District Magazine's Guide to Dublin City: June 2018

June 2018

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Rory O’Neill Panti Bliss

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The Fourth Corner Bar Patrick St, Dublin 8

Food from Dublin Pizza Co. New Cocktail menu launching this month "Where are you friends tonight?" taken from LCD Soundsystem's 'All my Friends'

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LCD Soundsystem play Malahide Castle on June 6th fourthcorner.ie

As the food guide in the back of this very magazine will attest to, we’re fond of a good burger here at District HQ. So much so that we thought we’d give you the inside track on one of our favourite burger haunts - Wowburger!

If you’re a Dubliner there’s a very high chance you already know about Wowburger but what you may not know (and don’t tell anyone) is that there’s a hidden menu. A menu so secret that we’re not even fully sure what’s on it yet, what we do know is that you can actually order a burger with 4, 6, 8 or 10 patties in it if you so wish, perfect for any folk that actually enjoy an eating contest!

If you’re a college student and your budget doesn’t stretch as far as eating a tower of meat then you can avail of their €10 student deal which gets you a burger, side and drink – very good craic!

In a relatively short space of time Wowburger has built from a single location in the Workman’s smoking area to having six in Dublin city (Mary’s Bar - Wicklow St, Wexford St, Parnell St, Ranelagh and Tallaght) so you’re never too far from 4 your nearest feed.

June 2018 The stranglehold of old Ireland is loosening its grip. In May, two more pious fingers were removed from the country's throat.

It was almost three years to the day since the Marriage Equality referendum when our Deputy Editor Hannah O’Connell sat down with Rory O’Neill, aka Panti Bliss, in Pantibar. While the conversation flowed, both parties were nervous for May 25 to roll around.

However, neither predicted just how many people in Ireland would decide to be on the right side of history and vote ‘yes’ in the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment.

Just days later a law removing baptism as requirement for school entry was passed in the Dáil.

The last few years have proven that we face the future with the optimistic sense that the majority of the country want progress and to leave the shame of the past behind. There are many more issues to tackle, but the battle for bodily autonomy was won decisively.

Welcome to June, Ireland. Take a deep breath.

Editor // Eric Davidson Operations Director // Craig Connolly Creative Director // James McGuirk Deputy Editor // Hannah O’Connell House & Techno Editor // Cóilí Collins Events Editor // Niamh Craven Food & Drink Editor // Caitriona Devery Quarterly Magazine Creative Director // Johnny Brennan Advertising // Sam Greenwood: sam@districtmagazine.ie Photography // George Voronov, Greg Purcell, Steven Peice, Paul Wheatley, Jasmin Bell, Jack Farrell, Ian McDevitt, Tam Cader, Antonio Campanella, Sam Hiscox, Adrianna Power, Alec Donnell Website // districtmagazine.ie

June 2018

June 2018

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Rory O’Neill Panti Bliss

J Colleran

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J Colleran by Cáit Fahey

Rory O’Neill by Ellius Grace

Contents 06 / Rory O’Neill aka Panti Bliss 12 / Little Simz 16 / Mumdance, Logos & Chevel 20 / Live Guide 28 / Souls Of Mischief 34 / Newmarket Square 36 / Dublin Centric 40 / Authentic Paranoia 44 / Junior x Loah 50 / Beauty in Transformation 56 / Grey Area 58 / Capital Terraces 66 / HAAi 64 / Tommy Holohan 68 / House & Techno Guide 72 / Myler 78 / J Colleran 84 / Artist Spotlight: Jonny Costello 86 / Fermentation 90 / Dublin Burgers

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6 Words: Hannah O’Connell / Photography: Ellius Grace

Panti Bliss Rory O’Neill I

t’s three years to the week since Ireland became the first country to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote when I meet Rory O’Neill aka Panti Bliss in Pantibar. The venue isn’t open when I get there so I knock on the big red doors and long-time bar manager Shane lets me in.

Rory arrives a few minutes later. He’s handsome, taller than I expected, and full of energy. We find a quiet spot to chat downstairs, away from the sounds of the afternoon’s keg delivery. It’s this same basement, Rory tells me, that in 2007 he and Shane were “sucking the water out of” when he first got the keys to what would become one of Dublin’s most important LGBTQ institutions.

“At the time I had just turned 40… Had I? No, I was in my late 30s and I was still doing the nightclub gigging and running around and I was sort of thinking, ‘What does an ageing drag queen do?’ I have friends in other places and they still have to do that running around and they’re not 25 anymore so I thought a bar seemed like the obvious solution. I spent my life in them.

“On top of that, my parents knew everything about me and my job, but it’s one of those things, my dad never really understood what I did. He’d been to the odd thing but he didn’t really get it. Whereas he knows what a bar is... My dad isn’t a pub man but he understands a small business.

“Even though I’ve worked in bars all my life, and night clubs, I was so naive. Running a bar turns out to be really hard work and never ending! We opened six months before the crash so for the first five years it was an enormous struggle, spending every

minute of every day here and cutting every, tiny, piece of fat off the thing. Twice I had the sheriff at the door trying to take away equipment because I didn’t have the cash to pay him.”

Despite hundreds of business succumbing to Ireland’s ‘lost decade’ Panti Bar and Rory endured. He’s not one to give up when he believes in something. I was in Dublin Castle three years ago when Panti took to the stage following Ireland’s ‘Yes’ vote for Marriage Equality. Speaking to RTÉ alongside Gerry Adams and Frances Fitzgerald the iconic drag artist and activist reminded the nation that this was a victory following a 40-year campaign.

Three years on, how has Ireland changed since that historical day?

“Is it three years? Time flies! Well, it’s more a relaxed country to be a queer in now.

“We’re kind of unique in the world now, you could argue Australia but theirs wasn’t really a proper referendum, in that we actually know to a percentage point what the country feels about us and it turns out they’re absolutely cool about us. I suspected that most people were beforehand. I would have bet that they were but I didn’t actually know that and it turns out that knowing that is actually important; more important than I thought it was going to be. We feel more confident in our position in Irish culture.

“Yesterday I was out with my current fella, it was a nice day. We were out wandering around the Grand Canal Dock and, of course, we didn’t really think twice about holding hands or leaning into each other.

He’s foreign and he always remarks on that. We feel quite free to do that now and

I wouldn’t have felt that free beforehand.

I mean I would have done it, especially in somewhere like Grand Canal Dock on a sunny Sunday, but I would have just been more aware of it. That’s quite a big change.”

With same-sex marriage now officially recognised by our constitution, Rory had turned his attention to campaigning for the removal of the Eighth Amendment. When I walked into Pantibar earlier that day I passed the windows adorned with Maser’s Repeal mural, shining in the sunlight. I would have loved to have been chatting to Rory post-referendum, discussing another successful ‘Yes’ result but our conversation took place before we knew the outcome.

Instead, I wondered what’s next on Rory’s activism agenda.

“It doesn’t really work like that, but these things present themselves to me over time.

So obviously at the moment we’re all Repeal but before the Repeal thing really kicked into gear I spent a lot of time doing a lot of queer stuff in other countries. It turns out that one of the other great things about our [Marriage Equality] referendum, even though it was horrible at the time, is that it’s a really powerful symbol for other countries.

So if I go to, for example to Sarajevo, and I get to tell Ireland’s queer journey, it’s actually really inspiring.

“If you’re 22 and you’re in Sarajevo and you’re a dyke or a queer boy it’s so depressing and you think that it will never change because it seems so ingrained but then the big shiny drag queen from Ireland comes along and tells you, ‘Well, actually when I was your age I felt the exact same way about Ireland’. I think that’s a really inspiring story and they get a lift out of that. Obviously to a 22-year-old 25 or 30

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years seems like forever, but in the general scheme of things it’s a really short time and Ireland managed to really change in that period of time, so really big change is possible.”

Rory continues, telling me that the government have sent him to a number of countries including South Africa and Mozambique to talk about ‘queer Ireland’.

“One way they use it is in a very business sense. They realise that around the world people still have an image of Ireland as quite backward so they use it as an easy, quick way to say, ‘Well actually, Ireland is modern and more progressive than you imagine and it might be a good place for you to do business’, or whatever… It gets the job done quickly.

“The other thing is they [the government] do is a lot of HIV work in Africa, Irish aid.

That’s one of my babies. It’s not exactly fun visiting hospitals, but it’s really interesting.

I’m proud of Ireland because the reason they want me to bring some attention to it is because Irish people don’t know what happens to our aid money. We all know the statistic that we give money, that we’re ‘great givers’ but Irish people have no idea what the money does and the money does amazing things... It’s really well shepherded.

I wish everyone could go on one of those trips just to see it.”

The conversation turns to Dublin Pride which begins on June 21. The event has been running for 35 years this summer with the first Pride Parade marching from St Stephen’s Green to the GPO in 1983.

Rory recalls the first street party and how it initially happened illegally with Dublin City Council and the Gardaí not exactly cooperating.

“It’s one day. Get over it!” He laughs.

Before he can continue we’re interrupted by a persistent banging on the front door.

Rory runs upstairs to let in another drinks delivery.

“Where are they all gone to?” He murmurs to himself before, “What was I bullshitting on about? Oh Pride! I’m for Pride but sometimes queers can be really cynical about it. They say, ‘Oh whatever! It’s just a commercial this, that, whatever’. They’ll give out about the drag queens, the leather queens, and I’m like, ‘Oh shut the fuck up! They’re the people who got us to this point’.

“I’m a big supporter of Pride and does it get very commercial? Yes... I don’t think it’s gotten overly commercial. We have the Google floats and all that but sure... In Dublin you’re going along streets that you actually

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walk on, you’re passing by the shop that you actually do go into and buy your milk sometimes. It still has that local quality about it because it’s small enough and that is nice about it. Does it still have a function?

Yeah, it absolutely does. We don’t give out about St Patrick’s Day. You’re allowed just have a party too!”

Rory is an incredibly busy person, evident alone by the number of calls and texts he gets during our 30-minute chat. He’s currently on a break from touring RIOT but not for long, the show is scheduled for a 12-night run in Toronto from June 5. July will see ‘Pantisocracy’ (it’s a real word, look it up), Panti’s RTÉ Radio 1 show return for a third season and Sky are developing a new drama based on Panti Bliss which Rory is writing and starring in. No big deal.

“I almost feel guilty about talking to people in the industry because they all have these horrible stories about projects they worked on for years that never happened or projects that were taken away from them. I was just plodding along and this big American/UK production company arrived and said, ‘We want to make something. It can be anything you want’.

“I almost didn’t believe that for the first year. I was going ahead with it but I thought, ‘This can’t be real’. But it turns out it can be real. It’s been so great and easy and no one is trying to make it something I don’t like... I think drag queens are quite hot right now!”

‘PantiBar’ (working title) will start shooting this winter and we can expect it on our TVs by early next year. As my time with Rory winds down I’m almost exhausted just from listening to everything that he has going on. How does someone so busy switch off?

“I would like to say that I bake scones or something, but I don’t. I just mooch around on the internet all the time. I don’t watch TV at all anymore. I don’t mind that but I feel really guilty that I don’t read enough real books... You just read things online and spend hours clicking through links, people sending you things, articles that have links within them... Oh my god!

“Thankfully I have a dog. The best and the worst thing about having a dog is that you have to walk them every day. Whether you feel like it or not you’re forced to and sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh Jaysus’. But it gets you out and clears your head. You can’t be reading too many articles when you’re out walking the dog.”

“If you’re 22 and you’re in Sarajevo and you’re a dyke or a queer boy it’s so depressing and you think that it will never change because it seems so ingrained, but then the big shiny drag queen from Ireland comes along and tells you, ‘Well, actually when I was your age I felt the exact same way about Ireland’.”

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Words: Cóilí Collins / Photography: Tam Cader

Little Simz

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he world of UK hip hop and grime has grown exponentially over the past five years or so, with a plethora of names becoming staples not only within the indigenous scene, but on a worldwide scale.

With this growth have come some of the biggest names from Novelist and Giggs to more experimental acts like SG Lewis and JD Reid. Every nook and cranny across grime, dub and the other genres splattered on the UK’s multi-faceted palette has seen the emergence of star names but despite this, some people are still being mislabelled and overlooked.

Little Simz has been one of the biggest names to emerge from the London scene in recent years, but regardless of her success she’s yet to have a place carved out among the elite and she’s been fighting for that since day one.

That battle has seen her produce two albums (with another one on the way), tour Europe and the US, both solo and alongside Gorillaz, and in May curate the sophomore instalment of her day festival ‘Welcome to Wonderland’ with a line up that included Rapsody, Ari Lennox and Kojey Radical.

Bear in mind, Little Simz is just 24 years old which begs the question, does she get to act her age at all anymore?

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“I can and I am! I don’t feel like I’m not being myself. I’m doing everything I want to do. If I want to hop on a plane and go somewhere for a weekend and meet some friends I can do that. I can still manoeuvre and move in a way that’s normal, but I think right now I’m very work-driven anyway which means that all I want to do is focus on what I’ve got coming and what I’m working on.

“It gets crazier as time goes on, in my situation I’ve been blessed enough to have people around me that hold me down and assure me that I’m on the right path and that we’re heading in the right direction.”

Little Simz’s maturity has totally shone through in her approach to releasing new music. Despite posting on Facebook that it was frustrating to be sitting on a bank of fresh material, she hasn’t fallen into the forgivable trap of giving it all away too soon, choosing to focus more so on her live show and the future with a measured approach.

“It’s actually nice [waiting on releases], I feel like I’ve got an album in the bag so I haven’t necessarily got to stress about making or creating new music, I can just focus on my live aspect and do my festival circuit. As soon as I come off that I’m ready to release it, I feel like I’ve set it up nicely. I’m not as eager and impatient as I was three or four years ago to just release music. I can afford to be a bit more strategic with it and to understand it and not to be in a rush.”

In an interview with Hot 97, Little Simz credited her touring schedule as being crucial to growing her music and herself as a person. With a string of European dates under her belt, I was interested to see how this tour differed to the others.

“It’s so nice to see the people that have been at my shows since the first tour. I just finished touring Europe, the last time I toured Europe solo was in 2016 and then I toured it with Gorillaz, so it’s cool to see the people who have been there since the start.

It’s interesting to see how the music brings those people together. I’m blessed enough to have a support base that are with me all the way. Some people have fans that tap out when they get to their twenties, when they get into other stuff.”

Much like her music transcends trends and age groups, Little Simz’s approach to marketing her sound and brand is more authentic than a lot of her UK contemporaries. Rather than filling up albums with feature verses and hopping on the latest sounds, she has spread her style naturally, which has led to the ‘Welcome to Wonderland’ day festival.

The Camden venue it’s held in, Roundhouse, is very close to Simz’s heart, given that she’d been going there since she was 16. The opportunity to give back and curate the three-stage day festival not only benefited her, but the people that made her who she is today.

“Roundhouse is a venue that I’ve been going to since I was so young, so my relationship with it is very organic and very real. The story behind it was real. I used to go there and use their facilities and to be able to put on a festival there is insane to me. It’s something I want to continue to build on in terms of taking it to different territories. I want to broaden my horizons with it.”

That same realness is apparent when it comes to her fanbase. Despite being deeply-rooted in the UK, her popularity in the US has been on a rapid ascension. She’s even received the nod from Kendrick Lamar.

Little Simz has, of course, benefited from gigging in the States but it’s her ‘be yourself’ approach rather than crowd-pleasing tactics that’s working for her on the other side of the Atlantic.

“I don’t make music to please the Americans. My ethos behind it is more so art for itself. Because I’ve been there so much over the past four years I’ve been able to build a fanbase and they embraced me so much that it blows my mind every time I go back. Sometimes I feel like they get me more than they do here [in the UK], which is fine, but it’s weird to comprehend.

“I couldn’t even tell you [why]. When I first went over to the States I thought no one would understand what I was about or my accent. Knowing that it was going to be weird to them, it felt like I had all the odds against me, but actually it worked in my favour.”

Big-hitters like Skepta and Section Boyz have succeeded thanks to their unique brand of club-orientated grime, initially picked up on in America off the back of co-sign from Drake. Despite their success, the Little Simz sound is a far cry from a Skepta banger. The live instrumentation at her shows allows her to communicate her sound clearly, meaning she doesn’t have to lean on big club tracks for commercial appeal. This splits her apart from many of her DJ-relying UK peers.

“The reason I do what I do is because I want to do it, I’m obliged not to change that.

It’s like when you go to a restaurant because you really like this one particular thing on the menu and all of a sudden they change the whole thing. Just keep it to what people like.

I guess you could argue that people need to grow and try different things, not to say that I’m never going to make a club song, but it’s not at the top of my list.”

The addition of a band has not only strengthened her confidence in her sound, it has boosted morale on the road, something that’s visible in her consistent posts with the backing trio on her Instagram account.

