Firstly as mass consumers of this cultural phenomenon, the people of this part of the island took to the house music club explosion with gusto, largely because of the resonance of House music’s message of togetherness, understanding and love. With the tense political situation at the time, it was amazingly appealing to escape every weekend into an alternative universe where everyone was welcome.
As it was becoming within the economic range of a few at the time to make this new computer music, like the Punk pioneers before them, they decided to ignore the fact that there was no formal music industry and started to make their own.
Currently a new explosion of hungry young bands are making their own waves in a new musical spearhead, and some of the most interesting outputs are occurring where there are collaborations between the two.
Today Northern Ireland is home to a myriad of gigs, clubs, bands, producer and a hot bed of creative activity.
Along the way the airwaves have been hi-jacked by numerous DJ’s and outfits from local shows such as BCR where Eddie Wray ran his Club Chart Dance show which became institutional for many, through to Cool FM’s dance show courtesy of Mark Wesley (now hosted by Pete Snodden), Phil West’s all night shows on Citybeat, and also the influential Across The Line dance show with Paul McClean on BBC Radio Ulster.
National radio broadcasts from Northern Ireland have included outdoor shows at Belfast city hall to recordings at Lush, the Odyssey, Larne, Derry and Top DJ’s such as Pete Tong, Judge Jules, Fergie and Annie Mac all broadcasting their shows from the province.
How did all of this happen, how did such a small place (1.5 million people) grow so quickly?
To understand we’ll go back to just before the revolution and trace it from there.
In the Beginning there was Jack… and Jack had a groove
“What we need to do right here is go back……..way back.”
If you wanted to hear house music in the London in 1986-87, then your best bet was to head to Delirium on the Charing Cross Road. And if you were looking for one of the most sussed DJ’s, then Noel and Maurice Watson were the boys. Schooled at Orangefield Secondary in East Belfast and sometimes residents of Bangor County Down, these Irish brothers were so ahead of their game that they almost caused riots during their sets.
The club was founded on Hip Hop and rare groove, and many of the London B-Boys hated this new music that was burning up the clubs of Chicago and beyond. The management had to install a cage around the DJ area to protect the Watsons, who were so far into the scheme now that they weren’t going to relent in their mission to convert the capital to house. Maurice was spending much of his time in New York, checking out the Paradise Garage and realising that this house thing was unstoppable.
When they moved Delirium from The Astoria to the Heaven venue, they brought Frankie Knuckles over for a long stay, building up the roots of the scene even more. One of the regulars was Danny Rampling, who was putting his own vision together. In time a bunch of acolytes came to the Watson camp. People like Phil Asher and a young whippersnapper called David Holmes. Noel taught the latter how to mix.
Some years later, David paid his dues by dedicating his album Bow Down to the Exit Sign, to the memory of Maurice, who passed away in sad circumstances.
Back in Belfast, the scene had started with small, DIY clubs catering for a wide spread of youth tribes. People ran these events for the love of it, providing themselves, their friends and like-minded souls with somewhere to go. So at a club like The Plaza in Belfast, they played soul and high energy, punk, Goth and electro. The mid eighties had no strong identity- the great youth cults of mod, punk, skinhead and new romantic were dying and nothing had taken their place. Nothing that is until acid house changed everything.
In 1983 a young music obsessive named Robbie Nelson was tuning in to Radio Luxembourg’s Disco Mix Club (DMC) show presented by Tony Prince (who later launch Mixmag, the UK’s first ever dance music publication and further develop the DMC brand) Robbie joined the Disco Mix Club and visited Demark regularly in 1985 where he first learnt to mix. In 1987 the DMC Mixing Championships visited Northern Ireland for the first time and Robbie went on to win them for the first three years running. Around the same time Robbie became resident at the Helmsman in Bangor alongside Ken Dorrell (from Soul In the City acclaim) playing soul classics from the likes of George Benson. In 1988 when the acid house phenomenon kicked off Ken left. Robbie took Monday nights in the Hellsman to a new high where it continues to euphoric extremes before it got shut down by the police in 1991.
