Events

After a very successful launch night in April with Wave Form the White Noise cannot wait to return on June 22nd with techno legend Phil Kieran.

Phil Kieran has been in the upper echelons of the electronic music game for more than a decade. Phil is known for rocking clubs and releasing strings of killer twelves, Belfast-based Phil hooked up with German powerhouse Sven Väth’s Cocoon. His album SHH was groundbreaking piece of work that gained Phil plaudits across the board.

Shh seemed to not only reference every sound Phil has ever loved in music, but is formulated in a completely fresh and futuristic way. Listen carefully and you can detect elements of dub reggae, old hardcore like LFO, hip-hop, early 90s electronica such as Autechre/Black Dog and other Warp staples, as well as the futuristic techno that Phil excels in. For the album Phil went back to old sound lab recordings dating back to the 1950s and 60s. Utilising some of these sounds in the initial construction, he built up tracks using a combination of old samples sourced from original and weird places and some live new instrumentation as well. There are live drums, some electric/acoustic/bass guitar and live keyboard playing as well as some choice guest vocalists.

“I tried to use all my knowledge from when I first got into music to try and make an album that captures everything I’ve ever loved about music,” Phil says.

Phil has synthesized his myriad of influences into one radically beautiful whole: blissed-out vocal samples, space age electro, cavernous bleeps, fizzy technoid 4/4 beats, glistening glitches, crackers crackles, early R&S sounds, warm keys, acerbic bassline undertows, dense echoes, Orbital cinematics and randy robotics all feature, but really this is an album far greater than the sum of its parts. It’s very much a home or car listening album, perfect for post-club play, although plenty of the individual tracks contain discerning dancefloor dynamics too. This style is also the blueprint for his own inprint Phil Kieran Recordings.

Cutting his clubbing teeth at Shine in Belfast, Phil now has over 100 dancefloor releases to his name on quality labels like Skint, Soma, Electric Deluxe Cocoon and NovaMute, and is widely respected throughout the industry among the technoscenti. He’s involved himself in movie scoring, creating the soundtrack for Steven Soderbergh film The Girlfriend Experience with fellow Irish compatriot David Holmes. To exorcise some demons a few years ago he created a live techno punk band Alloy Mental, variously melding Joy Division basslines onto pummeling punky T.Raumschmiere-style technoid power-drivers.

He also has an impeccable DJ reputation that’s won him top 20 placings in DJ magazine’s global 100 DJs poll, plus regular features and reviews in all the major magazines is a guarantee to promoters that he’ll inevitably rock the joint to its foundations.

Phil has recently released on Cocoon, Snork Enterprises, Electric Deluxe and Gigolo. He has also found the time to program his own imprint Phil Kieran Recordings, which launched with the re-release of his immortal dancefloor destroyer ‘Skyhook’. For this release Phil drafted in some of his friends to do remixes and featured artists including Adam Beyer, Jesper Dahlback, Scuba, SCB, Ricardo Tobar and Green Velvet. Second release Carrousel featured Wesley Matsell and Egbert, releases are scheduled all the way upto the labels 10th release with a compilation best of coming soon. He has also completed a remix on MUTE records for Depeche Mode.
Phil has also tentatively started work on his Second Studio Album as yet untitled, one of the first tracks completed includes a collab with Peter Hook of Joy Division fame. In the meantime his Rework of a Gary Numan’s classic ‘I cant stop’ has been released on his own inprint and Phil has continued to put out quaility Techno with the new dancefloor destroyer and top seller Free Yourself with his long time friend Green Velvet. His recent re-release of Juicy has hit the top ten again on the Beatport techno charts. The second collab single with Green Velvet ‘Micheal Jackson’ will be out before the end of the year

Phil is happy to have joined Jochem Paap’s Electric Deluxe with his label debut empty vessels being one of the highest selling releases of 2010/11, his new project workshops with Speedy J has had its first release with Workshops Vol1. The idea behind it is to explore the recording techniques used in the middle of the 20th century and dating right back to the mid 1950's. 
Famous places like the BBC workshops in England and the Philips Lab set up in Holland which saw some of the most innovative production techniques, experimenting with the first use of stereo, modular synths and reels of tape. The end result was always something space age and promising futuristic and still to this day sounding crisp and exciting.
Phil Kieran and Jochem Paap have decided to use this as inspiration to effortlessly accomplish an innovative mix of old ideas with new. Collaboration and exploration is the key here and it doesnt stop with workshops Kieran is also working on new material with Peter Hook [joy division], Ben Klock, Xhin, Boxcutter, Green Velvet and many many more. Phil is also about to head back over to Australia to tour with Thick as Theives.