INA CRUELER is a heartfelt, silky tribute to growing up in Dublin 11.

Ballymun band, Bricknasty have released a ten-track jazzy testament to a checkered past that calls for a new perspective of the flats.

Frontman Fatboy explained online how this EP was shaped by battles with sobriety and the effects of generational trauma. ‘ballymun’ opens the work making a case about why the area is the way it is, with an insightful monologue detailing how government intervention, or lack thereof, has left generations of people impacted by substance abuse and hand-me-down anguish.

The band explained on Instagram how this was the tape that got them signed and opened the UK door for them.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BRICKNASTY (@bricknxsty)

“As of 29th May, I’ll be a year sober which will be the first year I’ve been sober since I was fourteen”. Fatboy goes on to explain how this project is part of the healing process between him and his mother.

The tracks are punctuated with recorded excerpts from real experiences or conversations that took place. From the informative statement on ‘ballymun’ to conversations about forgiveness and compassion on ‘car crash’.

It is clear that INA CRUELER is an attempt to remodel the childhood experiences of Ballymun into formative and holistic stories with the function to mend long-standing open emotional wounds. An ode to those who currently feel trapped in life and those who grew up in areas where pipe dreams were just that.

This comes a month after the project’s lead single ‘Ducks in a row’ , which was accompanied by an otherworldly music video, exploring Ballymun under the veil of a PS2 aesthetic. Pre-emptive title track ‘ina crueler’ and single ‘fashion’ layers the melancholy jam of crucial bass and sax in a signature Bricknasty manner.

Not only this, but there is a crucial element in repainting the outside perspective of the Ballymun flats. Bricknasty humanises the stories of those who lived in some of the most impoverished areas of Dublin, forgotten by the Irish Government.

Following on from INA CRUELER, the band has announced an Irish tour, travelling to Limerick, Cork, Galway and Dublin. This comes after a sold-out London show and a performance at Primavera Festival.

Tickets go on sale on Friday 9 June at 10:00.

Elsewhere on District: KhakiKid Teams Up With Carsten2x on ‘Underbite’