Released via London’s Kinnego records, Belfast producer Connor Dougan AKA Defcon has woven some real magic on his new, three-track EP, Reach Out. According to his Bandcamp page, Dougan has “taken the lesser-travelled route of low-key experimentation and refinement, and has arrived at something unique, informed by leftfield hiphop and crate-digging, but also modern dub trickery and bass weight.” Check out our review of the EP in the October issue of our magazine online here. Reach Out by Defcon
Twelve months, a billion tracks (probably) and a ridiculously impressive crop of new, emerging musical talent the island of Ireland over: yes, 2014 was been very generous indeed on the ol’ new music front. In a year when (the altogether sonically disparate) Girl Band and SOAK signed with Rough Trade, Adebisi Shank broke hearts in parting ways and Hozier “did a Kodaline” by going positively stratospheric – more on that later – innumerable lesser-known acts have also been slogging away in the garage, creating some of the very best sounds here or anywhere else on the face on the planet. In the first of a two-part feature,…
Space and electronic music are seemingly intrinsically linked. It’s understandable; the initial development of electronic instrumentation happened when the Space Race was in full swing. The sounds themselves feel otherworldly and wondrous and though synthy space music is by now a path well-trodden it’s far from an exhausted source of interesting sounds and good vibes. This is none more evident than on Fantasy Ink, a solid record of stellar funk from Belfast’s James McConville, aka Ken & Ryu. Clocking in at just over fifteen minutes, the EP treats us to a short and sweet galactic trip. Opener ‘Backbone of the…
Veteran Northern Irish producer and multi-talented wizard-man Boxcutter (Barry Lynn) has had a fairly enviable run of success since his debut for Planet Mu records back in 2006. A string of high-grade LP and EP releases, collaborations and remixes for the likes of Amon Tobin, Falty DL and Space Dimension Controller – as well as countless headline shows worldwide – would suggest that Lynn might deserve a relaxing day or two off. The release of his latest EP New Yen, in collaboration with fellow NI producer Defcon, suggests otherwise. In fact, what it does suggest is that Lynn is in…