Dylan released his debut album RECORD produced by Jimmy Eadie (Jape, We Cut Corners, David Kitt) in May 2012 and launched himself onto the music scene with a series of 10 performances at the Cork Midsummer Festival. This unique live-show featuring actors and musicians received rave reviews and went on to tour to the Dublin Theatre Festival in October.
According to The Examiner "the pick of this bunch of new releases is theatre-maker Dylan Tighe’s debut Record, an album snatched from the swirling waters of mental illness. Launched with a theatre production of the same name as part of Cork Midsummer Festival, it opens the listener to an immediate and raw internal world. "You don’t know what I’ve suffered, you don’t know what I’ve seen," Tighe tells us in ‘Opus.’
In a time when the reality of mental illness is more and more in the public consciousness, Tighe’s album makes for enlightening listening. Opening with a grimly ironic drum roll, the first track is named after Lamotrigine, a so-called ‘mood-stabiliser’ anti-convulsant used to medicate bi-polar depressives.
"To give the mind to chemistry, to numb it to the truth, hurts more than the bitter feeling that joy is but a fluke," sings Tighe. "Mouth as dry as chalk, I read the list of side-effects, convinced I have them all."
No doubt, the album is dark. However, producer Jimmy Eadie — who has previously worked with Jape and Si Schroeder — brings an edgy groove and broad electronic palette to the mix. This, coupled with great performances from Tighe himself on vocals and guitar, as well as from Seán Mac Erlaine on horns and woodwinds and Conor Murray on drums, ensures that Record makes for riveting listening"
Dylan's recent gig as part of the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival was voted by State.ie as one of the top 25 gigs of the entire 3 day festival. The review went on to say:
"By far one of the most intriguing performers at this year’s festival, Tighe performs an absolutely show-stopping set to a packed and somewhat unguarded audience. His soul-searching lyrics and voice combine to staggering effect and he delivers one of the performances of the weekend when clearly very few knew what to expect.
As the pre-gig din loses its viscosity Tighe’s voice is as hushed as it is strong and before long the place is enthralled by him. His running musical theme is mental illness and rather than it become something best examined as shorn memories.
Tighe is examining it through music and generates atmosphere with minimal effort. As such, his lyrics are sometimes unsettling but never anything less than remarkable.
As far as comparisons go, a stripped back and darker Edwin Collins would be a start, likewise Richard Hawley, but Dylan Tighe should be heard and experienced with an open mind because based on this, the element of surprise is one of his best weapons"
RECORD is a collection of songs that fuses indelible melodies and philosophical lyrics with a voice of timeless power. The songs, delivered with radical honesty, spring from Dylan’s personal history of mental health diagnoses, treatment and experience, and examine the impact of depression on life and love.
Fusing melancholic vocal lines with a richly layered sound-world of Hammond organs, stylophones, guitars, synths, samples, clarinets and brass, the 10 tracks of RECORD are intimate snapshots of a past filtered through emotional distress, medication, and a search for meaning.
The 10 songs of RECORD transform doomed love, mental torment, failure and disappointment into hymns to comfort the soul.
A special limited edition vinyl was also released to coincide with the cycle of gigs at the Dublin Theatre Festival in October.
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