Max HeyraudWe spoke to Berlin-based conceptual techno collective Uaimh na gCat ahead of their debut at Racket Space on the 7th of Febuaray, where they’ll showcase their self-titled EP. The release blends the industrial edge of techno with the rich tapestry of traditional Irish music and culture, creating a surprisingly cohesive, dancefloor-ready package that also delves deep into their heritage.
Uaimh na gCat is the brainchild of Ciarán Mac an Bháird (formerly of Anti Social Acid Club) and Rónán Ó Deaghaidh, a duo forged on the dancefloors of Ireland before making the move to Berlin. Bonding over a shared love for Ireland’s rich musical heritage, it was only natural that their Berlin influences would eventually merge with the percussive groove woven into the fabric of Irish traditional music.
Teaming up with Stephen Tubridy (Three Summers), they’ve carved out a sound that blends deep, murky, hypnotic techno with grungier elements of punk and The Prodigy, seamlessly interwoven with traditional Irish motifs. While this sounds like it should in no way shape or from work, it absolutely does. They’ve coined their disjointed yet cohesive collision of sounds and cultures as “spooky cave music for summoning deities.”
Their debut release, UNG001, is a raw, high-intensity statement—pagan rhythms colliding with overdriven 909 bass drums and eerie soundscapes, a sonic exploration that feels deeply connected to home and ancestry while simultaneously hurling every preconception about Irish music straight into the bosca bruscair.
Your Instagram bio is titled “Irish Cave Music, is that how you would describe what you’re doing?
Ah to be honest, no. We were just looking for a short and sweet tagline there. The overarching concept of what we’re trying to do is to celebrate and spread the Irish language and indeed wider culture and history of Ireland through electronic music. And then secondly I guess we just wanted to make some tunes that reflected the types of music we love and that we could stand by.
Where did the idea for the project come from? It’s pretty experimental, and sometimes these things don’t really translate to techno that works on a dancefloor, but this really does.
Ah thank you very much, that’s great to hear. So originally we just wanted to spin wax and then maybe make some good tunes. During the COVID lockdown, we decided to move to Berlin to get involved with the scene there and pursue these goals. We started doing a few bits here and there but the end result was never anything special. There was always something lacking, always felt a bit soulless or something. A tune just for the sake of it type of job. And at this time we didn’t know each other too well, it was only after living together for a while that we realised we had a shared interest in the Irish language and Irish culture and history in general. So basically looking for inspiration we turned to our background and history and there we focused on the folklore surrounding pre-Christian Celtic mythology and in particular An Rúraíocht (the Ulster Cycle).
You guys are living in Berlin, do you think your time there has influenced the project, alongside the thread of Irishness that runs through it?
Absolutely. Moving abroad in general is amazing for opening your mind and expanding your horizons and then in somewhere like Berlin, this incredibly diverse cultural mixing pot, you see and meet people from all over the world and there ya begin to notice all the variations and characteristics of different cultures and how much it relates to someone and their identity. And in particular, with regards to language, it wasn’t until Berlin, when we were sat sitting with a big group of friends from all over speaking with each other in Spanish, French, Arabic or whatever that ya realise, hang on a second, we have our own language and an incredibly beautiful and rich one at that, why the fuck are we here speaking English? Like there’s nothing wrong with English and we do it good in Ireland but there’s so much value and worth in having your own language and it’s so incredible to me that it took having to move abroad, away from home to appreciate something which we see as a chore or an afterthought growing up in Ireland a lot of the time.
Can you give us some insight into the name “Uaimh na gCat”?
So Uaimh na gCat (Oweynagat in English) is the name of a cave in Roscommon that we ended up focussing on as a concept for a label and EP. It is featured in the Ulster Cycle branch of Irish mythology and is located under one of the five ancient royal sites of Ireland at Cruachán. It is said that the goddess of fate, the Mórrígan lives in the cave and that the cave itself is a gateway to the Otherworld, through which winter envelopes the land during Samhain at the end of the summer. We love spooky shit, so this was perfect.
How do you go about sampling for a project like this? Are you gathering them over time with an idea of how to use them, or are you searching in real time and experimenting—or a mix of both?
A bit of both. I have playlists of random stuff on YouTube and Spotify that I collect over time, but there’s also an awful lot of more purposeful sampling. In general, we use a lot of samples from Irish artists and musicians throughout. Again focusing on and celebrating Irish culture. Then some are used very intentionally to create a certain vibe or feeling. For example, there’s a crocodile sample in Uaimh na gCat to give it that really mean organic vibe, the waves at the start of Mag Muirthemne recorded in Cúailgne near Dundalk to pay homage to the land and then ya can’t bate the toy show for the winter/Christmas vibe on Comhrá an Gheimhridh.
You’ve often started social media posts with “everyone has an intrinsic sense of rhythm”—can you expand on that and explain how it relates to the project?
So that just relates to the sort of primal concept around the project. We were talking about what we liked about techno and at its core was just sick rhythms and beats. Drumming and percussion is likely the first form of music humans ever created apart from the voice and we’ve been dancing to rhythms and beats for thousands of years ever since. Everyone has a sense of rhythm. When you hear a beat you can’t help but tap your foot or bob your head. It’s undeniable.
Have you been making connections between Ireland’s relationship with dance, percussive music, and techno during this time?
I guess one thing we’ve noticed, having experienced the techno scene in Ireland, Berlin, and beyond, is that there is a very definite buzz or vibe around Irish events. You could say it may be linked to traditional Irish music at sessions and céilis, where the music is high-energy and fast-paced—good-time music that makes you dance. Or maybe it’s just the opening hours. If you’re only open for four hours, you may as well give it dixie.
You’re playing in Racket Space this Friday—how are you approaching the set? Will it be live, DJing, or playing the record in full, how’s it going down?
We’ll be playing a vinyl set of tunes we like with the EP showing up here and there. Another big goal we had setting out was to press the EP to wax as we both have a big love for the medium and the style of mixing that comes with it.
Can you tell us a bit more about the lineup? What do they bring to the table, and how do they fit into this project?
We can’t reveal too much but we’re buzzing to be collaborating with inHabit on the event and we’re intrigued to see what Boycott Alias and modh bring.
If you could leave us with one final message, to sum up why you’re doing this, what would it be?
Do ghrá an cheoil agus ghrá na tíre.