When this new dance music blossomed there was only one place you could go to hear it. You had to go underground. Most of the people who embraced the wave of freaky all night dancing and smileys that crossed the Irish Sea had their first taste of dance music at either the mod clubs or underground gay clubs.
Both had respectively opened people’s minds to black American music in the form of soul, funk, disco and hip-hop. To them, the natural progression to the four to the floor on the kick drum house beat seemed to be what they had been waiting for. They embraced it with a passion. These were the children of the underground, and for years it would be their secret. Small gatherings grew into medium sized venues until finally and relentlessly it reached the mainstream.
In the UK, the tide turned during the ‘First Summer of Love’ in London, 1988. Clubs like Danny Rampling’s seminal Shoom were blowing the minds of clubbers with the Balearic sound they had brought back from Ibiza. New dance crazes, the curly bob, Wallabies and the poncho were all imports from the island of love, along with raving all night and hugging strangers. The vibe spread to Belfast about a year later by returning holidaymakers and those brave (and rich) enough to join the London weekenders.
Around the same time Peter Spence, who still plays occasionally at Thompson’s Garage, was one of the very first house DJs, working out of Tokyo Joe’s. Another DJ who appreciated the new style was Stephen McKenna, previously a member of experimental electronic act The Infant Pedestrians, who threw a few curious art installations at the Crescent Arts Centre back in the day. Before long he’d left the Roland 808 for a set of decks, cutting his reputation at places like The Venue.
The first venture that was to turn into something significant was Joy. It started with humble beginnings on Halloween night 1989 at Richardson’s Social Club and moved to the Playpen (next to St Georges Market), as it quickly outstripped the venues capacity. This was the work of Keith Connolly, Paul McCourt, Alan Ferris and Dee O’ Grady, who later ran One World, which mutated into Choice. The latter ran bi-weekly alongside Sugar Sweet at the Art College, and introduced Belfast to the likes of Paul Daley (of Leftfield fame) a relationship that is still there today between Daley and Alan Ferris (who still has his own successful recording act Welt).
One month after Joy began in November 1989 Iain McCready and David Holmes were both working at Zakk’s hairdressers. They were already DJ’ing on the soul/mod scene (something very apparent in some of Holmes later production work) and they really caught the new vibe. With some support from the then owners of Zakk’s (Wally Mount and Jay St John) they held Belfast’s biggest house event at the Thrupenny Bit, an annex of the Kings Hall. Homers mum had just returned from a trip to Chicago where she’d lucked upon a specialist dance shop. She brought back a stack of white label dance records. Result.
The club was called Base and it was a swift success, ultimately moving to the Art College. This in turn became Face (For A Cosmic Experience) and things started to get crazy. Face birthed Sugar Sweet and so the Art College became the chosen venue on a Saturday night of most Belfast clubbers with alternate weeks of Choice and Sugar Sweet. People queued from an hour before it opened. The visuals were amazing. The atmosphere was like a space launch. The early feeling of collective euphoria was what people went crazy for, in the midst of the troubles people lost it, even being joined on one night by two policemen who partied with the mass of raving clubbers in full uniform!
Orbital even named a track ‘Belfast’ after a long crazy weekend in the city. The list of DJs and acts who performed here reads like a who’s who of Acid house. Notable mentions are deserved by, amongst others, Orbital (of course), The Dub Federation, The Dust Brothers (now the Chemical Brothers), The Aloof (especially Richie on the congas), Sabres of Paradise, The Sandals and Bandalu. Some of the DJs who ripped the roof off, and provided something just that wee bit special, included Andrew Weatherall, Justin Robertson, Fabi Paras, Stuart McMillan, Darren Emerson, Phil Perry, Charlie Hall, Johnny Moy, Graig Walsh, Scott Braithwaite, Luke Slater, Claude Young and Dave Clarke.
