The Underground Forest - Volume 36
This edition of The Underground Forest features; a fun pop song made from shimmering, synthetic 1980s fabric; a song that is a blend of shoegaze and dream pop, that floats on the warm breeze from a beach in 1999; a song that is a mix of reverbed retro synths paired with gothic visuals; an ambient song that is more terrifying than any horror movie you have ever seen; a song that sounds like a mug of hot chocolate from your favorite 90s witches movie, and more!
Featuring; Jordan Duffy, Prism Shores, Jessie Frye, DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ, Sabriel, Party Nails, Ethel Cain & SPOOKLET.

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Not Your Dream Girl - Jordan Duffy
Written while watching the 1984 classic Sixteen Candles; the song the artist shares “"This song is written about a friend that I had feelings for, but I knew it would not go any further. I always saw him as my Jake Ryan. He does not and will never know this was written about him. But it has become one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written."
The song itself is fun, 1980s synth-pop (produced by Party Nails); with a backdrop of shimmering, synthetic sounds.
The vocals soar throughout, adding a cathartic power ballad element to the mix; an invitation for you to belt this song out and release all of your pent-up emotions.
I absolutely love the music video; which is a blend of a high-school rom-com scenario with a sci-fi alien invasion, all intertwined with the singer performing in front of a glitter curtain (glitter curtains have been an obsession of mine for quite some time, although I still have not managed to buy one, mostly due to the pretty mild obstacle of having to put them up).
Not Your Dream Girl is creative, it is unique, and it comes from an artist who has a love of a lot of art forms, and pours her imagination into everything that she does.
Connect with Jordan Duffy
Spotify / Instagram / Website
Perverts - Ethel Cain
I bought this immediately when it came out; there was something about the eerie, grainy, horror-adjacent artwork that drew me to it.
Opening with a voice singing a hymn, becoming a chorus of voices over time (it sounds like this was recorded using a wire recorder), the voices change grotesquely over time, which results in a deeply unnerving ambience, giving you the feeling that there is a lurking evil underneath.
The song itself is 12:04 minutes long; it sounds like it plays to you from a room in an isolated wooden house on the prairie as the winds lash against the windows; the desolate isolation present in every element of the ambient backdrop.
It also simultaneously makes me think of vast, empty industrial areas at night; the kind you find in near docks, with hostile steel warehouses, towering steel structures and dank pools of something unknown.
You need to listen to this full album from start to finish; it is a masterpiece.
Connect with Ethel Cain
Bandcamp / Youtube / Spotify / Instagram / Facebook
Tourniquet - Prism Shores
A blast of nostalgic shoegaze, flavored with some luxurious dream pop; this hits you like a wave of hazy 1990s memories of the beach.
Tourniquet is taken from the Montreal-based group’s album Out From Underneath.
Even if you are sitting on public transport, waiting to emerge into a rather grim, cloudy day, this will make you feel like you are surfing under an infinite blue sky and will remind you that brighter days are coming.
Absolutely divine.
Connect with Prism Shores
Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram / YouTube / X
Devotion - Jessie Frye
I discovered Jessie Frye for the first time on Bandcamp and was immediately interested in the fusion of gloriously reverbed 1980s-style synthesizers, with gothic, Crimson Peak-esque visuals.
Taken from the up and coming album Otherworld, the verses open with brooding bass pads, with a wind of chilly of synths entering, before being subsequently joined by a fair- tale like electronics.
The chorus reminds me of some really great mid-00s pop choruses - all in all, a fantastic song.
Connect with Jessie Frye
YouTube / Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram / Website / X / Facebook
Will My Love - DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ
This feels like a purple ceramic mug filled with hot chocolate; that you drink inside the cozy interior of the Practical Magic house while watching the 1998 series Charmed.
All of DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ’s music automatically fills me with the sense of warmth and wonder that accompanies a summer’s evening or the sensation that comes from watching one of my favorite movies from the 90s - early 00s.
Connect with DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ
YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / Website / X
figgypom - Sabriel
A new single from one of my favorite artists of the last few years; figgypom is wonderfully surreal, with theremin-like sounds wavering in the background; over which luxurious, rich vocals flow.
Another kaleidoscopic listening experience from Sabriel.
Connect with Sabriel
YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / Website
Someway Somehow - Party Nails
Taken from the new album Pillow Talk from producer Party Nails; this features gorgeously layered vocals that feel like they are from the 1970s, which flow over a gentle indie-pop backdrop.
Someway Somehow concludes with some glorious rock textures, going seamlessly from one to the other.
Connect with Party Nails
YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X
SILENCE FROID - SPOOKLET
I absolutely love the Suspiria-esque vibe of the artwork accompanying this song (the artwork being done by multi-disciplinary artist Aisling Phelan, you can check her out here); the song itself is experimental, opening with sampling that feels surreal and vaguely eerie; devolving into something that is nothing short of entrancing.
Connect with SPOOKLET
Spotify / Instagram
Spotify Playlist

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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