Second Square To None

Back with another installment of the Monday series with a DJ mix from VOid. A firm favourite here at SSTN, VOid has played SSTN events in the past with his dubbier sounds as Prozac. Returning to his roots with this mix VOid delivers a bruising selection of our type of techno, full of intricate textures & driving bass. Quality selection.

Taking a cue from the best of vintage nineties electronica and giving it a contemporary reworking this set by Cignol is a toe-tappingly exuberant mash of acid synths, chunky breaks and analogue bass.

Very exciting liveset here, Legion of Two recorded at SSTN7 on 20 Dec. After releasing one of the albums of the year ('Riffs' on Planet Mu) we were extremely excited to hear what they had in store live and they did not disappoint. Their sound is an immense wall of sound with grinding rhythms & dense textures that are built for live performance. It inhabits a dark world somewhere between industrial techno and noise-rock with all the visceral live impact that you expect from the superbly executed combination of live electronics and drums. We strongly advise you to check them out live but in the meantime, listen to this set and turn it up loud.

Legion of Two

The latest Irish act to get signed to The Best Electronica Label In The World, Planet-Mu, Legion of Two consist of 2 veterans of the Irish underground, Alan O'Boyle and David Lacey. Alan is best known for his work as Decal, with releases on Planet Mu and Rotters Golf Club among others, and David has played in scores of bands and is active on the improv scene in Dublin for many years. Based on that description you might expect Legion of Two to be some sort of electro jazz crossover, but this is not the case. Slow, heavy synth bass riffs collide with stoner metal drums while scorched dronetones interweave above. Epic stuff! Their album Riffs is available now from any record shop worth its salt.

Download artwork.

Thanks a million to those who came down to SSTN7 yesterday. We were blown away by all the acts and want to thank them all massively for playing.

If there are any sore heads after the weekend this set from Friction = Fire will certainly help settle them down, gorgeous downbeat, ambient electronica in the vein of Múm or Boards of Canada.

Friction = Fire
Colm's music can be described as the sounds of an insomniac dreamer. Having mostly made tunes in bed at 4am with a powerbook, big headphones and a warm lap, he hopes his tunes convey this.

Change of pace with this week's music, heavy tunes pushing the BPMs from Swarm Intelligence. Looking forward to hearing another quality set at SSTN7 on 20 Dec. This one will get your Monday moving.

[Swarm Intelligence | Universalgerät 5000]

Swarm Intelligence

Currently based in Berlin working as a music software developer Simon has been active on the music scene for a few years now, formerly running gigs with Stasis, and currently overseeing the development of a net label of the same name. As a DJ and producer Simon favours the complex end of IDM and broken techno.

http://www.stasis-records.com/

The last of our DEAF recordings sees idiosyncratic hip-hop flavours and masterful turntablism on show from Galway group Vince MackMahon. Plundering a wide-range of source material, twisting them into seemless explorations of sample contortion, Vince MackMahon finished off the gig in style.

Nice dynamic progression in this set. Big washes of synth open it, gradually shifting to thunderous analogue percussion and pulsing blips. PMC work their big analogue gear set-up to deliver the huge warm sounds you've been waiting for.

PushMoveClick are a live analogue modular group. They use three modular synths, MPC's, home-made noises boxes, synths, effects pedals, home-made touchscreen drum machine and sequencers. They start each track fresh with no set structure so anything could happen. At DEAF part of their show was based on creating a piece using random pieces of audio which were submitted to Second Square to None for our Ten Second Rule project. All the audio was processed through the modular synths and various machines. The rest of the show was then improvised with no set rules or boundaries.

This week's live set is from the guy who makes this blog (and most of the fliers and design related to sstn) look like it does, Euphiophone, joined by bassist Melesta in her debut performance. Jumping from melodic and positively cheerful to distorted and dark, a distinctly cinematic feel exists in this set: ch-ch-ch listen now!

Euphiophone & Melesta

For his live performance at DEAF he is in collaboratied with Melissa Conlon (a.k.a. Melesta), a graphic designer based in Dublin.

The second in our Ten Second Rule livesets features Fyodor tearing up the submissions using two custom made 10" vinyl dubplates. Attacking the records with extended turntablist techniques and then processing the sounds through an assortment of effects pedals and loopers, Fyodor created a cacaphonous wall of sound that thrilled the audience with its sheer physical presence.

One of the highlights for me last Sunday was sinking into a Buddha Bag after setting up and listening to Dubreak's take on the Ten Second Rule pieces. Getting the day off to the best start possible it was a big rich warm sound, full of lush synths, enveloping bass and punchy beats.

Dubreak
First influenced by music at an early age. Dubreak and his older bro used to fabricate their own type of home-made radio shows when they were wee nippers, splicing and resampling snippets off LW radio shows and talking over the recordings. He moved on to two junk-shop HI-FI decks when he was 13, in his bedroom with doubles of records and some piss-poor scratching techniques trying his hand at being a 'superstar' DJ. He soon got sick of that, and has been making his own brand of music since. Currently he uses a Moog Voyager, ProTools and a rampant collection of other music stuff. Occasionally he gets to gig at a few festivals around Ireland, and works at a few 'live-sound' venues around Dublin as a 'Live Sound' Engineer. Dubreak will be using Ableton Live's advanced looping to mix and mash the Ten Second Rule into his own style.

Recovering from big day at DEAF yesterday. Thanks a million to all who came down. More extensive post devoted to the day to follow, in the meantime let this liveset from Keith Lindsay soothe your sore head.

Keith presented an improvised laptop set based upon recorded and designed sounds used in various film sound projects he has worked on over the last year. Absorbing and atmospheric ambient sounds.

Keith Lindsay:
Keith Lindsay is a sound recordist / designer / soundtracker by day and producer of a range of styles from jungle to ambient by night.

Art by Chris.