First Past The Post
Amongst all of this, after familiarizing himself with the studio, David Holmes began recording with Ashley Beedle (later of Black Scence Orchestra and Xpress 2 to produce the single ‘DeNiro’ (as Disco Evangelists), a sizeable dancefloor hit in 1992. The following year, his Scubadevils project (collaboration with Dub Federation) appeared on the first volume of the seminal compilation series Trance Europe Express.
That first taste of success brought David Holmes much remixing work during 1993-1994, for Andy Weatherall, Sabres Of Paradise, St Etienne, Therapy?, Sandals, and Justin Warfield, among others. He later signed to Go! Discs and in 1995 released his debut album, This Films Crap, Let’s Slash The Seats, named by his friend Basil, a barber from the Creggagh Road, on a lost weekend in Amsterdam. Besides the cinema-terrorist persona evoked in the title, the album featured other ties to the cinema: the single ‘No Man’s Land’ had been written in response to the controversial Guildford 4 film In the Name of the Father. Television director Lynda La Plante ended up using many of the tracks from the album for her series Supply & Demand, and one track was used in the Sean Penn/Michael Douglas film The Game. Holmes' first proper soundtrack, the Marc Evans film Resurrection Man, appeared in 1997. The experience inspired Holmes to travel to New York and gather a wealth of urban-jungle environment recordings, compiled and mixed into his second proper album, Lets Get Killed.
He followed with the remix collection Stop Arresting Artists, and in 1998 scored Steven Soderbergh's A-list Hollywood feature ‘Out of Sight’ with a prescient set of groove-funk. (The attention also earned him a place in Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Creative People in Entertainment.) His single ‘My Mate Paul’ even featured as the theme music to the Sony Playstation game Psybadek. His Essential Mixes from 98/01, assisted by Chris Caul on scratch duties followed later that year, and in 1999 This Films Crap Lets Slash The Seats was reissued with a bonus disc of rarities and unreleased tracks. Holmes issued his third studio effort, Bow Down To The Exit Sign, in September 2000. One year later, Soderbergh tapped him to produce another feature-film soundtrack, Ocean's Eleven, and it pushed a single — Elvis Presley's ‘A Little Less Conversation’, as remixed by Junkie XL — into the charts (as well as the top spot in many countries).
Holmes' next project was a studio band, The Free Association, introduced on the 2002 mix album Come Get It I Got It. On the record, Holmes mixed and matched older tracks with new productions from him and his lab-mate Stephen Hilton. Late that same year, a full album of new tracks (David Holmes Presents The Free Association) followed it onto the racks. The Free Association came to an end when David was commissioned to score the follow up to Oceans 11, Oceans 12.
It is a testament to the current creative climate in Belfast that David has remained true to his roots and chosen to stay in the city and make it his permanent home.
From as early as 1991 Robbie Nelson has been producing his own music. His first take came in the form of ‘Bolivian Angel’ (alongside Mark Jackson, Billy Dunseith and Paul Masterson) the track was re-released in 1993 on Manchester based Eastern Bloc Records where high flyers Rob Tissera and Ian Bland from Dream Frequency acclaim added their own remixes. The track and its follow up ‘Bolivian Angel II aka Angels Fly are still collector’s item today.
Whilst David Holmes was creating alliances with audiences in Belfast, Robbie Nelson became a household name elsewhere in Northern Ireland. He was the biggest names on the local circuit. Holding residencies at the infamous all-nighters Circus Circus in Banbridge from 1991 – 1993 (alongside Mark Jackson, Gleave Dobbin and Marty C), through to The Arena in Armagh in 1993 (where Robbie played to weekly audiences of 3,000) Charlie Heggarty’s in Bangor, Kilwaughter House in 1994 and the hazy mass marketed days of 1996 where he played 2 High on Life parties each night furiously driving between the hugely popular Yeke Yeke @ The River Club, Enniskillen and Spank at Carlingford Bay Hotel in Warrenpoint. Both institutions in their own right!
