“Everything’s on your doorstep. The strangeness of Ireland is on your doorstep.”
It’s amazing the connections you make.
As you may or may not be aware (and if not there’s a page on our website dedicated to such matters), we’re running a project called The Plastic Century, focussing on the Irish Diaspora of two particular areas: Liverpool and Slough.
There are reasons, but let’s not go into them here.
While researching for the Liverpool section -the Mersey Mash – I was introduced to the work of Telefis by Zi Lan Liao of Pagoda Arts in that fine city. There was a remix of Falon Gong Dancer with bass by her husband that she stuck on the laptop. Take a listen to this, she says.
(Look her up on Wikipedia to see how dense I was being that day, by the way. The connection you can overlook).
Anyhow, I loved the track, loved the band, found out more and that there was such a thing as Dimple Discs: a label apparently devoted to the music of the Irish and the Irish Diaspora.
Based in neither Liverpool nor Slough but that had long since ceased to be the issue.
Dimple isn’t your standard, folky look back at Spancil Hill/ten drunken night Showband/melancholy Country and Irish label – not that there’s anything wrong with those kinds of music. They’ve been rare comforts at various points in my life.
Instead this was electronica, idiosyncratic songwriting, experiment and design all on one label. Brian O’Neill, the thoughtful gently-spoken yet determined joint -founder of Dimple describes all its influences – Factory, Rough Trade, Food etc. – to create a roster of artists not only in the image of his own tastes but reflecting a higher ambition than simply putting out tracks and albums.
Dimple Discs is an art project. A project with half a foot in the past but a deeper imprint in the future: a way of looking at Ireland and the strangeness of Irishness without simply indulging in nostalgia. Creating something new out of the old.
Fashioning fresh connections from the networks of our history
Without – in Brian’s own words – wishing to sound too lofty, I like to think that The Plastic Podcasts shares a similar ambition.
So this week’s message is a simple one:
Take a listen to Brian, then seek out Dimple Discs and hear how it’s done.
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