This month’s Music Alliance Pact is a welcome back for me, to one of Ireland’s most underrated artists. Owensie has been seriously quiet over the last couple of years, so much so that it took new track ‘Dramamine’ to remind me of just how slurringly beautiful and emotionally evocative his music can be.

Download the track below, alongside 17 more that you’ll almost certainly not have heard before. Why wouldn’t you!

Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 18-track compilation through Dropbox here.

IRELAND: Hendicott Writing
Owensie – Dramamine
After more than three years tucked away from the eyes of the Irish music scene, dream-pop artist Owensie returns with Dramamine, a trippy ode to a motion sickness drug. The track features Conor O’Brien of Villagers and comes ahead of a third album of the same title that’s seemed an extremely long time in the making. One for watching the world drift by outside your window.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Fabiana Cantilo y Fer Isella – Viernes 3 AM
In 2009 the Argentine goverment published several declassified official documents produced during the dictatorships that ruled the country from 1962-1982. One of these documents is titled “Songs whose lyrics are considered not fit to be played by broadcast services” and it includes compositions by all kinds of Argentine and foreign artists. Canciones Prohibidas is a compilation with 16 versions of these censured songs. For MAP we selected Viernes 3 AM, originally by Argentine rock living legend Charly Garcia, here recorded by (also legendary singer) Fabiana Cantilo on vocals and producer Fer Isella on piano.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
Fresh Kills – The People
At The Drive-In is the first association any rock connoisseur will make with this 90-second post-punk melodrama. It’s all energy and emotion without the slightest hint of pretension. The song is chaotic and at times confusing without a single comprehensible lyric (go on, try to figure out what the hell they’re saying) but that’s exactly the charm of this south Australian band.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Rodrigo Campos – Katsumi
Rodrigo Campos, a prolific name in São Paulo’s contemporary music scene, has just released his third solo album, Conversas Com Toshiro, which is influenced by Japanese culture. Katsumi is a good opening gate to his work.

CANADA: Ride The Tempo
Harrison – Sorry
Toronto producer Harrison beeps and blips his way into a sweet apology with his latest track, Sorry.