Irish electronic music is in rude health. A number of collectives on both sides of the Border are pushing the envelope, taking club tropes and placing them in a fresh context.
With a host of artists illuminating the prescient innovation amongst those communities, we're anticipating a flood of excellent club music from Ireland in 2022. The clubs are re-opening, festivals look to be going ahead, and Irish artists are piecing together an immaculate soundtrack on an almost weekly basis.
Irish production team Obskür are at the forefront of this, with their 'Pure Evil' EP making waves via tastemaker label Shall Not Fade.
Returning to FFRR Records, new single 'The Dark' pits Obskür against electronic force Bklava.
With St. Patrick's Day upon us, Clash invited Obskür to pick out seven key peers from Irish electronic music.
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Ejeca
Gary (Ejeca) has been a huge favourite in the Dublin and Irish club scenes over the last couple of years. He is an absolutely outrageous producer and DJ with both his Ejeca and Trance Wax aliases. We’ve been fans of him ever since hearing one of his first breakout tracks called ‘Jalek’ which was absolutely everywhere in Ireland at the time. Ever since that he has inspired us big time with how versatile he is as his productions can vary from fast heavy raw techno sounds to more melodic and breakbeat stuff.
As banging as his productions are, he is also an absolute gent and someone we admire. We first saw Gary at the launch of Konspiracy a night we became residents of and ended up supporting him later on when he came back to play under his Trance Wax Alias – both times were proper sick. We also had the pleasure of working on a track together as part of Danny Howard’s Lockdown Linkup back in 2020 which was such a big deal for us as we’ve been huge fans of Gary and what he does for years.
Ejeca is a true pioneer who has done so much in the Irish music scene and deserves a shout.
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Karl Seery
Karl is a fellow Dublin DJ and has been a great friend of ours for quite a few years now. We’ve shared some line-ups together including holding down a residency in opium Dublin in 2019 along with recently having him join us for our first Headliner in Index Dublin last month. Karl is a fantastic selector and really knows how to work a crowd no matter the setting having done some sick shows all over Ireland recently which is class to see.
Along with being a great DJ, Karl has been putting out some sick productions and really developing his style over the last few years which we are really feeling. He has plenty of edits and originals on his SoundCloud which are all slammers.
Excited to see what’s next for him both gig and production wise – definitely one to watch in 2022 and beyond.
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Disfreq
These lads came to our attention when they released their ‘All My Friends’ EP on Patrick Topping’s Trick label in October 2021. Their use of analog drum machines and acid leads in their productions is absolutely sick and something we haven’t heard of in a long time which is very refreshing and different.
Ever since we discovered the lads we’ve chatted quite a bit and heard a good few of their latest productions and they are top tier. The lads have been bubbling over the last year especially with one of their most recent productions ‘Gotta Be Big’ which has been getting huge support from Solomun and many others – proper heater.
Buzzing to see them smashing it out of the park gig wise having headlined Monroe’s in Galway, UFO in Belfast and being on support for Green Velvet in the Telegraph building on Paddy’s Day. Big big fans of these two!
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Yasmin Gardezi
Yasmin is a Cork DJ who has been tearing it apart over the last few years. She plays a lot of high energy techno/electro stuff and is loved by many in Ireland including ourselves. Her style is very unique and is what makes her stand out from the rest in our opinion.
She’s played some heavy-hitter gigs at Konspiracy, District8, Index, Life Festival, Boxed Off over the years and is also making her debut at the iconic Sub Club in Glasgow for Paddy's weekend which is unreal to see. Her personality and passion towards music is fantastic and she really shows it off well on her socials.
Another favourite of ours with a bright future ahead of her.
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Modea
Modea is a Donegal DJ/Producer who we’ve been friends with and known him for many years now. He started making music at a very young age and has made everything from deep house, future house, tech house and now techno under his Modea alias.
Cristian is definitely up there with the best producers in Ireland in our eyes. His catalogue of releases over the years is mental with all of them being top tier no matter the genre. He has seen massive success recently being picked up by Alan Fitzpatrick who has supported his tunes in his sets and also on his We Are The Brave Label.
Cristian is on a huge rise at the minute and we are buzzing to see him grow even bigger this year.
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Chantel Kavanagh
Chantel has been bubbling around in the Irish scene for the last couple of years ever since she caught people’s attention playing her first club show supporting Fisher in District8 a few years ago. Chantel’s style is quite unique as it’s a mix of old disco and house records that many love. We feel like she is loved by many because she brings such good energy to anywhere she plays due to her being such a sound person and also playing sick sets.
We have played a few shows with her over the years including our co- headliner with her in Index recently which she absolutely smashed. Chantel’s name is a hard one to miss on line-ups as she plays a lot of gigs around Ireland including the likes of The Foundry in Carlow, Factory in Waterford, Boxed Off, Life Festival and many more around the country.
She has recently been focusing on producing and after hearing some bits she’s working on we can really say she’s onto something. We are big fans of her so she deserves a shout!
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BLK
BLK is a techno DJ/producer who has been smashing it recently as the world came out of the pandemic. His track ‘I Need A Boiler Room’ blew up on TikTok over the last two years which has really helped grow his name as he is now a seriously on demand DJ playing headline shows in the likes of SGW3 in Glasgow, Index in Dublin and being announced for Life Festival this year, along with a huge Shine Belfast Show in the mighty Telegraph Building with T78 and many more.
We have seen so many videos of his highly energetic sets online recently and the buzz he brings to any club he has played in is mental. A proper sound and talented lad who deserves all the success that is coming for him.
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'The Dark' is out now.
Photo Credit: Killian Whyte
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