Tag: Irish post-punk

Unearthing Ireland

As has been noted, part of my mission this summer is to educate myself about music a little more – new music, old music, everything in-between. Being an arts journalist has afforded me a ton of opportunities to go exploring, even if time constraints mean I frequently feel a bit of a musical dilettante, skipping from one artist/band/era/genre to the next. But one thing caught my attention, and it’s stayed glued there for months now. It even resulted in my writing a formal feature.

July 16th saw the release of Strange Passion, a compilation of sounds from the Irish post punk era. The first tune I heard from it (back in June) was SM Corporation’s “Fire From Above”, which has since become my unofficial summer anthem. With its bouncy beat and bleepy-bloopy electronic sound, along with a vaguely keening-esque vocal line, it’s really the best sort of earworm to have through the heat waves and hot storms dominating the last couple weeks. In deciding to do a feature length story on Strange Passion and post punk in Ireland, I knew I’d be falling, delightedly head-first, into a cultural landscape I find deeply fascinating, even now.
The Dublin of the late 1970s and early ’80s was anything but glamorous, but, based on research and interviews (and frankly, the music), it was an inspiring time for artists. As Gavin Friday told me, sometimes the best art can come from the smaller, less glamorous cities; I turned this over in my mind after he said it, considering the home cities of some of my favorite artists (Prince is from Minneapolis; R.E.M., from Athens, Georgia; even The Beatles are from Liverpool, which was hardly a hotbed of hip cultural life in the late 1950s). There’s something to be said for geography being destiny for artists: why, how, if (or when) they leave, they always carry a piece of their locale with them in song and sketch and spirit.

Bands like Major Thinkers, Chant Chant Chant, and The Threat may not have lasted in any literal sense, but I’d like to think that listening to them affords me a peek into a creatively compelling place and time, one that’s bled over into our own multi-faceted era of mixed sounds and places and experiences.

Addendum: For a detailed examination of the bands on Strange Passion, do check out Ian Maleney’s excellent piece over at The Quietus.

Worms, Soil, Sounds

Summer makes posting blogs here difficult because a/ it’s festival season, meaning I’m busy reporting (and interviewing awesomely cool people like Bettye LaVette, woot!); b/ when I’m not writing I’m researching and doing the social media thing; and c/ when I’m not doing either of those (which takes up a fair chunk of time in any given day), I’m trying to do all the things I promised myself I’d do, namely, read more fiction, and expand my musical knowledge, as I wrote about in my last post.

Oh, and when I’m not doing THAT, I’m in the garden.

Along with a few discoveries amidst the weeds and ever-shifting soil, I’ve made a few musical ones too. (Soundcheck, you’d be proud!)

First, I sat down and finally listened to the entirety of Some Girls, by The Rolling Stones something I’d not done before. The reissue bonus track “Keep Up Blues” was my favorite – the corollaries between it and contemporary rap were especially striking, as was Mick’s sexy, strutting delivery. I could practically see him thrusting hips and lips out in the studio. Brilliant. Hot. Listen.

Secondly, Tumblr is really becoming my mode of choice to discover new music. I came across English band the xx only today, and was struck by the way they’re able to combine verbal and sonic poetry in one gorgeous package. This song is also wildly romantic, as reflected in the lyrics:

And I’ll cross oceans, like never before
So you can feel the way I feel too
And I’ll mirror images back at you
So you can see the way I feel too

The rhythmic repetition of such simple words and sounds is beautifully echoed in an aching series of guitar lines, making for a very haunting (if addictive) listen.

Speaking of rhythmic combinations of words and music… this is amazing:

It’s taken from Strange Passion, a compilation of Irish post-punk and experimental music that’s recently been released through Rough Trade. Irish music site Thumped.com wrote in their review of the album that “this compilation has become crucial, already. Hats off to all involved.” I take that “crucial” to be applicable to anyone interested in not only the history of modern Irish music, but in understanding where we are now, in our very synth-sounding world.

I love “Fire From Above” because it’s so amazingly modern, and again, has a gorgeous poetry that references both the clinical emotional calculation of Kraftwerk, along with a certain menacing joy that totally reminds of early 80s New York sounds. The chords are lifted right from Pachelbel’s (in)famous Canon, but have a bouncy synth beat beneath them. And the words are just as moving, with an old-world weariness and youthful exuberance, combined with a rhythmic interplay with their synthesized accompaniments that makes you listen in just that much closer.

Here’s to digging up more good stuff as the summer progresses.

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