10 must-hear Irish albums from 2024
The sheer legwork done by Dublin trad-revivalists Lankum transcends mere preservation, following in the footsteps of O’Riada and Planxty in not only recasting the tradition for contemporary ears, but assisting in setting the foundations of its future.
‘Live in Dublin’ is a roundup of performances from a three-night residency at Vicar Street, and documents an electrifying live experience - including the first official release of their beloved rendition of ‘Rocky Road to Dublin’.
A chance encounter with the music of Co Fermanagh’s Rose Connolly at Quarter Block Party 2023 acted as an entry-point to Connolly’s work for your writer, both as an experimental musician and composer, and as a steward of the Irish tradition of keening, a type of funeral song that predates Christianity on this island.
Weaving ancient songform with original works, Connolly’s second album is bracing, absolutely fearless, and demonstrative of an artist and voice almost physically pushing back against earthly constraints.
This debut - and possibly only - long-player, marks evidence of the existence of a supergroup of Irish alternative musicians, who each prefer to remain anonymous.
Get past the removal of individual personalities, and it’s clear, however, that this effort is more than the sum of its parts, a distillation of ruminant shoegaze and poignant pop influence, buried in sheets of distortion.
From the band themselves, to the music they’ve made - if this is all there is, it’s a puzzle worthy of gentle unmaking by the listener.
Buttevant-born musician David Murphy has had a lifelong love affair with Americana, but in a pandemic-era experiment with Irish slow airs on his pedal-steel guitar, happened across a whole world of sonic possibilities.
Taking the arrangement works of O’Riada, Carolan and other composers, and placing the melodies on the eerie, almost lonely tones of the instrument, Murphy and collaborators have fashioned something new and authentic, building lush, full-band renditions around swelling, heart-aching reaches into Ireland’s musical psyche.
In the face of the Irish far-right pivoting back to street action in the wake of electoral failures, it’s important to remember that each of us are human, and that each person that comes here fleeing war and famine has a story.
Mohammad Syfkhan, a bouzouki player and medical professional who ended up in Direct Provision in Leitrim, after fleeing his native Syria following the murder of one of his sons by Isis, found community and common cause with the local psychedelic music scene.
The result? His solo debut record, merging celebratory Middle-Eastern and North African musics with tightly-mixed, sound-system sensibilities.
Connection to the land, of course, also means looking forward.
Listowel Gaelgóir wordsmith Súil Amháin is at the centre of a fast-rising Irish-language movement in contemporary sounds, leaning heavily into his West Kerry accent and cadence, and keeping a foot apiece rooted in poetry and hip-hop.
For Cork producer Rúairí Lynch, aka Bantum, the idea of a potential collaboration no doubt created new possibilities, tapping into his own more upbeat tendencies, while still very much sonically in the realm of texture and the tangible.
Kerry singer, writer and performer Amano Miura has emerged from a years-long hiatus in the past year to develop a new body of work in English and Irish, spanning song, spoken-word, in-person workshops and performance art.
Garry McCarthy, aka electronic producer Kalabanx, has largely spent the last two decades building The Kabin Studio for his city’s Northside, and helping waves of people, young and old alike, find their Spark as musicians, filmmakers and creators.
THREAD represents a new beginning for both, while appearances from Liam O’Maonlaí and Ronán O’Snodaigh provide moments of intergenerational affirmation.
While Dublin’s ever-fervent hip-hop scene wasn’t short on contenders for notable records this year - Ahmed, With Love’s ‘COMMA, FULLSTOP.’, and Curtisy’s ‘What Was the Question’ in particular being two strong strains of semi-wholesome haziness - there’s no more succinct or concise a document of the breadth and depth of talent that lurks in a scene on the cusp of entering music-industry machinations than ‘Irish Hash Mafia’.
Simply put: a mixtape produced by Rory Sweeney under his Carlos Danger moniker, and boasting a range of spontaneous contributions from a brace of Dublin rhymers, that began as a tribute to 1990s beatmaking - and may well end up as a milestone of hip-hop’s development on this island, as wider attention brings with it the presence of vested interests.
One of those names that’s bobbed and weaved in and out of Irish music’s critical discourse has been Cork composer Toby Kaar, whose occasional recorded and live excursions have seldom faltered from acclaim.
This latest effort, a long-player on limited vinyl, sees Kaar re-emerge in contemplative fettle, from ‘Conceiving Two’’s low Rhodes organ and rattling jazz percussion, to the long and winding journey of eight-minute fusion adventure ‘Bridge Song’.
There’s nothing your writer can really say, to try to either encompass the enormity of the work of late Cork singer and songwriter Eoin French, better known to the world as the voice of Talos; or his impact among loved ones, admirers and the wider world of music.
But posthumously-released extended-player ‘Sun Divider’, created in Iceland alongside composer Atli Örvarsson, and the first of a body of work to be made public in accordance with his own wishes, says everything. No point in dancing about architecture on this one - just press play.
- Some of these records - and lots more besides - can be found at your local record shops, including: PLUGD Records, Coal Quay; Bunker Vinyl, Camden Quay; 33RPM, MacCurtain Street; MusicZone, Deanrock Business Park, Togher; and Golden Discs, Patrick Street.
- Others can be found on streaming services, and the artists and labels responsible can be supported directly with digital purchases via Bandcamp.
