MENTIONED in the Irish Post earlier this year as one of Ireland’s Soundtrack for 2025, Donegal alt.folk singer-songwriter Ramper (aka Declan McClafferty) is quick off the mark to release his debut solo album, Loner.
While there might be a correlation between McClafferty and the album title, his songs are inclusive, based as they are on a Gaelic language life lived before the Internet came along to upset the proverbial applecart.
Loner by RamperAs is the norm with nicely skewed folk songs, there are hints of genuine melancholy here, but the mood is enhanced by the blend of instrumentation, which ranges from pedal steel guitars, a piano that needs fine tuning, and synthesisers that are programmed to perfection.
SPEAKING of perfection… Good things are happening for North Kerry singer-songwriter Lorraine Nash, whose 2023 debut album, All That I Can Be, is on the receiving end of a deluxe reissue campaign.
All That I Can Be by Lorraine NashThe reason for such a leg-up is Nash’s ‘star’, which is rising into the air – not yet stratospheric but certainly above the clouds. It makes sense that her debut (which, unlike her current status, flew very much under the radar when it was first released) is once again being pushed – Nash’s songs find the sweet spot between traditional and folk in a way that very much works in her favour.
If you’re looking for quality reference points, think of a special blend of traditional singer Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and folk/Americana songwriters such as Laura Marling and Gillian Welch. Readers can see/hear Nash on Hothouse Flowers’ forthcoming tour of the UK (from June 6th-14th). Lucky you.
“IT’S HARD to believe that people will finally get to hear what we’ve been working on the past three years,” say (collectively) Dublin-based alt.rock/pop band Drying Weather.
A Family Meal by Drying WeatherThe band has been together for six years, the past four of which have been spent recording/releasing singles and gigging as much as they can. Time is a terrible thing when you’re counting down the seconds, minutes and hours, but A Family Meal is worth the wait.
There’s a little of Fontaines DC and other similar-generation bands here (Museum, Boomer, Hyperfolly) and a very pleasant pop sensibility throughout (notably Letter Space Number, a song that Crowded House would be proud of if they had written it) but not at the expense of hiding their individuality. Tuck in – and mind your manners!
BELFAST-BASED folk singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside has a reputation for excellence. In his mid-30s, he started performing (notably, at least) in his early 20s, never taking the easy way out when it came to songwriting.
His influences lay at the intersection of Americana, world music, electronica, and a certain undefinable style that threatens to trip into a pit of inattentive experimentation but pulls back just in time.
Joshua Burnside has released new music this monthHis new album, Teeth of Time, sometimes teeters on the brink of being placed in the ‘An Acquired Taste’ box but delve into the songs and you’ll find Burnside’s intent to be as commonly decent as you could hope for. The personal and the political merge, also, ensuring Burnside’s standing as an imaginative lyricist remains intact.
THERE are just as imaginative song narratives by Irish-born, Brighton resident Melojann on her new album, Status. The songwriter/singer/producer (and self-director of her music videos) strikes up intriguing conversations not just about what she describes as “late-capitalist dystopia” but also the technology that permeates our lives.
There is, she writes in the album notes, “an important conversation to be had around the fact that our culture is controlled by billionaires.”
Her songs go some way to creating a soundscape for such discussion. This is key to the album’s overall success: the 11-track work (which also includes three short ambient ‘interludes’ that may or may not take your fancy) features song styles that stroll from sprightly pop (Secrets, Translate Me, and Data Ghost could be Madonna songs) to finely-tuned electro-pop (Rainbow Language Is for Losers, Broke, and Positive).
Status by MeljoannIn a parallel universe, these songs would be played off the radio. The conversation isn’t all despair, either.
Yes, says Meljoann, the album describes scenarios “in which Big Tech and Big Data hold our fates in their ghoulish hands” but they also offer suggestions in how people can unshackle themselves by returning to grassroots community networks, and by “building on open tech and anarchist principles of dual power and mutual aid.”
Frankly, if the soundtrack to this is as good as what’s on here, bring on the upheaval.
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