Based in the Irish district of West Kerry, Cian O Ciobhain has presented his An Taobh Tuathail (Gaelic for “The Other Side’) radio show weeknights from 11pm-1am on RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta/ANOCHT FM since early 1999, with the distinct focus falling upon downbeat electronic music sourced from all around the world. This inaugural compilation release through Dublin label PsychoNavigation was apparently inspired by repeated requests from Ciobhain’s listeners for tracks that he’d played on the show, and in many senses aims to provide a taste of a typical An Taobh Tuathail session. While Ciobhain’s radio sets coming up to the weekend apparently veer more towards underground electro/techno, An Taobh Tuthail Volume 1 focuses more on the comparatively quieter tracks he plays towards the start of the week. While the 12 tracks collected together on this disc stick close to the lower BPMs, one of the first things that impresses is the sheer diversity of approach displayed by the featured artists, no doubt a reflection of Ciobhain’s own eclectic programming selections.
The better-known names here surface towards the first half of the tracklisting, with Felix Laband’s IDM-kissed “Down The Stairs’ kicking things off with one of the South African producer’s more stripped-down offerings in recent memory, sending fluttering minimalist kickdrums pulsing beneath a wash of repetitively coursing glitchy electronics and the distant menacing sizzle of what sounds like a Tesla coil discharging, before Ariel Pink takes things off on a characteristically ramshackle-sounding psychedelic pop tip with the catchy strummed hooks of “Every Night I Die At Miyagi” (for some curious reason I hear echoes of early nineties feel-good US college radio pop along the lines of Gin Blossoms and The Rembrants as much as the usual more avante/alt. touchstones there – not as bad a thing as it might first sound).
Irish group Cane 141 inject a dose of fractured blip-hop with the contorted Prefuse-meets-Dabrye MPC beats and booming bass drops of “Sticky Lips’, though the established momentum suffers from the slightly generic vocoder chorus that follows, before Leaf label duo Phelan Sheppard usher in the predominantly acoustic/folk-tinged second half of the tracklisting with the delicately chiming guitars, gentle female vocal harmonies and rich strings of “Weaving Song’, the electronics receding down to just stray textural traces as the lush arrangements take the forefront. The two contributions here from local Galway artists Beatpoet and Heftord are certainly indicative of the predominant mood that brings this eclectic collection to a close, with “Tao’ forging a curious blend of melancholic accordians and flickering IDM rhythms that manages to generate plenty of poignant atmosphere via some deftly placed bass chords, before “Separation’ ushers in seven minutes of ominous Central European-sounding orchestration and relentlessly punching, trip-hop styled beats.
An Taobh Tuathail Volume 1 provides a suitably wide-ranging intro to the more downbeat end of Ciobhain’s radio sets that also manages to expose the work of a number of lesser-known Irish artists alongside a slew of more immediately recognisable names. Its extremely eclectic nature may prove to be something of a blessing or a curse, depending on the listener; however, given the considerable stylistic jumps on board, with the second half most likely to appeal most to those with a taste for more chilled, folk/acoustic-tinged electronics.
Chris Downton
