Alan Johnson

Alan Johnson is the bastard child venture of UK-based Mancunian locals Gareth Kirby and Tom Neilan.

Born out of similar interests in musical tastes and a step away from solo music production outputs for the pair. The project centres around an anything goes, warp it until it weeps mantra. Paying homage to the attitudes of those who paved an innovative way before them, in direct avoidance of writing or reading rule books. The pair are firmly casting conventions of familiarity aside and promoting atypical methods of sonic delivery.

Their emphasis on tightly controlled dynamics and multi-tonal elements are informed in part by the darker side of a 140 bpm journey of strong influences such as early Tempa, Hessle Audio, Skull Disco and Hemlock to name a few. Moving further into a reference state of existence or inflective nod towards, rather than choosing to carry on where previous 140 bpm instigators boldly trod - in their own words they view their approach as “sending for the past and reaching the future”.

Having spent the last decade making subtle yet solid, mostly dread-wise outings across a series of sporadic EPs and imprints, the Alan Johnson project sees new focus and refinement of sound with 2022’s Stillness EP.

Garnering support across a range of arguably like-minded, curious musical minds from the likes of Four Tet, Noisia, Blawan and Akkord, the future is bright.

The transgressive Alan Johnson sound is here to stay - evolution is inevitable, the only way is fwd.