About
{All proceeds to Medical Aid For Palestine} Under the moniker The New York Salsa Company, songwriter and producer Adam Smyth has quietly been carving out a singular niche in Ireland’s increasingly vibrant electronic and experimental music scene. 2024 has already marked a milestone for Smyth, with his debut solo record…
{All proceeds to Medical Aid For Palestine}
Under the moniker The New York Salsa Company, songwriter and producer Adam Smyth has quietly been carving out a singular niche in Ireland’s increasingly vibrant electronic and experimental music scene. 2024 has already marked a milestone for Smyth, with his debut solo record HAMMUU arriving early this year, an exploration of progressive electronic textures that earned airplay on RTE, 98fm, and garnered attention from influential Irish tastemakers like Nialler9.
Smyth’s upcoming sophomore album Our Landscape Is Now, set for release on Bad Soup Records on October 14th, signals a bold departure from the sleek, synth-led landscapes of HAMMUU. Where his debut hovered in the realm of progressive electronic, this new chapter dives headlong into a murkier, more psychedelic and noise-inflected territory. Inspired by the psychedelia of The Black Angels and Broadcast, the raw grit of Tom Waits’ late-night murmurings, and the abrasive jangle of Oh Sees, the record’s texture is a soundscape bristling with jagged edges and brooding atmospherics.
This creative pivot is perhaps all the more remarkable given the turbulent circumstances of the album’s creation. Smyth was the victim of a home burglary in which his laptop, the vessel containing the entire recorded album, was stolen. Forced to reconstruct Our Landscape Is Now from scratch, Smyth channeled this adversity into his work, imbuing the record with a newfound aggression and bleak irreverence that feels urgent and alive, a fresh take born from loss and frustration.
Having previously fronted Tribal Dance, a band celebrated for their wrenching energy and raw, unfiltered sound, Tribal Dance gained praise from The Irish Times, Totally Dublin, and secured festival slots that cemented their status within Ireland’s indie circuit.
Beyond his own music, Smyth co-founded Bad Soup Records, a fiercely independent label featuring experimental and left-of-centre artists. With over 25 releases under its belt, featuring acts like Brian Dillon (Meltybrains?), Julia Louise Knifefist, and more, Bad Soup Records has garnered acclaim from The Irish Times, Nialler9 and Vice.
With Our Landscape Is Now, The New York Salsa Company not only pushes the sonic boundaries he’s long sought to challenge but also delivers a record forged through resilience, a textured, noisy, and psychedelic journey that insists on being heard. Smyth’s refusal to be pigeonholed feels less like a rebellion and more like an earnest quest to map new creative landscapes in Irish music.
