Ireland’s music scene is absolutely thriving right now. Fontaines D.C.’s Romance was an easy contender for 2024’s album of the year, while Kneecap’s politically charged rap has seen them become some of hip-hop’s most provocative pioneers. Beyond them, the likes of Gilla Band have consistently pushed noise-punk forwards over the past decade and a half, while Bricknasty are perhaps the next act up, with creativity that’s hard to label.
And running through all these artists, there’s a thread that connects them all – distinct senses of Irishness that’s explored in their own ways via their work. With lullahush’s impending album Ithaca, set to release via Future Classic tomorrow, April 11, he adds his own spin to the growing canon of the country’s contemporary music.
Blending traditional Gaelic folk sounds that include Sean-nós singing and twanging guitars with experimental electronics, it’s an eye-widening clash between past and future, with very little in-between. Ithaca’s
lead single ‘Maggie na bhFlaitheas’ serves as an introduction to the project, opening with glittering plucked strings that quickly descends into hectic, heads-down techno workout topped by a rapidly evolving flute motif. To celebrate the album’s release, lullahush joins us for Analogue Appreciation – our series celebrating the power of physical culture in a world dominated by screens – and picked out five of his most cherished items.
“The objects I chose are suffused with my own personal history, there are ghosts in each of them. They say: ‘This is me, this is my life, this is what I’ve done, this is what I’m doing, I am here,’” he explains of his picks. “The permanence of objects rejects the transience of the digital. All we have in this life is time and physical objects express that accumulation of a life. That can’t be felt digitally. All of the screen’s pixels will eventually dissolve.”
