Un-Scene : Twin Kranes
If there’s no underground scene in Ireland (I suggested nothing belongs and there’s no unified movement of music in the country right now), that leaves un-scenesters the culprits to blame for what we do have, a culture of lone elements all spinning off on their own trajectory. Originality merely streaks the map of Irish music, faint blazes largely unseen amid white noise of the population.
Who are the un-scene?
I’ll start at the Liffey with my first foray into the Irish underground scene. It was 2005 and I’d discovered real live music in the city by way of a gaping TwinKranes show. There was a vague scene of black denim, Humanzi and The Mighty Stef. Twin Kranes had been grouped in the same territory due to lack of information and the drummer’s hairstyle.
Friends for fifteen years and unlikely comrades at first glance, THE ROOSTER, BLONDE FOX, and AUBURN SPINNER (vocals, guitars and tape/vocals and drum set/synthesisers and soundscapes) set about destructuring respected recent musical development, drawing on alternates like electronica and krautrock to build a model of post-variations. CAN, Faust, Silver Apples, and Eno’s pioneering work were identified as fundamental blocks for transference to a single modern unit. Modernity is the key contribution to TwinKranes’ sound. They do not seek to emulate their inspiration but rather develop those influences with innate style to produce a sustainable form. By warping retrograde rock into progressive pop, three different prongs of musical persona achieved one cohesive aim, to use their analogy - original sound built on original principles - an attack on unoriginal contemporary music.
Two EPs appeared: Plateau in 2006 followed the next year by Being Kong. This year they played the MIGRATING-CAUSTIC-MUTATABLE tour across the UK, their Fizz Nor Feedback track featuring on the tour 45. Along with marks on the standard scorecards of HWCH and Electric Picnic, they will feature on David Holmes‘ soundtrack to new feature film Cherrybomb. Suggestions of an album lurk like a troll under the humpbacked Ha’Penny, monstrous and waiting.
As the speedcore, industrial and psychedelics will tell you, it’s hard to prosper as a band when you dare to be specific. Yet this is what truly marks a band out as underground for me, those who dare to be different and persevere against lack of demand. No one asks for outdated fashion, space rock, motorik and alphabetic abuse but they’re making it anyway.
Critics and the mainstream are hostile and demanding. Drawing inspiration from a bygone era meets with disdain: it’s Been Done. Adrogynous boys with Bowie eyes soon exhaust the supply of gigs. How is it we continue to see the bloom of TwinKranes across posters and flyers when the touted Tremors of Humanzi are a safe, distant memory?
The quick answer is because Twin Kranes are better, accomplished musicians. Though unlikely friends, their fusion of style has created unity. On a quest for fresh from old, new nostalgia is born: I will look back on this era with great fondness.
TwinKranes play Toners of Baggot Street tonight as part of their monthly residency.
