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With the success of The Vendetta Suite’s critically acclaimed debut album ‘The Kempe Stone Portal’ - Hell Yeah Recordings proudly present the remixes, featuring long-time friends and collaborators David Holmes and Timmy Stewart.
The 90s in Belfast spawned friendships and connections made across the barricades; a time credited with some of the most important and significant cultural moments in the history of the city. Club-nights including the Art College, regularly played by David Holmes and Iain McCready helped to spawn a new generation of musicians and DJs looking to make their mark; Including both Gary Irwin (The Vendetta Suite) & Timmy Stewart.
Drawn to the future-facing sounds played by David Holmes; Irwin recalls handing tapes to him every few months, before he was asked to come on board as the studio engineer at Holmes’ ‘Exploding Plastic Inevitable Studio’. Timmy Stewart, a long standing DJ, producer and luminary in Belfast first met the wide-eyed engineer through his connection with Holmes and created his first musical experiments alongside Glenn McCartney with Irwin at the controls. It only feels fitting that the trio would collaborate again after their individual success and as Gary’s mesmerizing debut album dropped in June 2021.
Speaking on how they met, Timmy Stewart says, “David Holmes introduced the Vendetta Suite and I when he encouraged me to make the progression from a DJ to producer in the mid-nineties by inviting me to experiment in his Exploding Plastic recording studio. The deal was generously simple, I could use the space and all of the equipment for absolutely niche, all I had to do was pay for the engineer’s time. Gary Irwin (TVS) was the engineer at David’s studio. The rest as they say is history!"
Cinematic,captivating and flirtatious; David Holmes catapults listeners into a feeling of pureeuphoria with his take on ‘Purple Haze, Yellow Sunrise’. It’s a journey through a plethora of sounds and moods encapsulating the voyage both David and Gary have made throughout almost three decades of friendship. The track begins with ambient tones and psychedelic electronics, before impeccable drum programming and shimmering synth work combine to create an otherworldly listening experience.
Up next is Timmy Stewart’s rendition of ‘Warehouse Rock’ paying homage to the Italian house era of 1990/91- resulting in an unhurried trek through space-lounge sleaze and funk that has one eye on the past and another on the future. The kick is then quietly removed on the ambient flip, thus breathing fresh air into a sequence of tranquil stillness.
It’s a legendary local link-up. The patience, creativity and passion of Gary Irwin, David Holmes and Timmy Stewart paved the path for many of Belfast’s contemporary dance music enthusiasts to find their way in a city that had lost its own for a period of time. Never dull, and always with the element of surprise, this is the Belfast old guard showing why the originals are always the best.