“Man, touring with my band is exactly what I wanted. For the longest time it was just me and a DJ and I really felt like adding the live element was important in terms of allowing people to experience the music and more so understanding that I can’t do all of this on my own. It also takes the hard work and dedication of my team. In terms of sharing the spotlight there’s nothing wrong with that, I get hype about people that I work with, I just want to let people know.”

Little Simz’s adherence to her specific creative vision hasn’t had an extended sub -genre to cling onto like grime or straight up UK rap, but she has still carved out a spot as one of the scene’s marquee names, garnering respect from fans and artists alike.

She exists in a strange no man’s land in terms of the bubbling sound, but with that being said, two albums, two festivals and multiple solo tours all accruing to one 24-year-old isn’t simply ‘no man’s land’, that’s star territory.

Little Simz supports Gorillaz at Malahide Castle on June 9.

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Words: Cóilí Collins / Photography: Antonio Campanella, Sam Hiscox, Adrianna Power

MUMDANCE, LOGOS & CHEVEL

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t’s 2018 and we’ve managed to speak all things from virtual reality and artificial intelligence into existence. It’s a far cry from when we used to think Marty McFly buzzing around on a hoverboard was never going to happen.

Electronic music has developed so much that we’ve lived to see the birth of ‘weightless’ music through the minds of UK producers Mumdance and Logos; a sound that has made its way as far as an album from Italian producer Chevel on the duo’s Different Circles label, a place that’s housed the unique sonic output for almost five years now.

While electronic music is always a tough task to describe on paper, the notion of ‘weightless’ brings that to a new extreme. Chevel’s ‘Always Yours’ LP could simultaneously soundtrack a rogue voyage to the dark side of the moon or the inner mechanisms of a car engine at full throttle.

There’s nothing more futuristic than the boundary-destroying sound we were about to discuss, so the notion of running a successful, four-person Skype call was an afterthought, given the complex extremes the three have already sonically achieved.

The Skype call didn’t necessarily go to plan, with James Parker [Logos] gone AWOL for the first half of our conversation.

After a few minutes of trying to get him on the line, our efforts are in vain. A brief pause in our search for Logos allows me to ask how the hell has the ‘weightless’ sound, such a UK-engrossed one, been so perfectly interpreted by an Italian producer? While Dario Tronchin [Chevel] managed to handdeliver his album to the English pair, his first introduction to UK music came at Europe’s most famous breeding ground for electronic creativity.

“The very first encounter I had with UK music was in Berlin actually,” Chevel explains. “They ran these parties in Berghain when I was living there, about 10 years ago and Mala was playing. That was the beginning for me in terms of UK music.

Also Hardwax had some strong connections with the UK, they had crates in shop just dedicated to UK music.”

It’s worth noting too that unlike Mumdance and Logos, Chevel’s music hasn’t always been as drastically leftfield, making it a little bit more puzzling that his initial fire was sparked in a place that’s home to some of the purist techno DJs on the planet.

“DJ sets within techno can get really boring for me,” the Italian artist continues.

“I don’t like when techno DJs themselves are focusing on one thing and I was scared that I’d end up that way. Music for me is much more about expressing myself and I don’t want to stick to rules. I started going to many more live gigs and concerts and experimental music nights and of course the nights that James and Jack [Mumdance] were running. These kind of experiences changed my sound and I found there was much more to explore in the techno field.”

The mention of Jack Adams, commonly known as Mumdance, and James Parker’s Different Circles parties then gives the former Rinse FM host an opportunity to chime in.

“What happened was a few summers ago James and I put on a series of events at this pub called the Victoria, these Sunday evening parties and we did two months worth of programming,” Mumdance intervenes. “What we did was try and stick the biggest line ups into the smallest venue and it was crazy. At one point you had the whole scene in there. You’d have like Perc, Björk, Lee Gamble as well as the grime lot too, it was quite a mad bunch of people.

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Dario came down to one of those and gave us a copy of his album and we stayed in touch since then.”

While Chevel’s dip into ‘weightless’ isn’t totally different from what we’ve heard in his more club-orientated sound, ‘weightless’ is the approach that makes sense for producers like Mumdance and Logos, who have both, for a long time, been undefinable given the uniqueness and variance of their music. With that being said, ‘weightless’ isn’t intended to be a genre, more so a new approach to producing individual sounds, as Mumdance goes on to outline.

“The main thing with ‘weightless’ that often gets misunderstood is that it’s not really a genre, it’s an approach. I guess it’s hard to explain, but it captures a mood and the idea of reducing things down to the bare minimum, using minimal percussion but still having sub bass so it has still got club pressure. We always wanted it to be open to interpretation and that’s why we did this ‘Weightless Vol. 1’ and ‘Vol. 2’ because we wanted to make it open to interpretation for more people to make sense of it.”

Even over the phone it’s obvious that the producer has a clear vision of what the sound is in his head, but like most of his previous work, it stands entirely on its own in a sea of monotonous electronic music. It’s something that’s naturally harder to grasp, given the sea of easily digestible, four-tothe-floor music out there.

“It just kind of developed,” says Mumdance. “‘Weightless’ has always been about dynamics. I like techno, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I think the producers can be a bit too purist and I don’t think it’s good to be too purist about anything.

If something is the same the whole way through then it becomes less effective; you need these opposites; you need silence to make sense of sound.

“A breakdown makes a drop exciting. I was calling them palette cleansers and I just used to play ‘musique concrète’ pieces because I was playing some pretty intense music and after a while it’d be a bit much.

If you bring it up and bring it down with interludes and some ambient bits, that’s what got me into the idea of [weightless] at first.”

He pauses for a second to gather his thoughts and then offers a clearer example.

“To be honest, James’ album ‘Cold Mission’ is the square one for ‘weightless’ really.

There’s that angle I was talking about with ambient and ‘musique concrète’ that James thought of doing with grime and deconstructed rave music.

“It’s a shame James isn’t here!” He says, laughing at the fact that he’s doing all the explaining for what has really been a joint venture for the two Englishmen. However, Mumdance’s recent residency on Rinse FM showcased the ‘weightless’ sound in a contextual atmosphere surrounded by

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different electronic genres. One week he’d be back-to-back with Nina Kraviz or DJ Stingray, with more legends dropping by the studio in James Ruskin (who he kicked off his new monthly NTS Residency with) or Sunil Sharpe, who he’ll be playing backto-back with at the upcoming instalment of Higher Vision Festival, to name but a few.

His stint on radio put ‘weightless’ on the map and put him on an even wider radar for bookings too.

“The Rinse show was very important in terms of incubating the sound and helping people understand it, because when you explain it on paper it sounds real wanky [laughs]. When you hear it it makes sense.”

Each show brought with it a new announcement poster, 40 in total, and that attention to aesthetic overlaps with Different Circles’ rather unique approach to the visual aspect. Chevel’s album has a simple but striking cover, fully equipped with a neon yellow vinyl that looks like it was pressed on frozen Gatorade. While the album cover is most definitely eyecatching, the Italian points out that it goes deeper than being just a pretty picture.

“The whole meaning of the record is in the image,” Chevel explains. “Of course the neon yellow makes the whole thing much more enjoyable, but regarding the image, it’s my tribute to music; you get different flavours from the same machine and that’s my idea of music, I don’t want to be one-sided. A lot of artists are worried about being cool and on brand and I want to be the opposite. I want to be the whole machine.”

Much like their initial meeting, Mumdance reaffirms that the colourful nature of Chevel’s album was actually against the typical Different Circles grain.

“Initially with Different Circles we didn’t want to have an aesthetic. Everything was just hand stamped and didn’t say which release it was. If you’re too fashionable with something then you can go out fashion with it. It’s good to be competent with the visual aspect and it really frustrates me getting the visual aspect right, but to me the music should come first.

“It was Dario’s idea to have that image and I think it works really well with the sound too.”

Whether it has been through his music, label or radio show, Mumdance has always married chaos with organisation, as exhibited with the creation of his label’s new in-house style. His sturdy demeanor cracks for a minute as this organised chaos comes into question.

“I’m really bad at planning stuff. I just like music and this is just a way where I can fit everything I like together. It has taken me a little while to work out how to do it and for it to make sense. The ‘weightless’ idea is another string to the bow. It’s just like there are peak time tracks, drum tracks and

warm up tracks, this is just another type of track.

“If we put the amount of effort we put into this job into another job we’d be rolling.

Music is not a job if you want to be rich.

You get by, but it’s about doing what you enjoy.”

Just as he regained his steadfast, stern posture, he laughs again this time as Logos has just texted him a message that simply reads, “FFS”. As we try and get him to join us, the ‘1 Sec’ producer continues, “I’ve always been very impulsive. For example, with Novelist, Pinch, Logos, I met them, felt an energy or whatever, without being too hippy, and was like, ‘Right let’s do some music’. Everyone I’ve worked with has been like that, the same with Dario, since I heard his music I knew I wanted to put that out on Different Circles in some capacity.”

His insightful approach to the microcosm of the electronic music his sound occupies is abruptly overshadowed by a poorly connected Logos, who’s apology slurs for about five seconds thanks a to a weak Skype line.

“S-O-R-R-R-R-R-Y-Y-Y-Y” Thankfully his 4G manages to get a hold of itself and his voice sounds more like a human one, rather than a chopped up sample that would typically be found on a Different Circles record. As Mumdance had previously referred to Logos’ ‘Cold Mission’ album as being a blueprint of sorts for their groundbreaking approach to production, it was natural to be inquisitive as to whether it happened by accident or if he had a grasp of weightlessness at that point.

“I didn’t really have ‘weightless’ in mind”, Logos says in reference to ‘Cold Mission’.

“The album was an exploration of the sounds on my first EP that I made for Keysound. Some of the tunes there are pretty ‘weightless’.

“I feel like I’m always able to make what I want to make to be honest. Me and Jack did a remix for Perc and Truss recently and that tune is like an early German trance, gabber tune.”

Mumdance reaffirms this, “Yeah, proper Dutch hardcore.”

Logos continues, “Weightless is like a set of useful parameters. I think it keeps us grounded in UK rather than going off and making four-to-the-floor techno, which I’m not really that interested in.”

At this stage it’s clear to see why the pair have managed to share such a clear cut understanding of what is to the rest of us, a pretty tricky notion.

Without getting too lost in the intricacies of production and their respective approach to it, we flip the focus more so on them as people and as musicians. Despite operating within the sometimes emotionless landscape of underground electronic music, the trio’s material carries more personality than most of their counterparts. Chevel was first to answer, quickly reaffirming that the

hidden parts of his personality are most evident through his sound.

“I don’t want to sound cheesy [laughs].

Maybe it’s a romantic view on it, but making music for me is a way of reflecting the stuff that I can’t with words. Some things are hard to be open about so this is a medium of doing so, even though it has no words.”

The Italian’s once again well-articulated reasoning is echoed by Mumdance.

“Like Dario says, music is a projection of self and when you start making good music it’s because you’re making honest music.

As much as that sounds weird because there are no lyrics in what we do, if you’re trying to project something which isn’t you it definitely has that feeling to it. Every time I’ve been writing things because I enjoy it or think it’s fun or because it’s something I want to listen to that’s when I write good music.

The proof is in the pudding, most music that finds its way is honest music.

“One of the hardest things to do is to be yourself.”

Logos immediately chimes in, as if this was a pre-rehearsed prompt between the Different Circles duo.

“Maybe aspects of your personality that you like to think are good come across. I’m a pretty messy person, my house isn’t that neat and I can be pretty disorganised as has been witnessed by me joining this interview really late. I’m having a bit of a nightmare day to be honest,” he sighs, sidetracking for a minute. “Musicians try to project their best selves in the music. Like Jack says, the best music comes from those that are totally honest and you see that with some huge artists and I’m not talking about dance music ones either, just in general.”

With that and a quick offer to clear up any quotes that may have been lost due to dodgy Skype connections, we call it a day. The three blue icons that represent Jack, James and Dario each drop off the screen in unison as we close what was a conversation about one of the most spritely new sounds in electronic music. Birthed in the unpredictable and sporadic minds of Mumdance and Logos, ‘weightless’ is finally throwing its weight around the underground scene, with Chevel’s contribution to the concept acting as a landmark moment that showcases its progression. Despite having a solid homebase in the duo’s Different Circles label, expectations can never really be levelled on them as they’re always only a new track away from redefining their sound, a sound that they’ve finally managed to pin down and explain to the world.

Mumdance goes back-to-back with Sunil Sharpe at Higher Vision Festival on June 30.

Live Guide June 2018

G-EAZY

TY SEGALL

American rapper G-Eazy comes to Dublin’s Olympia Theatre after a massive few years collaborating with peers Kehlani, Halsey, A$AP Rocky, Cardi B and a pool of young up-and-coming talent. Support on the night comes from Stefflon Don and Yung Pinch.

For fans of: Playboi Carti, Halsey, Logic Wednesday June 6 The Olympia €40

Californian multi-instrumentalist, singersongwriter and producer Ty Segall is bringing The Freedom Band to Dublin. His most recent release ‘Freedom Goblin’ is a change of aesthetic from the scuzzy, garage rock that came before and shows a more soulful side to the artist.

For fans of: Fuzz, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sic Alps Wednesday June 6 Tivoli Theatre €25

MIK PYRO

SHIPS & I AM THE COSMOS

Mik Pyro, former frontman of Republic of Loose, will be launching his debut solo single ‘Very Strange’ with a show at Whelan’s. Mik will also indulge in some Loose classics from the back catalogue.Rejjie Snow fans, here’s a history lesson for you...

For fans of: Republic of Loose, David Kitt, Damien Dempsey Wednesday June 6 Whelan’s €16

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Homebeat are teaming up with D-Light Studios to bring electronic duo I Am The Cosmos and synth-pop power pair Ships together. Ships recently won the Choice Music Prize and I Am The Cosmos are ostensibly known for their groove-laden electronic and experimental sounds.

For fans of: Depeche Mode, La Roux, Empire Of The Sun Thursday June 7 D-Light Studios €13.03

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS Australian alt-rock hero Nick Cave hasn’t included Ireland in his tours for 10 years, but this June sees him play a date along with his band and support by none other than Patti Smith. The Irish billing comes in the wake of ‘Skeleton Tree’, the group’s latest album which deals with the personal aftermath of the death of Cave’s son.

For fans of: Patti Smith, Father John Misty, PJ Harvey Wednesday June 6 Royal Hospital Kilmainham €117

LOMA Loma plays the kind of music that you find yourself drifting through time and space to. The trio’s obsession with and attention to detail, sounds and energies makes for an exciting combination of styles. The enchantingly delicate but powerful voice of Emily Cross lends expression to her thoughts.

For fans of: Superorganism, Warpaint, Mt. Joy Thursday June 7 Whelan’s €15

SISTER NANCY Jamaican-born Sister Nancy has been a dominating voice for decades and has been sampled countless times by artists such as Lauryn Hill, Kanye West, Jay-Z and many more since her career kickstarted in 1982. Known as one of the most prominent dancehall MCs, Sister Nancy’s reggae groove will come to Dublin just in time for the heat of summer.

For fans of: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Brigadier Jerry, Eek-A-Mouse Friday June 8 The Sugar Club €22.90

GORILLAZ Gorillaz are back in Ireland for their biggest Irish show to date, with the Damon Albarnfronted band bringing The Humanz Tour to Malahide Castle. Support comes from De La Soul, Little Simz and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble who have all previously collaborated with the band.

For fans of: Damon Albarn, De La Soul, Little Simz Saturday June 9 Malahide Castle €69.50

SCALA & KOLACNY BROTHERS After gaining attention with their cover of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ featuring in the film ‘The Social Network’, Scala & Kolacny Brothers also captured an Irish audience with their featured cover of Damien Rice’s ‘The Blower’s Daughter’. With up to 150 young women in the choir, they’re garnering rave reviews for their interpretations of classic songs and original compositions.

For fans of: U2, Damien Rice, Radiohead Sunday June 8 The Olympia €32.50

UNDERGROUND COLLECTIVE The unofficial after party for the All City Jam is full to the brim with Irish hip hop heads and boasts a massive underground line up.

With spoken word from Emmet O’Brien and music from Steo Skitz and Redd Rum this night will play host to some of the best hip hop artists the country has to offer.

For fans of: FYNCH, Kojaque, Bobby Basil Saturday June 9 Drop Dead Twice €10

THE HOT SPROCKETS The Hot Sprockets bring their revolutionary spirit and kick ass music to Swords as part of their Dream Movers tour. Known for exuding confidence and energy in their performances, their groovy, vintage sound and aesthetic won’t let you down.

For fans of: Rory Gallagher, The Drums, King Kong Company Sunday June 8 The Chalk Venue €11.25

DAVID KITT Genre-crosser David Kitt returns to The Purty Kitchen after his last year’s sell-out show under his New Jackson moniker. Kitt has worked with artists from Lisa Hannigan to Mano Le Tough under separate projects, this time around showing a more soulful and folky side to his personality.

