Hidden Gems: A Music Blog in the Spirit of The Old Internet
Welcome to ‘Hidden Gems: A Music Blog in the Spirit of The Old Internet’ - a series where I aim to re-create the feeling of reading a music blog on the family computer.
Featuring French Thyme, FĒNIX, Selkie, Josaleigh Pollett, Wooll, Party Whelan, D’Big Durty, Neggy Gemmy, Tom Rasmussen, Shafto, Salmon & Juniper Three.
This is a music series done in the spirit of the old internet and early 00s music blogs. This series is not focused on new music - it is me, a life-long music lover, writing about the music I come across on the vast, rich treasure trove of music on the internet, from any genre, time, or place.
I am doing this because I know from personal experience that it can start to feel like you are releasing music into a void. That once a song is released, you feel like you have to move on to the next one, making you feel like art is disposable, which it is not. Part of the aim of this series is to let you know that at the end of the void, we here at MusicnGear are listening and would love for you to keep sharing your art with the world. If you like the series or what we have written, please consider sharing it so that this series can reach more people and grow!
PARTY WHELAN AND D'BIG DURTY - West Cork
Cork is divided into people who know about Bandon and those who don’t. When I watched this for the first time back in 2019, I thought “somebody else knows”.
As someone who had to endure both most of primary school and all secondary school within Bandon, I can say with 100% certainty that it captures the ‘essence’ of the town. It is only within the last few months that I fully recovered from the damage inflicted (I left when I was 18, and I am now 33). (Also, of note, I did not grow up there; where I grew up was great, I just attended school there.)
If you need a taste of the aforementioned essence, I have a vivid memory of standing in line for the tuck shop in secondary school, looking at the ground to ensure that any potential violence that might result from making eye contact was avoided. A girl walked past, her white shoes being in my eyeline as I was looking at the ground, a place I previously understood to be a neutral safe zone, when she roared in my direction that if “one more person looks at my shoes, I’ll dance on their forehead”. If you are still not convinced, the traditional weekend pastime was to wait outside the nightclub to see if someone from a nearby town came out, and if so, a beating of biblical proportions would begin.
‘West Cork’ captures the strangeness of Bandon, a place where polar opposites exist side by side (the poshest of the posh and the rest of us), the music video veering between an upper-class English character and the Spirit Of Bandon (a menacing presence wearing a hi-vis vest), the former trying to pretend that the other doesn’t exist.
My favourite lines are “The way people look at you here would make you stutter and stammer”, “Don’t forget about Bandon/The gateway to West Cork/but a gateway with an orc” and the best one so far, “we’ve even got our own hospital and by god do we need it”.
Connect with Party Whelan and D’Big Durty
Instagram
Neggy Gemmy - Daydream
I cannot overemphasise the impact Neggy Gemmy’s music and art had on me.
When I was starting out in music production in Ireland, I did not know any women who produced music. I will admit that this made me terribly lonely, and when you are not seeing anyone who is in any way like you, it does stunt your growth, self-expression, and creativity in ways you only fully realize in hindsight.
This has thankfully changed; there are so many female producers that I know of now whose art has added a whole new rich dimension to art and to my life (Oklou, Vitesse X, and more). ‘Daydream’ was the first song of Neggy Gemmy’s I came across, randomly stumbling across it in 2022, and it reinvigorated something in me that had started to waver and die.
It reminded me of how music made me feel as a Lizzie McGuire-loving teen, how I had all the tools to make music and visuals that I loved, like I had dreamed of when I was a pre-teen/teen. Anything that lights up the imagination you had as a child is art that makes the world a better place. To me, ‘Daydream’ sits alongside the era of ‘Music Sounds Better with You’ and ‘Starlight’(The Supermen Lovers) - it sounds like the kind of song that you would have listened to in a floral top from Roxy on a pink cassette player while lounging on the sunflower-patterned carpet in your room.
Connect with Neggy Gemmy
Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
Connect with 100% Electronica
Instagram | Facebook | X
Tom Rasmussen - Look At Me
This euphoric 1990s-style house anthem has served as a life force for me whenever I feel the need to shrink in public, specifically when I am wearing an outfit that makes me feel more vulnerable to hostility or unwarranted remarks. ‘Look At Me’ has given me the courage to not retreat into the shadows, trying to be invisible until I reach my destination.
