Electronic music is continuing to spread its roots and become more accommodating in Ireland. This can be seen from the growing popularity of venues like District 8.

The release of Slow Place Like Home‘s ‘When I See You, Ice Cream’, couldn’t have come at a better time. The brainchild of Keith Mannion and born out of the forests of Donegal, there are no twee guitar sounds to be found here.

The album marks a seismic shift for the band sonically. Mannion told Nialler9 last year: “The parameters used for creating previous compositions were abandoned and it surged like new blood in the veins. Vocal samples by myself were chopped up, treated and tempered to the track. At the heart of it is an 8-bit frenzy, ready for nostalgic earlobes.”

There is a sense of familiarity with some of the tracks on the LP – Phoenix is a wave of energy, fluid in its simmer. The siren hum that underlines Bats, decorated with electronic keys, is another unexpected floorfiller.

However, at no point does the record fully connect. Each track is different, but wildly so – the lack of cohesion equates to disjointedness. Falesia is frenetic and lacks focus – a lot of ideas are seen coming together to amount to nothing. Very few of the vocal mixes work on this record – on Office Dancers in particular, they almost coming across as an afterthought under the richly textured instrumentation. (Juno is an exception to this).

While there are a few more hits than misses on ‘When I See You, Ice Cream!’, it can probably be put down to the growing pains of working through a new sound. New single Shadowcat shows their ability to fully commit to this avant-garde sound that’s proposed but never fully executed. More structure is required for their next long-form effort, but that’s something that’s well within their reach.