The 10 Best Irish Bands, According to Alt-Pop-Addicted Electronic Producer Phenom Vaticanjail (Exclusive)
(Alert for those allergic to sarcasm: Copious amounts of it are laced throughout the next paragraph or two.)
Latin-Irish electro-pop musician and music-sampling absurdist wasn’t born in a Vatican jail – or her current home city of Dublin, for that matter. Rather, the artist producer was birthed in Chile, a country whose best artists we recently ran down in the last installment – courtesy of heavy garage-rock band Niño Nuclear – of our massively popular, Grammy Award-winning series unofficially and succinctly referred to as The Best Bands in the World, as Decided by Musicians Who Live in the Same Places From Where the Bands on the Top 10 Lists Originate and, for the Most Part, Still Reside. (If you haven’t already noticed from The Bad Penny‘s ardent abstention from most social media – save YouTube – we’re really good at marketing.)
All that’s stated above provides a seamless segue into the next edition in our still-fresh series. Through it, we hope to “visit” as many countries as we can, and listen to native artists themselves rather than Spotify as to what we should be pumping into our ear holes.
And this entry into the series is especially rad, because brand-new artist Vaticanjail – who just issued her first single, “Angel,” last year – is responsible for compiling it. With Vaticanjail’s debut EP, This Could Have Been a Text, due for release in less than three weeks, here’s a taste of the artist’s own music before she delves into what she considers to be the best bands in her adopted homeland of Ireland.
The 10 Best Irish Bands, Per Vaticanjail
Ahmed’s flows are so infectious, you cannot help but sing along the second time you hear his songs. As soon as you realise that his writing is so skillful, by the time you cross over the bridge to the final chorus of Ahmed’s songs, you already know him. This type of composition is the real meaning of the word “catchy.” The attitude set is so playful regarding beat style, it reminds me of my first love in rap. Nineties Queensbridge, New York, recording, East Side warmth within tone is based in Phrygian modes played on a Rhodes (often accidental adding to that eccentric, nonsensical signature style), along with a scattered cowbell and big plate reverb open hats;contrastingly infused with a view specific to a new wave, where resampling, a narrative born in magical realism, and fundamentally a great load of goofiness transports you to your friends living room in refreshingly positive way. It’s nostalgia encapsulated in groove. A type of memory in music without melancholy, your mates, and an X-Box in the room.
2. EMA (DJ)
Seeing EMA live is something I believe everyone should experience in their lifetime. The power of girlhood welded in strength and curation assertiveness is so clear to me as a stylistic difference in her particular way of mixing, it separates her from every other DJ I’ve known. The task is clear: To face a crowd and allow them permission to dance. EMA not only works the crowd, but works with it to create a cinematic experience evoking all five senses. My favourite part about her curation is the drone sub-bass paired with sparse, phat kicks that she chooses to play as a break from heavier sections. It feels like she’s giving us a go-ahead to drink a sip of water before you go into a trace. You don’t need to consume anything, babe – you just need to get in the club and listen to EMA.
3. Reylta
Reylta is one of the best songwriters I know, one of those who transport you to their storytelling by welcoming you into their soul. The way she paints a whole scene – so emotive, so soft, so holy, with her lyrics – is something I have never come across listening to anyone else’s music. The essence of Reylta’s music is in the narrative details, symbolism, vocal layering, and in the truthful beauty. she allows you to find in ordinary elements. Her writing pays attention to the seemingly mundane – a tea cup, the seasons, old shoes, a random street, oranges … they are not always to be highlighted for their loveliness but, as she explains to us, as the reason why routine can suffocate her at times. Her music is a vintage, domestic pastoral poem, where the line is blurred to understand the seeming order. Reylta will challenge you to see through the window’s glass; into the house; and see the family, the darkness, despair and injustice that her characters face. Yet she always skillfully conceals it all with angelic organisation and floral wallpaper.
4. Rhoshi
Rhoshi embodies a celestial entity sent to earth to interact with sound waves as their only means to communicate with humanity. World building in his style is so magnetic, and technically ludicrous, it makes you feel like it would be unbearable to stop listening. Rhoshi’s vision permeates his music. Upon that first play, not only do you hear the most cinematic version of sound you’ve ever listened to, but you also see it crystal clear, and it is so sharp, it resembles the most hazardous glass. Engrossing string arrangements, exceptional chord selection, evolving, densely resampled bass and carefully curated drums create a supernatural foundation for granular synthesis and vocals so heavily packed with shimmer that are almost reflective. Rhoshi’s music is edged so cleverly, it heals you.
