Somewhere in either my loft or in Joel’s house (or possibly in that mysterious netherworld where lost things go) there is a minidisc. It is dark red/purple and has something scrawled on it- possibly ‘Irwin Maxx’ or ‘beats for Jonny’ or something like that. There may be a green one as well. Anyway, it/they feature/s a whole load of Ian Murphy’s finest beats and I fear they are lost forever. He doesn’t have them anymore. He spilt a cup of tea on the original disc. Ian has been a mate since we were young’uns and is primarily remarkable for growing a beard before anyone else I knew (by about 4 years). I first became acquainted with his musical skills on New Year’s Eve 1999, when I spent the evening freestyling to the seemingly unending selection of bangers emanating from his MPC. A couple of Michaelis tracks resulted (one is, like the minidiscs, lost forever), but his two tracks on ‘Life on the Ground’- ‘Photophobia’ and ‘Blue lights’ are two of my favourite all time beats.
Ian is now releasing music as Hobo Sonn. I have very few reference points at all to help me describe his sound. The best I can do is: Hobo Sonn sounds like the soundtrack to an early David Lynch movie. Its intriguing and oddly compelling. I like listening to it but I'm not sure I totally get it. Then again, since I met him, he’s always been about three steps ahead of me, so I’m sure one day I’ll catch up.
Favourite collaboration: ‘Blue Lights’
(listen on the music player on the Barrowclough page- http://www.zangproductions.co.uk/roster/barrowclough/ )
Other listening: Wary the mind/swarm EP (you can listen to tracks on http://www.rottenslushy.co.uk/available.html )
