Dubliner Marcus Lambkin, aka Shit Robot, is most definitely one of the Irish artists to look out for in 2008.
Having moved to New York in 1992, Lambkin gradually forged a career as a successful club DJ, and of late has begun creating his own music. His recent single, ‘Chasm’, is a superb electro track that bodes very well for the debut Shit Robot long player, due out in early summer.
Lambkin releases his records on DFA, the label co-owned by LCD Soundsystem mainman James Murphy, with whom Marcus has been friends for a number of years. How did the two first meet?
“I met James a year or two after moving to New York,” explains Marcus, who still retains his Dublin accent. “He was out in Brooklyn, doing his indie band/engineer thing, and I was DJing in and around the East Village. We had a mutual friend, a guy called Tyler Brodie, who was setting up a building in the West Village, in which he wanted to bring together a lot of things; a recording studio, a film production office, a record label and so on.
“James moved his studio in there, and then myself and Dominique Keegan started Plant Records in the same building. James and I just hit it off talking about music and stuff. I introduced him to a lot of good dance music, and he introduced me to a lot of good rock. So we had this mutual learning process.”
Presumably, Marcus, James and co. have had some great nights out in NYC.
“Yeah, a few too many was the problem,” laughs Lambkin, who is now based in Stuttgart. “That was part and parcel of me leaving the place! There was DFA, and we had Plant Bar for a while, which was nearly the death of me. I was DJing Friday nights at Plant, which ended with a lock-in every single week. Then I’d sleep for a few hours and go DJ at Centro-Fly, which was like the big club in New York back then. It was kind of a cheesy venue, but it paid the rent. I’d also be doing other stuff in between, so there were many, many ridiculous nights.”
Inevitably, Marcus became friends with other artists in the DFA circle. Indeed, when he DJed in Dublin just before Christmas, he was joined on the bill by fellow DFA signing The Juan Maclean, whose awesome dark electro track ‘You Can’t Have It Both Ways’ received many a play chez Nolan following its inclusion on DFA Compilation, Vol. 1.
“I actually gave him the name, The Juan Maclean,” Marcus recalls. “He comes from that indie-punk background, having played in Six Finger Satellite and so on. Then James started getting him into dance music, and he came down to the studio to work on his first 12-inch, which was really, really dark techno. He was still John Maclean at this point, and I walked into the studio, and there he was playing this terrifying techno track. I said, ‘Jesus, who do you think you are? The Juan Maclean?’ It was a reference to Juan Atkins. I don’t think anybody was expecting that kind of music from him!”
Finally, which dance artists does Marcus think we should keep an eye on this year?
“I hate to be all DFA, but I think Juan’s new record is going to be great, and there’s a new DFA act called Hercules and the Love Affair, who I think are amazing. It could be my age showing, ’cos he has this early ’90s Chicago style, but it’s modernised. He’s done a track with Antony from Antony and the Johnsons, which is brilliant. I love it and hope it’s going to be really big.”