Nialler9

A live recording of a discussion about one of the best albums of 2025 from Rosalía. Rosalía’s Lux is the kind of album that demands to be heard properly and intently –  a mountain-moving, orchestral operatic masterwork  recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, sung in 13 different languages, and inspired from the writings of Simone Weil, Clarice Lispector and the lives of female saints, so tha...

This is a repost ahead of the release of the new Boards Of Canada album Inferno this friady. The Scottish duo's 1998 debut album is the subject of this month's Listen Closely podcast. Boards Of Canada's debut album Music Has The Right To Children on Warp Records/SKAM is a modern classic, a highly evocative collection of music, operating like a fading childhood memory, a creeping nostalgic collage...

We gathered to listen through one of the most singular debut albums ever made. Here's the recording of the chat. Niall is joined at our live listening event Listen Closely in the Big Romance by Cian Galvin aka Irish hip-hop producer and crate digger The Expert to discuss... DJ Shadow - Endtroducing (1996) A towering achievement in sample-based plunderphonics, music arrangements and turntablist-lea...

This month's music selector guest is the NYC and Ireland music fan Lauren Kennedy, who went viral for her Track Star video last year. Lauren Kennedy is the Athlone woman who has lived in New York for the last six years and is known for the viral video on the Track Star Youtube channel where she won $20,500 for correctly guessing all of the Irish bands selected for her on the show. Lauren very soun...

Kate Nash is one of the most interesting artists working in British and Irish music right now.   You might know her from 'Foundations', the debut single that went to number one in the UK in 2007, or maybe winning a BRIT Award for Best Female Artist in 2008 or the excellent Netflix TV show GLOW on Netflix about female wrestlers.  But the Kate Nash of the last few years is an advocate for artists wh...

This month's best of the month podcast guest is Manchester-based Irish BBC 6 Music presenter Deb Grant . Deb started out  with Jazz FM in Dublin before moving to the UK at 19 where now based in Manchester, she has been a regular BBC Radio 6 Music presenter since 2023, currently presenting the New Music Daily Fix show with Nathan Shepherd from Monday to Thursday from 7pm to 9pm. Deb will be in Irel...

The 1998 album marked a turn for the trip-hop visionary band's to the dark side. Niall is joined by Craig Fitzpatrick discuss the record in front of a live audience at at Listen Closely, our series of monthly album listening parties in the Big Romance. Massive Attack - Mezzanine (1998) The third album from the British pioneers radically reshaped the band's own bright trip-hop, soul and hip-hop wit...

The debut album from Bloc Party remains a seminal record of a key time in UK guitar music. Niall is joined by author and writer Dean Van Nguyen discuss the record in front of a live audience at Listen Closely, our series of monthly album listening parties. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (2005) Bloc Party’s debut album quickly became a seminal indie record of the 2000s with big frenetic indie zeitgeist...

This month's best of guest is Cork pop culture writer Mia Tobin Power who joins Niall for episode #309. In the recommendations corner this month are albums from Mitski, Cardinals, Charli XCX, Archive, Jill Scott, Vegas Water Taxi, Puma Blue, Nashpaints and David DeBarra. Plus a song from new Cork band Maicín. Plus some chat about the phenomenal Industry Season 4 and some other films and TV we've e...

It's been a whirlwind of a week for Dublin nightlife enjoyers. Last Friday, it was reported that newly refurbished Dublin hotel The Hoxton (formerly The Central Hotel) sought an High Court injunction over noise bleed issues against its adjoining late night restaurant and night club space Yamamori Izakaya while it plans to open its own nightclub. Both parties are in disagreement over what has taken...

The Best of the Month episode is  Patreon-only . This is a  preview on the public feed. This month's best of the month guest is music writer Vanessa Roulston Mooney. We pick our favourite music of the first month of the year, from midwest desert post rock of Winged Wheel, new releases from Irish artists Maria Somerville, Madra Salach, Ailbhe Reddy, Ye Vagabonds and Caitlin Orla Eve, the cosmic col...

A catchup with the Limerick rapper, poet, thinker, writer and actor Denise Chaila. Denise Chaila has been working on her own artist development in recent years. The Limerick artist has spent time away from the spotlight surfacing only to offer a glimpse of what's preoccupying her eloquent mind. A lot has happened in the five and half years (!) since Denise and I sat down with pals to have a chat f...

