PH (Pete Hamilton) Slow Ballet

The Second of these last PY 45s sees a lovely 5 track 7” EP from Irish minimal synth musician ph (Pete Hamilton), with 5 tracks from his (finally) acclaimed rich body of work in electronic music. From Dublin, Ireland, in 1982, ph emerged from the demise of the peridots (lower case p) that previously had arisen from the ashes of Modern Heirs, who first played live in 1978 with Pete Hamilton and ex-Radiators (from Space) Steve Rapid, sharing a bill with an early U2. The band line-ups in the small Dublin scene were fluid, as were the band names, becoming the peridots in 1981 with Steve Hamilton and Stan Erraught and during a brief period with drummer Pat Larkin (The Blades). In 1983 Steve would leave to form Stars of Heaven. Subsequently, ph was mostly Pete Hamilton with passing members Pat Larkin and Des O'Byrne. peridots released a single “Open Season”, on the Optional Good label in 1981. But it wasn’t until 2012 that peridots and ph appeared again on a vinyl release, on the compilation “Strange Passion: Explorations In Irish Post Punk DIY And Electronic Music 1980-1983”. In 2015, Manufactured Desire Records (Barcelona) began a series of limited releases on cassette, and very limited art editions on lathe cut vinyl, including ‘Slow Ballet’ (ph), ‘Precious Blood’ (peridots), ‘Chrome’ (ph), ‘Later that same day’ (peridots) and culminating in 2017 with a 5 cassette, 48 track, box set, “Pete Hamilton Anthology” described as a treasure-trove of classic minimal synth from early ‘80s Ireland, filled with growling analogue synths, hugely catchy melodies, striking punchlines and beautifully atmospheric minimal electronic music. Sadly, Hamilton gave it all up in 1984, overwhelmed by the underwhelming response from a public who would take many decades and a renewed interest in early 80’s minimal electronic music scene, before finally beginning to appreciate the beauty of his music. Polytechnic Youth hopes to do its bit in either furthering that rediscovery programme or perhaps act as a first time introduction to ph’s music. A pressing of 250 copies in PY’s BBC Library inspired tracing paper bags. Massively recommended to all minimal synth nuts, early mute, Transparent Illusion, Futurisk, Neural circus et al….