The Evolution Of A Man

Over the last few years, a lot of noise has been made about Dublin's increasing importance in electronic music. While Ireland's archaic licensing laws and society's often reactionary attitude towards club culture has hampered the growth of the scene in the capital, there are still more than enough promising producers emerging to justify the hype that has been generated. Furthermore, in techno circles, Dublin has produced more than its fair share of talent with Decal, Rob Rowland, Anodyne, Trident, the Front End Synthetics posse and Donnacha Costello bolstering the city's reputation as a centre for electronic excellence.

All of these acts have put out distinctive strains of dance music over the last two years, but, apart from dEcal's releases on Sabrettes and their forthcoming remix of Two Lone Swordsmen, it's Donnacha Costello whose been the first to fly the electronic flag on an international basis. A shockingly precocious producer still in his mid twenties, Donnacha has just released his debut album, Growing Up In Public on the esteemed German stamp, Force Inc.
Cut from the same cloth as the glitch and click of Pole's work, 'Public' grooves along at a low tempo but retains a deep, emotive edge. It's a brave, bold debut with the title referring to a magazine article by dEcal's Alan O'Boyle that asserted Dublin's producers had their work cut out.
"Dublin is a hard place to live in at times, but amongst the producers I know, there is a real sense of family, of belonging to something greater than the sum of its parts and that makes it a great place to be in. It'll definitely be recognised as a major city for electronic music," he says, adding that Eammon Doyle from D1 played a big influence in his development as a producer.
"He introduced me to Detroit techno, something which impacted upon my music greatly at the early stages. He also provided a very nurturing and community environment in the D1 building that was necessary for Rob Rowland and myself; we had access to an amazing studio and, with Eamonn's encouragement, those years in the D1 building were unforgettable."
Despite Costello's initial fascination with Richie Hawtin he says his interest in electronic music was initially aroused by an interview with the Canadian producer it was the deep sensuality of Detroit that fired his early D1 releases. However, Costello's productions and modus operandi changed radically when he came into contact with the work of German producer Pole.
"I found the first Pole album in 1998 and was totally stumped and then the second album knocked me out! I loved everything about them, especially the supremely minimal presentation. I suppose my music fits in well with this new 'powerbook techno' scene that has developed around the world. I find it quite exciting so it's nice to have the chance to maybe be a part of it. The Mille Plateaux and Force Inc. labels are also an influence, which is why I chose to approach them to release my material."
It might sound too good to be true, but this is exactly what happened; Costello sent the label a CD with a few tracks and they were interested.
"We kept in touch, discussed what it was I wanted to do and then went for it," he explains. " I've never met any of the guys from the label, it's all been email and phone calls but it's an incredibly well run organisation and I'm very happy to be part of it."
While Irish producers and DJs may have had difficulty gaining recognition abroad, the acclaim already afforded to Costello's debut bodes well for the future.
"Irish electronic music is becoming increasingly popular internationally and that makes me very happy," he says. "People like Shane Johnson from Cork are releasing on US house labels, Rob Rowland and Eammon Doyle are treated like celebrities when they visit Eastern Europe and DJs like Weatherall and Dave Clarke are supporting Alan O'Boyle's Trama label. It's all very encouraging."
It's a situation that looks set to improve over the coming months, with Costello planning to unleash an exhaustive amount of music; this starts with deep dancefloor techno for D1 'Diversions 01' and 'Diversions 02' as well as remixing Mark Broom but also involves Costello recording some "really abstract pieces which has more to do with sound as art rather than music", working on a new label, 20 Cycles, with like minded producer David Donohue, building custom software applications, remixing Ekkehard Ehlers, contributing a track for a Force Inc. compilation and recording the fourth release for his own Minimise label. In addition, he is working on a second, follow up album, but in the meantime, Costello's emotive, electronic growing pains will do just fine.

Growing Up In Public is out now on Force Inc.