RTJ, Jon Hopkins and the late Conor Walsh feature on Ruairi Lynch’s list.

Back in July we caught up with Bantum to discuss the passing of Prince, his hometown of Cork and new music. This new music of course was his latest project ‘Move’.

Across seven tracks he enlisted the help of Farah Elle, Loah and loads more. We asked Ruairi to give us a glimpse into some of the artists that influenced him when he was recording ‘Move‘.

Chemical Brothers – Music: Response

This track opened the Chemical Brothers ‘Surrender’ album, an album I listened to repeatedly when it came out.

I had been a big fan up to then, and this track knocked me sideways. That high pitched synth should have been annoying (and maybe it is) but it just worked. The track was so exciting to hear at the time, totally unexpected and so much fun.

Gesaffelstein – Opr

This is a b-side to Gesaffelstein’s ‘Conspiracy Part 2′ EP, and was a live favourite of his to use.

I’ve been digging out live videos of him performing this on Youtube, the light show is incredible. The synth line on this is a direct influence on the track ‘Move’.

David Bowie – Beauty and the Beast

I listened to a lot of Bowie over the year. For some reason I kept listening to this song on repeat in the weeks and months after he died.

Again, this is an album opener (‘Heroes’ in this case). His vocal on this just oozes cool, with a simple but innovative chorus and vocal backing. There’s a lot of trippy echo guitar in this track which permeates throughout the album.

Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal

This song just stopped me in my tracks when I first heard it. I think I actually stopped working on music for a few weeks upon listening to this!

Everything about this is perfect I think; from the way it builds and flows, to the bassline, the organic percussion samples, the reverb, arrangement, everything. I listened to this a lot while working on the album.

Run The Jewels – Oh My Darling Don’t Cry

I always skip the first track on their album to get to this one. I’m obsessed with the beat, how it changes half way through all of a sudden, and how it flows into the next track.

El-P shouting to “run naked backwards through a field of dicks” always makes me laugh.

D’Angelo – Aint That Easy

I’m late to the D’Angelo party, but upon hearing this track I was hooked. This might be the funkiest thing I’ve ever heard!

The vocal mix is weirdly low in parts, which draws you in more. It seems like a really simple track but there’s so much going on, I keep going back to this.

Kaytranada – Lite Spots

This track is so much fun. It has one of those intros where you don’t really know what to expect until the beat drops nearly a minute in.

The video for this was my introduction to Kaytranada and his ‘99.9%’ album is genius. It reminds me a lot of the house tunes I used to hear on the radio in Cork as a kid.

Metronomy – Love Letters (Soulwax Remix)

I’ve been trying and failing to replicate this sound for a while now. I just love how the bass/guitars are mixed here.

Whenever a Soulwax remix is released I devour it. It was a toss between this and their Arcade Fire remix from a while back, I’m obsessed with the synth sound on that one too.

Jai Paul – Jasmine

Speaking of obsession! Jai Paul has released one official track, this track, an unmastered/mixed album leak, and I can’t get enough of him. He somehow managed to mix this Dilla-esque groove with really soulful Prince funk guitars and vocals.

This was a massive inspiration while working on ‘Take It’ with Loah. His brother AK Paul has been very active recently too, with a similar sound. I can’t get enough of these guys.

Conor Walsh – The Front

I listened to this a lot over the last year since Conor passed away. I had written the piano line for ‘Pacing’ as almost a placeholder, with a view to maybe asking Conor to come up with an idea on it.

Sadly that never came to pass. I’m still listening to ‘The Front’ now, just a beautiful piece of work. ‘Pacing’ is dedicated to him.

Click here to download Bantum’s newest project. He’s also headlining the Ensemble Christmas Party on December 16 in Bello Bar, click here for tickets.