Nialler9's New Irish Music: Mmoths, Monster Monster, Walking On Cars...

SONGS OF THE WEEK

MMOTHS – Deu

Kildare musician Jack Colleran burst onto the Irish scene as a teenager with some simply-constructed but highly emotive electronic music. Now 22, Colleran is ready to reveal his debut album

Luneworks

, partly written in a friend's apartment in LA and the result of a long creative process involving scrapped songs and experiments. Deu is warm and emotional as characterised Mmoths' earliest work but wrought with a deeper sense of texture too. The album will be released in March.

Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Anything You Want

Another promising act with a debut album coming on Virgin/EMI, Limerick's Bleeding Heart Pigeons operate on the avant-garde end of indie-rock with long songs and lyrical subject matter most bands would run a mile from – the Columbine school disaster for example. The band are an outlier as a result as their loose new song suggests, reinforced by a self-directed video by singer Michael Keating, showing the hidden desires of an ordinary rural man.

Cave Ghosts – All My Life

Retro sunshine girl group pop from the Dublin quintet. Their new double A-side single transports us to a faraway beaches with a warm climate and a carefree attitude. Still, there is drama and angst beneath the surface.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Walking On Cars – Speeding Cars

With their UK major label deal and their debut album about to get a big push in January, Dingle's Walking On Cars return to their roots to the beautiful Kerry countryside where they shot their new video. The video could serve as an advertisement for the area as a prime filming location with its shots of the Dingle peninsula and beach, the Conor Pass and Slea Head.

RELEASE OF THE WEEK

Monster Monster – The City's Ours EP

Mick Stuart and Riona Sally Hartman's musical partnership had its genesis in an argument in the Stag's Head about writing music. Since then the pair have been pushing and pulling each other in different directions. One of their songs Christmas In Liverpool found its way onto regular rotation at Anfield last Christmas, which for Stuart, a life-long Liverpool fan was some achievement. This week, the band released a four-track EP recorded with UK producer James Lewis who adds the common 'pop' sheen to songs like the retro pop of Assassin to dreamy indie The City's Ours to moody pop You're My Fix.

NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Participant

Formerly of the band Heritage Centre, Stephen Tiernan has been finding his way as a solo musician under the name Participant. At various points, other musicians have been involved in recording and live but at his Hard Working Class Heroes live set, Tiernan performed his brittle ambient songs along on guitar with the backdrop of visuals on a sheet. His new EP Content, has just been released and delves deeper into intimate atmosphere than ever before, Tiernan's gentle vocal lapping at the track throughout.