POSTS TAGGED : Monto

2015 According to SertOne

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One of my proudest achievements on the blog this year, or any year for that matter, is the release of GruffWuff; a 19 track compilation of new, previously unreleased and exclusive recordings from some of my very favourite acts over the past 5 years of blogging.

It was a truly fantastic way to mark 5 years of BarryGruff and I am incredibly grateful to everyone involved and the overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic response. As 2015 draws to a close, I have enlisted help from people who made the compilation what it was, to chat about their favourite moments and sounds from year, and up next is SertOne.

Liverpool-based Irish producer SertOne has been one of Ireland’s finest producers for some time. Always fresh, original, innovative and thoroughly enjoyable, and that’s the way we like it. It’s splendidly slick and riveting beat music, indebted to Hip Hop as much as the electronic side of production. Layered warm textures meet twitchy percussion and rhythms, stabs of synth for a wholly irresistible listen. A class act. No doubt about it.

Before we take a look at his 2015 sound selections, you should check out SertOne’s superb back catalogue here and his GruffWuff inclusion, ‘Seventeen’ – of which you can download here for FREE.

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Fly High Society’s ‘Fly Thai Green EP’

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Fly High Society – a collective of DJs, producers and artists predominantly based across the UK & Europe – have put together an EP, Fly Thai Green.

A homage to Mary Jane, it was fittingly released last Monday, for 4/20. Featuring cuts from Bolts, Monto, Igloohost, and Tre’bore (along with guest appearances from some of your favourite screen dealers – including Moz from Ideal), the EP is simply sublime. The pick of the bunch (for me) is Bolts’ inclusion, ‘Beginning’, with its patted bongos, click-clacking percussion, perfect bass and eastern strings exuding an aura of supreme, smooth coolness. A blazing 20 minute offering their signature ‘bass, beats and bleeps’, as well as slick samples and ethnic-inspired beats, it is perfect chill-out soundtrack. Magnificent!

The EP is available for purchase (here) as a limited edition cassette, coupled with a download & sticker pack. Plus all UK purchases also come with a complimentary Fly High Society lighter. Check it out below.

Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 Track Compilation Album [Out Now]

So, the day has finally arrived; ‘GruffWuff‘ is out now!

I’ve been itching to share this with everyone and I very, happy this day has finally arrived. The past five years have been very interesting and for the most part, ever so much fun. I think this is a pretty special way to mark the occasion and I really hope you all enjoy the compilation as much as I do. Initially I thought an idea such as this was just a pipe dream and one that would remain just that. However, the enthusiasm that met my initial inquiries bowled me over, I couldn’t believe how eager everyone was. It is something that’ll stay with me forever and it means an awful lot. Hopefully it will shine a light, brief as it maybe on some of the acts that have brought me the most joy over the past few years.

Thanks to Stevie for all his assistance, Caroline for all her support and putting up with me, Peter Lee for mastering & all the artists who provided tracks for the compilation. A huge amount of credit must go to the artists involved for their eagerness and the ever so brilliant music.

So, to mark 5 years of BarryGruff, here is ‘GruffWuff’; a 19 track compilation of new, previously unreleased and exclusive recordings from some of my very favourite acts over the past 5 years of blogging. There is an act by act guide after the jump, I really hope everyone enjoys this as much as we did putting it together.

It’s yours now, just ‘name your price’ – which includes zero, so technically it’s free.

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Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 Track Compilation Album

GRUFFWUFF Final

BarryGruff is 5 years old today!

Those five years have been interesting and fun. The blog has ebbed and flowed in parallel with my own life which has moved on somewhat from where it was back in March 2010. Since my early teens spouting about music has always been part and parcel of my life but I’m very grateful to have been in a position to share those musings and whatnot with a wider audience than my mates (or whoever is willing to listen).

Blogging has become quite a big part of my life and while listening to and discovering new music etc. is something that comes rather natural, a lot of my free time is devoted to the upkeep of the blog and how much longer I can continue to do so is anyone’s guess. It might be one year or another five, who knows? So with that in mind I really wanted to do something really special to mark the occasion and I’m pretty damn chuffed with this one.

