Live Review
D.E.A.F. 2008 – Various Venues
Every October bank holiday weekend Dublin plays host to DEAF aka the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival and electronic music and arts saturate the town. DEAF’s artistic remit has grown and developed over the years since its inception, moving far beyond the confines of its roots in club culture while sticking to it’s original ideal of showcasing experimental electronic arts to new Irish audiences.
Now in it’s seventh year, it’s safe to say DEAF has been successful in that aim. Previous years acts have included artists The Bug, Plaid, 4hero, Technasia and Underground Resistance, to name but a very select few.
For this year’s highlights, we could start with the opening party, headlined by electronic music veterans Nurse With Wound. As a newcomer to the band, I was pleasantly surprised – their comedic impromptu rendition of “My Lovely Horse” in the midst of electronic glitchy goodness clinched it for me.
The consistently brilliant Laurent Garnier headlined the closing party this year and gave a fun performance (even taking to the mic at one stage). And to my surprise, M83’s live show made shoegaze quite the spectacle at Vicar St.
Gallery performances were staged in new and independant artist run galleries around Dublin city too. One such space, the Joy Gallery, hosted Megannekko and The Electronic Sensoria Band featuring a special performance by Itaru Oki, unexpected musical finds for me.
Free electronic music workshops for both young and old(er!) were organised over the weekend too, a rather cunning plan on DEAF’s part, ensuring Ireland keeps spawning new and exciting electronic talent for years to come.
And it will need to, as DEAF seem hell bent on continuing from strength to strength, relentless in the search for new artists and direction and this can only be good news for electronic music afficionados amongst us.