Home Grown Heroes

In #rabble5, Print Editionby Myles Ni Gangstaleen1 Comment

 

Screen Shot 2013-04-22 at 14.26.45It’s a damn good time for electronic music coming out of Ireland that sounds feck all like anything else. Myles Ni Gangstaleen has this rundown of recent releases that demonstrate this Releases from acts who certainly don’t slot in easily with the current popular subgenres and “sounds” in electronic scenes the world over.

A couple of months back, LionFX dropped the ‘How a Kid from the Hood became the Lord of a Galaxy’ EP on the Boy Scout Audio label (also home to Meljoann and Herv). This four track digital release of synth-heavy instrumental electro goes from the nasty funk groove of ‘Lion Dance’ and ‘Tuff Kid’ to frantic high-bpm workouts. This is seriously well produced epic stuff here.

Melodica Deathship, who’s debut album ‘Doom Your Cities, Doom Your Towns’ was one of the finest releases of 2010, returned with ‘The Sunken Path’ EP. Deathship play dark pirate/maritime themed hip-hop. Heavy beats, dubby melodica echoes, pulsing synths, and the powerful vocals of Exile Eye bring these five songs to life. This isn’t your average alt-hip-hop fare though, with slabs of punk, folk, prog and post-rock in the mix here. After their more lo-fi debut, ‘The Sunken Path’ establishes a bigger fuller sound for the duo, and as their most recent live gigs have proven, they definitely pull it off on stage as well as in the studio.

 

The ultra-productive turntablist/ producer Deviant and Naive Ted, and MC Sebi C just put out their debut under the name Flying Buttresses (pictured top right), the ‘Orson Welles’ EP. The songs are often short feral bursts of stream of consciousness vocal madness from Sebi while Deviant provides boom-bap beats under dusty loops and lurching cuts. Sample lyric: “If rabbits ate frogs I wouldn’t like them at all. I wouldn’t mind them eating poisonous vegetables but they wouldn’t do that they’re sound out and on the ball. Completely delicious but I couldn’t shoot one at all”. This shit is unique. At the end of last year I heard some describe Deviant’s ‘Send In The Hounds’ EP as “the most important Irish electronic/dance record ever”. At this years end I’m sure we’ll be seeing the ‘Orson Welles’ EP in a fair few lists and charts too.

In fact, all the above releases should be in the kind of lists that end with the words ‘..of the year’. And if you wanna hear some quality original Irish electronic talent then they should also be in your music collection also.

Homegrown labels have been thriving of late, with Apartment Records and Takeover Recordings putting out some great techno, electro and house, with the former being more influenced by Detroit and Chicago sounds. Galway based Alkalinear Records went physical with their first vinyl release after a string of excellent eclectic digital releases. Up North you’ve got Rudimentary Records, Melted Music, and the long running Acroplane imprint dropping some fantastic bass driven music. Speaking of Acroplane and Alkalinear, there are rakes of free to download albums, EPs and compilations on their websites. Ditto with Alphabet Set, !Kaboogie, and the Loudmouth Collective.

Also on the free or pay-what-youwant buzz are likes of Automatic Tasty, Captain Moonlight, and Herv. Prolific feckers the lot of ‘em. Sure have an auld google there and get them into ya. While you’re at it, do yourself a favour and download the beautiful ‘Friday Syndrome Volume 1’ album from Sunken Foal. Across eighteen tracks, guitar and mandolin melodies sit comfortably alongside lush keys, glitchy pads and rolling beats. There is a vast amount of unreal aural goodness online from Irish acts and labels that is just itching to be on your hard drive.

A loose collective of like-minded producers has been making waves across Ireland in 2012. Often playing shows together, these “lovely boys” (as my mate likes to call them) toured the land as part of their ‘Lightbox’ tour earlier in the year. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Bantum, Monto, SertOne, Toby Kaar, Replete or Adultrock started getting regular international bookings and bigname remixes a la the Kildare boy-donegood Mmoths. Expect 2013 to be a busy year for these lads.

A fair few other Irish heads have started getting well deserved attention from abroad lately. Jamie XX has been dropping Frank B in sets. Frank’s catchy house banger ‘Chain Of Fools’ has been bigged up by XLR8R and is raking in the YouTube hits and online plays. With slick production and a natural ability to get bodies moving, he’s surely one to keep an eye on.

Nasty electro badman Matthew Flanagan aka Defekt has gone from strength to strength with with both club and radio djs rinsing the bejaysus outta his tunes across Europe. The chap’s been landing fairly regular slots in Berlin and London as well as releases on French label Newflesh, and German imprint AC Records.

Enjoying similar success in those parts of the world are Dublin duo Lakker. A string of very well received EPs and overseas gigs have established them as a staple for fans of dark industrial heavy techno. It certainly didn’t do any harm when none other than Aphex Twin and Surgeon began playing Lakker tunes in sets across the globe, and with the lads having recently turned their sets into fullon audio visual sync experiences, it’s a good time to catch Dara and Ian live.

The aforementioned Ian also performs solo as Eomac. He first caught a lot of ears in late 2010 with his ridiculously anthemic ‘You Don’t Know What This Means To Me’. (Seriously, around then and for a long while afterwards, it was near impossible to go back to a gaff for a post-night-out drink or what have you, without hearing that tune playin’ outta somewhere). EPs on Hsuan, Acroplane, and through his own site soon followed with a !Kaboogie release also in the pipeline.

Dublin’s grimiest producer/DJ Major Grave is another one who’s been tearing it up lately. He has consistently raised the bar for himself production-wise, gotten plenty of spins from London djs and started working with some top-notch MC’s. Check him out.

Sure check ALL of the above out. G’wan.

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