New #68 SAL

 

If you’ve had a chance to listen to the updated Breaking More Waves New Music Weekly playlist (here) you’ll have no doubt heard the mesmerizing song Red Wine by Irish singer Sal that opens proceedings.

The independent Cork based songwriter has released just a handful of songs under this name, Red Wine being her fourth following last year’s Bullet In The Head, Everything and Merry Go Round. It’s a stop-you-in-your-tracks country lullaby and deserves to be heard by a far bigger audience than the 773 monthly listeners she currently has on Spotify. 

A little bit of digging reveals that this isn’t Sal’s first musical project; she’s recorded and released as Sara Ryan since 2016, was named New Artist of the Year at the Irish Folk Awards back in 2017 and released an album in 2019. That was in the past though and what excites most is her new material and in particular Red Wine - a song that casts the most magnetising of spells. The irony is that the song is about the difficulty of letting go - something you'll probably find is hard to do with a tune as alluring as this.

Her other material still maintains a hint of country, but there’s elements of pop and softer rock as well; if you like music by the likes of Natalie Imbruglia or the song Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer then Sal’s melodic ways are guaranteed to charm you.

Having worked through a number of support slots with various Irish musicians, Sal has a few small headline shows of her own coming up through March in Ireland (including one in a bookshop!).

If she continues to deliver music as gently heart-melting and gorgeous as Red Wine, she could well be one to watch into the future.

Sal - Red Wine

Sal · Red Wine

NEW #67 Miss Tiny

 

I’ve debated in the past about what is ‘new’ in the context of music, something that probably isn’t that important to anyone else, but as the writer of an occasionally posting new music blog these are the sort of things I think about. Imagine being my partner and the exciting discussions I bring to the table: "So, if you've never heard The Beatles before, are they a new band? Are their songs new music?"

Today’s new band are pretty damn new by most definitions. After all they released their debut single today. Or are they?

A quick consultation with the internet tells us that they’re not quite the fresh-faced teenage discovery I thought they might be. For Miss Tiny is actually producer / guitarist record label owner Dan Carey (Wet Leg, Fontaines DC, Honeyglaze, Kae Tempest etc) and vocalist / drummer Benjamin Romans-Hopcraft from Childhood and Warmduscher. They’ve been friends for many years and originally formed the band together under the terrible name What It’s Like To Be A Rat, debuting at Brixton Windmill last year. Having deemed that name “too evil sounding” they’ve become Miss Tiny, after a nickname to Benjamin’s grandmother who passed away during recording.

The aforementioned debut single from Miss Tiny is called The Sound (no it's not a cover of The 1975 song) and is streaming below in video form. It is best described as a slow-motion lo-fi scuffed up around the edges take on Peter Gunn. It’s not a one off, but the first take from a bigger project of which no doubt we’ll hear more soon. But for now get your groove on to this dirty and enjoyably unpleasant beast.

Miss Tiny - The Sound

NEW #66 Gurriers

 

There’s been quite a storm of shouty (and spoken) post-punk raging out Ireland over the last few years and for the moment at least it seems that the lightning does indeed strike more than once, because Gurriers are the next band from those shores to hit with a vicious and venomous thwhack

Official debut single Approachable was released this week. It has the same sort of ferocious firepower that those early Fontaines DC singles possessed – think Hurricane Laughter with even ballsier vocals. They sound like the sort of band that would send bodies flying everywhere in a sweaty pub, volume cranked up, beers flying. Tender and beautiful? Most definitely not. Intensely raw and thrilling? That’s more like it.

Gurriers consist of Emmet White, Ben O’Neill, Mark MacCormack, Pierce Callaghan and vocalist Dan Hoff who has described Approachable as being: “A tongue in cheek anthem about the rising far right rhetoric all over the world.”

You can find the track below and it will be streaming from tomorrow on the weekly update of the Breaking More Waves New Music Weekly playlist which you can listen to and follow here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0DIhVpCH0TnzOGJSyPJC9v?si=jCKLOalqQb6egZ9Twk3xUA

Gurriers - Approachable

Gurriers · Approachable