Dublin seems to be experiencing a period of growth at the moment with the announcement of yet another new venue. District 8 is described as a pop-up space and it’s operating from the old Tivoli Theatre complex. It launched with the Dublin City Block Party on the August Bank Holiday Weekend which featured Kerri Chandler, Daphni, DJ Harvey and Flori from Secret Sundays.

In other clubbing news, Dublin's Opium Rooms have announced they will be going weekly on Friday and Saturday nights from September. Ceoltronic has kicked off a Friday residency in Lost Society Basement. It’s essentially an extension of Ceoltronic Radio on RTÉ Pulse/2fm and a testing ground for tracks coming out of my studio each week. Wunderground, the electronic music parody website, have opened their own merchandise and gadget shop in Georges Street Arcade, Dublin called Wunderboxx.
On August 21 Strictly Deep welcome Citizen to Dublin's Twisted Pepper. He's released with 2020 Vision, Ovum, NeedWant and Kerri Chandler’s Madtech label. Citizen first cut his teeth in London’s clubbing scene running a disco night called Glastique. Over time he honed his DJ skills, made the leap into production and musically morphed into one of the fastest-rising talents on the house music circuit.
August 22 sees Gregor Tresher return to Dublin with Melodic. He’s playing in the Grand Social - I feel I should also mention that I will be doing a one-hour performance of original material beforehand. Berlin residents Hunee and Kiki play the Twisted Pepper with MUD that night. Hunee has released with Feel Music, W.T Records, Internasjonal and Retreat. Kiki, who's performing live, initially moved to Germany in 1994 to study architecture. From a chance meeting with Ellen Allien in 2001, he's since become a pivotal member of the BPitch Control family.
On August 23, Berghain resident Ben Klock plays at Crystal Night Club with Re:Publik and Subject. Hidden Agenda host UK house duo Waze & Odyssey in the Button Factory. The pair met over a burger in 2011 and have since grown into one of the most talked-about new electronic music acts. They’ve released with Wolf Music, Let's Play House (NYC), Tsuba and Throne Of Blood in addition to remixing for Duke Dumont and T.E.E.D.
Subject host Berghain and Panorama Bar resident Tama Sumo in the Twisted Pepper. Tama started out in 1993 in a bar called Drama in Kreuzberg in Berlin. It was one of the few locations pushing house instead of techno at the time. In 1997 she became a resident in Globus (Tresor) which is where she began to blur the lines between the aforementioned genres. In 2001 she began playing regularly at the Aliens parties in the old OstGut. Towards the end of 2004 she became a resident at Panorama bar and later Berghain.
Jika Jika! have John Digweed and Ivan Smagghe playing in Tooban in Donegal on August 23. Bedrock label boss Digweed hardly needs any introduction in Ireland. Ivan Smagghe is without doubt one of the best DJs I have ever seen. Check out his five-hour sets if you can.
On the production front; Dynamo Recordings released their End Of Summer compilation featuring Ronan Teague, Kleber and Fractious on August 18. On the same day Loco & Jam released their Restrictor EP on Markantonio’s AnalyticTrail imprint. Sian’s label Octopus Black have an EP on the way from Paul Strive featuring a remix from 2000 and One. I recently signed another three tracks to Dutch label Patterns who have released tracks by Ben Simms, Joris Voorn, Marko Nastic and Mark Broom.