rhythms that inspired him. It’s got an easy charm to it, the sense of tossing off the world’s worries and focusing on the simple and the good in life.
Power says: “’83’ is a song about feeling more of a connection to music from the 1980’s than today’s modern music. It’s a song about doing your own thing in life and music regardless of what anyone else is doing or thinking, be your own authentic self no matter what”.
REEVAH – OLDER NOW
Derry artist Reevah (Aoife Boyle) has a new EP on the way, set to come out next year. In the meantime, she’s got a new single, and what a single it is. On Older Now, she stretches for the epic and lands it, a beautifully orchestrated and composed single, full of swooping, soaring sound and delicate little musical touches that make the song. Her voice sits warmly at the centre of it all, spinning one of those tales about the strangeness of coming of age. She says: “For me Older Now marks a change in many ways. I have started working with a full band and I really wanted that sound to be conveyed in this track. It’s a true reflection of my live set-up and performance as an artist. Recording this track was amazing, having the band on-board brought so much energy to the process, everything just came together really naturally”.
DASHODA – 38 LONG
In one of the most thrilling origin stories for a song since Death Valley 69, Dashoda’s new single came about when Gavin MacDermott picked up a jumper of that size. Luckily, there’s a little more to it than that, as he expanded that into a symbol of more, and created 38 Long, a ridiculously infectious, energy-packed piece of dance-indie. He says: “I had this new group of friends and I was living in Dublin again. So, there was this feeling of newness and big energy and definitely a lot of confusion about what the hell I was doing with my life and, naturally, a lot of procrastination. I was in a space in my life where I had great anticipation and so the song came out of that feeling… I wanted to capture the tension of my life at that moment in the song. There is a devil may care throw-away attitude, confidence and also fear. Accompanying this is a frantic energy”.
SOPHIE DOYLE RYDER – MOOD
Sophie Doyle Ryder is the new prodigy on the scene, at just 17 casting shapes as an Irish branch of the Billie Eilish wave (though with a brother named Finneas O’Connell, a name seemingly nabbed from what Law And Order would name a New York Irish gang leader, Eilish is plenty Irish herself). Mood is the debut single from the Malahide artist, and it’s an impressive debut, showing off her talent for neat, subtle melody. It’s always going to take time for such a young artist to make their way, but Mood is a promising start.
Photo: Slaney Press
