Drone Time Podcast #017 | The Kelly Twins

Purveyors of underground electronic music of varying tempos from the past, present and future, Sean and Dan Kelly rank amongst the most respected selectors in Bristol and have been DJing together as The Kelly Twins for the past twenty years; their sets span everything from boogie and disco to electro and classic techno. Sean also works alongside at Chris Farrell at venerable Bristol record store Idle Hands; evidently some of Farrell’s experience running the Idle Hands label has rubbed off on Kelly, as he has decided to dip his toes into the murky waters of label ownership with his brother.

The label, called Happy Skull, sounds like an oxymoron (can you imagine a skull coming from an apocalypse that rather than sharing the pained expression of those around it, had a big grin across its face?!), but represents what those big minds want to do musically: essentially to put out something that stands out, music that incorporates elements of both light and dark, both rough and brooding whilst maintaining a sense of positivity and musicality, and each release on Happy Skull is the demonstration of it. In the last five years they came out with a bunch of fresh or renowned interesting and outstanding artists such as D'Arcangelo, Cosmic Garden, Creta Kano, Andreas Gehm, DJ October, Marco Bernardi and many more, demonstrating that the most important thing is take risks and think outside of the box.

Happy Skull is an extension of an aesthetic made of influences from the things that have inspired/continue to inspire ‘em, such as boogie, disco, italo, Chicago house and Detroit techno, amongst many other things, with the idea to reflect these in a contemporary and tasteful way, nostalgic but still forward thinking, eclectic but with a certain vibe, putting out space music.

That’s exactly of what are made their sets: their DJ sets are pretty encompassing (even it’s quite impossible to be into everything) but are really varied, within the parameters of what they like and what they get a vibe from, regardless of genre or tempo, reaching a point where people don’t expect one particular thing from them.
And it’s absolutely what they made once again: those amazing twins delivered an exclusive one hour and half set just getting inspired by the name of our podcast series. The result is a mix of ambient, downtempo, screwed, after the club business, featuring tracks from Low Jack, O$VMV$M, Rhythmic Theory, Art Of Noise at the wrong speed plus much much more. Stoner business. Basically, not dance floor.

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Drone Time Podcast #017 | The Kelly Twins

South Italy based collective Drone Time was founded in 2015 as an output to give away full-analog-random-weird-gems for free via Bandcamp.

Today, Drone Time is specialized in broadcasting and promoting forefront electronic music, finely selected by passionate artists and creative minds.
We are dedicated to creating a carefully curated platform on which local and international artists and labels can share their work, collaborate and discover new talents.

Manager: @sbamnotfound