Hello 🪺
The Anois, Os Ard New Irish Music round-up is back, just in time for yr long Easter weekend. It’s an absolutely stacked edition this time, so crack an egg over your head and tuck in.
We’ve got an early AOTY contender from Nashpaints, folk-horror soundscapes from NIMF, notes on becoming and the apocalypse from Ellie O’Neill and E The Artist, a new one from Fixity (with strings!), an absolute knockout from Curtisy, some ‘90s internet star ambience, some club stuff, some drone stuff, all sorts.
Also flagged some surprise Irish music inputs and collabs I’ve been enjoying over the past couple of months – via Felicity J Lord and Florian TM Zeisig releases on Stroom, DNTEL’s Enya mixes, Henry Ernest’s cameo on the more eaze album. Really lovely stuff all round.
As ever, if you like what I do with the newsletter and would like to support it, you can do so by becoming a paid subscriber for less than the price of a pint a month. But also, even just sharing it with a friend or giving it a boost on here is a big help. Some fun things coming up in the next while! Stay tuned.
Until next time, be well and beir bua.
“You have to trust yourself and just go for it and then make something amazing, right?” 🚀
On the one hand, you could say everything changed for Tim Sweeney five years ago. On 9th March 2021, two decades after he first stepped into WNYU’s basement studio as a student in New York, the DJ signed off from his weekly late-night post at the college radio station for the final time, taking his beloved Beats In Space show with him. With 1,000-plus broadcasts and hundreds of guest mixes under his belt — plus, a prolific label and party series — he was due a well-earned break, but by November he was back in action with a brand new show on @applemusic , where he’s been thriving ever since.
And really, listen to Beats In Space today and you’ll realise quite quickly that very little has actually changed in that time. Sure, the production value may be higher and the studio may be more high-tech, but at its core the format remains the same as it was when Sweeney started off – you get great guests, you have a good conversation, you play great music. You just go for it.
In conversation with Eoin Murray, the tastemaking presenter and DJ speaks about his 26 years of documenting dance music culture, the pursuit of constant improvement, and inspiring discovery and creativity through his weekly transmissions from NYC.
Read the full interview now on djmag.com 🔗
✍️ @murraye_
Hello 🌥️
How’s it going? Hope you’re hanging in there amidst the absolutely everything of it all.
The Anois, Os Ard New Irish Music round-up is back for 2026. This month, we’re tucking into hyped releases by Dove Ellis and Madra Salach, drifting away on organ drones and dream-pop remixes courtesy of Dylan Kerr and Maria Somerville, and doomscrolling at sites of outstanding natural beauty.
There’s also a batshit noise comp from Nyahh Records, a new-ish Just Mustard record, a double bill from Eamon Ivri, and a few psych folk releases.
Before all that, there’s the small matter of 2016, which, alongside everyone else, I spent much of the first few weeks of this year thinking about. Obviously an absolute shitter for many reasons, but personally a pretty significant one, given that it’s the year I moved to London. There were also some good Irish records that year, which I get into a bit in the preamble.
Chief among those is Rollers / Sparkers’ ‘Interior Ministry’ a criminally underrated experimental record that, had it been released today, would have the Boomkat devotees and STROOM fans losing the plot. Fun fact, my cousin Sue gifted me an album of theirs in 2008 (‘Hames’) and, being 15, I fucking hated it. Listening to it now, it was probably a lot more formative to my tastes today than I realised. It’s great. Anyway, more about all that in the newsletter.
As ever, I’m appreciative of anyone who reads, subscribes and shares this thing. I’m still trying to work out what to do with AOA this year: do I make the round-ups bi-monthly to free up more time for long-form writing? Do I need to start making reels? Should I start a podcast? Playlists? You tell me. I’m wide open to suggestions and ideas so please drop me a line on here or in an email ([email protected])
Link in bió. Until next time, be well.
Nollaig shona daoibh ✨
I was in two minds about doing an AOA End Of Year list. On the one hand, I’m tired! Plus, I didn’t start this newsletter with the intention of ranking anything. I wrote about over 120 Irish EPs, albums and singles this year, and I genuinely believe them all to be worth your time. Why not have a rummage through some previous editions and see what you find?
On the other hand, I do feel like the calibre of music released across all corners of this island over the past 12 months has been particularly high. We’ve always punched above our weight, but when the cross-genre quality feels as singular, inspired and deeply rooted as it has this year, it feels worth it to highlight some of the most memorable records of the lot.