For fans of: Margie Jean Lewis, New Jackson, Jape Saturday June 9 The Purty Kitchen €17

SELFMADE II

NIWEL TSUMBU

THE MAGIC NUMBERS

Selfmade invites you to an evening of plugged in performances, discussion, art and zines that celebrate the work of four Irish acts proving that versatility and independence are integral to cutting through Ireland’s modern music scene. The line up for the night includes Laoise, Wolff, Dreaming of Jupiter and Molly Sterling, with a Hvmmmingbyrd panel discussion.

For fans of: Ailbhe Reddy, AE Mak, Loah Saturday June 9 The Workman’s Club €8.17

Hailing from the Congo, Niwel Tsumbu brings his guitar and vocal skills to upstairs in Wigwam. Niwel is known for his skilled compositions and Afrobeat style. He has performed alongside some of the finest Irish and international musicians, while continuously crafting his distinctive fusion of new jazz, rhumba, world, flamenco, rock, soukous and classical.

For fans of: Loah, Mammal Hands, Fehdah Saturday June 9 Wigwam Free

The English pop-rock group comprised of two sets of siblings have collaborated with The Chemical Brothers and have the backing of other established artists like Ed Harcourt and Travis. Their unique offering is a combination of indie rock and folk.

For fans of: Ed Harcourt, The Zutons, Athlete Sunday June 10 Whelan’s €20

HAIM

VANCOUVER SLEEP CLINIC

SOULS OF MISCHIEF

Haim is a pop-rock group comprised of three multi-instrumentalist, singing siblings.

The trio have worked with artists like Julian Casablancas and took matters into their own hands in 2012 when they decided to collaborate as recording artists.

For fans of: Warpaint, Kimbra, Bleached Wednesday June 13 The Olympia €48.90

The dreamy tunes of Australian singersongwriter Vancouver Sleep Clinic are making their way to Dublin. The band have been gaining attention globally for their ethereal melodies, hard hitting beats and soft indie and trap-influenced vocals.

For fans of: Zhu, The Japanese House, Bon Iver Wednesday June 13 Whelan’s €17.35

GYPSIES ON THE AUTOBAHN

LET’S SET SAIL & CARRIAGES

Culture Vultures returns to The Sound House with music guests Gypsies On The Autobahn, journalist & author Eithne Shortall & spoken word artist & Little Green Cars lead singer Stevie Appleby.

For fans of: Little Green Cars, Wyvern Lingo, Little Comets Thursday June 14 The Sound House €10

Homebeat are hosting a night of willful and haunting folk electronica alongside charming songwriters, harmony writers and Dublin’s electronica-inspired folk arrangers Let’s Set Sail and the organic electronic atmospheres and vocals of experimental folk two-piece of Carriages.

For fans of: LCD Soundsystem, Alt-J, Bjork Friday June 15 Whelan’s €8.71

The hip hop group from California, also part of the famed collective Hieroglyphics, is composed of rappers A-Plus, Opio, Phesto and Tajai. The four talented MCs create music from an intelligent, B-Boy perspective with their most recent material featuring Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg. Read an interview with Opio in this edition.

For fans of: De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Talib Kweli Thursday June 14 The Sugar Club €22.90

LIAM GALLAGHER Younger half of the Gallagher brother legacy and Britpop star, Liam Gallagher released his most recent solo album ‘As You Were’ late last year after the disbanding of his previous group Beady Eye. Support on the day comes from The Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft and up-and-comer Louis Berry.

For fans of: Oasis, Noel Gallagher, Blur Friday June 15 Malahide Castle €49.90

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BAD MANNERS

FXY

London ska band led by acclaimed front man Buster Bloodvessel quickly became a novelty favourite with their on stage antics and early exposure thanks to 2-Tone Records. As one of the many bands to take inspiration from The Specials, they prove that ska remains a genre to be reckoned with.

For fans of: The Specials, Madness, Toots & The Maytals Friday June 15 The Academy €25

FXY have honed their craft and skill to develop their music with new, exciting and progressive rock and funk sounds. This album launch will celebrate the release of their debut album ‘Sleepyhead’. Expect plenty of punchy, soulful harmonies and support on the night from Tadgh.

For fans of: Tadgh, Wyvern Lingo, Cathy Davey Friday June 15 The Grand Social

ORCHESTRE POLYRYTHMO

NILE RODGERS & CHIC

RALPH ROLLE & THE FUNK PATROL

Nile Rodgers is bringing his legendary band Chic back to Dublin this June. The iconic disco and funk group credited with expanding popular music will be joined at the open air gig by Craig David and Soul II Soul.

For fans of: Sister Sledge, Madonna, Diana Ross Saturday June 16 Malahide Castle €49.90

Drummer and featured vocalist of Chic, Ralph Rolle is bringing his nine-piece funk patrol to The Grand Social for a late night disco party.

Expect all the greatest soul, disco and funk sounds known to humanity.

For fans of: Nile Rodgers, Sister Sledge, Odyssey Saturday June 16 The Grand Social €10

Rapper and founder of the prestigious Ape Cult, Black Josh comes to Dublin this month to showcase his lyrical and hip hop talent. Support on the night comes from Lawriii Craic, Lemon Pie Records and Jake Hurley.

For fans of: Rejjie Snow, Ape Cult, Jesse James Solomun Saturday June 16 Drop Dead Twice €10

ROSTAM

THE BEACH BOYS

FUTURE ISLANDS

Following a career producing all three Vampire Weekend albums Rostam has moved forward as a solo artist encapsulating but progressing the nostalgic sounds of indie band in his debut solo album ‘Half-Light’ released earlier this year.

For fans of: Vampire Weekend, Ezra Koenig, Parquet Courts Saturday June 16 The Workman’s Club €16.50

One of California’s most successful exports, The Beach Boys will return to the capital for a show this June. Few others match their live presence and energy. This is not one to miss.

For fans of: Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, The Beatles Thursday June 17 Bord Gáis Energy Theatre €68.50

Following a sold out show last year in the Iveagh Gardens, Baltimore’s Future Islands will play a headline slot at Donnybrook Stadium. Expect synth-pop, alternative rock and the electric energy of frontman Samuel Herring. Support comes from IDLES and more TBA special guests.

For fans of: LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, The War On Drugs Thursday June 17 Donnybrook Stadium €63

CW STONEKING

LANY

TBF

Australian blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, banjo player and head of King Hokum Records, CW Stoneking is returning to Ireland for an intimate show in The Grand Social. This will be his first string of solo performances without his full band in England and Ireland in 10 years, playing old songs and new.

For fans of: Pokey La Farge, Seasick Steve, Leroy Carr Monday June 18 The Grand Social €20

Los Angeles-based trio Lany craft melodic music with R&B influences. Their debut, self-titled album reached number four on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and their take on progressive alt-pop captivates audiences globally.

For fans of: Christine and the Queens, The 1975, Troye Sivan Monday June 18 The Academy €22.90

The Beat Fleet are widely considered to be one of the most innovative experimental bands to come from Croatia with a distinct musical style described as ‘ping pong’. Ping pong mixes reggae, Afrobeat, hip hop, dub and trip hop and has majorly impacted the emerging Croatian hip hop scene.

For fans of: Damir Urban, Edo Maajka, Leut Magnetik Tuesday June 19 Tivoli Theatre €18

MOON LOOKS ON

ELVIS COSTELLO

BILLY JOEL

The seven-piece band fronted by Stephen Gormley take over Whelan’s to launch a single from their forthcoming EP. Known for their folk and pop roots occasionally dabbling in reggae they’ve played Other Voices and have made their way around the festival circuit, but this is their only Dublin gig this summer.

For fans of: Cry Monster Cry, For Foresters, Overhead The Albatross Thursday June 21 Whelan’s €10

Elvis Costello returns to Dublin with his band The Imposters for a highly-anticipated and long-awaited show. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, Costello’s written and recorded with an impressive array of artists including the Arctic Monkeys.

For fans of: The Attractions, Arctic Monkeys, Sting Saturday June 23 Bord Gáis Energy Theatre €66.45

After a sell out show back in 2013, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Billy Joel and his piano are returning to Dublin for another iconic billing. Billy Joel has written countless popular songs and, as one of the highest selling artists of all time, isn’t one to miss.

For fans of: Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan Aviva Stadium Saturday June 23 €70.45

Legendary Orchestre Poly-Rythmo are back on the road for their first tour in eight years.

With remarkable percussion, striking bass and gloriously supple vocals from Vincent Ahehehinnou it’s set to be a night full of pure passion as the group celebrates 50 years together.

For fans of: William Onyeabor, Fela Kuti, Ebenezer Obey Saturday June 16 The Sugar Club €24.90

BLACK JOSH

GIRLS NAMES

OKO

BETH ROWLEY

Belfast’s Girls Names come to Dublin for a show full of alternative rock. The band encountered some stumbling blocks over the years but with the release of their new album ‘Stains on Silence’ they gave a statement of perseverance and they’re back, better than ever.

For fans of: Queens of the Stone Age, Girl Band, Soundgarden Saturday June 23 Whelan’s €16

OKO delicately combine the two worlds of electronic and acoustic music. The fourpiece group are skilled at improvisation and innovation when it comes to their futuristic, genre-hopping output.

For fans of: Koop, Mentz, Dave Holland Sunday June 24 The Workman’s Club Free

English singer-songwriter Beth Rowley is ready to step back into the spotlight after parting ways with her label. The result is a heavy reflection of her sublime talent and polished, jazz pop offering.

For fans of: Hannah Reid, Laura Marling, Lisa Hannigan Monday June 25 Whelan’s €13

RILEY PEARCE

THE KILLERS

Riley Pearce will stop off at Dublin’s Ruby Sessions as part of his first European and UK tour. The audience will be treated to a sneak peak of the Australian’s forthcoming EP. Expect raw and haunting vocals.

For fans of: Ben Howard, Bon Iver, The Jezabels Tuesday June 26 Doyle’s €7

The Killers culminated their place in rock music back in 2001 with the strong vocals of frontman Brandon Flowers combined with anthemic songwriting. Franz Ferdinand will support at this open-air gig.

For fans of: Franz Ferdinand, Brandon Flowers, The Strokes Tuesday June 26 RDS €69.50

KATE VOEGELE & TYLER HILTON Kate Voegele, influenced by the rock ‘n’ roll history of her hometown Ohio, has played alongside artists like Counting Crows and John Mayer. On the night Kate will be joined

by Tyler Hilton, founder of Hooptie Records, and his mellow folk sound.

For fans of: Alanis Morissette, Vanessa Carlton, Taylor Swift Tuesday June 26 Whelan’s €20

ROGER WATERS Co-founder of legendary rock band Pink Floyd, Roger Waters is returning to Dublin for a huge show. Roger’s skill is still going strong as a solo artist and you can expect to hear plenty of music from his Pink Floyd archive as well as recent and older solo material.

For fans of: Pink Floyd, Eddie Vedder, Eric Clapton Wednesday June 27 3 Arena €76

DAEP VALLY The Deap Vally duo sway from songs of poignant social commentary to bareall vulnerable ballads with a blues rock, funk and punk sound full of attitude and intent. The duo uses little instrumentation but they’re definitely not lacking. Past performances have led them to perform with several rock legends.

For fans of: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Queens of the Stone Age, The Vaccines Wednesday June 27 The Grand Social €17

LITTLE STEVEN & THE DISCIPLES OF SOUL Steven Van Dant, actor in award-winning series ‘The Sopranos’, guitarist of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and founder of Wicked Cool Records will return to Dublin this summer along with his Disciples of Soul to celebrate his first new album in 15 years.

For fans of: Bruce Springsteen, E Street Band, Southside Johnny Thursday June 28 Button Factory €49.65

FRIDAY 01 JUNE ED SMITH

SATURDAY 16 JUNE ALEX DONALD

SATURDAY 02 JUNE STEVIE MCP

FRIDAY 22 JUNE ED SMITH

FRIDAY 08 JUNE GLENN HALL

SATURDAY 23 JUNE SAM GREGAN

SATURDAY 09 JUNE JANUARY WINTERS

FRIDAY 29 JUNE NIALLER9

FRIDAY 15 JUNE ANNA JACOB

SATURDAY 30 JUNE MICHAEL POPE

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KNEECAP

ROY AYERS

Belfast-based Irish hip hop group Kneecap are due to launch their new mixtape alongside support acts Imlé and Oisín Mac. Inspired by 90s hip hop, a distinguishable aspect of Kneecap’s music is that it’s written and performed as Gaeilge (in Irish, for our fleeting residents).

For fans of: Rubberbandits, Versatile, Dania Thursday June 28 The Soundhouse €11.40

Dynamic music man Roy Ayers returns to Dublin boasting an impressive array of collaborations and associations with industry heavyweights such as Kanye West, Talib Kweli and Mary J. Blige. Known as the godfather of neo soul, you can expect stirring soul rhythms and productions.

For fans of: Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Fela Kuti Thursday June 28 The Sugar Club €25

CHRIS DAVE & THE DRUMHEDZ

PRIDE BLOCK PARTY

ROBOT ROCK

BOMBA ESTÉREO

Mother are teaming up with Smirnoff this June to throw the mother of all Pride parties.

They’re rebuilding their main stage and throwing open the doors to their city centre Pride festival at the Tivoli Theatre. Last year’s line up included Daithí, Mother DJs and Loreen, so expect another excellent outing for 2018.

For fans of: Peaches, Panti Bliss, Loreen Saturday June 30 Tivoli Theatre €19.82

This five-piece band specialise in the live re-working of classic dance tracks. This time around Robot Rock will be recreating Daft Punk’s iconic album ‘Discovery’, using vintage analog synths and modern VST technology along with live visuals from the anime adventure ‘Interstella 5555’.

For fans of: Daft Punk, Todd Edwards, Romanthony Saturday June 30 The Sugar Club €15

Bomba Estéreo play their long-awaited, first Irish headline gig at Tivoli Theatre.

The Colombia-based group combine an array of genres to create a unique type of dance music which encapsulates tropical, cumbia, vallenato, salsa, electro, reggae and champeta rhythms.

For fans of: Yankari, Méta Méta, Systema Solar Tuesday July 3 Tivoli Theatre €25

THE CADILLAC THREE

MYLES KENNEDY

THE THE

Nashville natives The Cadillac Three show an immense sense of pride in their southern roots, captivating fans with their songwriting skills and sold-out, high energy performances across Europe and America.

Expect a sound wavering between radioready country anthems and more traditional southern folk and hard rock.

For fans of: Kings of Leon, Black Stone Cherry, Lynyrd Skynyrd Wednesday July 4 The Academy €30

Best known as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of American band Alter Bridge Myles Kennedy gained popularity from rumours that he would be joining Led Zeppelin in 2008. His solo style is a slight departure from before with a dreamy, singersongwriter sound taking the place of his former rock style.

For fans of: Slash, Alter Bridge, Led Zeppelin Thursday July 5 The Academy €22.50

Founded by songwriter Matt Johnston, The The were one of the most prominent postpunk bands during the 80s and 90s with a unique style of composition and production and intensely personal and political lyrics.

The band once included Johnny Marr and Sinead O’Connor, but the ever-changing line up makes for an interesting array of audible influences.

For fans of: Simple Minds, Adam Ant, Lloyd Cole Saturday July 7 Iveagh Gardens €55.50

Houston’s Chris Dave, one of Rolling Stone’s top 100 drummers, is coming to Dublin to showcase his skills and celebrate his career.

After meeting associates of Prince, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, his professional career was launched leading him to feature on several high profile albums and play with his R&B band Mint Condition.

For fans of: Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Mint Condition Friday June 29 The Sugar Club €20

Exhibitions of the Month ART OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY This exhibition, sponsored by Bermingham Cameras Dublin and Panasonic Lumix UK, will feature the works of many acclaimed and published artists. With some artists making their Dublin exhibition debuts, the event will showcase an abundance of photographers including Jill Freedman, Tish Murtha and Tatsuo Suzuki displaying their take on the art of street photography.

June 2-June 16 Powerscourt Centre Free

THE IRISH SHOP FRONT EXHIBITION Hen’s Teeth and Our Type are collaborating to bring The Irish Shop Front Exhibition to the Fade Street store, a project by multidisciplinary designer Trevor Finnegan who has captured striking and distinguishably Irish shop fronts over seven years. The photographs narrate the decline in Ireland’s entirely unique shop fronts and their signs and are reminiscent of the handcrafted signs of Ireland and the typography that accompanies them.

June 14-June 21 Hen’s Teeth Free

GCN30 EXHIBITION Curated by GCN’s founder Tonie Walsh, the ‘GCN30 Exhibition’ will tell the story of the LGBTQ+ community in Ireland over the past 30 years, through 30 pivotal moments that changed history, all in celebration of the publications 30th birthday. This exhibition will present an eclectic mix of media displaying timelines of political, social and cultural progress regarding the LGBTQ+ community.

They’ll also be exploring the evolution of GCN Magazine over the years.

June 21-July 1 Gallery Of Photography

INSIDE, OUTSIDE & BEYOND Artist Gerard Byrne celebrates 30 years of painting at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland after travelling the world as one of the leading artists of modern impressionist painting. Gerard holds the Botanic Gardens close to his heart and now he’s back to exhibit his works conveying lush flora and dramatic depictions of the wrought iron architecture of the great Georgian palm houses.

