Despite the somewhat ’90s sounding name Subaltern (which reminds me of Altern-8 though it means quite different things) deal in modern electronica. They are Alex Lawes & Sean Merrigan, two Irish guys who are really into analogue gear with a penchant for “doing everything the long way around”. They’ve been making music together for a few years and recently supported Felix Martin of Hot Chip and White Collar Boy with a live hardware/Ableton setup.
So far, they have two tunes for us, both very different from each other. The newest, ‘Ephemeral’ unlike the title suggests, is a six-minute somewhat dense synth and bleep track with some operatic vocal samples and dramatic strings. ‘Otherwise’ shifts in a different tempo more akin to Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs’ style of synth headiness.
They’re playing Electric Picnic and all which prompted this silly bio.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
