Feelin’ it…

Greetings folks, along with Jitterbug I’m new to ISM and hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with the quality that’s gone before on here. So without further ado here’s my first post, on one of my favourite producers at the moment, John Daly (that’s him above, not me!).

The city of Cork in Ireland has long been synonymous with deep house, ever since the now legendary Sir Henry’s club kicked off in the late eighties/early nineties. Henry’s closed its doors in the earlier part of this decade, not long after its most famous night “Sweat” – helmed by Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson aka Fish Go Deep – had finished its 13yr long run, but the sound has never lost it’s following in the city. So, maybe it comes as no surprise that Ireland’s finest export of the deep sound, John Daly, hails from there. But credit to John, he has not once played up this association in anyway since he snuck out his first couple of releases, Birds and Solaris, on his own Feel Music imprint in 2006. I remember these releases selling really well down in Cork even though no one actually knew they were from John, who would have been recognizable to most record buyers down there as he worked behind the counter in the city’s main vinyl emporium, Plugd Records.

Since these 2 releases John has continued in a similar fashion, releasing gem after gem with little or no fanfare on his behalf, but over the last year many others have sat up and taken notice, including Francois K who has released two Eps of his on Wave. While his music is typically pitched as deep house, it somewhat simplifies the scope and dimensions of his sound. Ambient, techno, disco and funk play as much an important part as any house, and like many of the best producers genres kinda get flung out the window. At the end of last year Move showed that he could turn his hand to some pretty epic cosmic disco. Its wistful theramin hook and longing synths coupled with the simplest of bass-lines created one of those tracks that would go down just as well on a sunny summers eve as early morning inside a darkened club. On a recent trip to Berlin myself and a friend were talking about how it would be the perfect track to hear coming out of the system at 7am, after a hard night on it (as we wouldn’t have the privilege to be in this situation in good old Ireland, with its archaic licensing laws) but sadly this never transpired. If there was a more perfectly put together piece of dance music released last year, I didn’t hear it!

While comparisons to Moodymann being bandied about may seem that bit far-fetched, it’s not hard to hear where people are coming from. He may not hold the enigmatic status of Dixon Jr but his loose, rolling bass-lines definitely owe more than a little to KDJ. There was a discussion on here not too long ago about the power of melancholic sounds in house and techno and the same can be said for a lot of John’s tracks. This is deep, emotional music that you’re not gonna forget quickly.

These days we seem to be dealing with so much music that sounds old and withered six months after it comes out; we all know the disposable garbage I’m talking about. So it’s always exciting to come across work that is deserved of the description timeless. Two more recent releases on Plak and IRR – Full Circle and Solitaire respectively – are keeping John’s reputation rising and rising, so don’t sit on this, check it out now.

Also John keeps his own blog, postings are very sparse on it but if you scroll down to the bottom you can find a nice mix of his featuring the likes of Redshape, Sun Ra and Desmond Childs…