June 22-July 15 National Botanic Gardens Free

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Opio I

t’s been more than five years since Souls Of Mischief came to Dublin, at that time celebrating 20 years of their seminal record ‘93 ‘Til Infinity’. Now touring to mark the silver anniversary of that LP, they’re set return to the city. 25 years is a long time for any group of individuals to continue to create art together, but Opio, Phesto, Tajai and A-Plus have been doing exactly that in unwavering unison.

The foursome have influenced hip hop right down to its core, with modern artists as lauded as Joey Badass and Freddie Gibbs paying direct tribute to the Oakland natives and the world’s longest running hip hop periodical The Source Magazine naming their debut LP in the Top 100 Rap Albums of all time list in 1998. They’re quintessentially ‘underground’ and have been since that famous bass line sampled from Billy Cobham’s ‘Heather’ was first pumped out of a soundsystem.

I spoke to Opio who details touring in the early days with De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, the glue that binds the group and how the punk elements of funk were so instrumental in the birth of hip hop. He also had some sage advice to offer to anyone involved in Ireland’s blossoming hip hop scene.

I read in an interview in 2014 that Phesto said it’s friendship that keeps the whole thing going. That was just after the 20th anniversary of ‘93 ’til Infinity’. How do you still maintain creative individuality without stepping on each others toes after all these years?

taking care of yourself. Don’t put yourself in a position where the show would suffer.

Learning from those guys really shaped us.

It’s chemistry. Once you work with people for that long you start to develop a flow.

It’s a democratic process, everyone has a vote and majority rules. We bounce ideas off each other and maybe at times certain things don’t stick, but because we all have our solo stuff it’s not like we don’t have any other outlets to get our individual ideas out.

A Souls Of Mischief record is going to be totally different to a Phesto solo record, or a Tajai solo record.

Not being cocky, but we had trained from a very early age. The rules of hip hop are be original and try to add to the artform. We didn’t want to duplicate anybody. In all of the music we listened to that was the message; don’t bite, be original. It forced us into this area where we had to come up with our own thing.

That was the most important part - to craft a sound. We wanted it to be our own. For people to think we sounded like someone else would be the worst thing. When we made the first record ‘93 ‘Til Infinity’ we knew we at least had something that was an original product.

We didn’t feel like we were peers of De La or Tribe Called Quest, they were on a much higher level than we were, but if we could impress those types of people, that’s all we wanted to do. We didn’t necessarily think this would have a huge impact 25 years later, I mean we weren’t even 25 years old!

We never really thought in terms of legacy.

That’s come much later. Maybe not even until our 20th anniversary we started to feel a sense of responsibility with the title of being a ‘legend’.

You’ve said that being on the road can make you jaded but the people around you keep you focused and sharp. How important has being in Souls and Hieroglyphics been to your development as an artist?

For all of us, we had pretty stable upbringings. All of our parents stressed education first, so I feel like that helped us… Obviously you want to wet your beak with the rockstar life! But when education is important to you, you view the world through a different lense. You’re always searching to enrich yourself, not necessarily academically, but mentally. Being on the road can make you jaded, but there’s also so much to learn through travelling and interacting with different people. I feel like my greatest education has come from being on the road. Still to this day there are new things to be learned, conversations to be had, observations to be made.

Our first big tour was with A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. We were fresh out of highschool, our album had just dropped and we were immediately thrust into this world with some of hip hop’s biggest icons, but also people we looked up to in a major way.

We had a lot of questions and they were really humble and cool. They took us under the wing, let us be excited and fan out and ask all of the questions, but once we had done that they told us about certain rules to the road that you need to pay attention to. We just learned so much from them, watching them be so professional on stage.

If you’ve ever seen them on stage, they have fun. I’ve been on tour with certain people and it’s all about what you’re going to do before or after the show, whereas with Tribe and De La the focus was on the show and

When you were touring alongside those bona fide legends, did you think you guys would make such a genuine difference to the landscape of hip hop?

You mentioned crafting a unique sound. Do you think that’s missing from hip hop at the moment?

That’s the attitude with ‘serious’ hip hop aficionados, but those people aren’t really looking very deep. There’s amazing music that’s being done on a worldwide scale, so much that I couldn’t even begin to name.

While that’s happening, people are listening to ‘93 ‘Til Infinity’ or ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’or ‘Illmatic’. Unless it’s on television or the radio and is super easily accessible they’re not putting in any effort to listen to new music. Then that becomes this narrative that new hip hop isn’t that good. At the same time people were saying hip hop is dead you had Madlib, Dilla and MF Doom coming out with what now is considered ‘classic’ hip hop. But when those records were being released, simultaneously people were saying that everything that was being done was whack.

I don’t remember the same hoopla surrounding those records at the time.

There was a core group, but that wasn’t the

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narrative in terms of what most people in hip hop were saying. Jean Grae and Quelle Chris are incredible MCs, but I don’t see people saying it online. People are instead talking about what female in hip hop is more popular, is it Cardi B or Nicki Minaj?

That is just pop music. Not to take anything away from them, Nicki Minaj in particular is an amazing lyricist, but hip hop has transitioned into the most popular music, but I still don’t think people look at hip hop as pop music. When you have something that’s making billions of dollars then it means that’s what it becomes all about.

Art and commerce are really never supposed to meet. They taint each other.

So those two things coming into the same arena are always going to be problematic but with that there has to be sacrifices. As an artist you have to eat. You have to pay rent.

There are only a lucky few who can make a career from their art without having to sacrifice too much?

We’ve been fortunate to be one of those groups of people who have found a good balancing act because we are our own label. We are actually a business. We put out our own music, we hook tours up, but we don’t sacrifice our art at all in order to make money. That’s the thing that a lot of people don’t see. If you stay true to what you’re doing and keep trudging away, maybe that first year doesn’t pan out, maybe five years doesn’t pan out, but after you look back at 20 plus years, people start to really respect what you’re doing. We’ve almost had a resurgence in terms of how people show love and respect to Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics. If you go through our catalogue there is no pop music, really.

There’s no pop, but there are definitely funk elements.

You’ve said you were influenced by your parents music with groups like Parliament Funkadelic. George Clinton is now working with Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder.

Bootsy just released a track with Tyler, the Creator and Kali Uchis.

Why do you think funk has had such a long-lasting impression on the hip hop community?

It’s interesting, because the history of black music in America, it goes from the blues, to jazz, to funk, so there are these elements that are always there. I feel like the blues are

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the foundation, it’s in almost all of modern music, that storytelling element, it’s in certain rhythms, it’s always there. I feel like funk, before hip hop came along, was just the more modern form of the pinnacle of black music. It was all of the elements, all of the knowledge coming together in funk. For me growing up in Oakland, California, West Coast, funk is something that my peers who were a little older were into.

There are elements in funk that present themselves in hip hop now. When people were looking at André 3000 as just dressing all crazy, I don’t think a lot of people would have said, ‘Oh, that’s some P-Funk vibes right there’. The funk elements were, ‘I don’t give a fuck and I’m not going to conform with what’s considered normal’. Hip hop is a child of the funk.

Yeah, I feel like the most long-lasting genres are the ones that subverted the norms of the day. Someone said to me recently, ‘If your parents like the music you’re not trying hard enough’. Punk, hip hop, funk, they all do that.

Funk is something that’s in a lot of your music, with obvious odes to the genre in ‘Funky Expedition’ or more subtly in other tracks. What other musical genres influenced your sound?

For me, it was the combination of everything.

I loved reggae music. I loved punk rock. I’d get really into a band like Bad Brains. Jazz music is a huge influence, because of the way improvisation and freestyling have a lot in common, plus the mindset of a Miles Davis who’s trying to do something new.

Jazz hit me at a time when I was more sophisticated in my musical palette so I could really appreciate some of these farout compositions because I felt like they were stretching the limits. They were so cerebral in their approach to music.

But saying that, Yellowman had just as much influence on me as Miles Davis. I loved all of these people equally. I was the type of guy who was listening to The Cure when most people were listening to hardcore gangster rap. That’s what hip hop is, you’re in this wonderful soup that has all of these different elements.

You were DJing and scratching before you became an MC. Do you think that gave you a better knowledge of music and made you a better rapper?

“I was the type of guy who was listening to The Cure when most people were listening to hardcore gangster rap. That’s what hip hop is, you’re in this wonderful soup that has all of these different elements.”

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[Laughs] I never excelled as a DJ. I loved the culture of hip hop and I participated in every element. Graffiti, breakdancing, MCing, DJing, the whole thing. I immersed myself in the elements. But I do think there’s something to be said for people who are DJs, people who excelled at DJing. The DJs have been so instrumental in the growth of hip hop and what people were able to do with it. I won’t try to say that I was this amazing DJ, but you listen to music differently when you’re a DJ, so that perspective is very helpful when you’re trying to craft songs.

That’s one of the beautiful thing about hip hop, all of those elements combine to create this wonderful culture.

Just to finish up, I have a question posted to our Irish hip hop forum on Facebook by Craig McSherry. The Bay Area grinded so hard and incubated itself allowing the artists and sound to develop independently while also being able to have national and international appeal. Seeing as the Irish scene is on the up, is there any advice you can give to keep us building on that? Both artists and fans?

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I don’t know if anyone in Dublin knows the difference between growing up in Oakland and Los Angeles, but California is a huge state, so it’s like the Bay Area and LA are like two different states. People think we have Crips and Bloods, which we don’t have in Oakland, or that we drive lowriders with hydraulics, we don’t have those in Oakland. It’s two totally different cultures and I feel like Los Angeles is bright lights, big city.

Oakland has none of that, there’s no music industry, there’s nothing, and that isolation helped us to have this tenacity to be like, ‘Fuck it, if we can’t find a label to sign us we’ll sell the music out of the back of the trunk’.

I can’t speak for a huge place like New York City, but from being from Oakland and being in our own bubble we had our own slang and way of communicating, so my advice is to stay true to that. Don’t try and sound like somebody else. Don’t talk like someone from LA or New York just because that’s what everyone sounds like. Use your own slang, use your own dialect, be yourself.

People will gravitate towards that because real recognises real.

Souls Of Mischief play The Sugar Club on June 14.

Forthcoming: -Stano [AllChival] -George Earnest [Pear] -GEO Corp [First Second Label]

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Dublin’s iconic Newmarket is getting a makeover, but what does this mean for the city?

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fter years of recessionary downturn, it’s no secret that the rental and property markets in Dublin are now feeling the recovery. The economic crash and subsequent bailout that hit this country hard in the late 2000s had left countless developments across the city stalled. The term ‘ghost estates’ became popular and the market, which played a significant role in the collapse, was licking its wounds.

These days, that Dublin seems to already be a distant memory. Rents in the city are the highest they have ever been, ambitious redevelopment schemes are two a penny and there are enough cranes in the sky to make Solange blush.

The recession also meant that some beloved but vulnerable spots in Dublin were salvaged because of the sudden halt in building plans after 2008. Venues and markets that may have been close to the chopping block back then were suddenly granted a stay of execution. Some may even survive in the long term with the recovery bringing in more revenue, but others haven’t been so lucky. It’s well and truly a seller’s market now. With the landlords and developers enjoying another prosperous era, it was never going to last for every location.

The Tivoli Theatre, one of the city’s iconic live music venues, will be demolished to make way for an apartment-hotel after An Bord Pleanála overruled a decision

by Dublin City Council. The theatre has stood on Francis Street since 1934, but after redevelopment the Dublin 8 spot will be replaced by restaurant units, a gym and a new performance arts theatre. It’s hoped that the new development will be in keeping with the history of the area, but a significant selling point is that this new aparthotel is going to be within walking distance of the Guinness Storehouse - a major tourist attraction - so that remains to be seen.

Andrew’s Lane Theatre, more recently known as Hangar, is also facing demolition this year. The former playhouse and current nightclub will make way for another hotel.

The city centre venue was sold for €4.4 million - €1 million above its guideline price - to private investors with plans to build a 115-bedroom complex. Portobello Harbour, a picturesque, public square along the Grand Canal, is to be uprooted and replaced with yet another hotel, 178 bedrooms this time. A popular petition with over 5,000 signees is currently circulating in an attempt to try to halt destruction of the site.

What is perhaps most indicative of the inner city development upsurge and the speed at which some of these plans are going forward is what’s happening to Newmarket Square. Like The Tivoli, the area sits in the Liberties, in the heart of the city.

The markets may return in two or three years’ time, but it still leaves the small business owners in need of temporary homes.

“I think most of the residents will be sad to see the markets go. They have brought a lot of life, a focal point for the local community and business opportunities to Newmarket,” says Sinead.

One elderly resident I talked to, who has been living in the area since the 1970s, wasn’t happy with what was happening to what she sees as a vital communal space for the residents. When I caught up with her she was in the midst of conversing with a couple other locals at the Green Market.

“I’ve been coming here for years, just to get out of the house. I’ll be sad to see it go,” she tells me. “It’s mainly just for the community.

It’s somewhere we can go and chat with each other.”

For inner city residents around Newmarket, there aren’t many places like this in a Dublin that’s increasingly catering for a transient population of tourists and students.

Nadia Cassidy of Fusion Sundays says she welcomes the incoming redevelopment, but she’s also wary about the lack of reassurances over getting a suitable space in Newmarket Square 2.0.

“It seems like it will be a commercial hub supporting big businesses without regard to the small, unique enterprises that have shaped the area. If there is a suitable space for us in the new Newmarket area we would love to stay.”

Despite not wanting to leave there is still consensus from those I spoke with that the Newmarket area is clearly in need of some redevelopment. Several decadeold buildings stand derelict and decaying.

Some might have that appealing, ‘Auld Dublin’ charm, but for others it’s clear that demolition is the only remedy.

Georgia Boyle is the architect who designed the Teeling Whiskey Distillery, a popular tourist attraction in Newmarket, completed in 2015. While it’s obviously a much newer structure than those beside it, it was well-received and fits in among the stony, bygone aesthetic of buildings surrounding it.

“The area is very dear to my heart,” Georgia Boyle tells me. “Its gritty, industrial personality and market core are so fundamentally part of the spirit of the place.”

For Georgia however, the larger redevelopment project overall is a good thing. She hails it as “progress” and cites the “colour and diversity of uses as a welcome variation from the anodyne local area plans of the past”. She too fears a Dublin overcrowded with hotels and student accommodation and argues the plan is more just than that.

“It is highly ambitious and will bring extraordinary amounts of footfall and economic uplift, 500 jobs and security into an area that has suffered terribly from oversight and neglect for, well, probably centuries,” Georgia continues.

“It will take some adapting for local residents, but that is how urban regeneration works. The loss of the historic fabric, to a certain extent, will be lamentable, but the city has ensured the protection and preservation of a number of great structures in the past.”

There is no question that what is planned is a massive undertaking and will result in a virtual overhaul of the Newmarket area with the markets being the aspect that so many want to retain. Last year Martin Creedon assured the Dublin Inquirer that, “While the offices, the hotel, and apartments will make up the majority of the new development, the markets are a very important element of it too”. He said, “We have zero intention of getting rid of that”.

The redevelopment however, will mean that prices will inevitably go up so for socalled ‘indie’ or traditional flea markets.

There are also questions as to how much marketplace space there will actually be once construction is finished. The official planning documents state the redevelopment will leave 2,852 square feet of market space at Newmarket Square. The area that Dublin Co-op and Green Market right now rent amounts to 17,000 square feet. Creedon stated that the real number of marketspace will be 26,000 square feet after accounting the proposed ‘courtyard’ and some of the retail space inside the buildings.

Georgia Boyle stresses that the markets there owe a lot to Martin Creedon.

“In fairness to the Creedon Group, much of the features that people associate with the place - artists’ studios, maker-space, coworking spaces, art schools and fruit and vegetable/flea markets - are a product of Martin’s generosity over the tough years of the recession.”

Like any large-scale development project, the plan for Newmarket was always going to be one dominated by ambitious commercial aims.

Coming out of a recession that left the city at a standstill, Dublin suddenly seems to be growing rapidly again.

The boom in development is altering the landscape like never before. It’s beginning to feel more like a city for visitors than those who live here. There’s a housing shortage, a rental crisis and a want for hotel rooms that’s pulling this development in one direction. The Newmarket plan may well be a litmus test to see if what we love about old Dublin can remain once the development work is finished.

Words: Mark Conroy / Photography: Greg Purcell

It’s been primed for development since last year but few were sure when that would come about. The news was confirmed in May with a host of popular markets including Dublin Flea Market, The Brocante, Fusion Sundays, Newmarket Collective and The Pure Vintage Fair informed they would have to vacate the area by June 12.

More permeant fixtures like the Dublin Food Co-op and the Green Door Vegetable Market, well-liked mainstays for local residents, were also told they must leave soon. The plans, submitted last year by Robin Simpson and Martin Creedon’s firm the Newmarket Partnership, set out to revitalise the area with wholesale changes.