For our latest Live Listen Closely album listening party chat podcast, we are chiming in with My Bloody Valentine fever as the band prepare to play Dublin for the first time in 33 years this week. Their seminal and definite album Loveless is considered a classic of shoegaze, a totem of the genre. If shoegaze is about building sonic cathedrals, Loveless is the La Sagrada Família of shoegaze. Nialle...

The Best of the Month episode is normally  Patreon-only . We are making this one fully public. This month's best of the month guest is Nialler9 Podcast regular Louise Bruton . We discuss the album of the month with the most chatter around it - Lily Allen's new direct diaristic divorce album West End Girl, along with records from Irish music scene stalwart Maykay with her long awaited debut solo al...

A live recording and chat with Aoife Barry from our recent Listening Party for Jeff Buckley's Grace (1994) at the Big Romance in Dublin. One of the '90s most revered albums, Grace is an astonishing debut LP from the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. Sadly, it was to be his only album as he tragically died three years later but the album is considered a classic for its wide-ranging, reaching...

This is a repeat episode from 2021, ahead of our My Bloody Valentine's Loveless listening parties on Tuesday October 28th and Wednesday October 29th (this night is SOLD OUT). We revisit the classic 1991 record Loveless by the Irish/English shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine, ahead of their upcoming 3Arena show . On this podcast hour, you'll hear all the album's expensive gestation that took in coun...

It's Andrea Cleary's final Nialler9 Podcast as the cohost! Since 2018, and nearly 300 episodes, Andrea has been a big big part of the Nialler9 Podcast and episode 300 is her final episode as she goes off to spend time in academia and finish her PhD. She will be back as a guest in the future but in the meantime: Her final episode is a chance to talk about all the big music things in our world at th...

A live recording from our recent Listening Party for Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz! (2009) at the Big Romance in Dublin. The third album from the New York band of Karen O, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase marked out the trio from the scrappy garage guitar of their debut (Fever To Tell) and its restrained followup (Show Your Bones) to a glorious reinvention of synthesised art-rock filled with ecstatic an...

This live episode of the Nialler9 Podcast was recorded in Segotia in Rathmines Dublin on September 27th as part of their one-day festival Me Au Segotia. Segotia is a community space for yoga classes, creative courses, art classes, exhibitions and events in Dublin. Our panel was about how to sustain independent music communities in Dublin. As music grows ever more entangled with unethical platforms...

A trip into Trance - the dance music genre that launched a thousand cheesy synth lines and Euphoria compilations. Music journalist Niamh O'Connor (DJ Mag, AlphaTheta, Mixmag, Resident Advisor, Discogs) joins us to discuss how trance music is the sound of an Irish summer , and hyperlocally in Dun Laoghaire specifically. What is trance music? Trance music was primarily formed by producers in Germany...

The Best of the Month episode is  Patreon-only . Public subscribers get the first 25 minutes or so of the episode as a free preview. Members  get to hear the  whole episode on  Patreon  as part of a €6 a month subscription so come join us! Andrea is taking the summer off the podcast and listening parties, so this month's special guest is Ailbhe Reddy , the Irish musician, songwriter and soon to be...

This live episode was recorded over July in The Big Romance on Parnell Street with a live audience at our latest album listening party Listen Closely. The rapper, DJ and Dublin Don Mango joined us to discuss a rave-to-your-grave 90s UK dance music classic album - The Prodigy – Music For the Jilted Generation. A classic ’90s rebellious rave album and sonic riposte to the crackdown on outdoor rave p...

This week’s special guest is  the multifaceted Cóilí Collins aka DJ Shampain . ing in Galway nearly 10 years ago as a duo with Evan Campbell KETTAMA as VSN. The pair went on to form G-Town Records , and brought Galway to the world stages of dance music, with Shampain playing everything from Boiler Room to tours of China. Shampain and Kettama’s Galway influence on the scene culminated in the pair t...

It's always a good time to talk to God Knows, the Irish-Zimbabwean rapper based in Shannon. God Knows is a favourite returning guest, one of the nicest men in Irish music, one of the finest rappers in Ireland, a man who always has time for others, has an open heart, who puts collaboration, creativity and lifting people up to their rightful place. It's a great time to talk to God Knows because on S...

This live episode was recorded over two nights in June in The Big Romance on Parnell Street in front of an attentive live audience (and some people overheard on the recording from the main bar) I'm sure why it took me 18 editions of the Listen Closely live listening parties for me to think about recording them and putting them out on the Patreon feed but I finally had the idea last month. And sure...