Cork Big Band BoolaBoom Share Pumping New Single 'Too Much'

Cork’s sprawling 22-piece live outfit BoolaBoom return with their bold new single ‘Too Much’ (April 10th), a darker, more pressure-driven turn from a collective already known for turning club energy into full-scale orchestral eruption.

Fresh off a breakout year that included major festival appearances and a headline support slot for US house heavyweight Kerri Chandler, the band continue their upward trajectory following 2025’s ‘Shuffle’, a track that picked up strong radio support from Craig Charles on BBC Radio 6 Music and was also named Track of the Week on RTÉ 2FM by Dan Hegarty.

‘Too Much’ pushes BoolaBoom’s signature blend of house, techno, and live big-band instrumentation into sharper, more commercial territory without losing the raw, physical intensity that defines their sound. Built around relentless sub-bass pressure, feverish horn motifs, and layered vocal hooks, the track captures the psychological push-and-pull at the heart of excess - the moment when euphoria starts to tilt into unease.

One of the few BoolaBoom releases to foreground vocals, ‘Too Much’ leans into narrative tension as much as rhythm. The arrangement swells methodically: brass lines stack and spiral, percussion drives forward with near-carnival urgency, and vocal fragments echo like internal dialogue, circling the question of restraint. Midway through, the track drops unexpectedly into a stark, beatless pause,a suspended moment that feels almost confrontational in its stillness, before snapping back into its full kinetic charge.

Speaking about the single, band leader and vocalist Darragh frames the track as a meditation on limits and self-deception: the idea that boundaries are not fixed, but constantly negotiated. In his words, it explores “how much of something is really enough,” and whether people genuinely believe they can stop before crossing a line, or simply move the line itself to justify continuing.

That tension between discipline and abandon runs through the band’s wider identity. Hailing from a multinational lineup spanning Ireland, Brazil, France, Chile, the UK and New Zealand, BoolaBoom have built their reputation on a uniquely combustible live setup: a 12-piece horn section backed by 10 samba drummers, delivering what they’ve described as an “unplugged house music” experience designed for festival-scale impact.

‘Too Much’ also reflects the logistical reality behind the spectacle. Managing a 20-plus-piece ensemble is no small feat, and that friction between chaos and control seems to mirror the music itself. As O’Connor notes, the scale of the project is both a challenge and a constant source of humour - a balancing act between ambition, practicality, and the sheer joy of collective performance.

Watch the video for the new single below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzN-WEmuKR0