The existing structures will be replaced by offices, hotels, student accommodation and a microbrewery. Arguably, more than any other recent redevelopment project, this represents the most marked shift from the grit of older, industrialised Dublin to the sheen of the modern day, cosmopolitan city fit for sightseers and a tech-savvy workforce.

As is often the case with ambitious schemes such as this, the move has not been well-received by locals. A petition entitled ‘Save Newmarket Square from Greedy Developers’ currently has 3,100 signatures on Change.org stating, “Newmarket Square has been overrun by for-profit businesses that consolidate our community wealth into the hands of a few… If these planning applications are successful, they will bring a giant hotel and expensive retail space that local social enterprises like the Co-op and Flea can’t afford”.

The Dublin Food Co-op have since made a statement revealing they are “conscious that the development has potential for a cooperative in it” as they hope to be included in any new market area.

With only 94 apartments planned, there have been objections filed by some residents that the plans do not include enough housing. The proposed student accommodation is also under some fire.

The construction boom in Dublin has seen a surge of student property being built and while it is desperately needed, concerns are being raised about the prices that some students will be facing. On nearby Mill Street a single en suite room with a shared kitchen costs a minimum of €249 a week but the rates may go down with more rooms available in the city.

While those running the local markets knew this news would come eventually, they had hoped they had until the end of year before having to move out.

“There was never a fixed deadline so when it came it was a bit of a surprise,” admits Sinead Greene of Dublin Flea. “It’s just hard to go looking for a new home when you have one that suits.”

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Dublin

36 Interviews & Photography: Ellius Grace

Salvatore of Lucan Artist @salvatoreoflucan

Last place you ate?

I got a chilli cheese focaccia from Lidl Last pub you went to?

Grogan’s (South William Street) Favourite place to escape to?

You can’t run away from yourself Favourite place to go to in the sun?

Back garden What’s one thing you see every day here?

Homeless people What would you like to see less of?

Bad artists Best memory of the city?

Having fun Best place for a Guinness?

Grogan’s (South William Street) Southside seaside or Northside seaside?

That’s a stupid question, it’s Westside all the way. Lucan baby!

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Centric

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Caoimhe Barry

Musician (Wyvern Lingo) @caoidebarra

Last place you ate?

Platform Pizza (Bray) Last pub you went to?

Bison Bar (Wellington Quay) and then Tengu (Great Strand Street) and then Sin É (Ormond Quay) Favourite place to escape to?

The woods Favourite place to go to in the sun?

The woods What’s one thing you see every day here?

The sky What would you like to see less of?

The rain Best memory of the city?

Running between venues as a gigging pup, playing various nights of music/open mics Best place for a Guinness?

The Cobblestone (Smithfield) or Grogan’s (South William Street) Southside seaside or Northside seaside?

Southside ta fuq, Bray is class (beach isn’t great, but sure look)

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Photography: Ian McDevitt / Models: Eabha O’Donoghue & Stephanie Hughes

AUTHENTIC PARANOIA

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n a city that is constantly changing and growing, we are seeing many trends emerge. The premise of Stephanie Hughes’ line ‘Authentic Paranoia’ is that she has taken regular, everyday items and made them unique and personalised through painting and altering them. Diversifying the everyday style we see on our city streets have become more important, as creatives in Ireland find their medium of self-expression and their voice.

‘Maureen’ Earrings €105, from ‘Names Dublin’ at the Irish Design Shop, Drury Street, Dublin 2.

Scarf €150, from the STABLE Store at 2 Westbury Mall, Balfe Street, Dublin 2.

Jacket €120, Hand painted ‘Authentic Paranoia’ @authenticparanoia

jacket

from

‘Daisy’ Bangle €120, from ‘Names Dublin’ at the Irish Design Shop, Drury Street, Dublin 2.

Cashmere teal snug €100, from the STABLE Store at 2 Westbury Mall, Balfe Street, Dublin 2.

Stylist: Sarah Austin / MUA: Sarah Lanagan

Junior is an annual photographic journal that provides a platform for emerging talent in Irish photography.

With this series, the magazine’s editors create a new form of narrative by stitching individual images into the verse of a different Irish poet or spoken word artist each month.

Photography by Abbey Bratcher ‘Flame Coloured’

by Loah

Born in obscurity My greyness barely acceptable Straining against the mist of suburbia

Willing the humid, indifferent skies for thunderous applause Then waking finaly from the listless slumber

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The morning after the night my dreams let me know truth was close A great brazen truth: You are a one-legged flying bard (One vital limb swallowed up by trauma, wings, plumage intact) Pecking at the feed of drudgery With a curious magic to find within it the curious A beak made to utter these guttural absurdities That might strike a sour heart, or a soft one A new mist rolls in now Inexorably - the mist of Time Herself A hot, rolling, chaotic mist, Greek in her tragedy Stopping the clocks Deafening and rapturous Straining against the heat

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I am unborn Flame and time accept all.

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Beauty in

Words & Photography: Steven Peice

Transformation

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Bonnie Ann Clyde

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his series aims showcase the beautiful and glamorous side of the drag art form.

Much too often drag is represented as cutting edge and rebellious entertainment, but there’s beauty in the process of the artist transforming themselves with makeup and hair, creating a fully-realised fantasy.

Veda Lady

Davina Devine

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Pixie Woo

Regina Gorj

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Chanel

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Bunny O’Hare

Bonnie Ann Clyde

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Bunny O’Hare

Pixie Woo

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Grey Area Project

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#greyareaproject @subsetdublin 57

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Capital terraces T

SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION Friday June 8 2018 Saturday June 9 2018

Bohemians vs Derry City 19:45 / Dalymount Park Shamrock Rovers vs Bray Wanderers 19:00 / Tallaght Stadium

Friday June 15 2018

St. Patrick’s Athletic vs Sligo Rovers 19:45 / Richmond Park

Friday June 29 2018

Bohemians vs St. Patrick’s Athletic 19:45 / Dalymount Park Shamrock Rovers vs Derry City 20:00 / Tallaght Stadium

Friday July 6 2018

St. Patrick’s Athletic vs Dundalk 19:45 / Richmond Park

SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION Friday June 8 2018

Cabinteely vs Longford Town 19:45 / Stradbrook UCD vs Drogheda Town 19:45 / UCD Bowl

Friday June 15 2018

Shelbourne vs Cabinteely 19:45 / Tolka Park

Friday June 29 2018

Cabinteely vs Finn Harps 19:45 / Stradbrook

Words: Eric Davidson / Photography: Paul Wheatley

he SSE Airtricity League, aka The League of Ireland, is now in full swing.

Last minute winners, halfway line stunners, on-pitch brawls, the past few months have had it all.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re in Dublin city, either for a visit or something of a more permanent fixture. So if you’re looking for a taste of homegrown football, here is a list of all the games taking place in the capital in the Premier and First division of the league this month.

Like fans always say, it’s about terraces, not televisions.

UCD vs Longford Town 19:45 / UCD Bowl

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Four Four Magazine’s

Electronic Music Guide

Photography: Jack Farrell

When it come to electronic music, no one knows it quite like Four Four Magazine does, especially in Ireland. Each month, they provide us with their comprehensive guide of electronic music in the city, as well as speaking to some of house and techno’s biggest names and analysing the inner workings of the club scene in the capital.

The month of June sees festival season kick right into gear, a very potent time of year for electronic acts across the world and the capital to showcase their skills on some of the biggest indoor and outdoor stages. This month Four Four are in conversation with Ireland’s leading techno lights in Myler and Tommy Holohan about everything from contemporary rave to Ralph Lauren.

In addition, an interview with HAAi, the London-based Australian native who’s being tipped as the next best thing and proving it on a weekly basis, be it in the club or at the plethora of festivals that she’s signed on for in 2018.

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fourfourmag.com facebook.com/fourfourdance instagram.com/fourfourmagazine twitter.com/fourfourmagazin

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Words: Cóilí Collins / Photography: Alec Donnell

HAAi

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bustling café backdrops a chirpy, “Hello!” from HAAi she answers the phone and her enthusiasm doesn’t dip when she moves to the quieter exterior of the building. The unwavering display of upbeat character despite her seemingly hectic surroundings mirrors her eclectic DJ sets; varying in textures and backgrounds but sharing the same steadfast energy throughout. That undying energy can take a HAAi set from the depths of African drum-led house into the most hypnotic, droning techno. She has gained an army of followers in the shape of clubbers and club land’s most elite DJs, a group that is growing on a weekly basis.

Her longstanding Saturday night residency in London club Phonox has allowed her to develop her sound through a longform format which she then repackages into bit size sets for gigs like Boiler Room, Lost & Found, DGTL and many more stages the world over.

“When it comes to shorter sets I tend to plan them out loosely a little bit more or I’ll make my playlist a little bit more organised, whereas with the longer ones, I don’t really plan anything, I just go with the flow. It’s never long enough at festivals, but that’s just how it is and you still kind of get into it enough, I still keep the mixes as long as possible and psychedelic.”

Despite being one of the most creative young DJs on the go, it seems as though HAAi is taking it all with a pinch of salt. It’s as if she’s acknowledging her style is a little bit hard to grasp at first.

“I still struggle to say what it is,” she says, faintly chuckling. “I think it’s about how broad it is and that comes from my attention span, it’s pretty limited. I play for so long normally so just to keep things interesting and to make sure that the set’s completely different every week, I end up playing so many different genres. It makes it a lot more interesting for people, but it’s very hard to describe.

“I had to really push with Phonox to play the weirder stuff that I like to play, the more psychedelic techno stuff. They wanted Saturday nights to be about upbeat house and disco stuff, but I’m there every week and I know the people want to hear more interesting music and people are captivated when they’re hearing stuff that they haven’t heard before. I really had to fight with them to get to do that, but now I’m in every week and it’s getting cooler and it really works in there.”

Despite being so artistically inclined, her interest is more deeply rooted in those dancing in front of her rather than the individual behind the booth.

“Ultimately, it’s not a totally self-indulgent thing, it’s more about getting people excited about stuff they haven’t before and hearing stuff that just doesn’t get played out that much.

“When I was playing at Annie Mac’s festival in Malta I was talking to a friend of mine who’s quite a commercial DJ and he was worried that my music wasn’t going to

go down that well, as I was playing on the main stage, because people would want to hear cheesy hits and stuff. I still didn’t do that because you can’t discount! It was probably one of my favourite sets.”

One thing that has helped get HAAi’s colourful personality across to those that are unfamiliar with her otherworldly sets is the eye-catching orange jumpsuit-like attire that she can often be seen playing in. She tells me where her trademark look came from.

“I was in Tel Aviv last year for my Boiler Room and I didn’t know what I wanted to wear. I had this orange shirt and I saw these orange trousers that looked like motorbike riding trousers. It kind of ties in with all of the Coconut Beats stuff and with all the artwork with the releases and stuff too which is good.”

While her sets may not immediately invoke the same vibrancy as her dress sense in the way someone like Denis Sulta’s would, her outward image ties into that of her label and party series, Coconut Beats. After just announcing a series of guests in DJ Nobu, DJ Boring, Red Axes, Auntie Flo and more for July and August label parties at her residency in Phonox, the label is going from strength to strength. One thing that’s particularly helpful in that regard is her brand new spot on Worldwide FM. “I changed to Worldwide FM about two months ago, it’s a Coconut Beats show to do with the label and parties so the shows really represent what the whole idea of what the label is. Now that it’s on Worldwide I can kind of go a bit deeper, less dance-y than I can on Rinse. I really loved doing the Rinse shows but I felt like I was compromising things a little bit. I didn’t want to ostracise their normal listeners by doing loads of weird shit. People that listen to Worldwide are ready to go deep.”

Radio has proven to be a useful weapon of choice for other prominent figures into the more psychedelic side of things, including Daniel Avery, who commands a regular slot on NTS. Avery’s newest album ‘Song for Alpha’ touches on the more experimental side of his production, a sound he managed to flesh out quite a lot through his sets on radio and on tour, something HAAi has also managed to tap into on all three releases on Coconut Beats.

“I think the DJing has helped when I have released stuff. The kind of tunes I make aren’t there to dominate dancefloors. The tracks that I make only work when I play them [laughs], but I can’t imagine anyone else playing them. People can listen to them at home! I feel like when I’m writing, I’m thinking about them in a live setting because I’m trying to put together a live set.”

HAAi benefits too from her previous work as a vocalist for a psychedelic rock band Dark Bells. The hypnotic nature of that music is reflected in her mixing techniques and the rabbit holes her sets tend to go down, especially the longer ones.

“I feel like that’s where a lot of the psych-y side of the things I play comes from and I still get really influenced by the shoegaze side of music. I’ve done some remixes for bands

that I used to play around with so they’ll all be coming out shortly. I feel like that ties that world in for me.

“Dan [Avery] has a really good crossover with that stuff. On his new record I feel like there are tracks there that sound like My Bloody Valentine.”

HAAi recently played at Nuit Sonores, on a line up curated by Avery, along with a number of other line ups that highlight her growing position among electronic music’s elite (Printworks with DJ Harvey and Peggy Gou and Red Bull’s Music Odyssey with Larry Heard, Sulta and more). Despite her style being rather hard to grasp on paper, she is always assured of her craft and has delivered every time she’s called upon, no matter the stage or setting.

“I’ve been really, really lucky. All of the bookings have been quality and I’ve got some big ones at the end of the year that I’m really excited for and some big changes that are going to happen around September and October,” she explains, as if you could see her eyes widening on the other end of the phone. “This year I find myself constantly busy but I’m just trying to keep my feet on the ground as much as possible. It’s the after parties that get me!”

That said, had HAAi experienced downfalls of the party lifestyle that comes hand-in-hand with being a career DJ?.

Her tone takes a slightly more serious turn.

“I’ve got a good energy and I’m always up for a party, but when I’m at home during the week and not away, I’ll go to the gym everyday and then eat really well and give back to my body. Sometimes it comes down to schedule though. When I come to play in Dublin I finish at 3am and my flight is at 6am!”

She breaks for a second at that exhaustive thought. “That happens sometimes and you won’t be able to sleep, but I feel like I have a good constitution and that I bounce back pretty well. I have friends that I’ve talked with about this that are much busier than me and they party quite hard, for several days, because they’re playing four days a week.”

HAAi isn’t a million miles away from said busy booking schedules, but she appears to have her head screwed on enough not to get caught in the vicious circle that has engulfed some of the world’s most notable DJs over the years. With all of that ahead of her, it’s easy to look into the near future and see the plethora of bookings that are presumably in store for the eclectic, young Australian native and forget how far she has come in such a short space of time.

She has ridden the not-so-common wave of a psychedelic residency all the way to the brighter shores of Malta and beyond, something not many would have expected when it all kicked off.

The orange uniform may paint a stark contrast to the moody tones of hypnotic and downtempo techno, but it’s the perfect outfit for a summer of success that’s already in motion.

HAAi plays Pygmalion on June 8.

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here’s no denying that we’re currently in the midst of a purple patch of Irish electronic music talent.

It’s also fair to say that with all the talent in the country it feels as though we’re chasing our own tails to a degree. It’s no mean feat for any young producer to get international recognition and it’s happening now more regularly than ever before. With that being said, translating the slivers of opportunity thrust upon individuals on the Emerald Isle into success comparable to that of their international counterparts has proved rather challenging.

One of those capable of bursting that bubble is one of a handful of young techno talents on the island, Tommy Holohan. The fresh-faced producer burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere when he capitalised on a Techno & Cans residency to become one of the most prominent and well-known DJs in the city. Through his electric sets for the Hangar-based collective (a particular closing set after SHXCXCHCXSH stands out), the Rush-native had a spotlight shone on him that many would envy, but one that few would translate into the opportunity that currently sits in front of him.

His productions have never been as straightforward as his trailblazing rise to prominence, dipping in and out of industrial techno, rave, jungle and even lo-fi house. The eclectic EP ‘Tapes from Rogerstown’ was followed by a series of techno tracks and another house EP under his Late Nite Blonde Girls Strip Club alias that landed him in Mixmag. His decision to establish his own record label, Rave Selekts, which housed his now infamous ‘Subaru Impreza’ track was one of the key moments that pushed him from internet sensation into a real position of authority, not only in Ireland, but in the eyes of some of the industry’s biggest and brightest.

Now, as we approach the festival period in 2018 he’s signed on for more slots than ever before, with a whole host of huge releases coming up that will surely leave him teetering on the edge of fully-fledged stardom.

While the house and disco world have their legion of producers and supporters, Holohan has been a lone wolf in his pursuit for success and has progressed in a similar manner.

Words: Cóilí Collins / Photography: George Voronov

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“I saw the video of Mall Grab playing ‘Subaru Impreza’ at Dekmantel in Brazil and I was like ‘Can I have a go?’”

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“Obviously I really like techno, but some people take it way too seriously. Some people live into that stereotype that surrounds techno too much. I don’t mind, do what you want but it’s not for me, I’d rather do my own thing.”

