Eamon Downes, co-founder of UK breakbeat hardcore act Liquid, has died.
Close friend and rave scene peer Billy Daniel Bunter shared the news on X earlier today (21st July), writing: “It’s with heartbreaking sadness that I’m letting the world know we’ve lost Eamon Downes. Devoted husband to Stella, proud dad to Bea and one of my closest friends ever. This one really hurts.”
According to Bunter, Downes, also known as Ame, had been fighting “unbelievably hard” for five years with a brain tumour. “[He] kept bouncing back strong. But eventually the fight was just too much,” Bunter wrote.
Best known for their breakbeat hardcore classic ‘Sweet Harmony’, Liquid were formed by Downes and Shane Heneghan (AKA DJ Model) in 1991, and released that track, which samples CeCe Roger’s ‘Someday’ as a single in 1992 via XL. An updated version of the track went to to No. 14 in the charts in 1995. Heneghan left Liquid after the release of their 1995 EP ‘The Future Music’, which included the track ‘Liquid Is Liquid’.
Downes carried on with Liquid as a solo project through the ’90s, and revived it again in the late 2010s with a string of releases.
Tributes have been paid to the influential artist across social media following the news of his death. Read some of those and remind yourself of the magic of ‘Sweet Harmony’ below.
