In essence the Irish electronic music scene has only truly reared its head above waters within the past 15years. I’m not referring to electronic music in the same boat as the mindless throbbing blipping and buzzing of Ibiza style anthems to please the masses. But rather the talented and complex symphonies & mixes of skilful nerd masterminds… The Irish edition of an underground electronic scene.
In the 80’s, club culture was at a peak around the world, with genres like electro and techno taking the limelight. But Ireland was still a little bit in the dark ages. Although we had a handful of old haunts; our club scene wasn’t nearly as vibrant as that of Europe. The mid to late 1990’s ushered in a new wave of DJs taking a stand. Irish clubs were the place to be, and new ones were popping up almost weekly to cater for the demand. We were largely looking to our neighbours in Britain.
In 2008’s July edition of Slick-DJ magazine, Desy Balmer wrote; “the roots of Irish techno and electronica are found in seminal clubs back in the day and apart from a dozen or so adventurous DJs, desperate club owners and half a dozen record shops, Ireland’s dance music and electronica scene fumbled in the dark shadows of its UK neighbours for much of the 1990’s.”
Suddenly everyone wanted to be a DJ. The DJ was ‘god’. It reminds me a lot of the changes which came about in Manchester’s Hacienda nightclub. Suddenlybands were out, and DJs were in. And we were following suit.But it is these more recent years which I am more interested in, as it is now that Irish DJs are turning towards self production and the DIY approach.
The Irish electronic music scene seems at present a remarkably healthy and strong environment to work in. It is very clear to any bystander with interest in the Irish dance scene that DJs have been spending a lot of time in the studio lately. Labels such as D1, Quadraphonic, Influx, Scribble & Ultramack are living proof, & are paving the way forward for others. A lot of promoters, labels, producers and DJs are working together, and overall whilst everyone is competitive, it all seems very collaborative too.
Today technology is smaller and cheaper, and it’s certainly not impossible to get your hands on a cracked copy of Ableton software. The price of a decent laptop has also gone down. And such a package is a lot less costly and space-consuming than a set of turntables and a mixer.
A friend of mine used to store an ungodly amount of equipment in his spare room where he would spend hours upon hours playing around behind closed doors with records and samples and peddles etc, until he downsized to a tiny little ensemble. He got a better laptop with better storage, some snazzy software, and a digital set of USB decks. It’s becoming easier and easier for anyone who wants to start making their own beats in their own bedroom, to do so. We’re seeing a lot of good strong music emanating from musky bedroom studios all over Ireland also because of the cost efficiency.
Because “bedroom producers” don’t have to pay studio rental fees, they can spend as much time as they desire to work on their tracks at home, producing a very polished result. They are limited only by their own aspirations and talents.
One of few prominent Irish DJs to have made much of a mark abroad is DJ Johnny Moy, signed to Influx Records. He comments; “A couple of years ago, you wouldn’t have got this but people now want to produce their own tracks as well as DJ. It has become part and parcel of the whole vibe.”
It’s actually become a fashion statement of sorts to be in complete control, produce and mix your own tracks. Of course, as with anything, with increases in accessibility it’s likely that there will be a decrease in the control of quality.
D1 Recordings are producing tracks in vinyl & digital format. Their sales are mostly in physical (vinyl) format though, with current figures showing vinyl at 90% and online digital at 10%. There will always be issues of whether sound is more authentic coming from a vinyl on the decks than an MP3 from your laptop, and many DJs are still sticking to tradition. Or is it perhaps that they simply haven’t been “converted” yet. Most people would be of the opinion that there is a certain quality of sound lost to digital which is admired in vinyl format.
There is also a certain sense of nostalgia attached to purchasing a record, with the actual label fixed to it. Since 1901 labels have been fixed as a circular disc to the centre of the records. There isn’t the same substance in seeing a little printed logo on the back right hand corner of a CD case. In Brian Southall’s “The A-Z of Record Labels”, Chris Wright chairman of Chrysalis Group plc wrote the book’s Forward, commenting; “with artists demanding their own label names and designs it is a sad fact that record labels do not seem to be as important as they once were.”
As for dance labels, I think vinyl sales will never completely evaporate. There will always be a need and a desire for this format.
Strangely enough, as the quantity of small Irish labels is increasing, the quantity of record stores is decreasing. Just recently the infamous family-run Road Records shop regrettably closed its doors. This was an independent record store in Dublin city centre widely praised by musicians for their support.In response to a thread posted on the thumped.com forum, Dave from Road Records said; “I have always been optimistic that this city can sustain a couple of smaller indie shops but I no longer believe that to be true, again, I really hope I am wrong with this opinion but the way people go about buying their music these days does not instil me with too much confidence… Regardless of what I have thought over the years downloading has effected our business, probably more so the illegal side of things, file-sharing and the likes.”
