To date the Northern Ireland label has focused on the homegrown talents, and imprint bosses, of Samaan and Superior. One Electronica returns to Samaan for Merchants and Missionaries.
I don’t know what is the issue with Spanish post. Correos is, for lack of a better word, shite. The package collection process is excruciatingly long. Aged postal workers first ask names, check IDs, review and re-review collection slips before taking some ten to fifteen minutes to look through a handful of parcels to return with “No esta aqui.” Even worse; stuff gets lost, regularly. The Iberian postal service has taken particular issue with Belfast’s One Electronica. First parcel sent: lost. And it now appears the second package is performing the same disappearing act. But there are always download files, web transfers usurping the postie.
To date the Northern Ireland label has focused on the homegrown talents, and imprint bosses, of Samaan and Superior. One Electronica returns to Samaan for Merchants and Missionaries. “Hutching’s Palate” opens. The track cracks and splits under the weight of drum patterns. Melodies are the counterpoint as claps and snares crash and basslines boil. Mutated keys creep onto a caustic landscape, one parched by belligerent beats. There’s a hint of Dub in Samaan’s arrangements, an anchoring and resonating heaviness. “Merchants and Missionaries” follows, a lighter sound dawns. Hiss and mechanical feedback flash across complex beats but the tone is that bit. D’Marc Cantu has offers up his services for a remix. The artist, known for his work with Jakbeat, doesn’t disappoint. Ink is poured onto “Hutching’s Palate.” Inverted 303 chords slicken the streets, drums scouring reverbed melodies. Circles of sound draw you ever deeper into Cantu’s den, the jaws clamping down in a barrage of claps and toms.
With New Electronica I keep thinking of my own time in Northern Ireland. Belfast was, more or less, a musical back water. Electronic music was barely catered for and few artists who played in Dublin came North. Tough, even cruel, sounds from that history hardened city.
Merchants and Missionaries is available on One Electronica.
