Quirke

London-based artist Josh Quirke, known by his surname, produces emotionally charged permutations of techno, jungle, and ambient, mixing feelings of ecstasy and melancholy with broken rhythms. After receiving acclaim for his 2014 debut EP, Acid Beth, he maintained a low profile, issuing the occasional EP before releasing his first full-length, Steal a Golden Hail, in 2019. Quirke grew up about 50 miles north of London, in a village called Buckinghamshire. He first started making on his family's instruments, including a Clavinova digital piano. He studied art history at the University of Leeds, and later moved to London. Producing music on his computer nearly every evening, he released his first EP, Acid Beth, on the XL-affiliated imprint Young Turks in 2014, earning praise from publications like Pitchfork and FACT. While Quirke recorded hundreds of tracks, he was highly selective about which ones he decided to release. A white label 12" and an EP for Nic Tasker's Whities label both appeared in 2016, with a second Whities EP following in 2018. After releasing several tracks from his archives throughout 2019, Quirke released full-length debut Steal a Golden Hail, his most complex work yet, through Whities at the end of the year. ~ Paul Simpson