Music
A bunch of tunes from over the years
(ALBUM - DIGITAL)
VIOLENT IDIOTS AND GENTLE DREAMERS
ERIC NEEDS TO KNOW
RELEASED OCTOBER 2022
This is my latest album 'Violent Idiots And Gentle Dreamers'.
It's a collection of tracks that have been produced during 2022 (all except for Saucepan Fech which was produced nearly 20 years ago!)
The title of the album is recognising that there are a lot of violent idiots around currently, who either don't want to take time to consider a brighter future, or are too selfish to approach it with anything other than greed & violence .. and on the other hand a lot of gentle people, dreaming, hoping and attempting to live better lives .. but there is only so far gentle dreamers go before the violent idiots get their comeuppance .. and that day is approaching!
You can check it out on Bandcamp & on other music streaming platforms from November 22 onwards.
(SINGLE - DIGITAL)
MABON
ERIC NEEDS TO KNOW
RELEASED SEPTEMBER 2022
The Ogham Grove was a large scale art project that I worked on with a bunch of folks in 2021, which was the centre piece for Culture Night in Belfast.
I wanted to build on that with a series of 'artist offerings' for the eight Fire Festivals that take place during the year to celebrate solstice & equinox events.
I've been doing different offerings from spraying the Ogham Grove logo around the creative areas of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter to large beach artworks.
For the Autumn Equinox, also known as Mabon in some parts of the worlds, I produced this track to celebrate, and it was released on 23rd September 2022.
You can check it out on Bandcamp.
This is a selection of my latest tunes, from techno to abstract & downtempo, including the piece of music that I composed for the Mabon Fire Festival as part of the Ogham Grove project, and for the album 'Violent Idiots And Gentle Dreamers'.
(ALBUM - DIGITAL)
THE OGHAM GROVE
ERIC NEEDS TO KNOW
PRODUCED FOR CULTURE NIGHT PRESENTS THE OGHAM GROVE
SEPTEMBER 2021
The concept for The Ogham Grove takes inspiration from the ancient Celtic Ogham Tree Alphabet. Trees were of great importance to the Celts of ancient Ireland, and not only provided shelter and sustenance but were sources of magic and power. The word 'Druid' itself comes from the Celtic name for the oak - 'duir', and these Druids understood the patterns of the world around us and above us, and also the importance of living in harmony with it so that it would look after us.
There are 4 cycles across the year: INCREASE, DECAY, REBIRTH and RENEWAL.
There are important solstices and equinoxes with these cycles and at the boundary of each phase, tied to the solar cycle. This album ebbs and flows, builds and drops, and has lighter and darker elements as it goes through the 4 cycles. The album was specifically produced for this large-scale installation event that took place for Culture Night Belfast in September 2021.
You can hear the whole album on Bandcamp.
(ALBUM - DIGITAL & COLLECTOR EDITION CD)
AT A KALAMAZOO NEAR YOU
MEN IN SPEEDOS
RELEASED MAY 2002
In our truly insane world, with our faith in leaders who hold money & power above morals and lives, we should value that which is the Kalamazoo.
Kalamazoo … the word is smooth, rhythmic, & almost musical.
A Potawatomi Native American, named Fleet Foot was set a task to win his bride; he had to successfully run from the settlement to a point on the river and back, before the water, then heating in a pot, boiled away. What he saw in the water was a mirage of things to come, and this is the Kalamazoo. We should take heed and look at what is potentially to come.
After listening to the album, you might well think what relevance does this have to it … absolutely none whatsoever, but it sounds nice, and it’s a nice story!
The album is in the usual vein of samples, mixed up with tracks, and this time in a slightly more coherent story, of a weekend trip in Amsterdam … although it wasn’t too coherent at the time.
The tracks kinda fit in a description of laid back, dubby, funky, electronica.
May the kalamazoo near you be open 24 hours a day.
You can play it here or listen to it on Bandcamp.
This Men In Speedos album, 'We Have Moved Beside Neptune Fish Shop', was our usual mish mash of samples, downtempo, ambient and techno. We released it alongside our Kickstarter campaign for The Beat Hotel, and the name of the album came from a message that was spray-painted on a shopfront down the road from us.
I made this track the day that Bob Moog died, and it features a few sounds of him making moog sounds to explain what it did. RIP Bob & thanks for all the bleeps & squeaks.
This selection of tracks were some of our earliest tracks as Men In Speedos, that we thought we had lost. We remastered them & then added in our John Peel phone call recording at the end. He had phone us to let us know he was going to play one of our tracks on his show, but I was on holiday so he left a message on my answering machine .. back in the day when we had an actual tape-recording answer machine. Shame we didn't get to chat but he did play our tune, and I got to say thanks in person at Sonar in Barcelona a year later.
Us, making noise, with Belfast-based Gaffer making more noise on top. Kinda works.
I was pulling together a transmedia project called E8, based on a theory by Garrett Lisi, and found it quite an amazing possible theory to everything! So laid down this ambienty trancey track with this explanation over the top.
A dark jaunt with Bill.
Just an ambient 90 second stroll.
Techno Addict is the final song from the album 'We Have Moved Beside Neptune Fish Shop'
Red Label Records Promotional Materials
These are some of the pieces I produced over the time of running Red Label Records, putting music out there, producing audio across game prototypes, promotional videos, and films.