5. Tolü Makay
Tolü is an expert at building a sense of bravery in her tracks. Her lyrics and chord progressions are the definition of uplifting, with their main topics of exploration being of tenacious self-love. And even when these signify what I believe to be the strongest element in her writing, it always overjoys me to return to Tolü’s powerful vocals. In a world full of people wanting to determine a woman’s calibre in the music industry for their singing ability, Tolü utilizes hers brilliantly to not only enchant with technical ability but to deliver a message that calls upon action, ultimately establishing not just her vocals but her voice.
6. Lainxoxo
Incredible bouncy bass lines, ethereal yet heavily effected vocals and playful lyrics bring Lainxoxo to life in my playlist on a daily basis. My favourite part about her music is the divine femininity that she brings into it, all the while never letting go of distorted tension in the body of the mix. It feels like glamorous velocity overcomes you, where softness is a conceptual structure colliding with hyper-pop sharpness. It is a system overload painted in the colour pink, a pixelated daydream.
7. Taurean (DJ)
If you would like to feel like you’ve traveled through a Mad Max arena to apocalyptic grounds but believe paradise is more than just somewhere promised and unattainable, you need to listen to Taurean’s mix. Her strong Detroit techno influences allow her to dominate the dance floor with high definition in sound selection through acerbity in texture, just as if you were diving into the industrial premises of a sinister illustration. Yet her femininity is contagious. The jungle elements in her curation bring you straight to The Matrix’s Zion, groove and drum programming in the tracks grips your whole body, you end up creating shapes in a lunatic fashion and letting go completely. This style of DJ’ing is so sensually volatile you have no choice but to surrender to Taurean’s command and dance.
8. 2MANYCOLOURS
Brightness and adrenaline imbued dubstep, hyper-pop and EDM, 2MANYCOLOURS is faithful to their name due to the music’s kaleidoscope-like nature. It is an explosion so provocative to every sense, you will gasp for air. Sweeping, evolving, granulated filtered bass is the base for all sorts of sampled chops. I wouldn’t be surprised if their original sounds derived from the most elaborate corners of absurdism. My favourite part about this type of production is how excited for the future it makes me amongst all the chaos. It’s like a compilation of all things maximalism, yet controlled and rendered to a digital world so distant, anything is possible – hence becoming a tool used as a vehicle towards euphoria. This is an example of music I crave daily. With it, I feel at home.
9. Sloucho
Glitch soundscapes, heavy-hitting beats and bass, accompanied by vocal chops reinvented and reassembled over and over again from other projects. I love Sloucho’s oxymoronic production, with his drum programming using thinner snare sounds and click-like hats layered like icing sugar on deeper backgrounds built from textures, bass and drone resembling sounds. Tremendous depth is created from the way he renders a virtual reality from a palette so innovative that you can sonically travel from dystopian ruins to a majestic forest in 4K.
10. Negro Impacto
Smoothness is texture, timbre and one hell of a load of groove. The structural composition in drum programming is so layered, yet with such warm sounds that you end up with a puzzling armour built by finger snaps, soft hats and delayed toms. Those elements combine to act in such harmonious symbiosis with the layers of vocals and electric guitar effected melodies. My favourite part about this band is the intimate lounge vibe they bring to every stage they play. No matter how big the production is, they will make you feel like you’re the only person in the room. It’s like the tightest hug you could get out of music.
—
Follow Vaticanjail on Instagram for more info on when you can pick up her debut EP when it drops October 1.
—
For more authoritative lists of the best bands from non-U.S. countries, as picked by bands that hail from those places, check out:
• The 10 Best Chilean Bands, According to Guitarist for Santiago-Based Noisy Punk-Rock Squad Niño Nuclear (Exclusive)
• The 10 Best Venezuelan Heavy Bands, According to the Country’s Most Badass Garage-Rock Guitarist
• The 10 Best Italian Metal Bands, According to the Country’s New Post-Metal Phenoms Orbita (Exclusive)
• The 10 Best Belgian Metal Bands of All Time, According to Gnarly Native Sons 30,000 Monkies (Exclusive)
• The 20 Best Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal Bands Ever
• Edge of Sanity Frontman Dan Swanö Reveals 10 Swedish Bands That Made Their Way Into His Musical DNA
• The 10 Best Swedish Heavy Bands Ever, According to Native Sons Prime Creation
• The 10 Best Portuguese Heavy Bands Ever, According to Portugal’s Own Fernando Ribeiro of Moonspell
• Germany’s Top 10 Best Metal Bands Ever, Per the Country’s Native Death-Metal Sons Fleshcrawl
• The 20 Best ’90s American Grunge Bands of All Time
• The 20 Best Protest/Activist Musicians, From Marvin Gaye to Billie Eilish
• The 10 Best Finnish Melodeth Bands Ever: Amorphis, Children of Bodom, Kalmah, Insomnium, Circle, Mors Principium Est
• The 10 Best Finnish Bands Ever, According to Natives the Feral Kids
• Top 20 Touch and Go Bands of All Time
The Bad Penny (beta) 
Leave a comment