In 1995 Chris Agnelli a young lad straight out of university having studied music technology in the UK joined Freerange studio as in-house engineer and began producing tracks under his name. Lush (State of the Floor) and Lush Gold which received major support through the media and main players throughout Ireland and the UK.
Chris Agnelli and Robbie Nelson began writing and producing dance music together since 1997 under the now household name of Agnelli & Nelson. Their massive Ibiza classic ‘El Nino' has become one of the defining tunes of the Balearic experience, while five national top thirty hits, and countless buzz chart remixes have ensured that the pair remain synonymous with the more musical end of club music. Apart from their own produce, Agnelli and Nelson have given re-rubs to the likes of Madonna, Louise, Ruff Driverz and Lange. They have appeared on Top of the Pops, the Essential Mix and have been chosen to usher in the New Year on BBC Radio 1 live from Belfast for the past two years. The UK label Xtravaganza has been the main home to Agnelli and Nelson since 1998. Chris also remixed two U2 tracks ‘Beautiful Day’, ‘Elevation’ (and) in collaboration with U2 engineer Richard Rainey (also from North) under the guise of Quincey & Sonnance.
Under the alias of Afterburn, Chris and Robbie signed ‘Summer Sun' and ‘Winter Sun’ to Ferry Corsten's Tsunami label, while their more driving, tech-trance material under the guise of Cortez was reserved for the Dutch ID&T imprint. Successful releases as Green Atlas & Afterburn saw the boys make a welcome return to record stores throughout the globe as Agnelli & Nelson with the release of ‘Holding onto Nothing’. The boys also holding a relentless remixing schedule turning in highly acclaimed re-workings of Armin Van Buurens ‘Blue Fear’, Matt Dareys ‘Point Zero’ & Solarstone & Scott Bonds ‘3rd Earth’.
However, their masterpiece came in the form of their ingenious remix of Ferry Corstens’ ‘It’s time’ which many reviewers hailed as being better than the original. Cutting down on the remix requests towards the end of 2004 enabled them time to work on their latest Agnelli & Nelson productions and it proved a good move. They start 2005 armed with another sure-fire dancefloor destructor entitled ‘Shiver’. A track which features ‘Snow Patrol-esque’ vocals performed by The Burn and is already causing major stirs. Recent national and international DJ sets have reaffirmed the draw of the Irish pair with a headline date at San Francisco's Electro-Techno-Disco-Popsicle 5 in May which attracted 10,000 US clubbers. One of their biggest accolades is playing to 28,000 people in Melbourne, Australia for the world clubbing brand Gatecrasher. Something which for most will only ever been a dream.
Follow The Leaders
In 1993 a young Alan Simms launched a night at the Limelight called A Different Drum, which later moved to the Mandela Hall, became Shine in 1995 and has grown over the last ten years to become Irelands’ longest running, most successful underground club venue with a cutting edge music policy. Spawning its own record label Shine Recordings and the most widely used club message board in Ireland Shine is now definitely an institution. It has long been a bastion of underground techno, electro and the tougher forms of house music, with the secondary rooms showcasing hip hop, drum and bass and the more leftfield forms of dance music.
One DJ who was playing at the Limelight at the time, Phil Kieran, landed a residency at Shine in Belfast at the tender age of 19 and over the nine years since has provided a backbone for the legendary club.
Phil finally won acceptance to the DJ fraternity, international recognition and recruited a loyal following with the release of his anthem tune ‘Vitalian House’.
A barrage of Phil Kieran releases ensued, under a variety of labels including Skint, Soma, Kingsize and Yoshitoshi, with some under pseudonyms such as Pil Hearin. Soon, Phil could hardly fight the floods of artists requesting his Midas touch remixing style. Notorious amongst these re-workings are Agoria ‘L'onzieme Marche’, Nitzer Ebb ‘Murderous’ and Justin Robertson ‘Acid Rave Music’ all treated with the unnerving, jagged energy and throbbing basslines that are a feature of everything Phil does.
