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…

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…

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. …

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 (…

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 electr…

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 Knee…

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 Pra…

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. CMA…

The hosts of the Nialler9 Podcast (Niall Byrne and Andrea Cleary) in conjunction with The Big Romance present the Listen Closely series of listening parties, a night featuring a focus album from an artist we love on the last Wednesday of the month. To accompany the monthly listening party on Wednesday February 28th – 7.30pm @ The Big Romance, we pr…

On this week's pod, it's a deep dive into an album from one of our perennial favourites, as it celebrates 20 years. It's the turn of the MF DOOM and Madlib's classic 2004 album Madvillainy by Madvillain, a dense, psychedelic, colourful rap album that quickly cemented itself as one of the best rap albums of all time when it came out on Stones Throw …

The Nialler9 Podcast returns for another season and new year. After taking January off, Niall and Andrea are back discussing what has been happening in music since we closed off the year with the Best of 2023 episodes including Pitchfork's downsizing, the state of music journalism and the Enshittification of online music discovery and discourse, an…

Our final podcast of the year is the fun rapid-fire Podcast Awards! In a year where AI, touring became more difficult for musicians, and Spotify squeezed the emerging artists, We give out awards for things like: Best live gig Best live performance Villain of the year Thing we'd like to go away Best opening song lyric Best bagpipes solo The Alan Mag…

It's the second of our end of year podcasts as Nialler and Andrea Cleary talk 12 albums they loved this year. Featuring albums from Lankum, Boygenius, Noname, Andre 3000, Olivia Rodrigo, Rachael Lavelle, Lana, Kara Jackson, Mitski and more. Next episode: The Nialler9 Podcast Awards 2023. Special thanks to Georgia Hallion for editing this podcast ep…

Episode 235 features Nialler and Andrea Cleary highlighting some of their favourite songs of the year. We are talking tracks we loved from Lankum, Lana, Big Thief, Troye Sivan, CMAT, The Hives, Sofia Kourtesis, Mustafa, Olivia Rodrigo, Rachel Lavelle, Overmono, boygenius and more. All killer no filler. Next episode: Albums of 2023. Special thanks t…

Episode 234 is the latest in the occasional series of the podcast - Andrea's favourite weird little guy. Nialler and Andrea Cleary take a big overview of the main discography of one of our favourite songwriters. Sufjan Stevens is a Detroit Michigan artist, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist who has a deep catalogue of studio albums draw…

On this week’s podcast, episode 233, we are talking about what we learned from fairly shocking Britney Spears’ new autobiography The Woman In Me. Nialler and Andrea Cleary are joined by pop culture writer and DJ Louise Bruton to discuss the chilling details that Britney Spears reveals about her career and private life. That includes her treatment b…

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 232 has an exoskeleton theme of accidental spooky picks as we feature new albums from Kojaque, OXN, CMAT, Sufjan, Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist and new songs from The Last Dinner Party, I Dreamed I Dream, J…

This week's episode is a chat around the sale of Bandcamp from Epic Games to Songtradr. With streaming paying pennies or less than for many artists, the independently-driven music platform Bandcamp is the last bastion of online revenue making for many bands - allowing musicians to sell their music digitally, and on vinyl or CD direct to their fans.…

The Fandom of Taylor Swift is something that I find so fascinating, particularly the massive surge in popularity in the last 3 or 4 years. Where Taylor couldn’t sell out Croke Park in 2018 on her Reputations tour, her current Eras tour as we’ve discussed before on the podcast, crashed Ticketmaster and has seen such a huge unprecedented demand that …

English electronic musician Kieran Hebden has been a constant artist in my life’s history of listening to music. Recently, the artist has exploded in popularity in his DJ partnership with Skrillex and Fred Again.., but as we’ll discuss, headlining Coachella this year, was just a natural culmination of two decades plus of music making and collaborat…

It's the Nialler9 Podcast's monthly episode where Niall and Andrea talk about the albums and songs we loved in the last four weeks. On Episode 228 we are album focused with new LP chat about records from Mitski, Cleo Sol, The Alchemist, MIKE and Wiki; Olivia Rodrigo, Soda Blonde, Natalia Beylis and an EP from Soccer Mommy. There are songs from Anni…

