PolyDROID is a Dublin based electronic music artist who has followed L’Avenir as the second musician to release on a new Barcelona based label: Cold Beats.
I was recently flicking through some Top 50 Irish albums compiled by an Irish radio guy for Red Bull’s Music Academy. Now I know next to nothing about Irish music but the draw of a list, another list—any lists about?—can be too much to resist. To anything but my amazement I knew about three names in the fifty, but one name did stand-out as something that might be electronic. Two days later said this stand-out name arrived in the post. PolyDROID is a Dublin based electronic music artist who has followed L’Avenir as the second musician to release on a new Barcelona based label: Cold Beats.
Dublin’s Brian O Malley is a synth obsessive who describes his sound as an “Electronic Tonic to quench your synth thirsts.” I’m not too sure about the website quote, but his debut Machines of Pure and Loving Grace is a breath of fresh analogue air. With his arsenal of vintage Roland, Sequential Circuits and Korg synthesizers Malley has developed a wonderfully warm and engaging sound. The Irish man blends styles, utilising moments of Electro with soundtrack sentiment to produce rich and textured tracks. The compuphonic plinks and plonks of Bochum Welt are married with the haunting chords of John Carpenter. Tracks like “Ode to an Android” are pure Blade Runner opening credits and truly breathtaking. O Malley paints in delicate hues. Fragile bars sweeping across cold sci-fi skyline bolstered by vocodors and snapping Electro beats for “You are Transparent.” An incredible first entry from the Irishman.
Before PolyDROID Cold Beats set their label on the synthesizer sea with L’Avenir. Curiously, inspecting the CD, Jason Sloan comes from the same equipment fetishist line as PolyDROID; a litany of desirable music machines being employed to create The Wait. Yet, the US artist and the Irishman’s sound are quite different. A colder wind curls through L’Avenir’s chords, Synth Wave being the style explored. From the beginning beats and synths coil around hollowed vocals. Immediate comparisons would come from the Wierd Records camp and artists like Martial Canterel or Automelodi. Vocals are central, emotion stripped to the extent that sadness is all pervasive, tracks like “Breathe” and the “The Day Is Over” aching with an almost beatless sorrow. Other tracks have that quickened Minimal Synth pace, “And Over Again” cracking with mechanical percussion whilst “In The Distance” clatters with a cacophony of beats. From start to finish L’Avenir has created dark and compelling tracks, works of eclipsed electronics with a remoulded New Wave slant.
It’s great to discover new artists. I’m always looking out for new labels and musicians, but usually under my own steam. L’Avenir and PolyDROID arrived almost surreptitiously, and I’m glad they did. Two excellent albums from two talented men. I’m especially pleased to see a new Irish artist enter the burgeoning scene on the Emerald Isle and hope to catch a live set from him in Dublin some time soon. Likewise, L’Avenir is a new name for the Synth Wave scene with his moody lyrics and heartfelt melodies . Only thing missing, vinyl. Hard for a new imprint to start off in wax but it would be great to see both albums available as LPs in the future.
Machines of Pure and Loving Grace and The Wait are available on Cold Beats.
