Going DEAF again

Irelands biggest and best electronic music event kicks off today in the form of DEAF 04/05, and whilst most of DEAF (it being a festival and all) revolves around social interaction of some kind, and is therefore off limits to the hermitical freaks (such as myself) who run this place, there are still a few reasons to get excited about this if you’re in Dublin and enjoy electronic music of any genre. Despite the fact that The Fear has no involvement this year, I might just be tempted to venture out of the cave and head along to some of these gigs, and possibly make an appearance behind the decks at Ri-Ra alongside Deasy and Slug.

So what’s on that’s worth checking out? First up is Kool Keith, who’s playing tonight in The Village. World renowned for his work in the Ultramagnetic MC’s and as Dr. Octagon, Keith is the biggest (or only?) hip-hop act playing this year- so this gig should make a good warm up for the weekend of techno, electronica and drum’n’bass that’s ahead. I was also going to plug the I-F gig in Dublin’s premier electro night: ‘Electric-city’ (which is also on tonight), but it appears that Mr Ferenc felt unable to attend due to (WARNING: unsubstantiated rumour ahead!) a toothache!!!! I’m sure that Messrs Conway and Armstrong will pull something out of the bag and rescue the night though…

Friday night offers a bit more variety, with Undercurrent putting on a night of live Electro and Electronica at Soul 28, D1 launching their new Friday nighter ‘D1SCO’ at Ri-Ra, and, most temptingly, Bassbin hosting Canadian Jungilist 0=0 at their weekly Friday night: ‘Fever’ (which isn’t at ‘Traffic’ as advertised, but on the other side of the river at their usual venue: ‘Mischief’).

The big Saturday gig is ‘Filmbase’, at the ex-Arthouse in Temple Bar. This 7hr event features a host of experimental Irish producers, DJ’s, visual artists and performers, is headlined by Roger Doyle, Pamelia Kurstin and Mixmaster Morris, and is probably the closest you’ll get to the organised multi-event-in-one-venue chaos of previous DEAF mega-shows in the Guinness Storehouse.

Sunday offers us the two headlining nights this year: Starting early at 7:30, Underground resistance at the Village promises to be a techno extravaganza, the highlights of which include live performances from the UR band, Los Hermanos and Galaxy 2 Galaxy, A D1 Japanese producer showcase, and visuals from UR and Del 9. As you can tell from the line up, this should turn out to be a fairly unique and spectacular event, and an obvious must for techno fans. Sunday also sees another drum’n’bass session in the form of Bassbin in Traffic, with Goldie on the decks and Irish Jungilists Beta 2 and Rohan supporting.

As well as all of the above, there’s also DJ’s playing all weekend in The Globe, and a whole bunch of other events on in venues round the city. If you want to check out any of the artists involved in this years festival, you can head on over to the audio page of the DEAF site, and download/stream some of their tunes, including a jungle epic from our very own Naphta, there’s also bios on the artists, and more info on all the events…

STOP PRESS: Anyone out there happen to video-tape the segment about DEAF on TV3 news at 5 last Wednesday? Apparently it was dominated by shots of my ugly mug at The Fear gig we did last year as part of DEAF's summer 'Diversions' season which featured a free outdoor gig with myself and Slug, Deasy, Ambulance, and Pixelcorps on the visuals. Id love to see a copy if anyone has it. The TV3 website is no help of course...