On Episode 227, we are joined by the acclaimed music writer Bob Stanley, the man behind one of Niall's favourite books Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop and a member of indie-pop group St. Etienne. To celebrate 10 years of Faber Books are reissuing Yeah Yeah Yeah (with a new chapter taking it up to present day) , along with its prequel Let's …

The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords, The KLF. Episode 226 is a look at the UK band that simultaneously topped the pop charts while being divisive art provocateurs. Two British men, the Scotsman Bill Drummond and Englishman Jimmy Cauty created a notorious music project that engulfed the charts, aggravated the art world, upset th…

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. On Episode 225 we have album recommendations from The Hives, Citrus Fresh and Noname along with song inclusions from Sufjan, Diners, BadBadNotGood, Cartin, Barry Can't Swim and Olivia Rodrigo. Plus what's consuming y…

Episode 224 is a deep dive into the discography of electronic music pioneer Aphex Twin. t's Richard D James, "the godfather of IDM", "the Mozart of Ambient,", the mischievous enigmatic man who I shook hands with once, the artist born in Limerick who has been making weird electronic music since he was the age of 14 for over 35 years now. As Richard …

Episode 223 of the Nialler9 Podcast is a return to the festival field with Nialler9 and Andrea Cleary. We review last weekend's All Together Now Festival in Waterford. Niall shares his experiences of the festival's fourth year, a weekend in which ran the weather gamut from rainy to windy, muddy to sunny. We talk highlights and lowlights, the mud, t…

It's the most popular monthly episode where Niall and Andrea share what's moved them musically from the month of July. On Episode 222 we have selections from Big Thief, Sarah Crean, Andrea's pick of the Barbie soundtrack, another of Niall's song of the summer contenders, Fizz, Aluna, Mitski, The Hives, girlfriend, albums from Blur and Joanna Sternb…

30 years ago this week, Singer Sinead O’Connor sparked outrage when she tore up a picture of the Pope during her musical performance on Saturday Night Live. The fallout of that action is at the centre of Kathryn Ferguson's new documentary about Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares - which is in cinemas this Friday. Following the release of last year'…

This is a rewind of an episode from 2021. Today's episode is all about my favourite subgenre of disco and dance music - Italo. What it is, where it came from and why it's so enduring. Italo disco is a European form of electronic disco that proliferated throughout Europe in the early '80s. It’s a catch all term for 80s electronic pop of mostly Itali…

For a subgenre deep dive, Niall takes a dip into the idea of Balearic music, and finds out that it's not as easy to explain as he first thought. Balearic is often thought of as a signifier of music that is evocative, sun-kissed and downtempo, but as our deep dive discovers Balearic is a feeling, an approach, that encompasses those things but also c…

Note, this is a rewind of an episode from 2021 to mark our second Indie Sleaze night on September 29th in Workman's Cellar. You may have heard of the term Indie Sleaze lately. A term newly coined to describe a nostalgic trend of post-Y2K era of culture and aesthetics of indie music and parties that crossed cities and continents. Niall and Andrea ar…

Episode 220 is a chat with the journalist, pop culture writer, and author Michael Cragg. Michael's new book Reach for the Stars is a rip-roaring oral history of UK pop music between 1996 and 2006, told through the interviews with the popstars, the songwriters, producers, label executives, pop fans, svengalis and culture writers of the day. It's an …

It's the ever popular monthly episode where Niall and Andrea share what's moving them musically from the month of June - new music and older stuff too. On Episode 219 we have selections from King Krule, The Hives, Bright Eyes, Peter Gabriel, Maija Sofia, Glasser, Slaughter Beach, Dog, Niall's song of the summer contender and some oldie shouts from …

We are keeping our summer school vibe going for a bit for the season by keeping episodes relaxed and casual for a bit while the weather is a bit nicer. Episode 218 of the Nialler9 Podcast then, sees Niall take the reins of the going out buzz after last week's Andrea Goes To Slane episode. It was a busy festival weekend with Beyond The Pale, Body & …

Episode 217 of the Nialler9 Podcast is all about that great Irish music institution - Slane Castle. 22 years (!) after Nialler was last at the big annual concert in Meath, Andrea makes her first trip to Slane for the Harry Styles concert and our roving vibe reporter is here to share her experiences from the gig day out, the food on offer, and the c…

Niall and Andrea with episode 216 of the Nialler9 Podcast and our monthly new music recommender for the month of May 2023. On Episode 216, there are some "face eggs"-themed albums from Water From Your Eyes, Eyes Of Others and Caoilian Sherlock along with song choices from Gurriers, Blur, Kieran Hebden + William Tyler, Bricknasty, Buck Meek and two …

