Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dec’s Klear favourite
Neutron Dance producer ready to go nuclear at Celtronic party David’s a bit of a God round these parts... and it’s not all about Eve
Now the summer festival season is over, Celtronic return with a scorcher of a party next Friday. Taking place at Fifty Seven/the Gweedore will be a headline performance by Krystal Klear, the man behind Neutron Dance, easily the biggest track of 2018.
Krystal Klear is Dec Lennon, right, a music producer and DJ from Dublin currently residing in New York.
He runs the label Cold Tonic and has released on Running Back, UTTU, Madtech, Eglo, All City and more.
He made his debut into the world in 2010 under the anonymous moniker of Krystal Klear and made a steady rise to become one of the freshest new faces in music that both has the chops to destroy underground dance floors with his deep crate of records, or spin out polished productions in the studio with legends like Nile Rodgers. Residencies followed at institutions such as Hoya: It’s hard to overstate the influence David Holmes has had on our lives - in the most understated way, of course.
As a DJ and promoter he helped change our cultural landscape in ways we can only guess at and as a celebrated Hollywood score composer and curator, he spreads a little bit of love for this place far and wide.
But he’s so low key most people over a certain age would have no idea who he was and, though his work affords him a lifestyle – again we’re guessing – that most of could only dream of, he’s happy to slip under the radar and enjoy an unharried pint down his local in
Belfast.
So while the world and his dog buzzes about
Killing Eve, the arch new BBC spy drama, it went largley unnoticed that the real hero of the piece is its soundtrack – a collaboration Hoya, Fabric and Warehouse Project bolstered Krystal Klear’s reputation as a DJ, leading to appearances in worldclass venues like Berlin’s
Panorama Bar and staunchly underground hangouts like San Francisco’s A Club Called Rhonda alike, plus a glut of festivals in between.
As Neutron Dance lights up festival stages worldwide and even pushes onto the fringes of mainstream UK radio, Dec concedes it looks to be blessed with “a touch of the Norse” (Inspector Norse, between Holmes and Catherine Grieve. It helps give the show its international flavour, flitting effortlessly between effortlessly cool Euro pop chanteuses, ominous techno belters from the likes of Phil Kieran and cool, noir pop from Holmes’ La-based band Unloved. Its exquisite, divine almost.
Which brings us rather neatly to God’s Waiting Room, Holmes occasional club night that runs in some of Belfast’s quirkiest venues.
At the minute its settled residence seems to be the Dockers Club, a place with its own stories to tell, and this weekend sees the return of his old pals Optimo, the Glasgow Dj pair who share more than a little of Holmes eclectic taste.
Check out God’s Waiting Room at the Dockers Club, Belfast tomorrow night. Tickets £16.50 from www.ticketweb.ie. the global smash by Todd Terje). The connection between Terje and Krystal Klear’s instant classic? Running Back boss Gerd Janson, a man with whom Lennon’s trajectory has dovetailed with increasing frequency in recent years, and who has become as much a close counterpart as a mentor.
Time spent at Red Bull Music Academy Madrid in 2011, including an appearance together on Boiler Room, has since blossomed into a Tuff City Kids release on Cold Tonic, a b2b entry in the esteemed Dekmantel mix series, Janson calling on Lennon as emergency cover for an eight-hour set at Robert Johnson, and finally a place in the label’s peerless catalogue.
As Lennon’s time in the Running Back stable looks set to run, alongside a typically hectic tour diary and nonending stream of Cold Tonic releases to steer, a defined path has begun to emerge as Krystal Klear heads into a second decade of existence, something Lennon admits he struggled to be comfortable with in his early days.
It is the hard-earned culmination of 10,000 hours spent behind mixers – both studio consoles, and the booths of the world’s best clubs.
That’s where Lennon feels closest to home: staring out at dancefloors, working out how to work them, and invariably succeeding. Support next week will come from from Hylo (Live) & Deep Fried Funk. Advance tickets on sale at eventbrite.com