Time for T

Anyone bemoaning the dearth of musical talent in Northern Ireland obviously doesn’t go out dancing. From drum and bass to electro, freakbeats and scuzzy hip-hop, there’s all manner of demented, overly-precious, driven and downright gifted obsessives out there knocking out the kind of tunes that would sit happily on decks much further afield. If you’re looking for evidence, this month sees the third Digital T festival taking place in Belfast. It would be a perfect place to start.

“There’s loads of little scenes,” says Gerard Sheppard who (along with Shaun Arnold) looks after the now annual event, “but you never seem to see anyone running between them and joining the dots. We paint with a fairly broad brush, I don’t want it to be heavily drum and bass or heavily hip-hop - there’s some squiggly electronica and more experimental stuff, but around the edges we kinda let people do what they want.”

Digital T came about when it became clear that BelFest -the annual autumnal band shindig - was finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the influx of talent messing around with beats.

According to Sheppard: “There was so much great dance stuff we just had to expand to give it the space it deserved. The dance music thing was just getting better. There were a lot of people here making really great music who have their own sense of community and we felt it would have got swamped in the band festival. No-one else was doing it, and we thought we could.”

So, in the Spring of 2000, taking its template from the main BelFest model, Digital T was launched with the intention of mixing home-grown talent with well known international names, while also putting on educational seminars and showcase gigs for local acts. It may not have been an over-whelming success, but the signs were there that, with some work, it could go on to better things.

“It’s just been a case of refining things,” says Sheppard. “The first year we put on a lot of big names mid week, and tailored the local showcases around that. But the first thing we discovered was that people don’t want to go out for a big heavy night in the middle of the week, because we all know what they like to get up to. Last year we put on a lot of free admission nights and that bumped the crowds up, and we just hope that this year it’ll do better. I get emails from the late summer onwards from people who want to get on the CD. So, I think it’s really starting to kick off now.”

The CD, made available at Virgin Megastores throughout Ireland, is invariably an uplifting listen. This year is no exception. A heavy monster, highlights include tunes from Welt, Bell Crash, and a charming non-sequitor from Basic, while Phil Kieran, as usual, handles mixing duties.

“Phil has a free reign within certain parameters to choose and mix the CD the way he wants and he invariably ends up doing a great job. He knows what he’s doing, he knows what’s out there and he has the ability to mix it really way. The CD actually gets more attention because it simply gets further. Labels get to hear it, it makes its way to the States. There have been things develop independently from it – a few soundtrack things. It’s music that has a great deal of flexibility.”

Guests this year, include Leeroy Thornhill, Mikey Dread, Jason Holmes and, taking a rare break from the recording of the new UNKLE album, James Lavelle. However, it is the free showcase gigs running on consecutive nights from April 23 to April 25 where most of the real excitement will be generated.

“The showcases are as good as we could make them,” says Sheppard. “ They’re shaping up to be really outstanding. I think it’s both cooperative and competitive all at once. You really have to make sure you’re up to speed because you’re up against most of your best contemporaries. You know everyone is going to be out and about watching one another and maybe even meeting each other for the first time. You have to remember that a lot of these people are bedroom record makers. They may never have met before. They all have to be on their toes. ”