A reappraisal of the career of Cass Elliot, formerly known as Mama Cass, of The Mamas & Papas. For this week's episode (#215), Andrea Cleary, takes the lead for a deep dive into the life and times of Cass Elliot, the late-60s singer who recently went viral when a Tik-Tok user used her song 'Make Your Own Kind Of Music' on a meme with Nicolas Cage /…

Nealo is a Dublin rapper and artist who is a regular on this site since first appearing in 2018. 2020's All The Leaves Are Falling was a Choice Music Prize-nominated debut album, an album exploring loss, friendship, family and the ties that keep us searching for home. Fresh from the release of new song 'Forest' with Morgana of Saint Sister on vocal…

Galway rapper Celaviedmai is one of our favourite up and coming rappers and collaborators as she has shown adeptness at moving between rap, house, drill, Amapiano and Afrobeat in her music so far. Mai is an artist with ambition and exciting plans on the horizon including a set at The Hennessy Hip-Hop House at Body & Soul Festival this summer. It wa…

It’s the monthly episode with Niall and Andrea discussing songs and albums we loved from the last month, and some older. On Episode 212, there are albums recommended by Feist, Kara Jackson, Benefits and Tom Trago, along with choice songs from Anna St. Louis, Laurie Shaw, Beabadoobee + Clairo and two oldies. Plus a bit of listener feedback about las…

The generation of music content through AI has grown at a rate much faster than anyone anticipated in the last month. The technology we thought might have been a few months away, has accelerated to the point where AI has become a dominant talking point in the music space. In the space half a year, we have gone from a problematic fake rapper Fn Meka…

Episode 210 of the Nialler9 Podcast is a two-hander. We are talking about the last of the enigmatic crooners who played the same festival - Coachella - and got on very differently. Firstly, Andrea takes the lead on recounting and speculating on what exactly was / is going on with Frank Ocean's set at Coachella at weekend 1 this past Sunday. Ice rin…

Episode 209 is a chat with our pal, journalist, author, playwright, DJ and wheelchair user Louise Bruton. Louise has recently restarted her Legless In Dublin platform on a paid Substack (free to disabled people), where she is "covering areas of access and disability, reviews and personal essays that champion disabled people and educate non-disabled…

Episode 208 is a dive into the world of boygenius and their debut album the record. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus came together as boygenius in 2018 with a debut EP on Matador. The EP combined their collective tones of tones of country, melodic folk, indie and singer-songwriter strands together, before they all went off to make anoth…

It's the monthly episode with Niall and Andrea discussing songs and albums we loved from the last month. March has given us a jam-packed month of albums to get our ears around, including: Lankum - False Lankum Lana Del Rey - Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd Ailbhe Reddy - Endless Affair JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring The Hoes …

A second episode this week as it's a timely chat with MayKay, the vocalist, singer-songwriter and Other Voices presenter who is returning to her original role as lead vocalist with the band Fight Like Apes. The band split up in 2016 after releasing three albums Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion (2008), The Body of Christ and t…

On this episode of the Nialler9 Podcast, Niall is joined by No Encore's Dave Hanratty for a chat about Meet Me In The Bathroom, the recent documentary about the New York City music scene of the early 2000s. The film by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern is based on the oral history book of the same name by Lizzy Goodman and is concerned with the rise…

In 1996, the Belfast DJ and producer David Holmes travelled to New York to make a record. While hanging out in the Lower East Side and Alphabet City, Holmes and some pals, armed with a DAT recorder, dropped some acid and wandered around the city recording people for his upcoming LP. A year later, that album, a classic record - 1997's Let's Get Kill…

February was a short month but there was lots to love (and talk about). It's the monthly episode with Niall and Andrea discussing songs and albums we loved from the last month. Just before Andrea went off to India for the rest of the month, and after last week's Choice Music Prize special, we are chatting specific favourite new and some old music. …

On this two-hour episode, Niall and Andrea are joined by writer and journalist Una Mullally, to discuss the 10 nominated albums in this year's Choice Music Prize Irish album of the year 2022 category. 10 nominated albums are in the process to be pored over by 11 judges, and they are.. CMAT – If My Wife New I’d Be Dead A self confessed global pop st…