Without further a do, to celebrate 5 years of BarryGruff is ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 track compilation of new, previously unreleased and exclusive recordings from some of my very favourite acts over the past 5 years of blogging. While I initially thought it was just a pipe dream and one that would remain just that, the enthusiasm that met my initial inquiries bowled me over, I couldn’t believe how eager everyone was. It is something that’ll stay with me forever and it means an awful lot. Hopefully it will shine a light, brief as it maybe on some of the acts that have brought me the most joy over the past few years. The enjoyment music brings me can’t be overstated, be it happy times or sad times, there’s one constant; music.

Thanks to Stevie for all his assistance, Caroline for putting up with me, Peter Lee for mastering & all the artists who provided tracks for the compilation. A huge amount of credit must go to the artists involved for their eagerness and the ever so brilliant music.

‘GruffWuff’ will be released through Bandcamp on Thursday, March 19th and the tracklisting is below for your perusal. I’m really, really excited for people to finally hear what everyone’s been working away on for the past 9 months.

Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’:

01. Fold – ‘Where Are You’

02. Oh Boland – ‘White Boy’

03. Seazoo – ‘DIG (Demo Version)’

04. Mr Huw – ‘Bai Neb Ond Fy Hun’

05. Dan Amor – ‘Can’t Sleep’

06. Oisin McCole – ‘Far From The Sea’

07. Anderson – ‘The Way The Stream Flows’

08. Knoxville Morning – ‘Bridget’

09. Nathan Conway – ‘Babycheeno’

10. Disconcerting P – ‘Treated You Rough’

11. The Expert – ‘Swapsies’

12. SertOne – ‘Seventeen’

13. Imploded View – ‘Barry’s Game’

14. Channel Swimmer – ‘Racket’

15. Monto – ‘Yeuh’

16. Open Window – ‘003 (Africa)’

17. Captain Moonlight – ‘What is Property?’

18. GEM_DOS – ‘Mag D’Allen’

19. Hippies Vs Ghosts – ‘Three Shadows’

 

Monto – ‘Novemburrrr’

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Not quite sure why but it seems like an age since we’ve heard anything from Monto, well, until September that is. After a bit of a break the Wickow producer returned with a series of new tunes as a freebie EP, aptly called September.

Since then he’s been sharing new tunes on his soundcloud page, culminating with his new three track EP, Novemburrrr (aptly titled once again). The three track EP is quite heavily indebted to hip-hop, the beats in particular, as we’re taken on a tranquil head-nodding wander through rich and celestial sounds. ‘Möbius // Stripped’ kicks off this groove in style before making way for the pick of the pile, ‘Worlds Apart’. It is an uplifting and sparkling headnodder, fusing a rich blend of hip-hop beats, samples and a little bit of funk, before setting them to dance somewhere above the clouds. The fresh, feel-good vibe is kept alive to the end with short but sweet funked-up curtain closer, ‘NEED-ASSISTANCE’. An utterly fantastic three track collection from Monto, doing what he does best; making top notch tunes.

You can give ‘Worlds Apart’ the once over below and if that is to your liking, why not pop over here and download Novemburrrr? It’s free don’t you know.

Best of 2012: w/ Imploded View

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It’s that time of year when every music website, publication and blog (including this one) are busy compiling end of year lists. This time around, I thought I’d shift the focus to the bands and artist’s who’ve played a ‘BarryGruff Presents’ show this year and ask them for their ‘favourite album of 2012′, ‘favourite song of 2012′ & ‘favourite Irish song of the year’.

Enough chat from me, here’s Jerome aka Imploded View and his picks from the year that was 2012.

Best album of 2012: Nathan Fake – ‘Steam Days’

Beneath the bubbling and crackling yet driving percussion sounds, lie understated warbling synth melodies which are dripping with nostalgia and melancholy. Detuned analogue sounding leads which I love make this an album which nothing else quite matched in 2012.

Best song of 2012: Burial – ‘Kindred’ (from Kindred EP)

I’m a sucker for anything that sounds current, yet sounds like it’s spent decades buried under the earth. Wonderful textures, driven by a swinging rim shot heavy beat which works very well. Dark and moody, this track features a laid back vocal sample which helps everything meld. One of the more unique tracks around and clocking in at over 11 minutes, it makes for a great listen.

