RUNCINATE: AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION — DUBLIN’S UNDERGROUND TECHNO DUO RETURN WITH SEVEN TRACKS OF SONIC DEFIANCE

Following their 2025 EP Silence Between Sirens, the Dublin duo continue pushing deeper into their own corner of Ireland’s underground electronic music landscape, fuelled by a shared obsession with analogue hardware, raw sonic experimentation, uncompromising rhythms and the unmistakable energy of proper warehouse techno. No commercial formulas, no polished industry bullshit, just two producers doing what they’ve always done best: making music on their own terms.

Earlier this year, Iconic Underground Magazine sat down with Burkey and Neil for an exclusive in-depth interview, digging into the friendship, creative chemistry and musical obsession that drive Runcinate. From their earliest experiments with synthesizers in Burkey’s mother’s sitting room, through their original Acidroid project, to their evolution into a fully fledged, hardware-driven techno outfit, their journey has been built on persistence, curiosity and a genuine love of underground electronic music.

While much of today’s electronic music industry seems increasingly obsessed with algorithms, social media engagement and manufactured DJ personalities, these two Dublin heads are far happier spending their Friday nights surrounded by blinking machines, twisting frequencies, experimenting with strange sounds and seeing just how far they can push their equipment before something beautifully unexpected happens.

Runcinate Auditory Discrimination Album

SEVEN TRACKS. ONE UNDERGROUND MINDSET.

Clocking in at approximately 41 minutes, Auditory Discrimination delivers seven original productions: False Signal, Canúint Áitiúil, Harmonic Drift, Hidden Variable, She Throws The Piercing Daggers, Unyielding and the album’s title track.

Even the track titles hint at the duo’s fascination with experimentation, tension and the unexpected. The inclusion of Canúint Áitiúil, Irish for “local dialect”, feels particularly fitting for two Dublin producers who have spent years developing their own musical language rather than borrowing somebody else’s.

At the heart of Runcinate’s sound is a refreshingly hands-on production philosophy. As Burkey and Neil explained during our previous IUM interview, their creative process begins with spontaneous hardware jams rather than meticulously programmed arrangements. Synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers become instruments of exploration, with sounds manipulated, rhythms twisted and ideas developed through live performance.

Those sessions are captured, edited and refined, but the original spontaneity remains central to the process. Both producers must ultimately agree on what deserves to see the light of day, meaning every finished track represents a shared creative decision rather than one individual steering the entire operation.

It’s an approach that embraces the unpredictable, leaving room for those accidental moments of sonic madness that can transform an ordinary sequence into something genuinely distinctive. In an increasingly automated musical landscape, there’s something reassuringly old-school about two mates getting their hands dirty with real machines and allowing the music to evolve naturally.

And that creative philosophy sits at the centre of Auditory Discrimination, a record that, by the duo’s own account, moves between harder driving techno and more experimental territory without abandoning the raw production methods that define Runcinate.

BUILT FOR THE DARK ROOM, NOT THE PHONE SCREEN

One thing that became abundantly clear during our earlier conversation was that Burkey and Neil aren’t simply making techno. They’re deeply connected to the underground culture that shaped it.

Their musical roots stretch back through The Prodigy, the explosion of early rave culture, Dublin’s legendary Redbox era and the massive European techno gatherings that helped shape their understanding of what electronic music could be.

For Runcinate, the underground has never been about fashionable labels or carefully curated social media identities. It’s about the music, the machines, the sound systems and that collective energy generated when a room full of people loses itself in the frequencies.

Dark rooms. Heavy bass. No distractions. No endless sea of phones recording somebody pretending to adjust a mixer for Instagram.

Just the music doing what it’s supposed to do.

That connection to the original spirit of underground electronic music is what makes Runcinate such an interesting part of Dublin’s contemporary techno landscape. They’re not interested in endlessly recycling the past, but neither are they prepared to abandon the attitude and creative freedom that made the culture exciting in the first place.

Instead, they’re taking those influences, feeding them through their own collection of hardware and seeing what emerges on the other side.

With Auditory Discrimination, Runcinate continue that journey, delivering seven new productions that reflect their determination to explore, experiment and develop a sound that belongs entirely to them.

And with the album freshly released, we caught up with the lads once again to dig a little deeper into the thinking behind their latest sonic assault.

Runcinate Auditory Discrimination Studio 2

IUM EXCLUSIVE: RUNCINATE ON PUSHING SONIC BOUNDARIES

Mike Mannix: Your new album Auditory Discrimination feels like a deliberate push into the more experimental, uncompromising edges of underground electronic music. In a scene where so much techno has become increasingly polished, predictable and commercially packaged, how important is it for Runcinate to challenge conventional listening habits, embrace sonic experimentation and create something that genuinely pushes people outside their musical comfort zones?

Runcinate: That’s a great question. We don’t necessarily set out to make experimental music, although we definitely enjoy pushing boundaries and exploring how far we can take a sound. For us, it’s more about the process and the freedom to create something that feels genuinely our own.

We’ve never wanted to sound like anyone else or follow a particular formula. We’ve always wanted to develop our own identity, and we think a lot of that comes naturally from how we work.

We’re very hands-on with our hardware, building tracks organically and capturing them in a single take before editing.

That approach brings a certain rawness and unpredictability to the music, which is something we really value. Not everything has to be perfectly polished or structured.

We also like to challenge ourselves with how much we can bring into a track without losing its direction. Transitions are a big part of that. We might introduce something completely unexpected, shift the atmosphere or take a track somewhere the listener wasn’t anticipating. Those moments are often what make a track interesting to us.

With Auditory Discrimination, we wanted to give ourselves that freedom across the whole record. There are more experimental moments alongside harder, driving techno, but it’s all connected by the same approach to making music.

Ultimately, we’re not trying to be experimental just for the sake of it, or deliberately make music that’s difficult to listen to.

We’re simply making the kind of music we want to hear, in the way we enjoy making it.

 

If that challenges people’s expectations or takes them outside their comfort zones, then that’s a good thing.

NO HYPE. NO FORMULAS. JUST PROPER UNDERGROUND TECHNO.

There’s something genuinely refreshing about Runcinate’s attitude towards making electronic music. Two Dublin mates who have spent years developing their craft, experimenting with hardware and building their own sound without feeling the need to jump aboard every passing techno trend.

Their latest album isn’t presented as some grand reinvention of the genre, nor does it need to be. It’s another chapter in an ongoing creative journey driven by friendship, curiosity and the simple pleasure of making electronic music that excites them.

In an era where underground techno is increasingly packaged, branded and sold back to its own audience as a lifestyle accessory, Runcinate are a reminder that the real creative action still happens behind closed doors, in small studios, surrounded by cables, drum machines, synthesizers and people who genuinely give a damn about the music.

Seven tracks. Two Dublin producers. One uncompromising underground mindset. Mastered by Spooky A12 Audio

Turn up the volume, support independent Irish electronic music and let the machines do the talking.

Mike Mannix | Iconic Underground Magazine

LISTEN, EXPLORE & SUPPORT

New album: Runcinate — Auditory Discrimination on Bandcamp

IUM exclusive: Silence Between Sirens — Inside Runcinate’s Live-Wired Techno Laboratory