A regular dig through bandcamp.com for Irish underground treasure.
Tuuun / FLUF
Copenhagen-based Kells man Steve McEvoy seems more suited to the Outer Limits columns in Wire magazine than Ireland’s Brightest Daily, but if you’re into far-out electronic sounds, his Tuuun solo project and FLUF label are essential.
FLUF releases (many on strikingly designed cassettes) range from granular synthesis to
post-everything future dub, to poetry and the scuttling rhythms of cicada field recordings.
You never know what to expect with his Dublin Digital Radio show either — he recently broadcast two hours of gurn-schmaltz breakdowns from old Euphoria trance CDs.
Planting
You don’t throw around names like Brian Eno, Boards of Canada or Aphex Twin around
lightly, but each of the above wafted into my head listening to the new album from Derry man John McDaid aka Planting.
Coordinates shares some of the serenity of Eno’s Plateaux of Mirrors with BOC and AFX’s more refined, melancholy passages — with classical, ambient piano-led suites offset by cinematic hiphop beats.
He’s also the creative director of children’s book publishing company Dog Ears, whose book Puffin Rock has been turned into a cartoon featuring Chris O’Dowd. I reckon the kids are alright in their hands.
Karen Power
Cork-based composer Karen Brown’s only work on Bandcamp is her new album Human Nature — 18 pieces featuring one musician (presumably her) and one unprocessed field
recording, with evocative titles like Seals Off the Namibian Shipwreck Coast and Underwater Frogs of Angkar Wat.
Good headphones and a sleep mask are advised, to get the get the whole transportive experience of these one-off happenings.
Then again, a bag of cans might do the job if you’re listening to one of her pieces from
2007, Fried Rice, Curried Chip and a Diet Coke.
ZoID
Think of early 20th century Celtic Christian art, and acid electro music doesn’t jump out at you. But Dublin producer Daniel Jacobson aka ZoID’s latest release Acid Tribute Sister Concepta was inspired by a trip to an oratory in Dun Laoghaire with detailed artworks by a nun who painted the ceiling and each wall with beautifully detailed artworks from 1920 to 1936.
This snappy 303 workout is just one of the many left turns on ZoID’s Bandcamp, which veers between jazzy techno, breaks and Rephlex-style Braindance.
Moo Kid 