While Ireland’s techno scene is alive and well and has decided to bypass the Berlinish style of gloom and doom. The genre’s representatives within the country still paint muted tones against the more 90s-vibed artwork and style we’ve come to expect from the young producer.

“When no one knew who I was, I could play a gig in an old AC Milan jersey and with a mega blue and yellow Ralph Lauren hat. You hop down after to have a smoke, one or two people might recognise you. If you’re just wearing a black t-shirt and all, it’s hard to stand out.”

Laughing at his own laziness as he tells me he wears the hats in order to avoid haircuts, he’s quick to point out that while he may skip the barbers, his initial period as a producer was fuelled by impatience.

The past few months have been quiet compared to his usually frantic tendencies, but he is acclimatising to the drawn-out nature that comes with releases on a bigger scale.

“When I first started I was pretty impatient,” he says. “Now, I’d rather wait another while and find myself, instead of rushing into it.

“Say I made a massive track when I was 18, now that’s rare for techno, but in house sometimes people make a massive tune when they’re really young and they get shot up onto a huge pedestal. Things like that can happen and you shoot to the top when you’re not ready for it. Obviously you think you are, but you’re not and then you fall off the edge. The only person that I know that has been able to hold onto that is Blawan, he shot up pretty fast but he has held onto it.”

Tommy’s name has been sharing the bill with the aforementioned Blawan as well as the likes of Clouds, Dax J and many more of techno’s elite for quite a while now. We’re quick to forget that the Techno & Cans resident is still only 20 despite his achievements, making the forthcoming string of releases even more promising. He knows he’s got time on his side.

“I had the offer for my first record and that’s done but I’m waiting on that to come out. I have another EP done, I’m just waiting for that to come out and then there’s a track that I have on a compilation that’s done, I’m just waiting for that to come out too, so it’s a case of waiting around for stuff to happen rather than what I used to do, where I used to rush everything out straight away. I don’t mind not putting out EP after EP.” We take a minute to think of the endless stream of self-released tracks young producers are pumping into the online sphere; clinging to the title of a producer despite only stringing together the bare minimum of a hi-hat a kick drum, and anything else they can get their hands on. With Aphex Twin being a well-known inspiration, Tommy’s never been one to stick to a single sound, and his desires to make music don’t rest solely in a poorly lit nightclub. His aim to make more listenable music is one that’s growing as he matures as an artist, something that has been mirrored

on the biggest stages through both Dax J and Daniel Avery’s latest albums.

“If you instantly throw out loads of mad, intricate tracks as your first tracks, even if it’s cool music, people mightn’t want to listen to it. If you were to make more accessible music and build your name up then you can make more leftfield stuff. Aphex Twin didn’t just make weird stuff first, he started off with more accessible music.

“I’ve always tried to make some more listenable tunes as well as club tracks and it’s only in the past few months that they’ve started to sound decent. I have an EP coming out that’s based around Rush.”

The North Dublin seaside town is about as secluded as you can get, but Tommy has always been vocal about its importance despite its dull nature to an outsider looking in. His upcoming EP seems to marry the notion of more abstract electronica with that sense of home.

“The people that asked me to do that EP were wondering if there could have some political or social meaning behind it. I’m not that political, so I went for a social setting. I tried to recreate four places I used to hang around at in Rush.

“The first track is called ‘Martello’ and it’s based around the Martello in Rush where we used to hang around and that’s a lot more ambient and chilled out. Then there’s ‘Seamo’s Gaff’ where we used to always listen to CJ Bolland and R&S, so that track’s pretty old school techno.

“Another is based around the beach where we used to session. We’d always go and nick people’s bins and start bonfires and all that stuff. Whenever we got our hands on the speaker people would want to put on Ed Sheeran, we’d play Altern8 and stuff like that so that track is also pretty old school. The last track is called ‘Remaining Rogerstown’ and is based around Rogerstown, which is the part of Rush that I’m from and it’s that bit more musical and dreamy.”

Tommy wears Rush on his sleeve throughout his description of the upcoming release, alongside his own name, albeit with a ‘Hilfiger’ instead of Holohan. With that portion of the conversation dipping into rarely serious territory, we push onto the fact that he’s never been one to hide his opinions, something that may or may not work to his detriment. After being pretty vocal about the rise of a bandwagon in electro, he expands on how people shouldn’t necessarily be let away with monetising genres that other artists thanklessly grew before them.

“I like electro, but it’s not my roots. I’d listen to it but I’d only know the more popular artists like Drexciya, so I wouldn’t feel right firing out an electro EP just because it’s big right now. When all these articles came out stating that it was ‘the year of electro’, that sort of annoyed me. You have people like Helena Hauff and DJ Stingray that have been doing that when it wasn’t popular and then someone comes along and throws out an electro EP just because it’s big. What if breaks come back in a year or two and everyone starts making jungle and all, why weren’t they a few years ago?

“I’m not saying that people can’t be influenced by things, it’s more so those that are clearly capitalising on trends. You don’t have to call them out, but it’d be better

if they didn’t do that. What if they end up taking a gig on someone that’s been doing it when it wasn’t big or end up pushing someone out of the scene that was doing it when it wasn’t cool?

“Say there’s DJ A that’s been making electro or whatever for years and then this already huge DJ, DJ B, and they want to make electro now and they end up getting festival bookings and DJ A is just left to their own devices.”

Tommy’s stock has risen all over the country and beyond through his DJ sets that match his production in terms of their attention to detail and, of course, their relentless nature. One thing that is clear however, is that his productions and DJ sets don’t go as hand-in-hand as one would expect, with his own tracks often not getting a look in, despite being almost purposebuilt for the sound he plays out at clubs and festivals.

“I never played out my own tunes. One, I always forget, I have to ask people to remind me to play them and I just feel that if I’m mixing my tune into someone else’s it’s so noticeably made on my laptop at home with my headphones in. I’m confident in my own tracks, but you’re your own hardest critic.

“I started to feel bad if people would come to gigs expecting me to play some tracks and I didn’t, even if it was just a few people, I’d feel bad that they were disappointed.

Now I make sure to remind people to get me to play it.”

He asserts that this isn’t a plea for compliments either, pointing out to me that he had to borrow my USB to play his rave track ‘Costa Del Rush’ at a headline gig in Galway’s Electric nightclub as he didn’t think to put it on his own one.

His productions have gone much further than the radars of a YouTube channel or two, reaching the lofty heights of Mall Grab and Dax J, both of whom have played his material on stages including BBC’s Essential Mix and Boiler Room.

“The gas thing about Mall Grab was that he bought the first Rave Selekts EP. I was sitting in my girlfriend’s house and I got an email from Bandcamp saying Jordon with an ‘au’ email had bought my EP. I wrote to him asking if he bought the EP and he said yeah, that he’d need the track at some point.

That was cool. He could’ve just asked for it for free but obviously he wanted to support it.

“I saw the video of Mall Grab playing ‘Subaru Impreza’ at Dekmantel in Brazil and I was like, ‘Can I have a go?’.”

Tommy’s strange mix of modesty with self-assuredness makes for a weird approach when it comes to talking about himself and his musical exploits however, at this point his relationship with the spotlight seems a lot more symbiotic than it ever had before. Probably more due to time than anything else. He points out that he has planned ahead well this year, but that his foresight is selective; a few random ideas and releases are still liable to appear in the coming months. Whether or not we see more edits of Nelly Furtado’s ‘Promiscuous’ and random dips into house would’ve been a big deal a year ago, now it’s a bonus compared to what’s in store for Rush’s unlikely ambassador to the wider world.

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House and Techno Guide June 2018 OUTLOOK FESTIVAL LAUNCH

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HAAI

999999999

Spectrum x Boey Audio Spectrum and Boey Audio present us with the official Dublin launch party of Croatia’s Outlook Festival 2018, reputable for their alternative location choices. The line up boasts plenty of drum ‘n’ bass legends from home and abroad including ANT TC1, Dublin’s Steo and Zero T and many more.

For fans of: Goldie, Peshay, Skanna Friday June 8 Wigwam €10

Pyg Presents Teneil Throssell, who plays under the name HAAi, arrived in London originally as part of a psychedelic band, but her avid collection of Turkish funk and Afrobeat inspired her to take on a new electronic project resulting in moody, bass-driven and percussive house and techno. Support on the night comes from Colin Perkins and Ian Duffy.

For fans of: Daniel Avery, Midland, Bambounou Friday June 8 Pygmalion €11.40

Techno & Cans x Research For their very last show in Hangar together, Techno & Cans and Research have teamed up to bring the return of the mysterious Italian duo 999999999 to the Dublin warehouse for some industrial yet ethereal upbeat, warehouse techno. Joining them on the night, Rustal and Karl Guest.

For fans of: 747, Cailín, Avalon Emerson Friday June 8 Hangar €10

KASTIS TORRAU

DECIDUOUS & EVE

TIGA

LDD Renginiai x Moody Beats x Zee Ziggy Invites Kastis Torrau will be taking to the basement of The South William for a three-hour set full of house and progressive tech house rhythms. Torrau’s music radiates powerful house bass lines and original samples with unforgettable vocals, making his sets popular with the Irish and UK audience as well as at locally in Lithuania.

For fans of: Arnas D, Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones Saturday June 9 Wah Wah Club €15

Deciduous and Eve, both well-respected Irish collectives, will be taking over Wigwam’s basement. Representing Eve on the night will be stalwarts Jessica, Lauren and Micu and there from Deciduous will be Paul Lo, Niall Kane and Ryan O’Dowd.

For fans of: Rødhåd, Benjamin Damage, Phon.o Saturday June 9 Wigwam

District 8 Montreal-born DJ, producer, founder of Turbo Recordings and BBC Radio 6 radio host Tiga will make his return to Ireland this month with a headline show at District 8. Expect plenty of deep house and classics from the skilled remixer. Support on the night comes from Adult Store and Ghostboy.

For fans of: Erol Alkan, Untold, Randomer Friday June 15 District 8 €16.64

PEAR

PRYMARY COLOURS

MAURO PICOTTO

PAL PAL is a new night from the folks down at All City, Pear and First Second Label. They’re throwing a release party in celebration of ‘PEAR003/004’ and have a diverse line up planned for the night that includes Helen O’ Dea, Olan, Fio Fa, Jio and George Earnest.

Expect plenty of quality and diverse music all night long.

For fans of: Ben UFO, Floating Points, Joy Orbison Friday June 15 Yamamori Tengu €8

Hothouse The monthly instalment of Hothouse brings PrYmary Colours, Jus Damien, Reveller, H&G Creations and a special guest to Berlin d2 this month for a guaranteed high-energy atmosphere and 90s house music. PrYmary Colours, a dance duo, fuses electronic house and techno beats with soulful vocals and always guarantee a vibrant night.

For fans of: Mura Masa, Peggy Gou, Floorplan Friday June 15 Berlin d2 Free

The Italian, electronic producer and DJ is coming to The Wright Venue. Known for his involvement in Eurohouse group R.A.F and his collaborations with other DJs such as Tiesto his songs are universally recognisable and popular even to those who don’t delve too much into trance music.

For fans of: R.A.F, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten Friday June 15 The Wright Venue €15

AVALON EMERSON

TODD TERJE

DEEP DISCOTECA

Hidden Agenda x Bodytonic Berlin-based, Arizona-born Avalon Emerson has been making waves in the warehouse scene in recent years. Her last show here was a support slot for Daniel Avery with a captivating and futuristic techno set. Her remarkable ear for progressive and futuristic sounds turn her music into somewhat of a journey or narrative.

For fans of: Minor Science, Call Super, Kowton Friday June 19 Wigwam €15

Hidden Agenda One of Norway’s most prominent DJs and producers, Todd Terje returns to the capital for a DJ set at District 8. This night is set to be full of space-inspired synths and plenty of summer inducing house and disco tunes.

For fans of: Tom Trago, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Hot Chip Friday June 22 District 8 €22.18

The Deep Discoteca crew are back for another night in The Bernard Shaw this month. Catch residents Gills b2b Conor Foley (3 hour set), Nitetales and Daire Gilleran who will bring you smoking deep house, deep techno and disco vibes all night in one of Dublin’s most enjoyable venues.

For fans of: CC:Disco, Byron the Aquarius, Jamie 3:26 Friday June 22 The Bernard Shaw Free

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IZEM

GLITCH

GUI BORATTO

Wigwam Wigwam is throwing a midsummer tropical sound clash with DJ Izem coming from Lisbon for an exclusive live house set with Afrobeat influences. Musical sisterhood Amica will be journeying through electronically-influenced soul and bass culture and Disco É Cultura will be connecting the dots between electronic music and its links with Latin, Caribbean, African and Brazilian sounds from the vinyl era.

For fans of: Amica, Disco É Cultura, Kaytranada Saturday June 23 Wigwam Free

K&L Promotions K&L Promotions, after having to postpone in March, are launching their new upfront techno and tech house night at 39/40 along with a specially-designed laser show.

Joining them on the night in the intimate surroundings of room two are residents Keno Flanagan, Laynee and Winnie Dillon.

For fans of: Or:la, George Fitzgerald, Daniel Avery Saturday June 23 39/40 €10

Subject x Abstract Brazilian producer Gui Boratto finishes his Pentagram Live Tour 2018 in Dublin.

Exploring melodic and high-energy sounds, Gui Boratto draws upon classic drum machines, modular synths and original vocal samples with his wife Luciana Villanova’s vocals featuring on his most popular track to date.

For fans of: Stephan Bodzin, Patrice Baumel, Guy Gerber Friday June 29 District 8 €16.64

WGFM X PRIDE

RYAN ELLIOTT

HORSE MEAT DISCO

Where Good Friends Meet are back for their monthly party with the next instalment falling on Dublin Pride. Belfast’s Peter Brién of Softboy Records will be behind the decks for an all day party from 4pm until late. Other guests include DC from First Second and Blaze Moore.

For fans of: Peter Brién, Onra, New Jackson Saturday June 30 The Bernard Shaw

DiVision x Subject Ryan Elliott of Ostgut Ton will be gracing Pygmalion with his cross-genre style credited to the house scene of his hometown Detroit and the intense techno scene of his current home Berlin where he holds residencies in both Berghain and Panorama Bar. Support comes from Sexshop, Galactic Beat Club and Vlad Miller.

For fans of: Ben Klock, Kobosil, DVS1 Saturday July 7 Pygmalion €11.40

Bodytonic Some of the UK’s finest disco operators, Horse Meat Disco return to Dublin with their party full of rare disco edits and electronic influences. Inspired by New York’s house and disco scene throughout the 70s and 80s, Horse Meat Disco have gained a reputation for playing seriously fun sets.

For fans of: Hunee, Dimitri From Paris, Mister Saturday Night Saturday June 30 Wigwam €13.48

GUIDO SCHNEIDER

MANNI DEE

Deep House Dublin The basement at the Wah Wah Club is welcoming Berlin’s Guido Schneider. Highlyinspired by EBM music, Guido has been in the game since the 90s and works under many pseudonyms as an electronic producer, DJ and musician. Supporting on the night are Fizzy Waters and Zee Ziggy.

For fans of: Tale of Us, Solomun, Mano Le Tough Saturday July 7 Wah Wah Club €15

Operator & Stoop French techno warrior Manni Dee makes his long-awaited return to Dublin after a recent show in Limerick’s legendary DIE club. His warehouse built tracks are sure to rock the quays venue to the floor. Sets beforehand come from Theologue and Jack Jennings.

For fans of: I Hate Models, Rebekah, Stranger Saturday July 7 39/40 €10/12/15

28 EDEN QUAY, DUBLIN

• Live gigs • Club nights • Private functions • Full backline • 230 capacity (standing) Visit www.thesoundhouse.ie for more details.

For bookings please contact Andrea thesoundhouseevents@thewileyfox.ie thesoundhouse.dublin

thesoundhouse_

thesoundhousedublin

72 Words: CĂłilĂ­ Collins / Photography: Jasmin Bell

Myler B

elfast via Waterford is an unusual route to the top, but it’s the unlikely path that Myler is already too far down to turn back.

A crisp Saturday morning sees the always cheerful techno DJ greet me outside Burger King on O’Connell Street - where he’s quick to offer a loan of money in replacement for the wallet I’ve just left on the Luas into town.

It would be easy to think that he’s a funloving disco DJ on a brief, first encounter, but Myler’s sound is one of the most unforgiving on the island, in fact across Europe, despite the overpowering atmosphere of positivity surrounding him. He first emerged on our radars via Ansome’s notoriously eardrumunfriendly label South London Analog Material and a close affiliation with Bas Mooy’s slightly (stressing slightly here) more accessible Mord imprint. Through that exposure the Irishman has played the length and breadth of the continent alongside some of techno’s biggest and most intense names.

While he could have ended up as one of the many well-known artists that have stuck with either label, he switched to an even more hectic home base, the RAdescribed ‘comically fast’ Belfast-based promotion DSNT. The collective are by far one of the most forward-thinking groups of individuals in all of electronic music at the moment, exemplified by their unique combination of clothing, artwork, records and parties.