So, I’ve compiled a list of 40. These releases are the ones that, to me, resonated most deeply, and represented so much of what makes independent Irish music feel more exciting than it has in a long time. Consider it a personal overview of the records that shaped the country’s soundscape in 2025, or at least my own understanding of it. I appreciate that there’s a lot left out, but isn’t it great to have so much to choose from?
If you were to ask about unifying themes, I’d point to ideas relating to the landscape and our connections to it, homecoming and going, memory and identity, but that’d just scratch the surface of it all really. At a time when a bizarrely fabricated vision of Irish culture is being bottled and sold in the most watered down, anodyne format across the water, I’d like to think that our musical output, when you really dig into it, is offering something so much more varied, vital and interesting.
A few things to note before we get into it. Firstly, save for a handful of records that felt particularly important to include, I’ve limited this list to stuff I wrote about during the year. You’ll find links to the full reviews for each release under the blurb. Secondly, don’t worry too much about the order. I’ve loosely ranked it in “descending” format from top to bottom, but like I said earlier, I think each of these records is really special.
Thanks for reading this year. See you on the other side. Éistigí.
Hello 🪨
The Anois, Os Ard New Irish Music round-up is back. The thing about taking a month off from this newsletter is that there’s always a huge amount of stuff I want to write about by the time the next edition rolls around, so I’ve kept the preamble to a minimum for this one. All told, despite the short break from AOA business, things have remained fairly hectic in these parts, so I haven’t really had a chance to come up with anything more interesting to say anyway.
Amidst all the end-of-year mayhem, I did manage to see some deer recently, which was lovely. I also saw My Bloody Valentine in Dublin and Junior Brother in Brixton. Equally lovely. Would recommend all three.
I also recommend all the new music I’ve written about for this edition of the newsletter. We’ve got multi-genre electronics and open-hearted psych rock; Connemara goth rock and uncanny slowcore; sophisti-pop and alt-folk; bittersweet sampledelia and weird ritual kosmische; many shades of ambient music and lots of sound system-twisting club material. A little something for everyone.
I’ll be back soon with more – EOY list? Maybe? Can I be arsed? – and in the meantime I hope your year is winding down nicely. You’ve earned it. Sure haven’t we all.
Have a read over on Substack. As ever, any help in spreading the word does the world of good, and encourages me to keep the lights on with this thing. Link in bió.
Forgive the indulgent double grid post but I’m pretty stoked about this one. Interviewed the one and only CCL 🌀
Been cooking for a long while. Think I first emailed them back in 2019. I’d just taken over DJ Mag’s Fresh Kicks mixes (RIP) and after hearing their set for Beats In Space (shout out @bisradio ) I thought it’d be neat to get them into the series with a quick Q&A. It didn’t pan out, but I went on to hear them play out a bunch of times over the next few years, and gobbled up every new mix and live recording that went online. No exaggeration to say that, in that time, they’ve leapfrogged the lot to become (quite probably) my most listened to DJ of the decade so far.
The way they weave narratives, images and complex emotions into each set boggles the mind a bit. But also, and just as crucially, they fucking send it every time. Even in the ambient ones.
We finally got around to having an IRL chat at the Barbican back in April. Covered all sorts, from a sunrise trip up a mountain in Taiwan (and how to make a mix out of it) to the art of balancing dogged weirdness and experimentation with an ability to win over any dancefloor they cross. Also touched on AI, Swan Lake, childhood theatre productions, mixtape preservation, and dodging dance music’s dull trend cycles and feedback loops.
Caught up again at the end of a busy summer, and we got into the sustainability of the touring hamster wheel, their mixtape-fiction project Invisible Cities, and the star-studded new comp on their subglow label - a real witchy club brew that one.
Additional insights later from the fabulous @objekttt , and killer pics courtesy of @helenaense . Thanks as ever to @basicchanel.mp3 . Best in the biz.
First piece of substantial writing for the day job in about two years. Chuffed to bits. Have a read on the DJ Mag website. Link in the usual spot.
CCL will change your mind 🌀
The Berlin-based DJ, producer, and founder of the @sub.glow label and party weaves intricate narratives, images and emotions into their sets, imbuing a reverence for UK sound system culture and dance music histories with a flair for psychedelic sensuality and sonic worldbuilding.
Whether stitching bass-soaked threads of genre-warping club stuff into iridescent rave tapestries at festivals and venues around the world, or conjuring vivid scenes and pictures with their online mixes, their approach to DJing is an expression of their unflinching individuality, dogged intentionality, and wide-eyed passion for storytelling through sound.
