Deriving their name from the Gaelic word for “heartache,” “vexation of spirit,” County Cork-based duo Crá Croí — RG (songwriting, production, mixing and mastering) and CD (vocals and visuals) — have employed a fiercely DIY ethos while establishing a sound that meshes elements of 1980s New Wave, post-punk and goth, featuring melancholic synths, dark melodies, angular guitars and sharp, hook-driven vocals.

The Irish duo’s work explores themes of nihilism, love and destruction, dystopian collapsed and nuclear annihilation, often wrapped in irony and paired with post-apocalyptic metaphors.

The County Cork-based duo intend to release a handful of singles with an album and select live shows played over the next year or two. According to the band gigs happen only when the setting is right, because for the duo “art comes first” and their integrity matters more than exposure for the sake of exposure.

Their latest single, the brooding “Radiation Romance” seemingly channels She Wants Revenge and Interpol: swirling and angular power chords are paired with eerie atmospheric synths, a relentless, motorik-like groove and rousingly anthemic hook and chorus that serves as a stormy bed for CD’s punchy, yet Paul Banks-like vocal. Thematically, the song focuses is a tongue in check take on the nuclear annihilation that would make Vincent Price proud.