Mayo, IE · folktronica

Seamus Fogarty

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Irish folk with a glitching hard drive — wry songs, warped tape, tradition run through a broken laptop on purpose.

Seamus Fogarty grew up in Swinford, County Mayo, and later settled in London, where he has built records that sit between traditional Irish song and electronic production. He works partly as a sound engineer, and that background shows in the detail of his mixes.

His debut album, God Damn You Mountain, came out in 2012 on the Scottish label Fence Records. Parts of it were written and recorded in a cottage in South Kerry, and Fogarty has said the title came from losing his favourite t-shirt on a mountain summit in the Iveragh Peninsula.

The Curious Hand followed in 2017 and A Bag of Eyes in 2020, both on Domino. The latter was recorded across London, Kent and East Sussex, self-produced, and features Fogarty's partner Emma Smith, Meilyr Jones, and long-time collaborators Leo Abrahams, Aram Zarikian and John Fogarty, with more electronics, synths and drum machines than his earlier work.

Fogarty writes in a conversational, often deadpan style, building arrangements from acoustic guitar, fiddle and accordion alongside field recordings, tape manipulation and programmed rhythms. Songs tend to start recognisably as folk before drifting into looser, more processed territory.

The 2020 single 'Johnny K' turned that approach toward Brexit-era London, looking at the uneasy position of an Irishman living there. It captures the wry, unsettled tone that runs through much of Fogarty's writing.

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