Wonky ‘tronic cross-country siblings
Who they?
uh (yes, that’s lower case, type fans) are brother and sister Dominic and Fionnuala Kennedy who grew up in north west London with their parents who had relocated there from the west coast of Ireland. The siblings’ childhoods were spent shuttling between the mean streets of Harlesden and the rural surroundings of their parents’ homeland, where they’d listen to the likes of Squarepusher and Aphex Twin while on the road.
“I felt so alive with the mad juxtaposition of complicated electronic soundscapes and trees lit up in headlights!” says Dominic. This double life may explain their musical evocations which combine the bucolic with the more concrete urban through the use of electronics – mostly a Yamaha DX7 – and Fionnuala’s pure voice.
Why uh?
They’ve just released an EP ‘Seasick In Salts’ featuring the eight-minute electronic psyche meander ‘Seasick’, which has melodic moments distinctly redolent of Led Zeppelin’s ‘That’s The Way’ from ‘Led Zeppelin III’, underpinned by the more adrift electronic squelches and machine rhythms of The Orb and even a dash of ‘Sailing By’, Radio 4’s sign-off music. The final two minutes of the piece threaten to lose the plot entirely, before being steered back on course for a stately and satisfying conclusion, like a passenger steamer pulling into port after a stormy passage.
Tell us more…
“We created this tune a long time ago when our equipment was pretty basic,” the pair explain. “It’s kept growing and still does in live performance. It’s always had a seasick feel, we have a lot of fun with how disorientated it makes us feel. It’s like a cross genre of Romeo’s last soliloquy meets a dodgy seasick western.”
‘Seasick In Salts’ is out on PRAH