With the current recession which our country is suffering from, we may see a few more of these small record stores and possibly small labels alike struggling, or also having to say their farewells. It has been forecasted that Irish independent labels may be forced into signing to major labels in order to survive.
It’s undeniable that the iTunes generation has most definitely taken over. Peer to peer sharing and digital downloads have made their major dent in the music industry on a global scale, and this hasn’t escaped our tiny little island of a mere 6 million. What’s worse is that, naturally, people will take something for free if they can get it, rather than paying a price. (As we have scene in the recent Radiohead online “pick your own price” scandal.) Most people would pin this avoidance on Apple’s price intransigence, which makes many consumers divert from the legal route of downloading music online.
If you had asked me 5 years ago if I had an interest in “techno music”, I would probably have said no. I’m not quite sure exactly how I found myself working in and rummaging through the Irish electronic music scene over the past couple of years, as I have always been and still am a devout indie / alternative music follower. With artists such as PJ Harvey, Siouxie and The Banshees, The Cranberries, Mazzy Star and The Jesus & Mary Chain resting amongst my all time favourites, how did I end up adrift in this alternate universe? It may have been because I thought I had come to know all that there was to know about all the contemporary Dublin bands, and seen all that there was to see, but that would be very naïve. It was a venture out of sheer curiosity more than anything I would assume. I am sure though, that it did have something to do with the way in which indie rock and electronica outfits are now beginning to merge. There is an amalgamation in the making here, or an alliance at least. Looking at acts such as Jape, Twin Kranes, Si Schroeder, Channel One, Super Extra Bonus Party; essentially these are all Irish electronica rock bands, doing really well for themselves today. Jape, (Richie Egan), in particular has come a long way since he started off from his bedroom somewhere in Crumlin, tied between the excitement of bolts and buttons, and the lure of more organic instruments. He went on to co-form the instrumental rock / ambient group The Redneck Manifesto, described by Hotpress magazine as the “omnipresent powerhouse within the DIY Irish music scene”. But even more interestingly, Egan later decided to fulfil a separate dream, and formed Jape. –A side project initially, he has become a Dublin local cult-like icon as an innovator in experimental digital music. It’s becoming increasingly popular for bands to mix these two breeds, having your staple bass, drums and electric guitars, and then on the other side of the stage your synthesisers, drum machines and laptops hooked up to all sorts of little gadgets.
What is also interesting is that although Leinster doesn’t have a real dance music radio station, these up-and-coming artists are still getting quite a hefty amount of airplay from other stations, primarily Phantom FM. But Phantom FM is known as Dublin’s number one indie rock station, so what does this tell us about how styles are merging. Looking at what used to be known as Dublin’s one dance music station, Spin 103.8, they have since lost their initial direction and decided to spew out a majority of chart topping hits.
So what makes Ireland’s electronic music scene in any way different from others I hear you say? .....Well, not a great lot. In many ways, we have copied the movements of those around us, primarily Europe But what we can boast about is how well we have done, in adopting these patterns over here. When asked what he thought made the Irish music industry distinctive, D1’s Eamonn Doyle responded; “I’m not really sure that it is distinctive in any particular way, not that I’m aware of anyway. Although we’re very active within what we do ourselves, we’ve always pretty much kept out of the loop of industry circles”.
When I asked Richie Egan what he thought about Ireland in this respect, he said that he thought “the electronic music world in Ireland has become as good as any in the world in terms of the DJs and clubs, stuff like Nightflight and Shock and Bodytonic have shown that.. I still think we have a bit to go before we have world class producers but there are some."
It’s funny to think that with all of the great poets, musicians, authors, playwrights and actors which have emerged from Ireland over the years and the concentration of talent in our heritage, that no great Irish dance music producer or internationally recognized DJ has surfaced. It’s important to take into account the new younger generations who inhale technology and wash it down with a glass-full of whiz-kid for breakfast. Perhaps if we start training our children to press the right buttons now, Ireland could churn out some world class e-music producers for the future.
That seems to be what Karen Walshe & Eamonn Doyle had in mind when adding the DEAF Junior workshops to their festival programme….
As a part of the annual Dublin Electronic Arts Festival a weeklong “camp” of sorts is held for youths to get a hold of basic digital music production and filming. This workshop has been based from The Ark centre in Temple Bar. It has proved to be highly successful so far and the DEAF team hope soon to further such teachings and exciting exercises into the Irish education system. What the children produce is then shown as a part of the D1 Recordings showcase in MeetingHouse Square. Though not all of these children are guaranteed to become future music or film producers, stimulating this kind of creativity within the younger generations may well yield the odd one or two who do follow it as a career path. Who knows what types of talent in this field we will be turning out in years to come.In interview, Doyle stressed; “Music education in schools really needs to be developed for a country with such a rich music culture there seems to be a serious shortfall in music education in general.”
