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Neopop is the musical arm of the Neocamp body of work conceived by Irish Artist and Musician Luke Enya Howlin. Borne from a love of Pop Music, Sci-Fi, and Lolz as well the artistic practice of Howlins 2011 Neocamp Network degree show at Irelands prestigious Limerick School of Art & Design (LSAD) Neopop is 10 tracks, culled from a composition period spanning 7 homes, 3 countries, and 2 continents in just under 36 months.
Neopop, as a debut collection of songs, marries both the trial and error of working in a new medium as well as the joyful experimentation of the artist with a new set of materials at their disposal. Beats and sounds that caught Howlins attention and set the creative process in motion gave way to a diverse lyrical output that touches upon his interest in straddling the liminal space between subversion of and assimilation into millennial web culture, the gapand sometimes chasmbetween the sincere and the ironic, and the pastiche of both.
Sonically influenced by the Knife, Enya, M.I.A, and Owen Pallett Neopop continues the path forged by each artist in their creation of rich musical environments that is always hyperaware of the visual. In this, Howlins multifaceted artistic practice also comes in to play, calling to mind the work of Leigh Bowery, Ryan Trecartin, Shana Moulton and Matthew Barney. This intense marriage of sonic landscape and visual otherworldliness is on show in lead single from Neopop, SOZ.
Lyrical inspiration is drawn from the artists personal experiences growing up in a conservative and rural small Irish town. Drawn from outward projections of fear, isolation, and otherness as well a means of implicating a queer heritage and pushing a queer agendainsomuch as the lyrics at times serve as wry observations on contemporary use of ironic, narcissistic and absurd sensibilities and their intersections with traditional camp systemsNeopop can be seen as a call to arms, a rallying call for all listeners to re-examine the markers of present culture that we take for granted and own our place within it, all while the best viral-marketing warehouse rave springs absurdly to life around them.
The Neocamp manifesto is available to view here and may be readily ripped up and reinterpreted at the artists leisure.
Neopop may be streamed: https://soundcloud.com/neocamp/sets/neopop/