The goal wasn’t to make an EP. Limerick-based artist Paddy Mulcahy – whose work blurs lines between improvisation and intention – hadn’t released any music in over a year and was sitting on a handful of unfinished projects. The goal in the interim was to let go of the reins a bit, while still returning to the studio to keep the gears turning. No pressure. No plans. Just music.

“I always record music knowing there’s a possibility it could go somewhere,” Paddy tells me when he calls into Hot Press HQ. “The way I record music is very improvised and experimental. Half the time, ideas will get scrapped, forgotten or pushed to the side. But I often revisit those ideas at different times in my life, where the emotions, environments and situations are different.”

It wasn’t until November 2024, during a trip to Berlin, that the idea for a bigger project came to the fore.

“Towards the end of last year, I had six really strong demos that clocked in at about 36 minutes,” Paddy reflects. “At that stage, I was starting to enter album territory. I didn’t really want to release an album, because those things take a lot of planning and budgeting. My priority at the moment is to release music more frequently. What I did was take two tracks away and keep the four strongest. In hindsight, I was trying to find a common theme between them.

“Recently, I’ve found myself taking photos of different buildings and architecture. The photo on the cover is of a building that I took in Berlin back in November. That was certainly fresh in my mind around the time I was considering releasing an EP. Everything just clicked.”

The title The Hard Core Of Beauty came after watching the film The Brutalist, which features a chapter called ‘The Hard Core Of Beauty’. With Mulcahy having a horde of works in progress, Brady Corbet’s Oscar-winning epic provided the required push to finish the project. In particular, Mulcahy saw similarities between sonic textures of The Hard Core Of Beauty and brutalist architecture.

“The presentation and aesthetics of brutalism have such a simplicity,” says Mulcahy. “Obviously, there’s so much more behind a square block; there’s a certain design consideration at play. That is very representative of the ugly, electronic-sounding music on the EP. But there’s a certain beauty to it, as well.

“There’s a thoughtful, considerate side to the compositions, from crunchy synthesisers to ambient piano breakdowns. That’s the kind of contrast I’m trying to capture with this music.”

In seeking to mirror the brutalist aesthetic, Mulcahy consulted his most trusted synths to bring The Hard Core Of Beauty to life. The end result is a raw four-track offering, which maintains a delicate balance between fearsome sonics and organic ambience.

“Coming back to the idea of ugliness, if you heard the expressive elements on their own, you might wince and say, ‘What is that sound?’” says Paddy. “But in the context of everything around it and the arrangement, they sit so well and boast a very strong presence.

“There’s also the fact that because of the nature of those instruments, there’s no way I’ll make those sounds ever again. The EP is a snapshot in time – the second I unplug the cables, and that sound is lost forever. It ties in perfectly with the very improvised and experimental nature of my compositional techniques. I’m very happy with how it all turned out.”

• The Hard Core Of Beauty is out now.