With DSNT, Myler found a home that loved him as much as he loved hardcore music - with the colour that comes with happy hardcore and none of the pretence that comes with straight-laced techno.

“That’s what I grew up on. The first thing I got into were ‘Bonkers’ CDs. From when I was 12. I was mad into ‘Bonkers’ and then I slowly started to calm down. I got into Eddie Halliwell, trance and hard dance through his earlier sets, and then hardcore came back around again. Techno was more of an afterthought.”

Sitting relaxed donning one of DSNT’s signature hoodies, the morning after a gig alongside KRTM in The Soundhouse, the producer stresses how the techno culture wasn’t exactly for him.

“I did go very deep for a while and I wasn’t having fun when I was gigging. I was conforming and making compromises because that’s what was being done at the time. I thought that’s what I had to do to get into the ‘scene’. Meeting up with the DSNT lads was like a musical liberation. I noticed that if I was playing a four-hour set in Berlin, during the last hour when I’d pick up the pace, that’s when I started enjoying myself and I thought, ‘Why amn’t I doing this all the time?’ That’s when I moved back out of techno and started playing more of everything else [hardcore, jungle, gabber].”

Smiling at the mention of his favourite genres, it’s clear to see that Myler’s tangible enthusiasm towards fast music wasn’t suited to the moodier tones of techno.

“I don’t understand why people are against niceness. I don’t get it. I got a little bit jaded with the scene for a while and that was the problem. I came from trance and hard dance and that was very much big energy, big rooms and big lights.

“When it came to techno it was a nice change, but all of a sudden it was just a dark room, it was great at the time for what we were doing, but I missed heading in and everyone being at one with their hands in the air,” he says, waving his hands as if he’s just heard ‘Adagio for Strings’ at peak time in a packed out club.

“I don’t understand why people are so against it! I understand that there’s a really bad section of trance, it gets a bad rap because of what people are doing with it now, but that genre is special.

“There’s a reason that certain people ran dance music for 20 years. There’s a reason why Armin Van Buuren and Tiesto are who they are, it’s because they were amazing. I know they’re after selling out and I can even hear it with hard dance. It was

the same as trance; where it was always aligned to go down the EDM route and I was a little bit heartbroken that not even a little splinter hung on to keep it real. The same thing happened with happy hardcore. We had people like Darren Styles come in and commercialise it up and it wasn’t the same buzz.”

In regards to the stereotypical atmosphere surrounding the music and its producers, there has been a change with techno.

Ansome’s South London Analog Material has had a big role in kicking down that door, with an unashamed ‘be yourself’ attitude that has turned a few heads. Quite similar to DSNT, both of whom have been instrumental in shaping Myler’s career.

“I was very lucky to land in the little cliques I landed in; DSNT and S.L.A.M., and I’ve been very much adopted by the right people. I met Kieran [Ansome] first through techno, he started sending me stuff. I was already making stuff;I had a release on Fifth Wall and then the scene really started to bubble.

Ansome just blew up and we were really tight from the start. Then Ossian came into the fray and S.L.A.M. really jumped up.

“Playing S.L.A.M. nights is always next level fun. It’s always mayhem. We’re all on the same agency so at least three or four times a year it’d end up being the whole roster together in some country and it’d be lunacy. I remember we were in Paris and we were playing in La Machina on the Moulin Rouge and it was myself, J Tijn, DeFeKT, Bas Mooy, Paul Birken, Ansome, Ossian, UVB, there was a rake of us there!

“We ended up breaking the elevator on the way back and then we had to get the train to London the next day and play there. It’s a different level of craic. I love going to gigs and being professional but when you get to go and be with the lads it’s less of a job.

I was very lucky to land with them, it was a big help with my musical liberation. Before I bumped into DSNT and the lads I was conforming to what I had to do.

“Ever since then I’ve had this notion of, ‘Fuck it, I just need to do me’, and I’ve been

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enjoying myself a lot more and it has helped my career boatloads! ‘Be yourself’ really is the best advice.”

Another shared idealism between both collectives is their no nonsense music policies. From the outside looking in, techno is nothing but a mash up of drums and not a whole lot else and that’s something Myler embraces. Oisin O’Brien, the mastermind behind DSNT, was very adamant in pointing that out when we spoke at the imprint’s 6th birthday event.

“There’s a real culture of self-justification - people trying to justify the rave music they do as art or trying to justify its creative integrity. The reality of it is that the music inherently has its creative integrity; it doesn’t need a story as to why. It’s banging as fuck and it’s an emotional release for everyone”.

Myler shared a similar sentiment, albeit a little bit more raw than the bossman’s, “People need to stop pretending that you’re not making music for a room full of people taking drugs. Ok, it is art, people are expressing themselves sure, but your job at the end of the day is to play to a room full of people on drugs. You’re there to feed the party”. Combing his memory for an example, he gets a lightbulb moment.

“The last time we played in Galway!” He exclaims, pointing at me almost accusingly, given my ties to the county. “I knew that the jungle me and Casper were going to play wasn’t going to go as well as we planned. I could tell by the crowd. They were not there to be intellectually stimulated by what Dillinga did cutting up this 16-bar break, nobody cared! They wanted to hear Zombie Nation!

“You’re just there to play music for people to dance to. The less people that take it seriously the better! There is a space for artistically-advanced techno and experimental stuff, but I don’t think it’s in a club. We’re there to dance, we’re there to party and most people are there to take drugs. It’s escapism. People’s lives are hard enough during the week they don’t need to be intellectually stimulated in the nightclub, you’re there to have the craic.”

Discussing whether Aphex Twin-esque noise music has a place in the club or not brings us on to the much more pertinent subject of substances. Avicii’s untimely passing shed light on the overtly unhealthy lifestyle of DJs big and small. His death has made the discussion a much more public one – no longer confined to the after party.

“I remember pain a lot. I know that standing in Charles De Gaulle airport with a raging hangover in a two-hour long security queue before you get on an hour and 45 flight before you then have a two-hour drive home isn’t nice. Maybe every three months I’ll forget, but there will be times when I’m sitting in the club and I realise that I’m getting too on it and I’ll start drinking water because I know the day after will be a nightmare.”

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He shudders slightly at the thought of said French headache, but continues to explain that while he’s most definitely a party-centric person, everyone needs a break.

“It’s expected of you and I don’t think it’s fair. It’s very dangerous and I’ve seen a lot of guys get booked because people want to party with them. You show up to a gig and you have actual real life stuff to do tomorrow. I might need to go home and pay my car insurance tomorrow. I know you’re all off and here to party, but I’m actually working.

“I think there’s a happy medium. If I have a double gig on a weekend I try to keep it fairly sensible because there’s nothing worse than rolling around a bed in a hotel room wishing you don’t have to go to a gig. I see the dangers of it. I haven’t seen anyone fall victim to it, but we’re from Ireland and I know genuine addicts and alcoholics.

“I’ve seen older lads that might have gone through it and come out the other side that are still playing. You can tell that they’re a little bit jaded by the club scene. The dangers of it are all too much, especially the drugs. I know it’s what fuels dance music to a degree.”

Like most conversations around sessioning, the mere mention of it had us both laughing, slightly uncomfortable at first. Leaning closer to the mic now, Myler’s tone darkens a shade as he treads down memory lane, dissecting our current relationship with drugs.

“It’s so disposable. I love the fact that the youth is in nightclubs and that the young people are into techno, if they weren’t I wouldn’t be getting paid! They take so much though, it’s not like the drugs are better or anything. I used to see it with the lads below me in school. It scares me to think of where it’s going to go.

“I used to say it when I was younger; a big part of my growing up with a clever relationship with drugs was because I was taught about it by my parents. There should be some sort of drug education classes.”

The openness regarding drugs from a young age definitely benefited the rave connoisseur, but we question whether the plethora of information available online surrounding drugs is as helpful as it seems or if it’s just to mask the widespread harm we haven’t witnessed the consequences of yet. On one side of the media we have open discussion about drugs and all of their quirky aspects without really taking into account the downsides, while on the other we have only criminal coverage of drugs and a brushing under the rug of their use in society.

“I’ve put myself in crazy situations when I was growing up and I definitely could’ve ended up a lot worse. The education I got from my parents steered me in the right direction. I could be around that sort of thing but I didn’t have to be involved, I was never swayed by peer pressure, but I know

that’s a big issue. Education is the real issue though. Not shoving propaganda down people’s throats but simply like, ‘This is what this does, this is what it’ll do to you, this is where you can get it and this is what you can do with it’. I think that is a major deterrent.

“You’re a product of your environment for sure, and circumstance can change things, but I know some pretty square people that ended up going down some severely wrong paths and there has to be something in your mind where you don’t have the right information or that you don’t see the pitfalls or haven’t been around them. Addiction is shocking, it kills life.”

The topic of addiction brings us onto Ireland’s second Achilles heel, alcohol.

“I was sober for five years, I don’t advise that either really. The main reason I started drinking again was because I was getting bad anxiety around gigs and I wanted to ease that aspect a little bit, I thought, ‘Fuck it, I’ll have a couple’ and it definitely helped.

I haven’t had an anxiety attack since and I don’t even need to drink anymore. I just have the option. I couldn’t even go out for a long time because I couldn’t deal with drunk people when I was sober.

“Addiction is horrible. If it’s in your family you’ll most likely have a slip and you won’t even realise until you’re neck deep in it. All of a sudden it’s a problem and it’s a very real problem. Especially for young people these days, they’re way too nonchalant with drugs. There are definitely dangers when it comes to drugs and people need to know the pitfalls. It’s all fun and games until your serotonin’s gone and you’re going out and feeling like killing yourself for the rest of the week and you don’t know why.”

The tea Myler bought for the pair of us has gone cold as our conversation lasted much longer than we had initially intended.

Despite our chat taking place two weeks before the aforementioned Swedish DJ’s death, our walk from the office to JD Sports (he was vocal in his excitement about getting a pair of shoes to add to his growing collection) had us discussing how Avicii burned out on the biggest stage. Two weeks later he upassed away in what was much less a case of ‘too much too soon’ and more so a case of a lifestyle that isn’t fit for any human being.

While Myler will probably never be one to shy away from a bottle of Buckfast, his vocal awareness of the party lifestyle might keep some up-and-comers from slipping into the quicksand of addiction that too often accompanies a life of partying.

We part ways, him on his way to cop a fresh pair of Nikes, me in search for a wallet that’s long gone. Real life is most definitely a burden and the club takes some of the weight off but it shouldn’t add any extra baggage once the doors slam shut.

Myler plays Higher Vision, Navan Racecourse on June 30.

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THE WORKMAN’S CLUB, THE LIQUOR ROOMS, BISON BAR. WELLINGTON QUAY

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Words: Eric Davidson / Photography: Cáit Fahey

‘D

estruction’ isn’t a word that comes to mind when you think of Jack Colleran and his work. Music journalists have peppered the words ‘ethereal’, ‘dreamlike’ and ‘melancholic’ around when referring to his sound, but it seems there’s more abrasion in his process than you’d imagine.

He received widespread acclaim for his MMOTHS project, tracks like ‘Heart’ garnering nearly three million listens on Spotify alone and being used for a series of television adverts along with ‘Summer’.

In a short period of time Jack went from performing at underground electronica shows in Dublin in the early 2010s to flying out to SXSW in Texas, playing at Electric Picnic and touring with The xx.

In late 2016, however, with an album and a pair of EPs under his belt, he released the final track under the moniker saying, “Now feels like the right time more than ever”.

He’s scorched the earth under MMOTHS and has embarked on a quest to carve out a place for himself under an alias closer to his given name, J Colleran. Ahead of his forthcoming album ‘Gardenia’, scheduled for release on June 29 via Because Music, Jack and I discuss letting go of his vision, putting trust in other artists and finding his narrative.

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“It’s really empowering to destroy something and start again.”

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The aesthetic that compliments your sound has always been so specific, it’s something you pay a lot of attention to, but it seems it’s been taken to the next level with your J Colleran project?

For a long time I wanted to write music for strings, for a quartet. I’m not in anyway trained to be equipped to do something like that, so it was always a little bit scary but I wanted to take that step. Also, ending the MMOTHS stuff and moving to this thing…

When you feel like something has reached a point it’s always invigorating to just delete it.

I guess it is cinematic in a sense, because it does have those strings.

Visually, I got really lucky to work with a bunch of people I really wanted to work with, like Nic Hamilton, I’m doing work with Daniel Swan at the minute, Christopher Gray...

How did you come to work with someone like Nic Hamilton?

With the sound, I was always very aware of it being overly organic. When you’re using strings it can get very romantic and cliché very quickly. I wanted to combat that sonically with having digital and metallic textures that ride with it. Nic’s work is like that too. He has these beautiful, organic, nature scenes but everything is done inside of a computer. I felt that balance lent itself perfectly to how it sounded sonically. He’s amazing; I don’t know how he does those things.

There’s an almost uncanny valley to it; there’s something not quite right about it, in a beautiful way.

Yeah, it’s tricking your mind. He’s insanely good.

You were always quite hands on with the visual aspect?

I did one other video before, but with working with Christopher Gray with the video for ‘bERA’ I just wanted to do a video with a bodybuilder. There was nothing really else to it. I was inspired by this photo of a Russian bodybuilder by Anton Polyakov in a big room with a curtain behind him. So I showed it to Christopher and he extended the narrative for it.

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Do you get worried about trusting other artists with your vision, especially with your music being so purposeful?

Yes and no. With Christopher, you learn so much about someone from working with them, about their process. Sometimes originally you feel like you don’t want to let go because it’s your baby. I’m always collecting images and I know exactly how I want something to look from very early on in the process of writing. When you work with these people you already know you want them to put their own mark on the project.

You don’t want to force yourself too much onto it. You want them to have their voice too.

That was the same with working with Liam Morrow on the design of the album cover [‘Gardenia’]. He did a masters in design in RCA in London, so his approach is that we talk more about the record itself than how it looks and draw parallels between design and the music, which sometimes don’t connect very easily.

I feel privileged to work with such amazing people.

Tracks like ‘THNX’, ‘Summer’, ‘Heart’, they’re so distinct and instantly recognisable at this stage, so nostalgic to a lot of people. You said in an interview in 2013 that there’d be things you’d change about some tracks if you could go back now.

They wouldn’t exist if I could go back now; they were very of a moment. Looking back I don’t have any regrets, it’s all progression.

As a musician or whatever you’re doing, everyone looks back on their early stuff differently. After doing ‘Luneworks’ I said, ‘That’s all that there is in this’. It’s really empowering to destroy something and start again.

Do you feel like you’ve really found your narrative as an artist?

If I work on something and I don’t like it I will just delete it and start again. I’m aware of that becoming… Not an issue, but I’m aware that naming this project after my own name means there’s nowhere else to go after this.

There’s a finality to it. But there’s always progression, I don’t know if I’ve found exactly what it is, I now want to make something better again. There’s always that hunger to make something better than the last.

So do you feel like this moniker, or direction, is pretty final?

You can’t just keep deleting work… I was quite young when I started and I had built this box for myself to exist in. I was 17, so it’s difficult to continue in that space when you’re 25.

You’re based full time in Dublin at the moment. How has that affected your creativity?

Yeah, I’ve got a studio around the corner from here, which is great. But I can work from anywhere really.

I’d imagine there’s a pretty hectic tour and media schedule ahead of you with the release of ‘Gardenia’. Is it nice to reset in a city that’s traditionally a little more lowkey?

Yeah, definitely. I do see myself moving soon, but it is nice being home, especially in a hectic campaign of setting things up. It’s nice to be somewhere comfortable. Dublin is amazing, it’s the best city ever, but I think it’s necessary to just go for a while.

You use your social media platforms to nail your colours to the mast when it comes to social issues, like the Belfast verdict, Repeal the 8th. Do you think it’s important for artists to be vocal about things outside of their art?

I think be vocal about anything you feel is important. There’s so much injustice that it’s wrong to sit quiet. I don’t like getting overly political, but I think everything is political so it’s difficult not to.

I like the idea of making music that doesn’t have a narrative or… I don’t like when things are over intellectualised, in the sense where I like listening to something or experiencing something where you build that narrative or idea yourself.

I like watching films or listening to records that are open for you to make what you want of it and I want to do that in my music. I don’t feel it’s necessary to tell someone every nook and cranny of what the song is about, what the song is meant for. There’s a beauty in making up your own idea of what’s behind it.

You were pretty young starting out. Have media obligations, or even just work as an artist changed for you?

With the other project there was a pressure to continue on as this thing and not stray too far from what you were doing, but the freedom of doing this record was that I could do whatever I wanted to. Especially working with the players and writing for the quartet. It was something I wouldn’t have done before. There’s a freedom in starting fresh.

You’ve said before that while you wouldn’t have changed a thing, signing a record deal so young meant spells of loneliness when touring. Was that an active reason as to why you incorporated things like the quartet and the band elements?

