ZOiD featuring Suzanne Savage – Static
The Savage eye.
Belfast soprano and jazz singer Suzanne Savage (top centre)) joins forces with Dubliner Daniel Jacobson (right) aka ZOiD on this single from his album of collaborations ZONGS.
It’s a genre-bending mix of techno, soul and funk.
The video is by Diolmhain Ingram Roche.
Nick says: Funk’s not dead.
David Donohue – She Can Do
“Peak to peak, coast to coast.”
In the afterglow of International Women’s Day, Carlow-born songsmith David Donohue (the artist formerly known as The Floors) pays a sweet musical tribute to our record-breaking rower Karen Weekes (top).
Produced by David Ayers who also plays multiple instruments.
David writes:
“This track was inspired by Karen’s recent 81-day solo rowing trip across the Atlantic – the first Irish woman to do so – and her ‘Shecando‘ philosophy which urges females to believe in their abilities.”
Nick says: Oceans apart.
Pic: RTÉ
Clare Sands – Awe na Mná (Praise The Women)
Ladies assemble.
Fancy a song to to mark International Women’s Day?
Read on.
The press blurb says:
“It was a sight to behold – young, old, brave, bold. 100 women on four beaches in the four corners of Ireland, celebrating sisterhood in all its colours. Men fled as women marched, danced, sang, howled and embraced the Dublin, Connemara, Belfast and Cork sands and tides.
“Led by fearless fiddler, bilingual singer & multi-instrumentalist Clare Sands, ‘Awe na Mná’ is the powerful, energetic, and fierce celebration of women through the ages.
“Paying homage to the likes of Gráinne Mhaol, Countess Markievicz, Queen Maeve, Maggie Barry and modern day Irish women the Debenhams Workers, it is a battle cry, a fervent call, a rebel yell, and a passionate proclamation to sing and dance in awe of mná.”
Clare writes:
“The gatherings of women all over the country were joyful, empowering and fierce – and I could think of no better time to release Awe na Mná than International Women’s Day.
“I wrote the song on Inisheer and while I was there, I was struck by how resilient, fearless, and strong the women were. This song reflects on the past, embraces the present & strives towards a brighter future for women in Ireland and all over the world.”
Nick says: Come dance with them in Ireland.
Ruby Moss – If You Are
“I was too late to say goodbye.”
Dublin-based singer Ruby Moss (top), 14, penned this heart-stopping elegy to her great-grandmother Beryl Nestor in the months after her death during the Covid lockdown in December 2020.
It has since reached No.1 in the Irish iTunes charts.
The video was filmed in Crookedwood Studios in Slane, County Meath, by Mark Cahill.
Nick says: Let grief be a fallen leaf.
Fia Moon – By Now
“And all the melodies that I thought you wrote for me:
Are you singing them for her now instead?”
Breaking up is hard to do on Fia Moon‘s new ballad. It comes with a beautifully shot video in County Mayo by Zoë Ardiff.
Fia writes:
“My dad lives in Mayo so it has always been a home-away-from-home for me; a place of refuge. By Now is a very personal song to me and I wanted the video to be a reflection of that. The song is about a painful experience – but also about coming through it.
“For me, being out in nature, out at sunset and around animals are all very soothing and I wanted to give viewers a glimpse of where I was on my healing journey when I wrote the song.”
Nick says: Mayo Moon rising.
Dirty Dreamer – Piano 39
A song in the key of life.
Formed out of the ashes of Come On Live Long, Dirty Dreamer (top) fly the flag for ambient electro-folk on their new single. Their album The Everyday In Bloom is out on April 8.
The trio are Louise Gaffney, Daithi O’Connor and Ken McCabe.
Louise writes:
“Piano 39 was one of those tracks that almost wrote itself. Daithí started quietly humming a gorgeous melody while jamming a middle section. In between chords I managed to hit the mic so it swung around on the stand and just caught it as he was coming up with it. That little passing moment became the hook.
“The final verse is trying to describe one of those shiny moments of clarity you can have at random when you notice an everyday moment of beauty and you are completely pulled out of yourself.”
Nick says: Don’t shoot the keyboard player.
Wallis Bird – Pretty Lies
“It’s been a long-ass year.”
Berlin-based Irish songsmith Wallis Bird (top) reflects on the lockdown in her new video shot in Germany by Joe Wright.
Wallis writes:
“It documents the silence and the beauty of hearing the birds for miles and miles at the beginning of lockdown when there was no traffic and nobody was leaving their house. It moves from that into when things began reopening a little more.
“This quiet, uneasy safety at the start develops into a spiral of unending possibilities. The end of this song expresses all of the possibilities of where we’re going to go from here.”
Wallis releases her new album Hands on May 27.
Nick says: Bird song.
Def Nettle – The Pills
“Screw getting laid when the pills are this great.”
Glen Brady (top), aka DJ Wool, takes it to the limit with his debut single as Def Nettle.
Additional vocals are by Lisa Doyle-Taafe and the video is by Dave Mack, Lindsey Brady and Beatrice Brady.
Glen says:
“Def Nettle is me looking in the mirror and seeing the stories of my life and everyone I’ve loved or lost staring back at me, telling me to get on with it. Make the fucking music. Use your voice. Take advantage of what you’ve learned, what you’ve seen. Over a lifetime of different jobs within the music industry, I would regularly have discussions with myself about the project that is now called Def Nettle. I knew it was coming. I just didn’t know when or how until it revealed itself last year.”
Nick says: Pills and thrills.
Shammen Delly – Charlie Semilanceata
The death of Donegal electronica pioneer Aengus Friel (top) aka Shammen Delly has left his many friends in the Irish music scene reeling.
Aengus had just uploaded this mind-bending video (above) to YouTube of a song from his psychedelic EP The People’s Temple OV Big Tom.
We send our condolences to his friends and family.
Below is the blurb for the EP on his bandcamp page.
‘This is a vivid reimagined vision of a time when Irish Country legend Big Tom and his Mainliners were leaders of ‘The Peoples Temple’ in Monaghan back in the late 70’s and would travel around the country summoning new followers for the sacred dances around stone circles and beaches.
‘His followers would come down the Four Country Roads in droves, the Smithwicks would be flowing and be tainted with thee auwl Magick Mushrooms, the masses would be waltzing and jiving around large fires howling to the skies as the sun rises as the big beat keeps on thumping.
‘The music in this EP is a mixture of old and new music Shammen Delly produced in his Dunge up north in Donegal, which sounds like a surreal noise fest of oneiric electronica distorted whirling warbly synth chords and thoughts of 70’s German Krautrock emotional mellotrons, blending in hidden country bass lines, and a wash of psychedelic industrialistic rhythms and downtempo decrepit trip-hop big beats, and organic recordings of piano,harmonium, and personal recordings from Friel’s family members throughout the past.’
Nick says: Farewell Aengus.
