Last year I started a playlist swap with Remy from Remy’s Music and Film Blog in Ireland. To say that I failed the first one is an understatement. I listened to the wrong playlist, which included international artists and wrote about it, but was supposed to listen to the all-Irish one. (You can see Remy’s post about my playlist here!)
Let’s start this again. We have traded playlists for our favourite tracks of the year so far from our respective countries and it’s time to share!
First, let me gush about Bitch Falcon. This three-piece rock band from Dublin are blowing my little mind with their irreverent rock, in particular their most recent track, Clutch. Gritty and sparse to start, but it builds to reach peak rock-dom. Check out their stuff and prepare to be impressed!
If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll know my love for hip-hop, so this track, Veins (ft. Trom), sparked my interest straight away. 5th Element is the name of this duo from Ballymun (North Dublin) made up of Ger Kellett and Linco. There’s also some smooth production from Doublescreen who teams up with them on their debut album, State of Mind 2.0.
A voice on this playlist hit me in the feels straight away. It’s a song called Your Better from Participant. It appears to be from a 2015 album, Concept, but a video was released just a month or so ago. It’s a lovely mesh of ambient electronica and acoustic guitar from this Dublin based artist, Stephen Tiernan. Worthy of your time!
Alex Smyth is a solo instrumentalist from Swords (who knew it was a place), Dublin, and he creates soundscapes that transport you to the Irish country-side. Beautifully textured keyboards, guitars and drum machines combine. His debut single, CXCVII, leads his EP, The Utopian Dream, which really develops into an exploration of genres, with rolling bass and percussion underlying a glistening guitar.
Reminiscent of the powerful vocals of Florence Welch, Ailbhe Reddy‘s voice soars over her very personal music. This Dublin singer-songwriter has produced a spine-tingling track in Relent. The track is explained as “… the guilt that forms part of the natural retrospection on a once loving relationship…”, and it flows over you in waves with lush backing vocals and violin underlying tickling spurts of guitar. Beautiful song written very personally and obviously laying her soul to bare.
The playlist also includes a cheeky brit-pop-esque track from The Clockworks, perfectly thrashy punk rock from a female duo called Vulpynes, glistening pop-rock from Electric Shore, a delicate dance number from Paths and a rollicking number from Waldorf & Cannon.
Enjoy this dip into the Irish music scene as selected by one of the people most in touch with independent Irish music!
You can find the whole Spotify playlist below.