Ahead of his appeatrance at Beyond The Valley – Rebūke serves up a special mix for Kisseners.
Fast-rising Irishman is one of the breakout stars of the past 12 months. Tracks such as ‘Along Came Polly’ on Hot Creations (Beatport overall no.1 for 4 weeks), ‘The Pipe’ on dirtybird and his debut on Adam Beyer’s ‘Drumcode’ with ‘Rattle’ have signalled his arrival. His music espouses a fresh take on future-facing house and techno, melded with ‘90s rave influences to create an illusive thing – an original sound of his own.
If you want to arrive with a bang, you can’t do much better than Rebūke. A project forged in the white-hot atmospheres of the Irish underground music scene has ushered in the biggest breakout stars of the last 12 months – and one of the most exciting new artists in years.
Rebūke is a DJ and producer creating something new and genuinely exciting. A soundclash of house, techno and rave (yes, rave) records from the early ‘90s melded together to create that elusive thing – an original sound of his own. An ever present in the Beatport Top 10, he’s established his own ERA parties, kicking off with a sold-out Fall Tour of UK and Ireland across 9 cities, reflecting his huge popularity and the invested fan base he has accrued.
His ‘Rattle’ EP on Adam Beyer’s Drumcode followed both his previous singles into the Beatport Top 10, with ‘Rattle’ commanding the techno charts to boot. Supported heavily by Adam himself, Carl Cox and Pete Tong the EP marks a subtle and exciting shift in Rebūke’s sound, while still keeping the head twisting sonics that instantly identify a Rebūke track.
‘Along Came Polly’ was the game changer. A turbo charged rattlesnake of a track that sounded like nothing else, it signed to Hot Creations and rocketed to the top of the Beatport charts, staying there for a month – including 9 weeks at the top of the tech house charts. It was also 2018’s final Essential New Tune for Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1.
His follow up ‘Jump Ship EP’ on Dirtybird, snapped up by Claude Vonstroke and featuring ‘The Pipe’ topped the Radio 1 Dance Chart for two weeks and again went top 5 on Beatport – widening his fanbase even further and lauded by everyone from Adam Beyer to Diplo, Sven Väth to Fisher. As a result, Danny Howard named him as one of three Future Fire Radio 1 stars for 2019.
Rebūke has been an ever-present on BBC R1 playlists ever since, gaining constant rotation from the likes of Pete Tong, Annie Mac, Danny Howard, Mistajam and Monki – not to mention his own exclusive Hot Mix for Tong himself in February 2019. He’s also appeared live for Radio 1 at both the Rave Lounge in London and Radio 1 Weekender in Ibiza.
On the remix front his version of Xpansions ‘Move Your Body’ on Shadow Child’s Food Music was playlisted across the board on Radio 1 and charted highly on Beatport. Other notable reworks from 2019 include D: Mob’s ‘We Call It Acieed’ and ‘Inside’ from Better Lost Than Stupid, the side project of Martin Buttrich, Davide Squillace and Matthias Tanzmann.
Describing his sound itself is pretty easy for Rebūke. “I love house, techno, and old rave records. I’ve got a deep, almost obsessional interest in the Italian, Belgian and UK records from the early ‘90s and I try to bring that into my productions. It’s really about capturing the dirt and energy of the records of that time and fusing it with modern house and techno that I love too. That’s definitely what appeals to me.”
His DJ career has exploded along similar lines. Already a headline star in his native Ireland he’s put in roof shaking performances at the likes of Techworks (Cork), BD Festival (Wicklow), Life Festival (Westmeath) and a legendary performance at Electric Picnic in Stradbally, which was captured on film in a recent documentary. Club appearances at D8 in Dublin, Shine at The Telegraph Building in Belfast and Jika Jika in Derry have cemented him as one of the most popular names in Ireland.
Further afield he’s playing constantly to a global audience. Warehouse Project (Manchester), Paradise at DC10 (Ibiza), Tomorrowland (Belgium), Annie Mac’s Lost and Found Festival (Malta), Hideout (Croatia), fabric (London), Sound (Los Angeles) and Output (Brooklyn) are among the many venues he’s turned upside down.
And the name Rebūke? “Well its a play on words on my real name which I really liked,” says the man himself. “But it also means ‘to intend to correct a fault’ which appealed to me too because I was getting bored with all the same old tracks I was hearing all the time. I thought It was time to do something about that,” he laughs.
It’s fair to say Rebūke is doing something about it…