I think that most other countries would still be quite surprised that for such a small country, known abroad to have been a bit old fashioned and backward, we have such a thriving underground electronic scene today. Unfortunately, much of Irish major record labels have kept their interests to signing international acts and selling them to the Irish market, rather than hunting for home-grown talent. At present, Universal Ireland owns the biggest share of the Irish record industry, approximately 24%. In spite of all this, there is an increasing call for Irish electronic music worldwide, and I think that we have finally just built up the strongfoundations for cultivating real talent at home. Only recently have we beenproducing Irish records good enough to sell more of here to Irish consumers than abroad. Irish act Decal used to be a dynamic duo known as the godfathers of the improv experimental e-music scene. Decal’s Dennis says “now there are Irish records being made, which are good enough to sell exponentially more copies here than their foreign counterparts” …“It’s Irish people in actually-wanting-to-buy-Irish-music shocker!” This positive turnaround is a lot different to the situation which faced Decal in their earlier years when they expected their first releases to be eaten up by Irish audiences, but to no avail.
Top international DJ, DJ Marky; the brazil-born man named as the innovator of Drum n’ Bass, agreed to an interview with Execute Steve from Yournight.ie. In this interview he gushed that he had so much love for Ireland. He said that Ireland has some of the best crowds in the world, and that whenever his agent says thatthere’s a gig going in Ireland, he doesn’t care, he’s definitely doing it no matter what.
It seems to be a global running thread of understanding that the Irish make for a great audience, and have a lot of unsung talent yet to be seen overseas.
So what’s stopping us from realising all of these yet to be fulfilled ambitions of producing global DJ superstars and having a thriving underground dance scene akin to Berlin or Detroit?
A very important subject to take into account of late is the effect which the Irish Government has had on the music industry. The Irish electronic music and club scene has been hit very hard by the enactment of The Intoxicating Liquor Act in 2008. Due to the restrictive earlier club closing times, people are turning more towards staying in the pubs rather than continuing on to a nightclub for the later hours, as they used to. Now people simply aren’t seeing the point, because by the time they get to a nightclub it isn’t long before they have to leave again. Having probably spent an admission fee of anywhere between 5 and 15 euro, their night should only be starting. Club-goers used to be able to keep dancing till approximately 3:30 or 4 am, now only till 2:30 am at best. This is undoubtedly having its effect on the popularity of DJ club-nights and club attendance rates. Will nightclubs start opening their doors earlier to try and persuade the public to spend the entire night in the club, rather than splitting their night between a pub and club? Club owners can apply for time extensions to their closing hours but the enormous cost of this outweighs the benefit.
According to an article published in the Irish Times, Supt. Joe Gannon, of Dublin’s Pearse Street Garda Station, says that since the new Act came into place, he has experienced no decline in the amount of disorder on the streets. -The very reason it was enacted for. Music producer and spokesperson for the Give Us the Night lobby group, Sunil Sharpe, says “DJs, visual artists, dancers and promoters have all "felt the pinch" with many staff losing shifts, and DJs on reduced fees”, “Government is hindering the potential for a safer and more vibrant nightlife in Ireland, which would be in line with the nightlife in other major European cities”.
For many small independent dance labels, a lot of funding comes from club promotion, but with the fall of attendance these funds have lessened, making things more difficult.
Online blogger and Cork DJ Stevie G remarks “As a DJ, who would gladly play till 5am every Saturday night, I’ve always been frustrated when trying to explain to people at 2am why we have to stop playing music”.
The current financial recession is just the sardonic cherry on the top now for DJs and club owners, with people not even having enough money to go out for the night in the first instance.
As for the future of Ireland’s electronica / dance scene, it’s hard to predict exactly what way things will shift. I caught up with Trevor O’Shea, owner and founder of Dublin-based Bodytonic Music, and asked him what he thought was going to come of the next few years. Trev remarked; “it’s always hard to predict the future in this sub-sector, but I would imagine you'll see a power shift from big promoters and venue owners controlling everything, to promoters,producers and people with new ideas, and a lot of energy coming through. In a way, an extension of the last 3-5 years. I think new labels could struggle big time, it will be mainly down to producers to put their own music out and promote it themselves.”
In most cases people won’t witness much competition in this little market. I think that this is due to the small size and nature of this niche music following.Those involved would be of the opinion that “the more the merrier”, not seeing any neighbouring labels as competition. There again there aren’t many labels out there, still releasing on vinyl. Most are releasing on MP3 / digital labels now. This instantly puts these in a different category to vinyl labels.
When I talked to Andy Noonan from Yournight.ie, he held that “a lot of these labels work together for the very reason that they are a niche group. It’s a tight community, everybody knows everybody.”
For now this friendly collaborative manner and equality seems to be nourishing the Irish electronic arts rather than hindering, and it would be a shared hope that this is how it will continue.
Words by Laura McGlynn
DJ Craze image courtesy of Bodytonicmusic.com
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