Cheebah and all that - Limerick, Ireland

Results exclusive!

The compilation of Limerick electronic music first suggested by JC has been a very successful idea, encouraging many but also opening up our ears to fresh new producers in the city. After a month of judging the five judges have submitted their opinions and the results have been collated. JC said "thanks to all those who entered a piece and congratulations to the people that made it in. The judges were all well impressed with the global quality of the pieces.For those who didn’t make it in or didn’t get their piece finish on time, we’re hoping to do it again next year so stay tuned"

Here are the results in no particular order:

Graeme Sun - The Happy Spirit
Tawmae - Lennie Annox
Karl Fortune - Fiber Optics
Escalation 746 - On a wire
Ronario - Gangway
Tony Higgins - Diz
Barry Warner - Photo Romance
Phi Spiral - Aurora
Drumming Room - Song 4
Beat Cleaver - 00la
Tom Neville - Space Ode
Brigadier JC - Trip2Hop
Mecca - Fields Of Ambiguity
Big Benni - Tsahp 

Goldy

 'Old skool and hot mash up Dj Goldy pays a vist to the Cheebah session this friday bringing a diverse set of off killer party beats to the spot as the laneway settles into summer'.

Brasilintime in Dublin

on the spot observations from pc, texted via twitter, last night from Tivoli.  00:19- nuts and b+ warm up the crowd,mamao gets the drumming started....00:29- madlib steps up to the decks,full house loving it.....00:46- tony allen-father of afrobeat takes to the stage to rapturous applause and we get transported from brasil to africa in the space of a minute....01:25- water got no enemy gets the brasilintime treatment..classic....02:02- jrocc picks up where the drummers left off and proceeds to cut the floor to shreds....03:04- end of show, music ends,coleman announces over the mic "would the lady who lost the red leather jacket please come to the dj box"
Don't miss it, Trinity Rooms Limerick tomorrow night.

Eist V

• The Hannah Parr arrived from Norway, unintentionally staying in Limerick for 6 weeks back in 1868. Bock has a piece here and we did something as well a few years back. This Friday evening on Lyric FM artszone has a 20 minute audio documentary "great need was our only strength" which revisits and retells this uplifting yet poignant tale. More here
• Brian Cross arrived ahead of the entourage and did some interviews regards Brasilintime shows. He was on Dave Fanning and did well considering the scattergun questioning style Fanning employs. A much more relaxed and enjoyable interview followed that night when he joined Donal Dineen on Today FM. Candid and smooth, I think it really illustrated the passion which B has for this particular project. You can listen back here ( note if link doesn't work- right click- copy link location and open in a media player). Nice buzz building in advance of Sundays show. Be there.

Shane

Hank Shocklee

Hank Shocklee at the Red Bull Academy April 12.
The launch of this years application round up for the Barcelona Red Bull Academy presented the sonic architect behind the the classic Public Enemy sound which peaked in the early 90s. The combination of the Shocklee brothers Hank and Keith with Eric ‘vietnam’ Saddler made the production team the Bomb Squads work for PE a definitive rebel music of Hip Hops third stage.

Now working on a series of electronic works including the debut album from the Bomb Squad, Shocklees profile has recently acquired a rejuvenated relevance. On the couch exploring PEs themes and history, Hank is quizzed by Dj and fan Fergus Murphy.

For years the production of the first three Public Enemy have been intensely dissected by HipHops faithful. As layered sample orchestrations they offered a glimpse into the the political rawness that was  attained through a production ideology that fused James Brown with the unconformity of Slayer. Once this gritty flagpost was planted Chuck D's concious lyrics hoisted the colours red black and green for a multiracial worldwide audience. While PE are still on active duty the lack of general structured information on the groups history in relation to how the elements came together and created the legacy meant that tonights talk was a rare chance to join some background dots.

Green and Mean

In the political media circus, there was no greater beef than that between John Gormley and Michael McDowell. However, there was one issue that could bring them together in sweet harmony and that was graffiti. They attempted to outdo each other in who could come up with the tougher sanctions but agreed in the Dail in 06 that
"Graffiti is anti-social and degrades the whole community"
Of course things have moved on and now Gormley is putting his sandals under the cabinet table where Michael's boots used be. However he hasn't forgotten his principles and All-city have highlighted how only this month, the new minister looks forward to more prosecutions against graffiti artists which was
"very important in the fight against crime"
In the same week, Olivia O Leary, dedicated her radio column to the Greens and argued that ultimately the party was much more pro business than most think. This helps one understand how Gormley worries in his Dail speech about the shopkeeper on Dame Street but no mention about other visual pollution blighting our cities in the form of outdoor advertising. But then advertising agencies are giving us free bikes (even if it isn't a great deal) so I suppose they are the good guys.
Anyhow the die is cast, expect some strikes against this crimewave. Hope somebody tells Lorraine

