In case you haven’t heard, we’re throwing our third birthday shindig this April 14 – Good Friday. It’s a BYOB house party in a mansion on the Dublin coastline, and we’ve got a homegrown lineup of our favourite DJs, producers, and MCs.

Our guest of honour – and first international booking for the District team – is a pretty special one.

He first came to our attention a couple years back when James Blake played some of his productions on his BBC Radio 1 residency. Since then he’s expanded his label roster, cultivated a London club night, released two EPs, and worked on two of 2016’s biggest releases – no biggie.

Here’s our guide  to soy-based musician Vegyn.

His work

Even if you haven’t heard of Vegyn, chances are that you’ve heard his work, via one of last year’s biggest albums, Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’, and its preceding project ‘Endless’

The first clue that Vegyn might be involved with Frank Ocean’s music dropped when it was revealed that he produced the music on a Calvin Klein advert featuring the artist.

When ‘Blonde’ finally burst forth from its creative cocoon after being teased for days on end, there was a lot of information lost in the crossfire. When the dust had settled on the album and proper liner notes were released, one of the names of the projects’ many collaborators was Joe Thornalley, also known as Vegyn.

Aside from writing and arranging ‘Nights’, one of the highlights from the album, he also worked on ‘Close to You’ as well as almost a third of the tracks on Endless, Frank’s visual album that dropped before Blonde did.

https://vimeo.com/186496283

His music

Vegyn’s sound isn’t tied down to one specific genre or sound, but would fall under the wide umbrella of electronic music.

His first EP ‘All Bad Things Have Ended – Your Lunch Included’ was supposedly named from a flier found on the side of the street. It’s mainly composed of mellow synth patterns offset with sketchy and sporadic percussion – similar enough to James Blake’s first releases.

Check out one of our favourite tracks from the release below.

His second EP ‘Janhui’ is a more club-oriented release, focusing on experimental percussion throughout the release, and not holding up on the low end.

Listen to ‘Cancel Cancel’ below for a taste of what we can expect at the District Third Birthday Party.

With a taste for hip hop in his DJ sets, this fondness trickles into his own music,  with his first EP’s opener sampling Aaliyah’s ‘Are You That Somebody’, and his slate of recently released remixes of Wu-Tang, Future, and Gucci Mane.

His imprint

Vegyn heads up a label called PLZ Make it Ruins. Primarily releasing warped and hard-hitting electronic music, the label acts as a conduit for releasing Vegyn and his friends’ music in a wide variety of media.

There’s releases on tape cassette, vinyl, CDR, and digital, as well as more experimental offerings like a compilation on a fortune cookie, and a pair of tracks by label-mate Ersatz on a bullet shaped silver USB.

PLZ clearly isn’t afraid to think outside the box when it comes to distributing music.

Good Friday can’t come soon enough for us. Vegyn is just one of many acts playing that night, so be sure to grab a ticket early and secure your place for what’s going to be one of Dublin’s best BYOB nights.