This anthem is an invitation to live, to be seen, to be bold; to me, it has the spirit of 1990s NYC running through it - allowing you to embody and embrace yourself, no matter where you are. ‘Look At Me’ will serve as a lifeline for anyone who is in any way different, trying to be themselves in this world, and that is a beautiful thing.
Connect with Tom Rasmussen
Instagram | YouTube
FĒNIX - Drifting
The visualizer for this may fool you into thinking a chilled-out time awaits - but you would be wrong.
What awaits when the curtains are pulled back is a blood red Miami sunset, the setting for a night of debauchery, glamour, and sleaze a la Grand Theft Auto. You embark into the night, dressed head to toe in fake leather, driving your convertible into the glittering cityscape. ‘Drifting’ is the stuff of dreams.
Connect with FĒNIX
Instagram | Facebook | Χ
Selkie - Heartspeak
This song from Scottish musician/producer Selkie reminded me of Laura Misch (an artist who works primarily with sounds from nature, weaving rich soundscapes that embody the complexity and beauty of their source).
The opening of this will make you feel like you are submerged underwater in a green lagoon; seaweed and moss swirling around your eyes. The instruments sound murky, yet magical; there is something about this song that makes it feel like it is from a folk tale about the ocean and mermaids.
“we swam in the night
we swam in stars
our bodies glowed so bright
the ocean is ours
first a wave came rolling in
kissed me softly on my skin
next the vastness of the sea
came washing over me”
Connect with Selkie
Website / Instagram | Facebook | Χ
Josaleigh Pollett - Earthquake Song
This is taken from the artist’s 2023 album ‘In The Garden, By The Weeds’.
‘Earthquake Song’ opens with a droning, ominous bassline; there is something about it that feels like it is as old as time, a traditional song sung by our ancestors in hard times. The song is stripped back, the vocals sitting at the forefront, harmonies joining in, with haunting, echoey textures coming in every so often.
“I’m too tired to have an opinion.
Coughing up smoke from a decade ago.
I didn’t bargain for these sorts of feelings.
I don’t believe when you say you don’t know.”
Connect with Josaleigh Pollett
Instagram | Bluesky
Wooll - Bags of Hal
The image for this song captivated me. It is like a gilded framed photo on an ornate dresser in a movie set in a gothic, lilac house, of a woman whose past is cloaked in mystery. The song just has something about it that I can’t quite put my finger on, a quality that makes me feel like it could have been massively popular in the alternative 1990s music scene, or been a song that would have been part of the soundtrack to a lot of indie movies from that era. I loved this.
Connect with Wooll
Bandcamp / Instagram
Juniper Three - More Than Bones
This song is simultaneously ghostly and cozy. It feels like being at home on an Autumn or Winter’s night; the piano notes as delicate as snowdrops or icicles, gently landing on your ears. I loved Scandinavian Christmas craft books as a child, specifically ones where you make things out of household objects; for some reason there is something in this song that recaptures that feeling, the feeling of being warm at Christmas, at peace. The vocal arrangements are beautiful - if you feel your spirits waning, put this on.
Connect with Juniper Three
Instagram | Facebook
French Thyme - Nuit Rose
This is from duo ‘French Thyme’ (made up of Leo Major and Esther McGregor). There is nothing more fabulous than an EP where each song seems like it has been named after a luxurious 1970s perfume, electronic music being the perfect avenue to embark on such a concept. ‘Nuit Rose’ sounds like it is being performed on half-filled rose-tinted perfume bottles with delicate, golden spoons in a scene from a 1970s French arthouse movie about fashion.
Connect with French Thyme
Instagram | Facebook
Connect with Leo Major
Instagram
Connect with Esther McGregor
Instagram
Shafto - Dreaming ft. Salmon
This is a fantastic time - sunshine-fuelled old school hip-hop a la Skee-Lo’s ‘I Wish’ and Ice Cube’s ‘It Was a Good Day’. I don’t hear as much of this genre as much anymore, which is a pity, as I really think we would all be a lot happier if there were more of it around. This features the talents of Irish rapper Salmon (who I had not heard of before but was blown away by), alongside the very talented Clare-based artist Shafto; the production and flow in this are nothing short of sublime. I picture this having a 1990s-style animated music video.
Connect with Shafto
Instagram
About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
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