Shane

Rethinking the Weather

Cheebah and Kerrynini recently hosted the mighty L.A. based electronic artist Daedelus down in the Cornmarket. Word had been winding it's way from Kerry that Daedelus had ripped the place to shreds the night before so expectations were high. Taking in a lecture en route to the Cornmarket in UL, Daedelus demonstrated how his magic monome (a box with 256 buttons that gives the user live control over their samples) works and left the audience ready and waiting for some dancing. The phone in the bar was hopping during the sound check with inquires as to 'what time does the American guy start at' leaving the perplexed bar lady wondering who the 'American guy' was? The Cheebah and Kerrynini dj's set the mood while Daedelus quickly changed backstage from a hip looking L.A. cat into something out of Edwardian times with a dapper waist coat, shirt and pants. Daedelus gigs are all about audience participation with the artist looking for cues from the crowd as his weaves his magic from behind the monone. The set starts off slowly with the large crowd of over 450 souls gradually edging their way closer and closer to the stage. It truly is a world of pure imagination at this gig as Willy Wonka gets a reworking. Like a storm slowly rising the gig gains momentum and the set becomes more up tempo, Aphex twin gets the monome treatment, so does Nirvana as the dance floor heaves. He drops Fair Weather Friend' from his latest ep and the crowd claps and dances in time. An hour or so later the jet lagged Daedelus is wrecked but the crowd begs for more and he willingly obliges, the sound system crackles as the audience are taken further and further down to the rabbit hole like Alice to the point of no return. Magic!

pc

Extra: 1-Johnny Doobs has written a good post on the visit over on Amoeba
2- great photographs and Video to follow anyday now.....

Jazzy Jeff

Jazzy Jeff at the Trinity Rooms April 13, 2008
Live in Union Square is the title of the piece. It’s the mid 80s, A dj and the brand eventually known as ‘Will Smith’ are being recorded at a hiphop gig. The Fresh prince is exhorting the crowd to recognise the party rocking talents of his Dj who is showcasing the art of cutting between two copies of a breaks compilation. Jeffs dexterity accommodates an invention known as the transformer scratch which becomes the much imitated chirippppp  that sealed his  rep as a Dj .You can still lick the energy of that gig of the record as the bond between the dj, rapper and excited crowd make throw ‘yo hands in the air’screams as the fresh prince directs his dj to make the record talk by scratching. It’s dope and a proper fun recording , up there with ‘Live at the Funhouse by Run Dmc from the same era.
20 years after that legendary performance Jeff faces the youth of Limerick over a laptop and cd set up in the Trinity rooms with a whole history of  Hiphop behind him. Gone is the breaks comp that pasted ‘Apache’ with ‘Dance to the drummers beat’ instead we taste a menu serving scrolled portions of  shuddering hip hop bass with a side order of hyped vocals. Now known as a producer who nurtured the likes of Jill Scott, Jeff is still‘live’ in squares around the world still doing exactly what he did with the Prince  two decades earlier. He's still pasting the dynamic bits of one record into another while conducting the hype mans motivational rhythms to keep tonights multinational crowd swinging. 

Stand on up

Unusual and Electric vs Jay Stoner "Stand On Up" was recently picked as a record of the week on Namones show on BBC radio 6. U and E is the label run by DJ Adam who will be returning to Mickeys and Trinity Rooms this summer. Paul Tarpey has done a video up for 'stand on up'

Future Sound of Limrock

Brigadier Jcs inititive in creating an forum for electronic musicians resulting in a collection for a compilation cd has just recently finished. The final roster was healthy in terms of numbers and quality with many aspects of this wide ranging genre well represented. A panel of Limerick based music individuals including Club Djs and composers supervised the final tracklisting. As one of the panel myself I enjoyed the process of consideration by pumping the electro demos through different sound systems. The nature and character of each piece often took on different shapes when heard tinnily from a laptop or pulsing from behind a closed door from studio monitors. There were a couple of Pop tracks, some drum and bass, some ‘club’ tracks as well as some electro acoustic designed Art pieces which all delivered on their own merits.
It was heartening to see Limerick pioneer Barry Warner deliver a mix that could have been made either in the late 80s or as fresh as last week and I do hope he continues to make these singing style beats. The sparky italo flavored ‘Aurora (short mix) by the properly futuristic-ly named Phi Spiral was another one that jumped out of the speakers as did the blunted drag of Jcs own beatdown.
I hope the final selection balances the high end abstract Art pieces by the likes of  Greenwood with the poppier selections and puts Limerick in big letters on the cover as this is not a ‘Hed Kandi’,‘Fabric’ or ‘Global Underground’ compilation. It’s a diverse selection of the cities producers who are musically interested in electronic expression and while a couple of them may youthfully flag their influences, their commitment is beyond doubt. Hopefully there will be a launch for the cd and these folks will get a chance to meet each other in the flesh which is always an important thing in a small city scene. Keep an eye here soon for more info and at Mickey martins Myspace page for a taste of the beats (it recently featured Limerick house producer Karl Fortunes smooth piece of  4/4.)

Paul Tarpey