A Year in Music – 2023 – Paul McDermott (To Here Knows When Podcast)
by Killian Laher

Do you think it’s been a good year for music? What were your highlights?

It’s been another incredible year for Irish music.  Lankum have justifiably topped a lot of lists with False Lankum. They get my top spot for Irish album of the year but coming in just behind them are nine other great albums:

Boa Morte – The Total Space

Slow Moving Clouds – Kolmas

Elaine Malone – Pyrrhic

The Bonk – Greater Than Or Equal To

Lisa O’Neill – All of This is Chance

Niall Connolly – The Patience of Trees

SELK – Shed the Skin

David Long & Shane O’Neill – And You Can’t Dream That

John Francis Flynn – Look Over the Wall, See the Sky

Music seems to be on an endless cycle of comebacks – with goth making something of a resurgence this year.  What do you think about that?

The old cliché – you wait long enough for a bus and three come along all at one. Cathy Unsworth gave us Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth, former Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst gave us Goth: A History and John Robb gave us The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth. Robb’s book was one of my favourite music books of the year. It sent me back to some records I’ve had for a few decades but rarely spin. It was thrilling to revisit Earth Inferno, the mesmerising live album from Karl McCoy’s Fields of the Nephilim.

I usually baulk at over-priced vinyl reissues, but I’m all in favour of “reissue culture” casting light on overlooked or underappreciated gems. Alone on Penguin Island by Desmond Simmons got a beautiful reissue from Rafftt Records, a new All City Imprint. I discovered Simmons when I was researching my Michael O’Shea radio documentary. Alone on Penguin Island and O’Shea’s self-titled album were originally released on Dome Records, the early 80s imprint from Wire’s Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis. Simmons’ album was impossible to find a few years ago so I made do with a few mp3s nabbed from an old music blog, so it’s great that this thrillingly experimental music has been re-released.

My other favourite reissue purchase this year was Prolapse’s Pointless Walks To Dismal Places. This came out in late 2022 on the wonderful Optic Nerve Records. When originally released on Cherry Red in 1994 it was an incendiary statement of intent from the Leicester band, whose dual vocal styles of Linda Steelyard and Mick Derrick still sounds completely unique. An absolute masterpiece from one of the greatest 90s bands you’ve never heard of. In their unearthing of lost treasure and their continuing Optic Sevens – monthly 7” reissue series – Optic Nerve are doing God’s work.

This year also saw Codeine’s back catalogue get the reissue treatment by The Numero Group and thankfully the New York slowcore titans reformed to support the rereleases. In the mid-90s an old flatmate bought a CD player and the first CD he purchased was Codeine’s The White Birch. Due to the ridiculous price of CDs back then, it was the only CD we listened to for months. Its songs are ingrained in my DNA, so it was seriously exciting to see them play Whelan’s in August.

If you had told me in 1995 when Slowdive broke up after the release of Pygmalion – one of the 90s greatest, yet ignored (at the time) albums – that they would return 20 years later as Dream Pop Gods, release two more great albums and play a stunning gig at a sold-out National Stadium, I would have replied: “You’re out of your mind and sorry but what’s Dream Pop?”

How is the new series of podcasts going, have you many more in the works?

The positive response has been humbling. When I started the podcast I made a list of 50 of my favourite Irish albums. I’m up to 35 episodes now so we’re getting there. It’s been great to be able to shine a light on some lost classics such as: Catchers’ Mute; The Shanks’ Brang; Jubilee Allstars’ Lights of the City; and Jetplane Landing’s Zero For Conduct. On a couple of recent episodes (Steve Wall from The Stunning on Paradise in the Picturehouse; Will Merriman from The Harvest Ministers on Little Dark Mansion and Carol Keogh from The Tycho Brahe on This Is) there were some really thought provoking conversations about the value we put on Art in this country, Irish radio’s continued lack of support for Irish artists, lack of remuneration for musicians and what motivates artists to continue.

Paul McDermott presents Songs To Learn And Sing, Wednesdays at 11pm on 103.2 Dublin City FM

To Here Knows When – Great Irish Albums Revisited is available on all listening platforms: https://pod.link/1583244172

Further Information about the podcast is here: https://www.paulmcdermott.ie/podcast