Dublin-based electronic producer and songwriter Gemma Dunleavy has taken a brief respite from her recent flurry of releases and features as well as a Boiler Room appearance to bring us I Was Never Young But I’m Not Old Yet, an audio-visual art piece.
Landing somewhere between beat poetry and ambient, musically speaking, the overtly political phrasing behind this song is reinforced by the video which accompanies it. Shot in one of the old inner city apartment blocks, the drab cityscape backgrounds are contrasted with the pinks and pastel oranges of the women who feature in the video.
The end result is a captivating piece of art. One which is both visually and lyrically inspirational.
The video is directed by Laragh McCann and DOP was Albert Hooi.
Dublin singer Gemma Dunleavy continues her collaboration with UK producer Murlo on two songs on his Club Coil EP. She’s a nice foil for his clubby electronic productions.
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In the recent past, Gemma Dunleavy has sung vocals on tracks from White Collar Boy, Murli, UNKNWN and performed on the Boiler Room which is how her next collaborator found her.
For her first release of the year with UK producer Ziro she adds some soulful texture to a cold-fused bass track ‘Surrender’:
The event will feature Glacial Sound, a small label and sets from Belfast producer Bloom, Carlow Shriekin’, the long standing warrior Major Grave & a live PA from Gemma Dunleavy. It’s an odd first event but could be interesting to se it. It’ll take place on Thursday May 28th, most likely in Hangar courtesy of The Building Society.
Here’s the blurb:
Grime and Ireland are two nouns that are rarely uttered in the same breath. For many years, grime was a tale solely narrated by London inner city heads before eventually spreading into the Midlands and beyond. At first glance, it may seem like Dublin doesn’t share a lot with those places. Yet dig a little deeper and you’ll find the parallels. The geography may not be the same, but the emotional ties and outright feelings couldn’t be closer.
It’s only natural that our maiden trod on Irish turf is then in celebration of a micro scene – continuing our attempt to provide an entry point into the music we’re most excited about.
Glacial Sound are a label from the Irish capital, thought up by Paul Purcell from Mullingar and one of the finest outlets for innovative new eskibeat. Born out of a radio slot on Play FM and a fascination with Channel U, their debut release was a full-blooded grimy affair from Rabit. Now four projects deep – including Logos’ white label bonanza and the unforgettable Riko and Rabit special “Black Dragons” respectively – the next step is an EP from Alabama-based Sharp Veins.
Paul will be inviting some of the extended GS family into a suitably dark and intimate bunker on May 28. He’ll be joined by fellow Dublin resident, Major Grave, who has cobbled together remixes for the likes of DJ Q and Shriekin on Local Action and featured on Big Dada’s Grime 2.0 comp — all while juggling a weekly Standard radio show on Raidio ó na Life (Dublin’s Irish language FM radio station). Gemma Dunleavy’s vocals will be familiar if you’ve wrapped your ears around Murlo’s Jasmine EP from January just gone. She’ll be bringing the dancehall-tinged delights of the title track and more into a live PA. Carlow’s Shriekin will flaunt his glossy, hi-def take on sublow – showcasing the skills that forced Local Action to release Gold & Featherwork EP or regret their loss. Finally, from Belfast comes Bloom, whose “Quartz” track is regularly regarded as one of the most important jams of 2012. Since then there’ve been stellar drops on Visionist’s Lost Codes label and the Hydraulics EP on Crazylegs last November.
The English producer Murlo (not to be confused with Rusangano Family’s Murli), has a new two-track EP called Jasmine coming out next week.
Gemma Dunleavy features on the two tracks. The Irish singer was recently one-half of UNKNWN until they split and before that appeared occasionally with White Collar Boy and Clu as a vocalist, so her appearance here has form.
Where her vocals were woven into the atmospheres of UNKNWN’s music, with Murlo, Dunleavy is the leader, delivering two soulful vocals with a pop edge over two songs that are anything but. ‘Deep Breath’ has a synth-string sinogrime style while the title track has a dancehall grime vibe to it.
