• Irish Tracks of the Week – November 5th

    November 5, 2021 - By 

    It’s Bandcamp Friday once again, and it’s been yet another stacked week for Irish releases. Dig into best of them below, featuring Elaine Malone, Sinead O’Brien, Autumns, Son Zept, Natalia Beylis, Eimear Reidy and more Elaine Malone – Mantua MANTUA by MANTUA Autumns – DSS Dubplate DSS Dubplate by Autumns MF Doom – Great Day (Son Zept Remix) SON ZEPT · MF Doom – Great Day (Son Zept Remix) Big Daisy – Without Dreams Without Dreams by Big Daisy Neil Brogan – Evening Primrose EP Evening Primrose EP by Neil Brogan CMAT – No More Virgos Sinead O’Brien – Girlkind…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – January 29th

    January 29, 2021 - By 

    HALLI – Body Never Lies Elaine Mai – No Forever (feat. MayKay) Wyvern Lingo – Only Love Only Light Ciarán Ruby – Landfall / March of the Dispossessed Sun Mahshene – The Righteous One The Righteous One by Sun Mahshene Laoise – Gravy Chósta – Rush Hour Badhands – Indian Ocean Toshín – She Elina Filice feat. Cat – First World Problems Alex Gough – FOREVER CLASSIC (Live At The Clinic) Bunkhouse – Bunkhouse LP Bunkhouse by Bunkhouse Ye Vagabonds – I’m A Rover Emiji – Larimar (feat. Hvmmingbyrd) Nylophone – Shy One   Arthuritis – My Ass, Around the…

  • Monday Mixtape: Son Zept

    October 19, 2020 - By 

    Recently championed and playlisted by the likes of by ourselves, The Quietus, DJ Mag and leftfield DJ par excellence Avalon Emerson, “Northern Ireland’s resident electronic compositional polymath” Liam McCartan, AKA Son Zept has just released his second mini-album of 2020, B. Today, he gives us an uncharacteristically abridged mixtape of some current favourite tracks. I tried to keep this as just a stream of thought and not cram in stuff that I’d end rambling about daft things like cheeky hauntological anti-memory sound (*ahem*). Excluded tunes from Aphex Twin + Aphex covers, Mal Waldron, Oneohtrix Point Never, Eprom, Lyra Pramuk, Pinch & Mumdance, Holly Herndon, Chassol,…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – August 28th

    August 28, 2020 - By 

    From the sledgehammer riffing of Shifting, electronics of Son Zept and Marcus Woods, indie-pop returns by Æ MAK, Catalan and We Cut Corners, to arguably Ireland’s most exciting rising hip-hop star in Denise Chaila, check out this week’s round-up of best new Irish music. Denise Chaila – Holy Grail Son Zept – Lush Lab B by Son Zept Æ MAK – I Dance In The Kitchen (feat. Seba Safe) Shifting – Big Ed It Was Good by Shifting SENU – Jetlag 2 Catalan – Fortune We Cut Corners – Muscle Memory Muscle Memory EP by We Cut Corners Marcus Woods – Repose Tactics Maria Doyle Kennedy – Keeps…

  • Video Premiere: Son Zept – 1D2D RISE

    February 11, 2020 - By 

    Though it’s nigh on impossible to select a highlight from his new, seven-track album, A, ‘1D2D RISE’ by Belfast-based electronic alchemist and all-round polymath Liam McCartan aka Son Zept is very hard to beat. Somnambulant and wistful in equal measure, it’s a slowly unravelling three-minute burst of warped-out ambient, melding broad washes of synth with heart-tugging, Plantastia-leaning synth arps. Speaking about the track and accompanying video – which you can have an exclusive first look at it below – McCartan said: “It came from those dimly lit 3am sessions that happen again and again with the headphones on really tight. Trying to…

  • 10 for ’20: Son Zept

    February 7, 2020 - By 

    In the second installment of 10 for ’20 – our new series previewing ten Irish acts we’re convinced are set for great things in 2020 and beyond – Stevie Lennox introduces one of the most forward-thinking, fast-rising electronic artists, Belfast polymath Son Zept. Photo by Niall Fegan We last chatted to Liam McCartan, aka Son Zept, in 2018 when his debut Q2B EP was released in the early days of his PhD at Belfast’s Sonic Arts Research Centre. A maximalist series of curveballing deconstructed club pieces that landed in the ears of Objekt – who has been closing sets with its cuts – and Avalon…

  • If I Couldn’t Define it, I Thought I Was Doing Something Good: Introducing Son Zept

    November 7, 2018 - By 

    A couple of weeks ago, we premiered Son Zept‘s 40-minute debut EP, released through Belfast experimental electronic imprint Resist. Ahead of it, we met with Liam McCartan to discuss his involvement in Belfast’s Sonic Arts Research Centre – where he’s currently composing for a PhD – and Resist, where he’s been instrumental in its growth from club night to label, alongside founders Koichi Samuels & Helena Hamilton – where in terms of enabling his prolificity, “it’s a constant dialogue – we already have a 2 or 3 EPs idea”. Being staunchly individual, but instrinsically linked to both institutions, the Q2B EP strikes a midpoint between the bodies he’s most involved with and McCartan…

  • EP Premiere: Son Zept – Q2B

    October 19, 2018 - By 

    Liam McCartan, AKA Son Zept, releases his debut today, and it’s one of the most exciting, forward-thinking electronic releases to emerge from here in some time. Parallels could be drawn with the likes of Autechre or Aphex Twin from an experimental standpoint, as his Q2B EP reveals McCartan as a true polymath, where concern with ideology is tantamount to creating limitless club potential. Brimming with atmosphere punctuated by his dense ‘polypatternism’, the Q2B EP is a work of deconstructed club music that alludes to the memory-triggering aspects of techno, noise, trance, power-ambient and industrial, often falling into umbrella of electroacoustic composition. We’ll have a full interview with Son Zept in the coming…