Nialler9

Tyler, The Creator dropped his seventh studio album Chromakopia on Monday morning after only announcing the album a matter of days before release. As one of the most compelling album artists in rap, and an artist who is on a great run of records including Flower Boy (2017), Igor (2019), Call Me If You Get Lost (2021), how does Chromakopia stack up? With Tyler bigger than ever and selling out two 3...

Niall chats to Ray O'Donohue, the recently appointed Night-Time Economy Advisor for Dublin City. What is a night mayor? A night czar? A night-time economy advisor? Well, my perception of what it entails is someone who advocates and advises local city council policy and decision-making on what is required in order to make the city more liveable at night, more culturally rich, safer, and to be the g...

From now on, the Best of the Month episode is Patreon-only . Public subscribers get the first 25 minutes or so. Patreon members get to hear the whole episode on their member feeds or on Patreon direct. Episode 263 comes at us fast with Niall Byrne and Andrea Cleary's monthly music recommendations. Chatting Indie Sleaze, a reason to be cheerful with the return of Adebisi Shank and a chat about club...

Last Friday, Culture Night in Dublin, the Tola Vintage shop in Temple Bar's annual block party was shut down by the Gardaí, and three people were arrested. The police actions were met with criticism for the use of excessive force and suggestions of an underlying racial motivation. The Gardaí's statement about the matter cited "public safety concerns" but that doesn't explain how an innocuous gathe...

From now on, the Best of the Month episode is Patreon-only . Public subscribers get the first 25 minutes or so. Patreon members get to hear the whole episode on their member feeds or on Patreon direct. It’s the Nialler9 Podcast’s monthly episode where Niall and Andrea recommend albums and songs of recent weeks. Episode 261 of the Nialler9 Podcast features albums from MJ Lenderman and Sabrina Carpe...

Episode #260 of the Nialler9 Podcast is a long overdue Andrea deep dive into the life and times and music of Josh Tillman aka Father John Misty - Andrea's Cool Big Guy. Over nearly TWO HOURS, Andrea takes us through the highlights of his albums: Fear Fun, I Love You, Honeybear; Pure Comedy, God's Favourite Customer and Chloë and the Next 20th Century, his run of albums from 2012 to 2022. Our chat...

Niall is joined by journalist and arts writer Aoife Barry to review the fourth album from the Fontaines - new chapter, new label, new look, new sound for the band? Romance signifies some change from the Fontaines, their first on new label XL Recordings, they have graduated from the indie producer du jour Dan Carey with James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Depeche Mode, Florence and the Machine, Goril...

From now on, the Best of the Month episode is going Patreon-only . Public subscribers get the first 20 minutes or so. Patreon members get to hear the whole episode on their member feeds or on Patreon direct. It’s the Nialler9 Podcast’s monthly episode where Niall and Andrea recommend albums and songs of recent weeks. Episode 258 of the Nialler9 Podcast features Niall and Andrea discussing the Olym...

Siobhan McClean aka shiv is an Irish-Zimbabwean producer, singer-songwriter of neo-soul, RnB and lo-fi hip-hop who has shared two songs from the forthcoming debut album the defiance of a sadgirl this September, 'Limerence' and 'Cherry Pie' , the latter featuring Kojaque, and produced by Gaptoof. I spoke to Shiv about the nature of collaborating and connecting with different artists and producers f...

Exploring a subset of electronic music made in France from the years 1996 to 2004. It's the latest episode in the Niall explains a dance music genre to Andrea series. What is French Touch? For some it means house music of French origin of the '90s and 2000s. For me, it's more defined. French Touch is more of a subgenre almost exclusively made by French producers - French dance music rooted in samp...

From this episode going forward, the Best of the Month episode is going Patreon-only. Public subscribers get the first 20 minutes or so for free but to hear the whole episode you'll have to sign up to Patreon to hear all 70 minutes of the podcast. It’s the Nialler9 Podcast’s monthly episode where Niall and Andrea recommend albums and songs of recent weeks. Episode 255 of the Nialler9 Podcast featu...

It's our annual look at the contenders for the song of the summer. There's no formula for writing a song of the summer, the same way that you can't guarantee a Christmas classic, but there are some ground rules that seem to apply for most of the songs in contention every year. As noted by Mark Savage's The secrets of a hit summer song piece, some key things a song has to be simple (like Whigfield'...

It’s a new album special as we take a deep dive into Charli XCX’s sixth album brat. On Episode 253 we are joined by Kelly Doherty (of The Vinyl Factory, Satellite Towns and formerly Nialler9) to discuss all things brat from the clubby rollout to the surprising vulnerability and insecurities on Charli’s latest record. We put in context of her career, it girls, relationships, motherhood and how big...

