Do you find dance and techno tiring? A frustrating experience of a music which promised so much innovation in 1988 and has often never delivered on that promise? Or are you just plain fed up of the ‘thump, thump, thump’ that constitutes a lot of dance music?
If your answer to all or any of these questions is ‘Yes’, then prepare to have your faith restored, ears opened, feet moving, and mind engaged as two exciting dance based acts - The 16 Bit Lolitas and Fujiya and Miyagi - are heading to Galway.
Those who crave dance that is driven by a passion for music, a desire to keep the ears stimulated and not just the feet, and those who appreciate good music played by skilled musicians, DJs, and producers, will have much to enjoy when these two acts hit town over the next week and a half.
16 Bit Lolitas @ GPO
Holland’s The 16 Bit Lolitas play the GPO, Eglinton Street on Saturday at 11pm.
The men behind the Lolitas are Amsterdam’s Peter Kriek and Ariaan Olieroock. As soon as they joined forces in 2003, they quickly produced a wave of releases for labels like Yoshitoshi, Alternative Route, Plastic Fantastic, Nu Republic, and LMR.
A hectic three years has propelled the boys into the spotlight where their crisp creations have carved out a sound that is both cool and sophisticated. Indeed their music is regarded as being aimed at the ‘thinking clubber’
Peter and Ariaan create electronic music which has been patiently crafted and produced with emotion as well as technical proficiency. Shimmering bass lines are devised to test the limits of the world’s sound systems to the max, compressed kicks that rarely exceed 128 BPM with sparkling hi-hats sprinkled on top. On many tracks, hints of vocals sway in and out of the mix and the subtle loops build tension in a way that defies the producers’ relatively young ages.
The 16 Bit Lolitas play at almost all of the festivals and big club venues both domestically and internationally, they have headlined at Crobar in New York and the Space terrace in Miami. Sellout gigs in Argentina and Budapest and a show for Bedrock’s birthday bash in London, have seen their reputation rise.
Admission is €10/8. For more information contact the GPO on 091 - 563073 or go to www.gpo.ie Fujiya and Miyagi @ Róisín Dubh
Their name makes them sound like a Japanese pop duo but Fujiya and Miyagi are in fact an electronic dance trio from Brighton who play Strange Brew in the Róisín Dubh on Thursday September 18 at 8pm. So what can Galway audiences expect on the night?
Fujiya & Miyagi are mask-wearing technicians dissecting music, keen to magnify particles of sound to create a pulsing antidote to the ordinary. They speak in tongues, using language as a rhythm, picking words that sound good, rhyming ‘jigsaws’ with ‘carnivores’.
However their influences are not all techno and electronic as their music resonates with the influences of German 1970s rock, deep soul, early Human League, and the grooves of Talking Heads off-shoot Tom Tom Club - as can be experienced on their new album Lightbulbs (Full Time Hobby ).
The trio - David Best (guitars and vocals ), Steve Lewis (synths, beats, programming ), and Matt Hainsby (bass ) - commendably stay away from lyrical themes that have been done to death. Using old synths to punctuate their beautifully-observed anecdotes on romantic triumphs and disasters, heroes and villains and the world at large, their rhythms palpitate to produce modern symphonies like no-one else.
In short, they sound like a bit of every genre condensed into three minute chunks of infectious pop music, a strange hybrid of James Brown on Valium and Wire gone pop. Or maybe Serge Gainsbourg with a PhD in electronics backed by David Byrne’s Eno-produced scratchy guitar mixed by MF Doom. It’s Darwinism gone mad!
Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh, Zhivago, and Redlight Records.