In conversation with Eoin Murray, @ccl_url unravels their uncompromising approach to the dancefloor, mapping their musical evolution from childhood theatre productions and dance schools, through formative periods in Bristol and Seattle, to their current existence as a booked and busy DJ.
They discuss their label’s new ‘sub-alchemy’ compilation, their Invisible Cities mixtape-fiction project on NTS, breaking the feedback loop of trends and accepted industry norms, the threat of AI, and their unyielding sense of curiosity toward music.
Read the full interview on djmag.com 🔗
✍️ @murraye_
📸 @helenaense
Live photography: @zwtsr.photo | @dontframekevin | @ldscarla | @rafaelaurbanin | @dimitridippolito
Hello ☁️
Hope you’re all okay. The Anois, Os Ard New Irish Music round-up is back. Inside you’ll find harps and bodhráns reimagined as ambient electronic instruments, avant-folk songs stretched to their surrealist limits in fairy forts, two exceptional compilations, and some Prefab Sprout-style sweetness for the bedroom pop generation. There’s also some uilleann pipes, post-rock, motorik psychedelia and a whole lot more.
In addition to all that, I’ve included a brief introduction about Manchán Magan’s contributions to Irish music. So much has already been said so beautifully about the writer and documentary maker by those who knew him, so I didn’t want to go on too much, but I thought it would be nice to highlight some of his interactions with the island’s soundscape, be that through direct collaborations, or simply through the influence of his words. Here’s a guy who once described Dún Aonghasa as the site of Bronze Age rave ups. Who wouldn’t be inspired?
Anyway, it’s all up on Substack now. Link in bió. As ever, if you like what you read, please share it around! It’s a big help.
Swipe across for a bonus clip of Rún blowing my head off at Supersonic last month. Music is great. Until next time, beir bua x
The mix I did for NTS is up on the archive now.
Repeating myself but…
A trip into Ireland’s experimental undergrowth, loosely anchored by ideas relating to landscape, lore and the search for ‘thin places’, where the physical world meets the spiritual realm. From mountains, bogs and volcanic islands, through subterranean sean-nós songs, ambient trad excursions, dream pop and mushroom picking field recordings, it’s a companion to my recent newsletter on Substack and is dedicated to the late Irish storyteller and mystic John Moriarty.
Hope you like it (and my very good meme)
A cool thing happening this week: I’ll be on NTS channel 2 on Wednesday (24th Sept) at 10 AM with a mix for its Roots series.
An hour-long journey into Ireland’s experimental undergrowth, loosely anchored by ideas relating to landscape, lore and the search for ‘thin places’, where the physical world meets the spiritual realm.
From mountains, bogs and volcanic islands, through subterranean sean-nós songs, ambient trad excursions, dream pop and mushroom picking field recordings, it’s a companion piece to my most recent Substack post, and is dedicated to the late Irish storyteller and mystic John Moriarty. It is bookended, naturally, by The Bothy Band and Enya.
Would love it if you tuned in x
Hello ✨
The Anois, Os Ard New Irish Music round-up is back and, Christ help us all, it’s another long one. Over the past month or so I’ve tied myself in knots, trying and failing to untangle thought spirals about folklore, music and the Irish landscape.
There are 17 releases (!) covered in this edition, and combinations of these themes recur again and again, from immersive works of augmented field recordings to tectonic drones and blissed-out ambient psychedelia. There’s bog bodies, glitching birdsongs, ancient cairns and cell towers; there’s Fomorians and folk tales and, for some reason, lurid pink rashers and sausages hanging raw off of trees.
There’s lots of other stuff too: country tunes reimagined as dreamy experimental folk songs; sun-dappled neo-soul; warped electronics and rave tracks; returning heroes of Irish instrumental rock; free jazz; shoegaze; industrial dub; you name it. The CMAT album isn’t in there, but believe me, I think it’s spectacular. Listen to it.
Life’s been a bit hectic lately, and I’ve been finding solace amidst the non-stopness of it all by watching John Moriarty clips on YouTube. His wild and beautiful meanderings on nature and spirituality take me out of everything for a bit, but inevitably it’s all fed back into my listening these past few weeks. If ever there was a guy who’d encourage you to get lost in search of something mystical in the Irish landscape it’d be him. The audiobook of Martin Shaw’s Bardskull has been doing the same, so maybe check that out too if that’s your bag?
Anyway, it’s all up on Substack now. Link in bió. If you like it, please share it around! It really helps get the word out.
Until next time, be well x
