Various – Dreams Of Electric Bleep

At the tail end of the last century and the first few years of this one, an Irish electro movement emerged from the ashes of the country’s by then commercialised rave scene. It was spearheaded by Dublin’s Decal, but spread to all corners of the nation – as this superb retrospective of the movement proves. The influence of Warp Records’ mid-90s IDM output looms large over the collection (and not just because of the very Designers Republic-esque cover art), alongside inspiration gained from Drexciya and their Detroit counterparts, as well as the rawness of Berlin electro of the period, the sub-heavy throb of the earlier bleep techno movement, and the warehouse-ready rush of ‘proper techno’. It’s a killer collection all told, with the accompanying liner notes telling the story of a musical movement that few outside Ireland have previously acknowledged.