Having travelled extensively with his DJing, Phil has "been around the world" more times than Lisa Stansfield, recently playing gigs in Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, Ibiza, Greece, Germany, Holland and Spain, regularly playing alongside International heavyweights such as Dave Clarke, Billy Nasty and Christian Smith.
Recently Phil locked himself in the deepest depths of a smoke-laden studio for the last year, with only vocalist Martin, front-man of post-punk band Corrigan for company; the coupling has produced a manic body of works as Alloy Mental. This musical mayhem will be the basis of Phil's first album; the first release ‘Body Blueprint’ already causing chaos in clubland, its completely new sound always causing confusion and curiosity amongst clubbers. Phil also regularly hosts BBC Radio One’s late night dance show, standing in for another Northern Ireland DJ Champion Fergie otherwise known as the legendary Tony De Vit’s prodigy.
Elsewhere, inspired by events at the Art College another group of young DJs Timmy Stewart, Glenn McCartney and Mark Bell started their own night, Digital Boogie. Mark Bell recalls how his first trip to the Art College blew his mind: “I’d heard about the crazy scene at the Art College and got down to check it out. Before that the only music I’d heard was chart music and was into alternative music like The Doors, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, the music blew my mind. It was the only place at the time playing underground dance music you couldn’t hear that type of thing anywhere else. The energy and enthusiasm of the whole thing was definitely what inspired me to become a DJ and start a club.”
After many years on the DJ and production circuit the lads formed their own label to showcase their production work “Island Hopper” where releases under the names The New Aluminists, Scoper and Bubba and Crashdaddy reflect the output that they aim squarely at the Dancefloor.
Mark Bell teamed up with local lad Paul McMahon to form Bellcrash. They discovered that they not only had a mutual interest in jazz, funk and latin music but also all forms of music technology. They agreed to work together on an EP which was eventually released on 7th sign recordings. The EP was called the Coalition EP and it exceeded their expectations. Not only did it sell out but it was picked up by some of the most influential DJs today. They got wholehearted support from the likes of Danny Krivvit, Laurent Garnier, Richard Dorfmeister, Osunlade and Rainer Truby. LTJ Bukem liked the Bellcrash sound so much he asked them to contribute a track for the now legendary earth series. Another massive supporter of Bellcrash has been Gilles Peterson who continually played their first single at clubs and on his worldwide show (BBC Radio 1). He has even debuted material on his show months before it was due to come out.
Together they decided to compile an album, called “Suzume Park” which was released late in 2004 to a very positive reaction on the nu-jazz circuit.
In 1995 another young DJ, Chris Cargo, began playing house music to a loyal following at The Venue, Thompson’s Garage and The Network. His aptly named Sleuth night, a monthly event in Belfast attracted the worlds finest DJ/producers from the progressive house scene, running for 4 successful years until its demise in 2001. Recently Chris departed from the successful club night Imprint, which he co-ran; and he now resides over Rise in Belfast, where his music style is a mash up of disco, house and tribal beats. Worldwide Chris has really built up his fan base though and one look at his list of gigs merely confirms this - from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam via Mexico. He has produced and remixed a total of almost thirty tracks to date.
The Network club one of the most prominent city centre venues opens it doors in August 1994 - where the Sleuth nights primarily were held - was important in the early careers of Mark Jackson (moving on from his early Circus Circus days), Eamon Beagon and Jay Kay. Network promoter Paul Langsford still works actively in the music industry, having managed Belfast based clubs Milk and now the recently opened Cathedral Quarter Potthouse.
Many other clubs helped to shape the current scene, amongst them Vico’s, a rickety old Pizza joint in the heart of Belfast that each weekend crammed in four separate sound systems, on as many floors with about ten times as many DJs. Infamous local Techno outlaw Pete Donaldson cut his DJ teeth here amongst the Evolution and Contents Crews. Gawain Morrison, of fabulous beard was also one of the ringleaders. Also worth mentioning is, Bedlam. Bedlam was basic facilities, hard techno, punks, walls dripping with sweat, crusties. To the faithful it goes down in Techno history as a dark hall of doom.
