Mister Saturday Night’s Eamon Harkin

That Petrol Emotion was the second band from John O’Neil of The Undertones. John worked at a place called the Nerve Center, a cultural hub for music production and performance, in Derry where I grew up. I spent a lot of time there as teenager learning to play guitar and hanging out just absorbing and learning about music from the characters who worked there. When I was 15 I was lucky enough to spend a handful of days shadowing John and he regaled me with stories from his life in music. That experience helped expand my world view and understanding of how someone could live a life in music.

I’m writing this from my parents home in Derry (as I’m playing the Celtronic festival this coming weekend) and I’ve just dug out some of my first cassettes bought in the late 80s/early 90s from the attic. When I got my first Sony Walkman my mum bought me ‘Now That’s What I Call Music 11’ and this track was on that compilation. I’d completely forgotten about it until finding the cassette (talk about nostalgia!) but listening back now I can see how the are rhythms and horn elements are sounds that resonate with me still today in new (and new-old) music which I continue to discover. It’s really interesting to draw a line between tracks that I was drawn to as someone barely in their teenage years and where my musical inclinations are today. Whilst my musical horizons have certainly expanded in the meantime there’s something guttural about the connection I have here to the rhythms and melodic elements in this track.

Arrested Development’s 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the LIfe Of…. was the first hip hop record I bought back in the early 90s and this track was my favorite cut. Again it’s really interesting to trace back those young instincts for certain sounds and grooves to my tastes and DJ style today. This track has such a killer, killer groove sampled from ‘When It Comes Down To It’ by Minne Riperton. I vividly remember going to the record store to buy the CD because one of the lead singles was playing on the radio a lot at the time and I was really into it. Pocket money for CD purchases at the time was scarce and I remember a debate with a close friend who wanted to me spend my precious cash on Guns ‘n’ Roses ‘Use Your Illusion’ instead!

Growing up in Ireland and discovering music in the early 90s it was hard to avoid U2 and my friends and I were big fans at the time. As I absorbed more music and began to understand music on a deeper level I realized that what I liked most about those U2 records of the early 90s was the production from Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. The Passengers record which Eno did with U2 is their most interesting work from that time.

This track eptimozies that early 80s sound that came out of the death of disco and just pre-dated house music. Big reverb laden drums and soaring vocals are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I think I’m drawn to these types of records because that was the dominant production technique for pop music in the late 80s when I first started getting into music and was listening to those complications on that same WalkMan. You can’t beat the excitement of discovering music for the very first time and I think the impact of that kind of experience is immediately imprinted into your musical DNA. There’s always a track from this era in my bag.

Sounds like a Detroit techno record but was actually made by a couple of English guys. I chose this track in particular because it represents the dance music made in the UK from the time I was first getting into dance music culture living in Ireland and then later in London. The Junior Boys Own label from the same time is also a huge influence from that time.

There are few artists I admire more than Patti Smith. Her two memoires – M Train and Just Kids are essential reading for anybody interested in understanding the mind of a truly curious and courageous artists. This track was the B-side of her first ever recording, back at a time when she considered herself a poet and a performance artist and not yet a singer or rock star. It’s a poem about working in a factory and not letting the experience grind you down. An ode to perseverance and determination from someone still finding her artistic feet. When I first moved to New York and was trying to make a life for myself Patti Smith was constant reference point.

I hold Robert Hood in the highest possible regard. From his work in Underground Resistance to his ground breaking minimal techno work to the sheer power and force of his more recent output as Floorplan the man has earned his dues many times over. This lesser know track on Metroplex from the mid-90s is one of my favorites and exemplifies the kind of techno I love the most – proper machine made funk but always experimental and forward looking. Justin and I once booked him to play with us at a party we did together before Mister Saturday Night in 2008, I think, and at the time it was a very exciting booking for me I was just getting into tougher techno sounds.

I’ve really learned to love jazz over the past 5 or so years and as I delve deeper around the different styles spiritual and free jazz is the area I find myself most drawn to. I think it’s because of the impulse for experimentation and sense of escapism that the music gives. I love Don Cherry’s records in particular. Brown Rice came, later in his career, when he was particularly interested in integrating styles of music and techniques from outside of the jazz tradition. It’s boundless yet seamless at the same time. This record always sounds fresh to me even though it’s over 40 years old.

This is from one of my favorite ECM records Descendre by Terje Rypdal a delicate ethereal record fusing elements of free jazz and ambient music. In recent years I’ve looked for music which creates conditions for headspace and relaxation, I think because I find myself consistently busy and I’m looking for something to help me switch off. There’s a real meditative quality of this record whilst at the same tim. Lovely stuff.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Penguin Cafe Orchestra right now. They were a loose collective of avant garde folk and jazz musicians from the late 80s & early 90s. The fusion of styles and whimsical results provide for lighter moments. I picked this record up earlier this year in Osaka in Japan.