Bantum - EP2
Ruairi Lynch- aka Bantum – lies somewhere between folktronica and French electro-clash. His new 4-track EP starts off pretty strong, despite the title of the opener, ‘Weak Weak Week’. Echoes of Casino vs Japan and shoegaze abound while it’s filled with some nice breaks and catchy sounding 8bit pad lines.
‘Belle Bell’, kicks in hard and deep, and instantly the producers Mr Oizo and Sebastian come to mind and is certainly a track that could rock out most dancefloors. It’s just shy of six minutes and with my unfortunate case of musical ADD, I find myself feeling it could be a little more concise.
The third track is a guitar-based glitched-out rendition of Daft Punk’s ‘Da Funk’. As clever, interesting and well- produced as this one is, it’s not really my bag, but then again, I lost interest in Daft Punk about six years ago. It also ends fairly suddenly with the main hook of the original track ringing out and teasing you.
EP2 closes with ‘Golightly’, maintaining the Ed Banger theme, but the riff doesn’t seem to progress in any new directions. Overall however, Bantum has a fine stab at a floor-filling EP, and for a relatively new Irish producer it’s brimming with potential and energy.