Breakdown, Beatsuite, Ski Bunny, Lost Sound, Numb and many others that I can’t go on to list all played a part in moving the music to where it is today.
The Revolution Was Spreading
Lush on the North Coast stands alone as one of the few super clubs that is still standing, Scooby who now does the sound did the first rave gig at Kelly’s, then Chris Hurley came in as resident which lead to Glen Molloy, Harmony events (Scottish promoters), M8 nights, X-Ray, Sci as residents, then in 1994 Kelly’s was shut down and later re-opened as Lush, changing their music policy to house. It helped put Northern Ireland on the map with the first Essential mix from Ireland, Cream residencies and playing host to most of the globe’s superstar DJs. Much of its success has been due to the work of Alan Simpson, Col Hamilton and Nigel Wilson. Colin has both DJed and promoted Lush! Arenas at Planet Love, Creamfields, Homelands and festivals in Ireland and has secured coveted DJ sets at Creamfields & homelands festivals in the UK.
Colin has also dabbled in production, by himself and in collaboration with others notably Chris Agnelli and Chris Cargo. When going to press Col Hamilton released a massive uplifting house track ‘On a Good Thing’ on Manifesto Records (alongside NI producer Aaron McClelland). The track has received (massive) support many include Erick Morillo, Pete Tong, Judge Jules and Seb Fontaine.
Other out of town clubs of particular note included Kilwaughter House near Larne (1994 – 1997) and Circus Circus in Banbridge (1991 – 1994). Both were exponents of the more hardcore end of the genre, with Circus being blamed in the press for everything from Devil Worship to Armageddon until finally it was shut down.
Gleave Dobbin, Dee McAuley and Fergie are also DJ’s from outside Belfast who have impacted on the national and international scene all three have played regularly at the clubbers island that is Ibiza and have gone on to do their own productions.
Fergie’s journey in music began at Kilwaughter House following the likes of Gleave Dobbin and Robbie Nelson. It was there that Tony De Vit homed in on his talent and brought him to the UK, now he is one of the biggest names on the trance/techno front, presenting his own show in a local Larne accent on national BBC Radio One and starting his own record label.
A young man from Newtownards Paul Masterson who had a deep love of disco music honed his production skills until he had a huge hit “Synths and Strings” under the guise of Yomanda. He produced and remixed many other tracks and collaborates with Judge Jules. In the North West, Derry still is hosting regular club nights with Deep Fried Funk in Sandino’s and bigger nights at the Nerve Centre. The boys also run a yearly festival of electronica called Celtronic which is as good if not better in the line-up and atmosphere department as many of the national ones.
From that same city both Hedrock Valley Beats and the Sirocco MC’s have made waves in the live dance music/hip hop area and local Hip Hop DJ JP McGonagle won the Ireland DMC mixing championships a few years back.
In September 1995 Eddie Wray and Judith Farrell-Rowan launched Bassline Magazine connecting with the burgeoning dance music scene at that time and growing with it. In 1998, Bassline merged with Belfast magazine Blank to become BBm and the following year, the magazine became the first in local history to win the prestigious IPR/BT Magazine of the Year award. The magazine and their sister company Eddie Wray Entertainment were behind many clubs including Exit 15 @ Dungannon, The Awakening at Kilwaughter House, Dance Against Drugs at the Kings Hall, Magic Kingdom and many smaller nights across the province. In 1998 they launched Planet Love a major dance music festival which obtained the first ever outdoor dance music license in Ireland opening the floodgates for others. Homelands and Creamfields became players in the festival game in the Republic, at home,
Despite population size, location and venues being stacked against us, Northern Ireland has regularly, all over rocked at some point. Capturing the true essence of electronic music is the Jigs & Rigs Festival located on the tranquil Rathlin Island off the North Coast of Antrim. The festival is driven by Force 10 (Damien, James-e, Chuck, Phat Controller) and all those involved offer their services free of charge or as volunteers. Started in 1997 and running pretty much yearly Rathlin has begun to increase in size (2000 attendees in 2004) and statue but maintain its original concept.