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Best Irish song of 2012: Monto – ‘Homage’ (From Best Boy EP)

This is a great track by Wicklow’s Monto (aka Ross O’ Sullivan). A sidechain heavy track, laid back, with a loungey eastern flavour, it features a host of sounds and crackles which really add to the overall texture. Really chilled out and lovely. Taken from the Best Boy EP, which is also recommended.

Introducing: Monto

Electronic music in Ireland is in a remarkably healthy state at the moment boasting the likes of SertOne, Moths, Nouveaunoise and Not Squares amongst its ranks.

19-year-old Wicklow native Monto is another such talent and has recently signed with Belfast electronic/hip-hop label Melted Music. Beats are his forte, pure and simple. It doesn’t matter whether he’s cooking up  thumping electronic hip hop beats or beautifully chilled, tranquil soundscapes.

‘Carmusa’ and ‘Strays’ are simply stunning tracks; beautiful, tranquil and uplifting, comprised of crisp filtered beats and fresh chillwave vibes this is the perfect soundtrack for kicking back in the summer sunshine, if we get any. Also, check out the head nodding hip hop majesty of the Dead Set Gemini and Fritz & the Tantrums remixes, sublime.

So taken with the tunes was I, that I decided to catch up with Monto for a quick chat and find out more about this elusive character (after the jump).

 Download: Monto – Caramusa

 Download: Monto – Strays

BG: Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you been making music? How did you get started?

Monto: My Name’s Ross, I’m 19 and from Wicklow Town. I’m in my first year of college studying music in WIT, although the college nightlife has probably destroyed my chances of making it to second year. I’ve always been interested in music from an early age, learning instruments and all that jazz, but didn’t start producing it until I was about 16 or so. I started making it when I got an Akai MPC500 for my 16th birthday, I made some pretty nice stuff but it was lost forever, I couldn’t figure out how to get it from the MPC to the computer! Devastated.

BG: What were your musical influences?

Monto: I was quite the 90’s NY Hip hop fan boy as a kid, I was always astounded at how producers like Premo & Pete Rock could take a sample, flip it, and turn into a completely different piece of music. I think it was the whole sampling aspect of hip hop that really appealed to me, and made me want to make music. As a result of this I started listening to more instrumental acts, more recent artists like Flying Lotus, 9th Wonder, and of course J Dilla. It was J Dilla I think that influenced me the most out of these. His beat for ‘Fall in Love’ is still the one song that never gets skipped on my iPod

BG: Your music has a rather unusual flavour; a mix of instrumental hip hop and chilled electronic music. How did this come about?

Monto: I started out making purely sample based hip hop for a while, but after I sold the Mpc I started working with Fruity loops. I could never find decent quality samples to use, so I found myself trying to recreate the songs I would be sampling with synthesizers in Fruity Loops. I guess from here I just became a lot more reliant on producing sounds myself rather than sampling them. I’ve played piano since I was a yung’un too so I think it always felt right that there would be a heavy influence on chords and strong melody lines in my music.

BG: You’re from Wicklow, is there much happening musically there at the moment?

Monto: Not much, to be honest. Wicklow is one of the more unfortunate counties in the pale in the sense that there’s no real great platform to share your music with people, and even if there was there’s not a great number of people in the area that want to hear music that’s a bit more underground than they’re used too. There’s a great organization called The Monkey Club in Wicklow that are doing their best to promote local music and organize gigs. In saying that, there are some great bands doing well for themselves without the need of a local platform, instrumental bands Enemies & God is an Astronaut are probably the cream of the crop in Wicklow at the moment. Also, if you can remember as far back as Hybrasil a couple of years ago, they’ve since split up, but one of the members Spud is still doing some really nice indie/electronic stuff.

BG: What have you got in store for the rest of 2011? Gigs? Releases?

Monto: As of now I’m not sure what the summer has in store. I’ve recently been signed to Melted Music, so you can expect an E.P to be put out with them soon enough. That’s about all I can say for now, hopefully a few gigs will spring up during the summer, and I’ll be putting out music onto my soundcloud & bandcamp as regularly as possible!

Download: Dead Set Gemini – Get Wrecked (Montos After Hours Remix)

Download: Fitz & The Tantrums – Moneygrabber (Monto Remix)