Sweet Syns

Frisco and Sabotage have just announced details of Dublin's first ever free compilation CD entitled Synergia. Subtitled blips, breaks and bleeps from Dublin's leading independents , the project will be launched this Sunday in the Temple Bar Music Centre with featured artists performing on the night. The project is being co-ordinated by Graham Gilligan, who saw a niche for doing something truly representative of new developments within creative musicians' circles in Dublin.

"I was involved in managing bands and running nights for about two to three years," explains Graham. "With more and more people running clubs all over the place, it was becoming very hard to fill a place and get a venue. I wanted to do something that allowed me to maintain all my links with music rather than do something in the industry. The whole idea for the CD is that DJs and producers can put a track together, and the fact that it is free obviously makes it far more accessible. It makes it far more easier to get one's music out there, basically.
As an independent clothes store, Sabotage on Excheqer Street has provided a focal point for the Synergia project as well as an outlet for unique clothing. "Because I was involved in Sabotage, the word spread pretty fast," explains Graham. "What I originally did was go to all the people like Influx and Bassbin because I used to book their DJs in the Music Centre. They gave me a couple of tracks, but very quickly people I'd never heard of before dropped in tapes and started ringing me. I think because of the Frontend Synthetics CD people are in the compilation frame of mind, and they know now that they can be very good."
We can debate the merits and shortcomings of the Dublin scene until we're blue in the face, but from Synergia's point of view, is the future looking vibrant for original, progressive and challenging music in the capital?
"Dublin has got a fairly bad beating because Irish bands have never got the response they deserve unless they went abroad. Even if you take bands like My Bloody Valentine or Rollerskate Skinny, the moment they got any recognition they got out of here very quickly.
Dublin does have a very good infrastructure but it can be very cut throat and also very spoonfed. I think what is happening now is that we are begginning to develop a confidence. People can just buy a sequencer and sampler and sit at home and make dance music, and it is easier to make yourself more accessible with the net so people are doing it themselves, but this time they are getting picked up by people like Ultramack. Dublin is developing a scene which is not unlike Wales or Sheffield, with people really getting into Aphex Twin and Mike Paradinas. I think Dublin is doing the same thing, getting all nerdy and self-indulgent!
"I definitely want to appeal to a wide range of people, he continues. I know a lot of DJs very well and I was aware of a lot of the politics that goes on in Dublin, so I wanted to stand back from that and make something that was truly representative and take the good points of the various labels. About a third of the album is commercial breakbeat that would appeal to everybody, a third is electronica stuff and the other third is people like Jimmy Behan and PBR Streetgang who just write really good music that you can't pigeonhole.
Of the eleven acts there, some are very well known, such as DJ Wool who has such a good name on the scene, and then others are just being introduced. Everybody sits together in the same club, its just we have different rosters. I'm trying to break up that tradition of politics and everything that upsets me about the Dublin scene. It is getting better.
It doesn't stop here for Synergia, with a second release already in the pipeline. "We've already designed the cover for Synergia Part 2. My intention is if we get exposure for this one, to start getting material for the second. I want to stress that anyone can get involved if they want to it s not the elite bunch or whatever. If people want to drop in tapes they can leave them at Sabotage. Alternatively, they can visit the website and send me an e-mail. I intend to get the next one out around October. I think the next time round the quality is going to be even better."