Eclectics: Comrade Hat w/ Captain A

Eclectics
The Black Gate
Comrade Hat w/ Captain A
9pm, October 2nd
€10

Tickets: bit.ly/eclecticscomrade

Comrade Hat is Derry-based songwriter, composer and producer Neil Burns. Prolific and unclassifiable, his work has invited comparisons ranging from Scott Walker to Rufus Wainwright and Ariel Pink, but defiantly inhabits its own musical universe, described as a ‘singular, surrealistic, oneiric sonic tapestry’ by the Thin Air. It’s rooted in lounge-tinged piano balladry but with tentacles reaching out to electronica, pop, folk and chamber music. The latter were on display this summer when he performed an original composition alongside a piano quintet at the Toronto Summer Music Festival at the invitation of the city’s Art of Time Ensemble. Last year he collaborated with DJ Phil Kieran and the Ulster Orchestra in creating new music for a series of concerts.

He has been winning acclaim recently for Tuque, an EP mostly recorded while on sabbatical in Canada in 2018 and featuring cult guitarist/songwriter Thom Gill (Bernice, Knower, Martha Wainwright, Chaka Khan). It followed the surreal Santa-inspired Ho Ho Hum EP and the jazz-noir electronica of Old Amsterdam before that. He is currently working on an album, or two.

“Tuque once more sees Comrade Hat in that discomfort zone only he occupies, reclining in a deckchair on an empty, snow-covered beach somewhere” The Thin Air

“a suavely engineered atmospheric success that shines bright” Obscure Sound

“a drippy slice of hazed nostalgia in the form of a song” Nialler9

“uniquely dreamlike” The Thin Air

“A wholehearted, deceptively layered slice of experimental pop” The Thin Air

‘An incredibly fresh approach to songwriting…surreality but intense beauty’ Stephen McCauley, BBC Radio Foyle

“a cool slice of after-dark jazz pop… The glass-smooth production shimmers with the essence of ‘80s yacht rock, albeit with a modern soft-focus feeling…utterly fresh throughout and not a hint of ungainly irony.” Across the Line (BBC Radio Ulster)

“Beautifully hazy…a slice of R&B infused dream pop” Louder than Words

Captain A
“Psychedelic Electronic Acoustic Live Studio Lyric Based Instrumental Existential Multi Layered Minimalist Experimental Folk Songwriting Taoism since 2007.”