21.08.2025

The landscape between here and there is similar. From Rathlin East Lighthouse, looking across at Mull of Kintyre, at a lighthouse built in 1788, they have the same jagged cliff face and craggy topography, with poor soil and resilient plants thriving miraculously out of sand, or pushing up through cracks in a rock. Purple heather, it loves the acid soil and the sea coats everything in a fine grit. If you look out while the lighthouse glares, you can see how the salt remembers pelted watermarks and drizzle on the windscreen.

After driving the Renault 4 across France in 2024, we’d visited a few independent record stores, choosing cassettes at random or on recommendation. Music to accompany us around the Arc de Triomphe, onto the ferry at Cherbourg, into Rosslare Harbour and towards the graving docks at Dublin Port. Those tapes, initially mysterious, became familiar after listening on loop and nowadays they conjure memories and moods from that trip. For tour de force, we commissioned Vera and Taf of BRRR BRRR BRRR to curate a mixtape to add to our cassette collection; A Trip Through the Ireland Underground; Records from the BRRR BRRR BRRR Collection -  a selection of tracks from lesser-known musicians and labels based in Ireland. Music projects off the beaten track, on roads less travelled.

As a kind of listening party, to honour the discovery of new sonic artworks, we waited until nightfall and took off driving to the ends of the roads of Rathlin, listening for the first time to the specially made mixtape. We slotted the tape in on SIDE B at the Harbour and played it all the way through. Below is a video in four parts with the tape soundscaping the night drive.

Earlier that day we’d met with people living on the island who showed us car parts salvaged and put aside, repurposed as furniture or reused in other vehicles or farm equipment. We heard stories of a mythical car graveyard and were given co-ordinates to seek it out. There was talk of the first car on the island, belonging to the doctor; and where it had rusted into the ground, briars enshrouding it, mangling the parts over time. With no particular aim, we drove along Shore Road to the Central Track, a paved tarmac artery connecting the harbour area southward toward Craigmacaghan Lough. Pitch black now, we followed the head-lamp illuminated terrain in front of us, the beacon of a distant lighthouse flashing, and if we met the broad-beamed glare, we took a u-turn as the road would go no further.

A Trip Through the Ireland Underground:
Records from the BRRR BRRR BRRR Collection

SIDE B

1.  ANDY HECK BOYD — SHE’S LOSING CONTROL
Blondie (2022) Krim Kram [Cork]

2. ELAINE HOWLEY — TO THE TEST
The Distance Between Heart And Mouth (2022)
Touch Sensitive Records [Belfast]

3. BURNING LOVE JUMPSUIT — GIRLY MEN
Hell Bank Note 1993-1995 (2024)
Nyahh Records [Leitrim]

4. AUTUMNS — PHONE ME
Dyslexia Sound Source (2024)
Touch Sensitive Records [Belfast]

5. T-WOC — CI VI
Pantangle (2020)
StrangeLoveMusic [Aotearoa/Wicklow]

6.TWO NICE CATHOLIC BOYS — DIALOGOS
Three Cheers for the Distant Observer (2023)
Bluestack Records [Donegal]

7. ROGER DOYLE — WE WHO LIVE UNDER HEAVEN PT 1
We Who Live Under Heaven (2025) Nyahh Records [Leitrim]

8.  NATALIA BEYLIS & EIMEAR REIDY — POUR UPON THE SKY
She Came Through the Window to Stand by the Door (2023)
Nyahh Records [Leitrim]

9.  Róis - Naci en Palestina ft. Emel Mathlouthi
Various Artists Vol. 3: Fáschoill (2025)
Faoi Thalamh Records [Clare]

SIDE A

1.     AI MESSIAH — DUST SIMIAN
Sentience & Sapience (2018)
Touch Sensitive Records [Belfast]

2.     T-WOC — LIFE IS ABOUT COLOR
Scenes, Journeys & Colors (2025)
Rudimentary Records [Belfast]

3.     MAGIC POCKETS — LUNAR CAUSTIC
Volcano of the Bleeding Skies (2016)
Penske Recordings [Cork]

4.     GROUP ZERO — SATURNINE ADORATIONS
Structures & Light (2017)
Touch Sensitive Records [Belfast]

5.     TEN PAST SEVEN — 981
Long Live The Bogwalrus (2019)
Art For Blind [Sligo]

6.     THE ALTERED HOURS — GREY ON BLUE
In Heat Not Sorry (2015)
Art For Blind/Penske Recordings [Sligo/Cork]

7.  MARTIN RÖSSEL & THE DUM DUM BOYS — PABLO PICASSO
Cherrystones Presents Critical Mass Vol. 2 Hearts of Champions
Touch Sensitive Records (2020)

8.  ELLLL — ROMANCE
Romance (2016)
Art For Blind [Sligo]

9.  GODHATESDISCO — ANGEL OF THE LANES
Great Radio (2015)
Little Gem Records [Dublin]

10.  MOHAMMAD SYFKHAN —
DO YOU HAVE A LOVER OR NOT?
I am Kurdish (2023) Nyahh Records [Leitrim]

Side B - Part 1

Side B - Part 2

Side A - part 1

Side A - Part 2