It’s the Nialler9 Podcast’s monthly episode where Niall and Andrea recommend albums and songs of recent weeks. Episode 252 of the Nialler9 Podcast and we are excited and enthusing about music of May. There are songs from Kynsy, His Father's Voice, PinkPantheress, Clairo, Kawaii Hoe and Charli XCX. And albums this month from Papa Romeo, Billie Eilish, Carlos Danger, Niamh Regan and yes, the Challen...

On Episode 251, Niall gets the chance to talk about one of his favourite all-time records from his favourite band. "Don’t try this at home on your dad’s stereo — only under strict hip-hop supervision.."] Join Niall and Andrea to hear why Beastie Boys' fourth album from 1994 Ill Communication is one of the best around - with chat about how the band recorded and made it, where the put the Beasties i...

It’s the Nialler9 Podcast’s monthly episode where Niall and Andrea talk about the albums and songs they loved this month. It's episode 250 (!) of the Nialler9 Podcast and we are sharing our enthusiasm for albums from Curtisy, Rachel Chinouriri, Jessica Pratt, Bálordabreen and tracks from Chappell Roan, Jamie xx, Baby Rose / BadBadNotGood, Sloucho, Taylor, CMAT , Charli XCX and a tribute to Steve A...

Episode 249 of the Nialler9 Podcast and we have a grab bag free-range episode with Niall and Andrea discussing: Hozier is the first Irish artist in 34 years to get a US #1 The Kendrick, Drake, J. Cole rap beef The reaction to Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets Department The Electric Picnic lineup Lankum, CMAT and Jazzy nominated for Ivor Novello Awards Early club nights are a thing Song of the summer...

The West Kerry DJ and radio presenter Cian Ó Cíobháin marks 25 years of An Taobh Tuathail, his alternative new music show which has been running for five nights a week on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta since 1999. Cian joins us to pick 6 tracks to represent his radio show over the years, and to discuss his process, DJing and how he has managed to present a world-renowned radio show for so long in a fick...

Episode 247 is a deep dive into a seminal '90s debut album from Fiona Apple. Fiona Apple – Tidal (1996) The debut album from the then 18 year-old American singer-songwriter established the artist’s unique raw songcraft that blends pop, rock, and jazz. Featuring the songs ‘Criminal’, ‘Shadowboxer’, ‘Sleep to Dream’, and ‘The First Taste’, Tidal is a fully-formed classic of the mid-90s written from...

Niall and Andrea are talking about the A B, and Cs of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s eighth studio album on Episode 246. A for America B For Beyonce C for Country (and D for Discourse) This 80 minutes and 27 track album, serving as Act 2 in the Renaissance trilogy, was purported to be Beyoncé's country album. That's not what has bolted from the stables. Cowboy Carter is not a country album, but it does...

It’s the Nialler9 Podcast’s monthly episode where Niall and Andrea talk about the albums and songs they loved this month. Episode 245 is a ping-pong new disco recommends, with music discussed from Waxahatchee, Adrianne Lenker, New Jackson, Tatyana, Travis & Elzzz, Glass Beams, Charli XCX, Havvk, Group Listening, Two Shell / FKA Twigs and Mildlife (I guess)... Along with the What’s Consuming Yo...

This month's deep dive Listen Closely album is: Portishead - Dummy (1994) The debut album from the Bristol trio of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley was released during the summer of Blur’s Parklife and Oasis’s Definitely Maybe. Dummy was a darker, stranger record that would become a trip-hop classic that paired hip-hop, jazz, and electronic textures with Beth Gibbons spine-tingling voi...

Today's episode is a bit of a grab bag of news items, but musicians speaking truth to power is a common theme. Niall and Andrea discuss: Lankum winning the Choice Music Prize and their speech that encouraged the boycott of Israel Kneecap's show of Solidarity with Palestine on the Late Late Show & their US TV debut All the Irish bands including Kneecap who then cancelled their SXSW Festival sho...

It’s the Nialler9 Podcast’s monthly episode where Niall and Andrea talk about the albums and songs they loved in the last four weeks. Episode 242 is a return to the music recommends corner, featuring new album picks from Fynch, Thee U.F.O, Declan McKenna, Mohammad Syfkhan and new songs from Adrianne Lenker, Brittany Howard, Niamh Regan, Jessica Pratt, The Decemberists and Beck. Along with the What...

On this near-annual episode, Niall and Andrea are joined by writer and journalist Sophia McDonald to discuss the 10 nominated albums in this year’s Choice Music Prize Irish album of the year 2023 category, as chosen by 11 judges. The albums are: Grian Chatten – Chaos For The Fly (Partisan Records) The debut album from the Fontaines DC frontman. CMAT – Crazymad, For Me (CMATBABY/AWAL) The second al...