BEW - 5 year retro

Back in 2002 I made a limited edition set of 30 CDs which I called '5 year retro'. I had been producing music on my own for longer than 5 years, but all of these recordings had been done with my first PC.

I picked what I thought were some of the best tunes (most of them were from 2002) that also showed the different types of tones I was making.I packaged them using a photo from the net. It was from some nightclub web-site. It showed a group of 'classy-ladies' enjoying an evening out.

I blew the photo up and cut it into 30 pieces so each CD had a different individual cover. When all 30 of my CDs were together they made the full image - a tiled effect.

I was recently asked if I could make some of these old tunes available again.

I guess some people prefered it when I was writing songs with verses and lyrics.

Well two of those songs are now on the myspace flash player - They're available to download and rate too. Back to 2002. I hope you enjoy them.

Gigs and all that jazz - holiday fashion...

Big smiles here as we're on holiday. Not jet-setting off for distant shores (yet) but enjoying a little time off from the day job. Good times.The holiday kicked off with a gig in Fleda. Itch My HaHaHa was buzzing. Plenty of electronic sounds of all varieties. Smooth and rough. Turntables were spinning, beatboxers popping, laptop jockeys clicking, MCs spitting, party-goers gyrating. Good times indeed.Close friend (ceramic/pottery workshop man) Conal Mac was over for a visit for few days and the weekend was a tasty, lazy, slurpy, haze. One cafe blending into the next as we floated from one eatery to another. We treated ourselves to plenty of Czech and Slovak specialities, and doubtlessly our waistlines show it.Monday evening we went to Stara Pekarna following a tip from Sophie's art teacher Andrea. We were pleasantly suprised by the Oles-Jorgenmann Oles Trio. Two brothers doing drum and bass with an ace grade clarinet player.Modern and challenging, their mastery of their instruments was impressive and the sounds were dizzying. Spectral sweeps and cacophonous waves of sound. Not for the faint hearted, pitched at those who prefer their jazz served hot. Hot and angular. Hot, angular, and breath-taking.

BEW - Dark Wheeze EP

bew dark wheeze ep (acp004)

I sent Iso 9 of Acroplane.org a few tracks I made last year and he's happily released them on his web-label. The link above leads to individual tracks or a ZIP of them all. I gave them some info on the making of the tracks and they put together the following as a press release.


Barry has been recording music and playing shows for years as part of the DODGY STEREO collective. He played in various bands and then started djing, remixing, and doing visuals at clubs. Namedropping hits include audio/visual support for: Liars, Four Tet, Surgeon and Regis, Buck 65, Le Fly Pan Am, les Georges Leningrad, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Boxcutter, the Alphabet Set, Filaria, Jupiter Ace, Wolf Eyes plus various shows at festivals in Belfast (Illegal Picnic), Paris (Les Eschafodages), Venice (Bienalle), Dublin (Project Arts Centre hosts Factotum) and Brno (NewNew festival).

The Dark Wheeze EP started from a collection of samples he took from a feedback loop from his mixer and some noises from an old radio when he moved to Poland in 2006. The tracks are not pure electronics as acoustic soundsources were added; a few blasts of vocal, guitar and some clarinet. They're quite heavily treated though, to fit with the sharp raw electronic sounds that got the project going.

Fusing elements of dubstep, breaks, electro, dark ambience and God knows what else in his own inimitable style, this is a fine addition to the discography of one of Belfast electronica's leading lights.

Grab it from the releases section.

The Translucent Knees

Many years ago Phil Porter and I made a number of tracks together around the time we were playing in a band called 'Devious Minds'. These tracks were quite unlinke anything we had made together before. Freshly armed with an Everett (Hammond - style) organ, a Peavy Deuce amplifier, and some other gear we made the most of our free time and made a lot of noise.

When it came to mixing down this material we came up with the name 'the Translucent Knees'. We played one show in the Rosetta Bar in Belfast and left it at that.

We played in various other bands, moved around from town to city to country and kept in touch.

Late in December 2005 we got together and made music again. In the space of two days the core elements of seven songs were made. Phil took these elements and made a fantastic five track EP which he called 'Spectac-a-matic'.

I got this CD and was wowed by how the demos we made had morphed into a pro-sounding record. I got the disc and made a dodgy video to go along with one of my favourite tracks.

I was travelling between Kielce and Krakow to be with my partner whilst studying, and decided to record some of the snowy scenery. I shot a few bits out of the back window of the end carriage, I edited it, reversed it, sped it up. This is the end result.