Tommy Holohan Ros Eó Civil Disobedience | The Electro Review

Tommy Holohan
Ros Eó
Civil Disobedience


Tommy goes solo for the first time and takes on the impress of Civil Disobedience to make his musical mark. This record label loves free spirits, the rough and ready talent of the millennial generation. Here we find Tommy taking us through a role play of his early years as a wayward youth on the streets of Dublin, Ireland. A kindred spirit, who like me, engaged in firework wars (see A Poet, on Park Hill?), however unlike me, I guess Tommy was also giving what he got. I think I've only ever let off one firework. I have worked as a security guard for the Sheffield firework display though, back when I was a Park Ranger. Enough about me, let's get to Holohan's sound, rich with fuelled emotive surges and dynamic electronic soundcraft.


Discordant, mysterious sounds spurn into amplitude as wavering and stretched cassette style distortions turn up the experience. A neat and minimal percussive section is injected at the time when we begin to wonder where it's going, and as its progression slowly evolves, the genius of the funfair emerges. Organ tones resound through the disharmonious flames of key and project a heavenly light through the broken horizon. When we're taken to Seamos Gaf, track two on this four track offering, a silence begins the piece with haunting thereness. A tight beat pulls out of the blank canvas on a needle of slight arpeggio and rhythmic melody. Strange spacey effects decorate the sounds with cosmic long distance reverb. A phaser brings the tone from one side to another as the continually pressurising drum-score brings each bar to a new level of energy. We're asked to dance, and dance hard. I imagine this can also be mixed with something pounding and heavy. The housey element in the percussion, with a lightness and non insistent quality allows for the undertones and effects to stand out to be enjoyed.


Crackling rumbles instantly revolve into being as track three breaks the scene. South Beach Burnin Bins' has a campfire quality not only in the name but in the jostling of make-shift instruments that forms its being. A crooked bassline fills a void and on each side of the resonant beat-tone sits various sounds and samples. Soon keyboards layer the spaces with techno styled melodics which pound and push as their metallic orchestral hits splurge in fastly paced rhythms. An interesting break happens when all boils down to hefty bass and keyboard for a few bars and then, wham, a new angle to the catchy and sticky rhythm. As we finish with Remaining Rogerstown, ghostly samples echo through displaced drums to knit a blanket of strange colours. As we gradually hook onto the repeating tempo, the jazzical flurry of tones and drum is softened when a slow paced keyboard inserts an angelic melody, simple yet all encompassing. An experience of ending the brief record is definitely added to this final number, and by this time it's okay to go back to the beginning. The rich and diverse toolbox that Tommy draws on has allowed the first and latest Holohan release to map out quality directions and areas of exploration ripe for the taking.

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