Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Art of Algebra is the alias of Jack Hallinan, an electronic music producer hailing from Enniscrone, Co Sligo. It is a project that can tend towards ambient electronica, but Jack is equally comfortable veering into dancier beats and trip-hop. The blend is stretched further on Art of Algebra’s latest release – a collaboration with Afro-Irish MC Breezy iDeyGoke.

The duo released four-track EP A Quantum Trip last month. There is a natural emotional cohesion between them musically. Darker, heavier moments are crafted in the bass and beat, and reflected faithfully in Breezy’s probing, introspective lyrics.

“I’m a big fan of hip hop music, and some of the stuff that I produce is what you might call a hip hop style of production – trip-hoppy or with a breakbeat behind it,” Hallinan says. “When I first put out an album, it was 2019 and I had really toyed with the idea of reaching out to an MC.”

Hallinan assessed the landscape of MCs in Ireland at the time and reached out to Breezy thinking he’d make a good fit for the collaboration.

“We took a track that was on the first album called Indigo, and it has a kind of slow, down tempo beat and lots of atmospheric synths and things,” he says.

“We went into the studio and we made that track, Praying on a Gamble. It came out quite interesting, because it was more of a trip-hop sound in the end. It was closer to Massive Attack or Portishead than some of the stuff I might have expected at the outset.”

Praying on a Gamble, which closes out A Quantum Trip, explores Breezy’s experience of adapting to social and religious norms in Ireland after arriving in the country from Nigeria as a young child.

The track was well received when it was first released in 2019, and the duo made a music video with director Mark Smyth in its aftermath. They had planned on working together again, but the onset of the pandemic put a stop to any momentum. Now, with the EP, the partnership has been revived.

Pictured: Art of Algebra…new EP.