Not anymore, during that time from 17 to 20 you’re not supposed to be away from your friends and your home that much. You’re supposed to be part of a community. So when I look back now, I did kind of think, ‘If I bring other people on board it will fill that void’, but the void is because you’re not in Dublin or you’re not in your house. With this, it was sonically what I wanted to do, and also to challenge myself in some way.

Final question.

Congratulations on the Red Bull Music Academy induction.

Yourself and lullahush are representing Ireland in Berlin. How do you think being a part of this will progress you as an artist?

I want to go there and be a sponge. It’s two weeks I think, so there are so many good opportunities to learn in that environment with people you’ve watched videos of 1,000 times. Say with Brian Eno, that lecture that he did in 2011, I’ve watched it countless times. He has such an insane way of speaking about music. Even though he has a very intellectual mind, the way he talks is about a feeling rather than anything else.

Taking that into mind, I want to just learn as much as possible while I’m there. It’s an amazing opportunity.

J Colleran plays All Together Now, August 3-5.

‘Gardenia’ is out on June 29.

Irish Artist Spotlight:

Jonny Costello Adult Art Club

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riginally from the Northside of Dublin, Jonny Costello now lives and works between Ireland and the UK as he runs his small but agile creative studio specialising in developing visuals across all mediums, with a focus on music, culture, fashion and commercial clients.

Costello cites growing up in Dublin as one of the foremost influences of his creative practice.

“Dublin has really always been ahead of the game creatively. Visual culture and storytelling is in our blood.

It’s just a small place but there is a creative energy and a commitment to pushing it forward in Dublin that I’ve yet to see any place else, maybe it’s the closeness of the city. Irish people are great conversationalists and this really helps getting ideas off the ground. Conversation and communication are at the heart of any good creative project.”

After working within various creative and advertising agencies, Costello set up his own studio, Adult Art Club. “After a number of years in the industry I decided to set up my own studio, I just felt it was time to try and explore more varied ways of working, and also to be free to take on the projects that spoke to my interests.

This is where you can bring the most to the table. A large branding project is just as interesting as a smaller album sleeve design. I feel it’s really important to always be doing a mix of traditional, practical work and more expressive and experimental work.

“As much as possible I try and get back to using traditional materials and hand rendering aspects of the work to give it a more hands on feel. I also think it’s good to try and challenge the viewer a little; it’s pretty easy to make aesthetically pleasing work, but to make work that really resonates with people and is memorable is the ultimate end goal. It’s been an exciting few years so far and I’ve been lucky to have worked with such a varied range of people from Ed Sheeran to Ansome, Gucci Mane to Perc.

Each project brings a new set of challenges.

“Now more than ever it’s an exciting time to be working in and around visual culture. There is an extremely healthy cross pollination and fluidity of ideas between all mediums at the moment that we’ve never really had before and it’s only set to get better.” @adult_art_club adultartclub.co.uk

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86 Words: Caitriona Devery / Photography: George Voronov

Starter

cultures

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ften associated with alcohol, fermentation is a chemical process integral to the production of many foods. It is one of humanity’s most ancient techniques and is used to keep food edible for longer. However, nutritional longevity is not the only benefit. There’s a real buzz about fermentation across a variety of food communities, from health food circles and those keen on sustainability and avoiding waste, to chefs and cooks of all types who are intrigued by the unique flavours that arise from the process.

Driven by recent research into the effects of fermented foods, beneficial bacteria and micronutrients (probiotics) on the digestive system, popular interest has surged.

Advocates include Sandor Katz, who travels the world promoting the gospel of fermenting, lifestyle gurus like the telegenic Hemsley sisters and heavyweight chefs like Noma’s Rene Redzepi at the Nordic Food Lab. Fermentation is basically the process of turning sugar to alcohol using yeast, but it can also occur using lactic or acetic acid bacteria, mould or the wonderfully named SCOBY (Symbiotic Community of Bacteria and Yeast). Common foods to ferment include milk (making yogurt and kefir), tea (kombucha), soybean (tempeh, soy sauce), cabbage (sauerkraut, kimchi) and other vegetables. It’s a live, active, bacterial process so fermented goods have a distinctive tang, fizz or sour taste as the food hovers between fresh and rotten.

In Dublin, the Fumbally were one of the first players in the fermentation game, operating a bit like a starter culture in the city; many ex-Fumballers moved on to ferment elsewhere. They use lots of fermentation on their menu and they run a pickling workshop every month in their Fumbally Stables space. I chatted to Fumbally chef and ‘With Relish’ podcast host Harry Colley, whose interest in fermentation was sparked by the Nordic Food movement and the significant impact of kimchi on Korean culture.

Harry taught himself about fermentation and experimented with the techniques of Sandor Katz. He used many of these in the pop-up he had a few years back with fellow chef Cúán Greene (now working at Noma). What attracts Harry to the process is the ability “to be purposefully able to manipulate food, without heat, just with time and salt” allowing you to “make more of what’s around you”.

He often cooks with lacto-fermentation techniques which use salt, or a salt solution, to ferment produce. He gives an example of its transformative potential in the fermentation of damsons, which are a “crap, sour fruit that require a lot of sugar and stuff to bring them to a good place. But if you soft brine them, they turn into olives.

Fresh damsons in a 2 per cent salt brine for a month and a half turn out like Irish olives”.

The Fumbally also have live sourdough cultures, milk and water kefir grains, and kombucha SCOBY to keep them busy.

Continuing my fermentation education, I met with Niall Moran. He works at Greenbeards who have two cold-pressed vegetable-based juice bars in Ranelagh and Donnybrook. They have recently started to experiment with fermented drinks.

Niall Moran, Greenbeards

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Their Ginger Bug with lemon is a thing of fizzy wonder. Look out for the turmeric adaptation. The Ginger Bugs are made with molasses, sugar and ginger, mixed up and left for a week while the magic happens. The fact that the drink is actually alive makes it quite volatile – they had to experiment with bottles and lids as they kept popping off.

This liveliness means that fermentation is certainly different to other kinds of cooking processes. You’re working with active cultures so there can be a bit of uncertainty. The sourdough, SCOBY and kefir grains require some maintenance and feeding, almost like a bacterial pet – so while these are all things you can teach yourself to do at home, are you ready for the commitment?

Harry explains the challenges.

“I’m not into baking or pastry at all. That requires you to measure and be precise. But when you bake you don’t really know that it’s worked ‘til you’ve eaten it. There’s a certain amount of that in fermentation as well. You can invest loads of time and care in these things and at the end… Meh…. That can be disheartening. You’ve got to push through that.”

Niall’s interest in fermentation arose while living in Canada. He’s a convert to the idea that probiotics are beneficial, a kind of ‘happy tummy, happy you’ philosophy.

In Canada probiotics and fermented drinks were everywhere, even in corner shops. Commercial industrial processes can impact on the availability of nutrients during the journey from field to fork. Niall reckons probiotics can be a way to restore a kind of natural balance to our digestive systems.

He’s also been experimenting with kombucha, which uses black or green sugary tea as a base and a special SCOBY culture to get the bacteria party started.

The kombucha takes around seven to nine days to ferment; all it needs is a little routine, some love and a bit of luck. Niall continues, “So far it’s all trial and error especially when it comes to flavours”. But the benefits are obvious, and it’s a much healthier alternative to fizzy drinks.

“It’s good for your gut and digestion, especially if you’re run down or hungover,” he explains. “It’s bubbly and sweet but it isn’t just sugar or sweetener.”

Greenbeards are going to start stocking Niall Moran’s kombucha brew soon, so bear that in mind next time you find yourself hungover in Dublin 4 or 6.

In terms of health benefits, the buzz in recent years has been about true probiotic foods - the top shelf or class A’s of the fermentation repertoire with extensive claims made for their healing properties both physical and psychological. Probiotics bring a range of benefits to digestion, and it’s claimed that a healthy gut flora can be anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and help with all kinds of immune and nervous system issues.

Harry sees these health benefits as “kind of a happy coincidence”, but at the same time he gets the unique properties of probiotics.

“I often think of fermentation as this kind of pre-digestion. It’s digestion outside the body, breaking down and making things bioavailable.”

This thinking is shared by Katz, the guru of fermentation revivalism who says, “We need to value fermentation for its ability to make nutrients more readily available to us, and seek out ferments with live bacterial cultures in order to encourage greater biodiversity in our microbiota”.

Can kefir, kimchi and kombucha restore a gracious harmony to our insides? Like many new food trends, claims for health benefits can be overblown (I’m looking at you, Hemsley sisters). I asked Harry if the hipster and health lifestyle hype around fermentation bothered him. He says, “I think that’s fine. It’s just the way it goes”.

“Anything that you hand over to marketers they’re going to ruin in a way, or present an image of the kind of people that should be fermenting.”

There’s a strong DIY aspect to fermenting, you kind of have to figure it out by experimentation and get in with your local starter culture dealer to score your SCOBY or your kefir grains. It’s a little bit clandestine. Niall likes this aspect of fermenting foods and agrees, “There is a slightly underground or community nature to it”.

Like any scene, proprietorial elements can creep in. In many ways it’s a strong and supportive community but as with any slightly esoteric knowledge, some people are more generous than others. Harry says, “The internet is full of really nice people but there are also some people who maybe aren’t that happy to share their knowledge”.

He thinks the wholesome earth mother associations can lead people to take fermentation a bit too seriously.

“There’s a lifestyle around it and I think that can be prohibitive. There’s a smugness.

I’m not really into that.”

If you want to try, don’t let the mystification or the moralising put you off. It’s true, water kefir is tricky enough to manage, and sourdough is also pretty needy. But I can attest to the resilience of milk kefir, as my well-neglected grains continue to multiply in spite of pretty poor parenting skills on my part. Niall agrees that you can be a bit more relaxed about the rules than some hardline fermenters might let on.

Finally, while Harry takes a more easygoing approach than some, he does say fermenting requires a bit of selfsufficiency.

“If you are someone who relies very much on recipes and if you aren’t able to stray from that, it might not be the best thing for you yet”.

So why not grow your own?

Lacto-fermentation requires not much more than a jar and some salt and starter cultures can be tracked down fairly easily on the black market.

Trust us; your gut will thank you. And hey, if the prospect of doing it yourself gives you the heebie jeebies, drop into Fumbally or Greenbeards for a sample of the good stuff. headstuff.org/with-relish greenbeards.ie thefumbally.ie

Harry Colley’s top tips for casual cafés fermenting in the city.

Fia Fermentation is a great way to work with the seasons, something which Fia does with ease. Expect amazing breakfasts, breads and lots of fermented and pickled additions to dishes. Make sure to try the killer Toonsbridge halloumi and the housemade kombucha. fia.ie

Meet Me in the Morning MMIM is another perfect brunch spot. They experiment with preservation including their own ferments, often sauerkraut. Enjoy a great coffee and a simple, toothsome menu (anything that features chorizo and black pudding as optional extras is good with me). mmim.ie

Storyboard Storyboard take fermentation seriously with a a DIY, make-from-scratch approach to everything on their menu. What’s better than sriracha hot sauce? House-fermented sriracha hot sauce! They do lots of their in-house ferments, pickles and ginger ale. storyboardcoffee.com

3fe Best known as purveyors of very interesting coffee around the city, 3fe also have a chain of cafés. They serve a mean homefermented coconut yogurt and great breakfast and lunch options with lots of pickled veggies and miso dressings.

3fe.com

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Burger capital

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etaphysically speaking, what is a burger? Its recipe elements are so rudimentary that the very definition becomes elastic and multifarious. Yet somehow it still retains an essential burgerness; we all recognise a burger when we see one. Constant is some kind of (usually round) patty - classically beef, but other meats, beans, vegetables (often a sad, flat mushroom) will suffice.

This pressed object is encased within a sympathetically shaped bread vehicle. The bread facilitates the direct hand-to-mouth action familiar to anyone who has watched someone eating a burger. Brioche has been the serious burger-person’s bun choice for some time now.

Finally, there are toppings. Once upon a time these were limited to tomato, cheese and lettuce. Maybe a pickle if you were feeling fancy. But now, avocado, aioli, pineapple... Like much in life, the world of burgers is more confusing now than it was when I was a child.

In 2018 people take sexy Instagram snaps of their obscenely loaded burgers, oozing cheese and sauce and everyone drools. But who cares? We’re all going to get old and die...

In the meantime however, here are some special places in Dublin pushing proper patties.

Bujo’s

Broughgammon Farm

Bujo’s is a little out of town in seaside Sandymount, but worth a scoot. They have a simple menu but everything is perfection.

Much thought has been put into the provenance and quality of the ingredients and extras (amazing cheese, bacon, craft beer and cider), unsurprisingly as the menu has been dreamed up by Grainne O’Keeffe, head chef at the inventive Clanbrassil House. They have a BURGER LAB and they’re working on a limited edition burger with collaborator chef Kwanghi Chan.

If you’re looking for something a little different, Co. Antrim’s Broughgammon Farm bring their tasty offerings weekly to the Temple Bar Sunday market. Billy Burgers is the stall you’re looking out for. They serve up goat meat which is succulent, tasty, and a bit more flavoursome than chicken or beef.

They add unusual toppings like their handpickled cucumbers, tzatziki, and sweet chilli. It’s my goat-to burger. Sorry.

bujo.ie

Bunsen

bunsen.ie

Bobo’s Bobo’s have been in the game a while and their menu is more extensive than the more purist spots. Their repertoire of toppings is vast and unruly, including options like pineapple and onion rings, which sometimes makes for a very tall and difficult to eat mouthful. That’s not a criticism, I like towering food. They also do chicken, lamb, pork, fish and veggie options. bobos.ie

Generator Hostel There are unexpectedly awesome burgers being cooked up in this Smithfield hostel.

Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the construction of their Beefeater dish and its cult following is justified. Lovely buns, moreish Hereford beef, and simple toppings contrive to make their burgers more than the sum of its parts. They have chicken and fish options called sandwiches, and great chips too. generatorhostels.com

Happy Food Chances are if you’re vegetarian you’ll have stopped reading about 500 words ago.

Nevertheless, if you made it this far, I do have one strong vegetarian recommendation.

Happy Food’s snug little café has made its mission the provision of indulgent faux-junk food that is full of plant-based goodness.

They have a full menu of black bean and sweet potato or falafel-based burgers, lots of spicy and interesting sauces and toppings like pico de gallo and blue cheese.

Drool.

Words: Caitriona Devery

Bunsen was one of the first purveyors of the sleazy burger in Dublin. It’s casual but still sit down, and simple and sparse inside.

Their dirty burgers are the iconic Instagram #foodporn. Their menu is the good kind of basic: four burger choices and fries three ways (handcut, shoestring or sweet potato), but you can rely on it to hit the spot.

Tallaght-made Amish dinner roll buns and FX Buckley’s Aberdeen Angus beef show plenty of consideration to the details.

broughgammon.com

happyfood.ie

Wowburger Wowburger joints are spreading fast around the city. The menu is easy to navigate, with simple burger options, customisable free extras and unlimited fizzy pop. The vibe and décor is old-school, American diner-like. Expect sweet buns, sharp pickles and juicy burgers. They beat a Mighty Mac (though I still heart a Mighty Mac) any day. Their moreish garlic butter fries are an indulgent indulgence. wowburger.ie

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Facebook & Instagram - @framedublin

Frame opened its doors in August 2017 at 53 South William Street. We produce bespoke framing for all projects and work with leading contemporary artists and designers, while also boasting the creative quarter’s most delicious coffee. Our South William Street location hosts regular exhibitions and showcases some of Ireland’s brightest and best emerging artists and designers.

Drop by our store at 53 South William Street for a Framing consultation on your next project or to try one of our tasty coffees. You should also follow our instagram for any upcoming events and news.

Growing up LGBTI+ isn’t all rainbows.

BeLonG To Youth Services is here to support young people.

We run youth groups nationwide, and offer support, information, and free counselling for LGBTI+ young people between 14 and 23 years.

You don’t have to be alone.

Find out more at www.belongto.org or call 01 670 6223

JUNE 30th 2018

NAVAN RACECOURSE

Sam Paganini · Charlotte de Witte Ejeca · John Digweed · Route 94 Vitalic [Live] Planetary Assault Systems Sunil Sharpe B2B Mumdance Stranger · Cleric · Myler KETTAMA · Tommy Holohan Quinton Campbell · ELLLL Marcus O’Laoire · Kaily · Dan Stritch Adamant · EVE · George Feely · NANCY Absolute Deep · Adult Store · Aeron Codework · DJ Nando · Eclectrika DJ’s Elements · Emma Jai · Eoin Donovan Fortyone DJ’s · Jack Thompson Josh Green · KT DAGG · Karl Guest Luke Xander · Maggie Rose · Marcelo Vinhas · Motion DJ’s · PHAT DJ’s Refuge DJ’s · Ryan Healy Safehaus · Sarah Mooney Shed Sessions · Shee · Stoop Tea Party · Tommy Mccoy · VSN Tickets available from Eventbrite.ie www.highervision.ie