galway wow.

AVRIL STANLEY.

My first encounter with Avril Stanley was when she was coming out of an off limits area during an event I was running last summer. Her response to my usual ‘you can’t be in there’ managerial type spiel was played to perfection. A conversation ensued and I realised this wasn’t your average party goer, in fact she was quiet clearly a party professional.

And a very professional at that, Avril has being producing events worldwide for fourteen years and is the pioneer behind Body&Soul – a major part of the Electric Picnic and now a festival in it’s own right. In 2010 Body&Soul’s solo venture burst on to the summer scene in Ballinlough Castle, Co. Westmeath. It proceeded to bowl everybody over in its virgin stand-alone voyage, oozing with effervescence and its collective, creative flair that presents itself in every corner, twist and turn of the expansive walled gardens and woodlands of the Castle.

Producing an event like this is beyond impressive, because Body&Soul has something special. There’s an almost indescribable crazy, beautiful energy to it – it’s kinda like stepping into a fairytale and being sprinkled with mischief dust all to the sound of a bassline to die for. Their set-up at the Picnic has been the highlight of my year every year for the past five years as it creates an atmosphere like no other – and I’ve been high end and underground all over the globe and I know a proper party.

Avril has brought together elements from partying and working at the likes of Nevada Desert’s Burning Man Festival and The Big Chill in the UK, to invent something completely unique on Irish soil. With acts ranging from The Tulla Céilí Band and our own Dáithí to international hot young things in techno such as Nicholas Jaar and Alle Farben, it’s a lucky dip from the session to the rave and all else in between (between being a sparkling masquerade ball under the stars for a kick off) like seriously, it’s craic on acid x 5000 and all set in the most decadent and stunning location imaginable.

The maker behind this madness has got a lot to be proud of because there are very few people capable of creating what can really only be described as pure magic. But this Galway lady – she got this. Believe.

words: m.n.

–

MIKE SMALLE

It was one of those moments that music anoraks like myself thrive on. I was living in Barcelona at the time and was on my regular Friday sojourn to the inspirational CD Drome record shop for my weekly music fix.

I knew the score with CD Drome, it happened every week. I’d go in, ostensibly to purchase 2 or 3 twelves of a house/disco/electronic persuasion but I’d leave with 4 or 5 slabs of vinyl and a handful of cds of everything from hazy folk to spacey prog rock depending on what the friendly guys behind the counter deemed to be the music they were going to tempt me with on that particular trip.

The friendly CD Drome staff had an irritating talent for playing the most beautiful music over the shop speakers while you trawled through your own selection at your listening post; music so good you knew that (A) you were going to have to ask the inevitable question “What’s that playing at the moment?” and (B) you were going to leave the shop with a copy of said album or single.

I’d settled in, headphones on, to pick through my vinyl selection when in between records I let my guard down for a few seconds and took off my headphones. Those few seconds were all it took for me to be completely mesmerized by the breezy, joyous pop wafting towards me from the shops speakers.  The obligatory “What the fuck is that?” in my pigeon Spanish followed and, with a knowing smile, came the retort, “it’s one of our favourite albums in the shop, and it’s from your country. It’s Cane141.”

I’d seen and indeed heard Michael Smalle’s merry Cane 141 collective before I’d left Ireland for Barcelona and knew of their delightful and dreamy melodies.  But that day in CD Drome, as I spaced out to the delirious “Let’s go out tonight” refrain of The Grand Lunar, was one of those moments, as a music lover, you never forget.

Mr Smalle’s album received heavy rotation in our sweaty Barcelona apartment that summer and since then I’ve kept a firm eye and ear out for all things Smalle.

As well as musical hook-ups over the years with the likes of Mark Eitzel, Sean O’Hagan and Cristian Vogel he has collaborated also rather superbly with Galwegian visual artist Roisin Coyle on the beautiful Lost at Sea installation while his music has been lauded by radio DJs in Ireland and beyond. Here in Ireland tastemakers such as Cian Ó Cíobháin and Donal Dineen regularly dot their shows with splashes of Smalle colour while over the years Mike has also released music through BBC’s Chris Coco & Rob Da Bank’s The Blue Room series as well as hitting the ultimate heady heights of recording a John Peel session.

In recent years Mike has left his Cane 141 days behind him but his latest nom de plume, B-Movie Lightning, still sees him imperiously ploughing that refined glittering pop furrow that he harvests so well.  His mastery of shimmering keys, 80’s sounding instrumentation and drums allied with those whispered vocals hypnotises and entrances like a mantra. It’s charming music from a charming man.

The genial, understated Mr Smalle is a man who has stuck to his musical principles making subtle, ethereal, everyday, heartfelt pop to while away the days and nights. His talent is to make music for daydreaming to, music for road-trips, for getting drunk to, music to get lost in, music to make you smile or to comfort you when you’re having one of those days. Music that stirs your emotions and fills your heart.

So much music nowadays is condemned to the bin after just a few listens. Throwaway rubbish in a world more concerned with sound bytes than the whole story or with slick singles instead of albums that paint the full picture. But there’s a certain something about the music of Mike Smalle, B-Movie Lightning and of his old alter-ego Cane 141 that defies trends and is timeless.

The coming months sees the release of his debut B-Movie Lightning album. If the sneak preview treats of the glorious singles Triple Trouble and Take Yourself to the City (both available for download now from iTunes) are anything to go by then the world should ready itself again for another Smalle dose of musical bliss.

words: p.connor.