The weekend, hurrah! But before that: Aidan Hanratty and Antoin Lindsay deliver their weekly look at all the very best electronic gigs, tracks, mixes and releases.
GIGS
White Noise 500 with Dave Clarke, Marcel Fengler & Sunil Sharpe at The Academy
Friday, July 24
A hefty line-up this. In celebration of Dave Clarke’s 500th show, he’s broadcasting live from Dublin alongside Berghain resident Marcel Fengler and Dublin’s own Sunil Sharpe. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the up-and-coming Dublin talent is in abundance in Opium Rooms, with Daire Carolan playing all night alongside DJ Isleo’man (Morgan Buckley) and DJ Muscles Lumigraph, both of whom released on Daire’s First Second label before moving on to the international scale with Rush Hour’s No Label and Miste Night, respectively (while also contributing bits and pieces to labels like Cleaning Tapes and Farbwechsel, among others). It’s sure to be weird. AH
Electric Third Birthday with Tensnake, DMX Krew & Daniel Wang at Electric Garden & Theatre
Saturday, July 25
Galway residents are spoiled for choice tomorrow night. As part of the Galway International Arts Festival, there’s a monster gig taking place at Electric, which is also celebrating its third birthday. Disco/house heroes Tensnake and Daniel Wang bring the funk while electro mainstay DMX Krew throws it down for Bap To The Future, for whom he’s also playing a freakin’ boat party across town. He’s joined for that by local selector Reich Joyce and Dublin’s Platinum Ray. If you’re on the boat you get free entry to Electric later on. Boom. AH
TRACKS
Kowton – On Repeat [Livity Sound]
Kowton will be popping over to Belfast in a couple of weeks with Peveralist, so what better way to get hyped up than with brand new heat from the man himself on one of the finest labels of the decade so far. Kowton’s sense of subtlety is pretty much unrivalled in dance music at the moment, he’s the master of the understated banger, and ‘On Repeat’ is no different. And those drums, my God. AL
Tarquin – Lost My Marbles [Gobstopper Records]
From the sublime to the ridiculous, in a good way of course, relative unknown Tarquin serves up one of the wildest things you’ll hear all year. Gobstopper has been operating vaguely within the realms of grime, but never succumbing to the temptation of doing things the same as everyone else. Delightfully squelchy, hyperactive and, frankly, absolutely batshit. AL
Donato Dozzy – Downhill to the Sea
This is an odd one. Donato Dozzy’s (pictured) put together an album composed entirely with the marranzano, also known as a mouth harp. If you’re not familiar with that instrument, think to back to that Maypole scene in The Wicker Man, where it features prominently alongside folksy violin and pagan ritual. In fact, there’s no better way of describing the sound than the tags at freesound.org: “boing bounce doing funny harp jaw silly twang.” Back to Dozzy. He revisited the sounds of his childhood, playing and recording across Italy – up mountains, along the coast – and the result is a bizarre yet welcoming conflation of old and new, inserting this rustic sound into a thoroughly modern space. AH
Call Super – Fluenka’s Shelf
I included this release in my mid-year round-up for this site, but it’s unexpectedly been released digitally. ‘Fluenka’s Shelf’ is a rolling barrel of techno, 10 minutes of loopy house with fizzing sparks and cavernous echo that I’ve played more than anything else this year. The B-side (or track 2 as it’s called in digital parlance) ‘From Which I Fell’ is just as excellent – slower, darker, a similarly mechanical slab of wonder with a squelching melody that takes it home, but for me ‘Fluenka’ is number one. AH
RELEASES/MIXES
XLR8R Podcast 396: Veronica Vasicka – Dekmantel 2015 Festival Edition
Veronica Vasicka plays Dublin next week (more on that next week!) but she also plays the Dekmantel festival in Amsterdam. To that end, she’s contributed a mix under that banner for XLR8R’s long-running podcast series. It’s a rugged and enlivening affair, moving from hefty techno and dank electro to bright, lasery synth-laden tunes. It even features a track we covered some weeks back – Tzusing’s ‘King Of System’, forthcoming on Vasicka’s own Cititrax. The mix from Paranoid London’s ‘Paris Dub 1’ into The Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ is simply life-affirming. Why this wasn’t featured in Dekmantel’s own podcast series is beyond me. AH
Podcast 396: Veronica Vasicka – Dekmantel 2015 Festival Edition by Xlr8r on Mixcloud
Bouts-Rimés – Album 1
Sense/Net defines itself as a “Netlabel for technogeeks. Trendy and experimental stuff”. Who am I to argue? Their latest release, Album 1, comes from Russian producer Bouts-Rimés AKA Max Kobu. The album is an intriguing set of techno tracks, with playful bleepy melodies atop lullaby-like chords. At points it ventures towards the minimal, micro-house end of things, at others it dips its toes in deeper, ambient waters. AH
Leif – Freerotation 2015 Warm Up Mix
The Freerotation recordings have still been trickling through this week. The Hessle Audio set was undoubtedly my favourite of the weekend and Sam Watson’s is also pretty spectacular but I’ve decided to go for Leif’s in the end. Unfortunately in the haze of the weekend I managed to miss it in person, so the recording surfacing makes me incredibly pleased. The guy is on a different plane right now, not many DJs are able to craft an atmosphere this skilfully. One of the most genuinely underrated selectors out there, deep, groovy and lush. AL
UNiiQU3 – Required Mondays Guest Mix
Some party vibes to get your weekend going (even though the set went up on Monday) from New Jersey’s UNiiQU3. Her, ahem, unique twist on Jersey club has been getting a bit of Transatlantic attention with the likes of Night Slugs championing her. It’s easy to see why too, her sets are a hell of a lot of fun and this half hour mix is a perfect way to introduce yourself to what she does. AL