Some Pockets of Resistance are Re-Arming for a Counter Attack
All of this growth had to come to an end though as the dance music industry grew to such epic proportions that it quite literally toppled and fell over on itself. The roots were unaffected however and in back rooms and dingy basement clubs, new techniques, styles and sonic weapons were being tested. A new wave, harder, faster and stronger than before were getting ready. Early Hardcore legend speaks of the Hellraiser nights at the Ulster Hall, organised by Karl Graham (aka Judge Dredd) who went on to host the legendary Drumology nights at the menagerie with DJ Kato. Drum and Bass made its first mark on the city here and has grown in popularity leading to the Step nights at the Menagerie (with DJ Chill), and the recent Sownd Koalition nights at The Front Page.
From the drum and bass scene local live acts such as Cappo Regime and Spree have risen, with Spree notably playing the Glastonbury Festival, London dates at Cargo nightclub. As a testament to their growing popularity Spree found themselves with London Electricity and I Kamanchi in the final of the Knowledge Magazine Awards 2003.
One young man from Belfast has set the Drum and Bass world on fire however, Calibre, Dominic to his friends. He originally started producing at a young age and has spent many years refining his sound and first started to make a name for himself with a string of releases on Fabio's label Creative Source. Since his initial releases Calibre has consistently released quality tunes with his own signature style and sound, and eventually set up his own label Signature.
Calibre is a very diverse producer and has made tunes ranging from soulful vocal melodies to dubby rollers. One of his strengths it seems is that his sound was able to develop away from the “scene” and has a unique freshness to it.
On the edge of the underground, inspired by the more leftfield techy production branches of house music and electronica are the Electrotoxic crew, who throw parties regularly in the Menagerie and DJ in smoky back bars and dingy club basements.
One of the most prolific of the crew is Gary Spence or T-Polar, who started producing in 1997 inspired by the patchwork melodies of the orb, the funky future soul of Moodyman and Theo Parrish and the solitary oddness of two lone swordsmen. Relying on the instinct of making things sound original and as personal as possible with a disregard for current trends and fashions in electronica is the main inspiration these days his work has paid off with gigs in Dublin and London.
Jupiter Ace (aka Gregory Ferguson) is a young dance producer aged 24 year who has spent the last 5 years honing his studio skills to develop a fresh and distinctive house music sound.
He is currently riding high with talk of his latest “1000 years” becoming a future club anthem.
Jupiter Ace has been subsequently hunted down by none other than Fatboy Slim who was so impressed with his work that he has asked him to remix new track "El Bebe Masoquista", forthcoming on Skint records.
Hip Hop is represented well by Chris Caul, a scratch DJ who rates with the top in the country, who has been slowly producing his own beats and Roysta, an MC who definitely could not come from any other city. So large clubs such as Shine, Lush, Club Matrix, Thompsons, Deep Fried Funk, smaller crews like Homespun, Hydroponic, Imprint, Funkasaurus, Champion Sound, Release, Force 10, and events such as Digital T, Rathlin Island, J2Z still flourish at the present moment.
Artists such as David Holmes, Bellcrash, Hedrock Valley Beats, Filaria, Barry Lynn, Astromech, T Polar, Chris Cargo, Gleave Dobbin, Island Hopper – Scoper and Bubba, Spree, Dave Lievense & Conor Magavock, Cappo Regime, Welt, Sick Joke aka Graeme L, Jupiter Ace and Alloy Mental (aka Phil Kieran and Martin Corrigan) all are producing work to critical and commercial acclaim.
by Lyndon Stephens and Sandra Gourley (NI MUSIC COM).
>> The widely reported Death of Dance Music is Definitely Premature & Ultimately untrue. In the Underground Corners of Northern Ireland things are starting to heat up and become Really interesting as the Second New Wave prepares for its ASSUALT. <<
* MUSIC IS LIFE?
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