{"id":378533,"date":"2026-04-14T06:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378533\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:18:17","slug":"padraig-cooney-bedtime-now-bk-pepper-phoeno-cable-boy-oscar-blue-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378533\/","title":{"rendered":"P\u00e1draig Cooney & Bedtime Now, BK Pepper, Phoeno, Cable Boy, Oscar Blue \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\u00e1draig Cooney & Bedtime Now: Wet Work (No Effort Collective), \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis record feels like the end of the road,\u201d says P\u00e1draig Cooney, a young man who is nevertheless a veteran of the Irish indie scene, from cofounding the pioneering record label Popical Island to performing in bands such as Autre Monde and Skelocrats. The songs here are so good that it would be a crying shame if Wet Work were Cooney\u2019s swansong. From the Squeeze-like crispness of I\u2019ll Never Disappoint You Again and the Paul McCartney sensibilities of Harsh Country to the unconventional but adroit Irish folk of Soldiers of Liberty and the sublime strings of Songs of My Low Spirits, Cooney says farewell with a flourish. Here\u2019s hoping he\u2019ll have a change of mind.<\/p>\n

BK Pepper: Pagan (Bigo & Twigetti), \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\"\"<\/p>\n

Six years after his graceful instrumental debut album, Territories, BK Pepper returns with a somewhat edgier, more cinematic work recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the Dublin-based Glasshouse ensemble and the Icelandic composer and violinist Viktor Orri \u00c1rnason. Across 10 pieces (including Brother Sister, Common Ground, You\u2019re Not Alone, and Fauna and Flora), the music unfurls leisurely. Everything is augmented by seamlessly linked muted brass and layered vocals that sustain the album\u2019s admirable theme of engaging with consensus without losing independence.<\/p>\n

Phoeno: Comfort in the Knowing (Phoeno\/Self-Released), \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\"\"<\/p>\n

Drum machines, synths and music rooted in the 1980s: the Dublin duo Phoeno (Adam Matthews and Liam Corbett) might lean into the likes of Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and Pet Shop Boys for inspiration, but there are also deeply personal undercurrents of anxiety and grief that come with experiencing life and loss during lockdown. This dynamic pushes infectious, sumptuously produced songs such as Safety, Turn Your Back, At Night I Lay Awake, Jess and For the Ones I Know I Love into the realm of electropop virtuosity.<\/p>\n

Cable Boy: Forever (Cable Boy\/Self-released) \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606\"\"<\/p>\n

It can take time to forge an authentic identity, but over the past five years Cable Boy have achieved that through nimble creative modifications. The Dublin-based quintet \u2013 Jason Aikhionbare, Fionn McLoughlin, Liam Murray, Semilore Olusa and Corneille Tshibasu \u2013 channel several well-known spirit guides across their 13-track debut album: Joy Division\u2019s bass rumbles are present and correct in Trapped Alone, The Cure\u2019s casual thrill is there in Icarus, and a swathe of shoegaze acts inform songs such as Something in My Head and Seen It All Before. Influences aside, Forever zings with purpose and personality.<\/p>\n

Oscar Blue: Birds in Winter (Oscar Blue\/Self-released), \u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606\u2606\"\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little doubt that the Co Clare singer-songwriter Oscar Blue has the wherewithal to make a successful career from his blend of Irish soundalikes (choose any combination from Dermot Kennedy, Gavin James, Kingfishr, The Script, Kodaline et al) and, to give him credit, far more distinctive, emotive lyrics. That said, listening to the 10 songs on his debut album is a little like being drenched with waves of algorithmic uniformity. The occasional deft lyrical flourish aside, there\u2019s little here that you haven\u2019t heard many times before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"P\u00e1draig Cooney & Bedtime Now: Wet Work (No Effort Collective), \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 \u201cThis record feels like the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,197119,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-378533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-new-irish-albums","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}