Automatic Tasty creates accomplished analogue pieces with an arsenal of hardware. Warm and textured chords and clever beats are coupled with throwbacks to a burgeoning computer age. EOD recalls drill and bass with his frenetic, video game, inspired productions. BPMs come and go, with the Norwegian man toying with structures to produce his spirited sound.
I recently mentioned a resurgence in Braindance, the music genre created to describe Rephlex’s specialised output. Two artists that are central in this retrospect are EOD and Automatic Tasty.
Now Automatic Tasty is a rarity, an Irish electronic artist. Before objections flow, there is a small electronic scene in the Sod. Labels like Psychonavigation have encouraged homegrown talent, as has Lunar Disko . But Ireland has always been low on electronic output. Automatic Tasty is bucking this trend. The Wicklow based artist first came to the fore on Belfast’s Acroplane and has since set up home on Lunar Disko with two 12” releases. Now the Leinster man is taking a trip abroad, being picked up for a tape cassette album, Speech and Silence, on America’s Wil-Ru. The ten tracker gets underway with some squelching subdued acid. Dillon weaves plinky bleeps around broad Roland sounds. Aphex Twin is a lazy analogy, but Dillon’s sound is steeped in the Braindance tradition. “Talking At Right Angles” even appears to have samples from AFX’s “Cuckoo.” But it isn’t that Dillon is replicating the Irish born Cornwell man, instead Automatic Tasty utilises such aural memories and molds his music from them. Beside squirrelly acid pieces sit wonderfully complex pieces of electronics, such as “I Seen You Through a Crowd” or “Suantri Suaimhnach.” There’s an innocence to Dillon’s sounds, boyishly dropping in echoes of House and Techno but adding a lightness to these sometimes heavy sounds. This impish manner is reflected in his lengthy titles, such as “Johnny Dillon (Happy Autumn Drinking with Friends).” Throughout there is a rooting in the late 90s and early 00s of Braindance, such as the Analord series. But there is elements of Plaid, Skanfrom and the some of the softer sounds of German electronics in here too. Warm, richly analogue and an album to compliment the (now) sunny skies; leictreonaic deas.
EOD has quite a similar history to Dillon. After establishing himself as an MP3 artist, he was picked up by 030303 for his debut vinyl EP Utrecht. With the success of his first physical, EOD returns to releasing with a 12” on Wil-Ru. Questionmarks is broken into six tracks. The opener rolls the sounds of drill’n bass with a compufied acid line. Fast beats, 140 plus BPM, and a playful quality bleed into the second piece. EOD works like a wild eyed kid, throwing up counter rhythms across acid lines. The tempo is tamed for “Questionmark 3,” a wonderful melodic piece of Rephlex electronics. Bochum Welt with an extra bit of muscle. The flip opens with a Squarepusher retrospective, similar in style to some of the sounds of Feed Me Weird Things. The 303 returns with some C64 video game moments. Speedy acid lines, coupled with some lush analogue chords, is the formula for Questionmarks; with EOD emphasising this in the final installment.
Nostalgia is part of both of these releases. I grew up on Braindance, sucked it down like Coca-Cola. It seems like Automatic Tasty and EOD did the same. But this isn’t primitive pastiche, this is a backward glance and a reassessment. Automatic Tasty creates accomplished analogue pieces with an arsenal of hardware. Warm and textured chords and clever beats are coupled with throwbacks to a burgeoning computer age. EOD recalls drill and bass with his frenetic, video game, inspired productions. BPMs come and go, with the Norwegian man toying with structures to produce his spirited sound. Two superb releases from a label whose output is ever expanding.
Both releases are available on Wil-Ru.
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