Word Up Collective

Katie Laffan An extraordinary Dublin artist yet to turn twenty years old (she made her live debut as a drummer at the age of thirteen), Katie Laffan has used a bedroom studio, her grandad’s old keyboard, a laptop, instruments and €99 mic to create a sound drawn on a range of musical styles - from funk and modern pop to reggae and ska, post-punk and even a bit of hip-hop. Combining a unique voice with her skills on drums, guitar, ukulele and keyboards, this approach has resulted in debut EP Dead As Disco – so named because most of her favourite genres are considered dead and buried. "In spirit, Laffan sounds like an Irish take on Lily Allen's bolshy style..." Irish Times Anti-One Anti-One is a rapper, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Dublin. A jack of all trades, he's been compared to the likes of B. Dolan, Sage Francis, Kendrick Lamar, Doomtree and Kanye West, with comparisons to Beck often thrown in. More recently, his new EP Alice has been noted for a wealth of influences, from modern trap to '90s rave and house music. Craft Work Craft Work is the latest project from Belfast-based producer & vocalist Chris Ryan, pairing sampled recordings of classical repertoire with a barked vocal. Sampling recordings as disparate as Messaien's 'Quartet for the End of Time' and the world music album 'Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, the result sits within the realm of hip-hop, but truly has its own sonic blueprint. Performing live in the middle of the dance-floor of venues through the use of wireless networking via a mobile handset, Craft Work shows employ an improvisation and interactivity that toys with the notion of live electronic performance, taking more influence from hardcore and experimentalism than club culture. "My new favourite genius." - Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 A Dublin based collective of like-minded souls working in hip-hop, spoken word, R&B, rap, pop and related genres.