The first great dance music festival of the summer, LIFE, took place in Ballinlough, County Meath, over the June Bank Holiday. Highlights included sets from bad boy Goldie, Green Velvet aka Cajmere and dubstep’s major player, Caspa. The festival also had a lot of local talent with Jackit DJs and Don Rosco participating…Here’s hoping the rest of the year’s major dance events are as banging...

Barcelona’s electronic music festival, Sonar, runs June 18-20 with DJ sets, visual installations and more electronic music than you can handle, all against the backdrop of Gaudi’s architecture and a breathtaking city beach. Acts to watch out for include Moderat of BPitch Control in Berlin, Spy regulars Crookers, Deadmau5 (pictured), who comes to Spain having played a stonking set at Limerick’s Trinity Rooms.
Waving the flag for Ireland at Sonar will be Germany-based Dubliner Mano Le Tough who performs live on the RBMA stage. But there’s no need to jet to Espana to catch him – he’s also DJing at the Oxegen festival in July.
Two legends for the price of one is the deal on Saturday June 27 as David Holmes and his evergreen mate Andrew Weatherall rock the Spiegeltent as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival. Tickets are €25. Holmer has also assembled the soundtrack for new Northern Irish movie Cherrybomb. It’s an all-local,predominantly rock cast, which includes Cashier No. 9, Robyn G. Shiels, Twinkranes and The Vendetta Suite.
We’re also counting the days until June 27 when Baltimore DJ and producer Alex Epton, alias XXXChange, descends on the Dublin Button Factory as part of their Transmission night. With Beck, Thom Yorke and Lady Sovereign among those he’s remixed, it should be a highly eclectic affair. Check out some of his creations at www.myspace.com/xxxchange.
Arveene & Misk have been a busy pair after hooking up with Dublin’s Darklight Festival to run a competition to create the video for their latest release, ‘Hells Bells’. The promo will screen in August while the single has just dropped on Beatport. The track has also been picked up for a forthcoming Global Underground album.
Misk is, of course, one half of Ireland’s breakbeat electro maestros, Splitloop, who are releasing two double A-sides on their label Against The Grain, entitled ‘Side To Side’ and ‘Ghetto UK’. They’ll be available exclusively on Beatport in July and August.
Power FM, Dublin’s longest running electronic and alternative music station, has completed a ten-week tenporary licence run on 99.5 Mhz. The good news is that service will remain online at www.powerfm.org. The station’s Stephen Egri is also making his name as a party organiser in London – his Phone events at Jam in Shoreditch offer a manic mash-up of soul, funk and disco.
Subject Events are going non-stop at the moment with a slew of gigs under their belt over the June Bank Holiday weekend and a joint venture with One Track Presents on June 27 at Zoo Club in Kilkenny. Early ‘90s hardcore breakbeat rave heroes Altern–8 receive support on the night from Eddie Galavan and Martin Whelan of Choice Kollektiv.
Galway’s house deviants the Disconauts are jamming them to the rafters with their twice monthly club night in Galway at Deeper (formerly the Cellar Underground). Most recently the legendary Charles Webster came to town and tore the club apart with his choice selections.
See Disconauts live on Saturday June 27 with Padraic and Keith on deck duties, Mark Logan supplying live Latin percussion and the sweet sax sounds of Steve Hamilton.
The boys have a special weekend lined up for the end of the Galway Arts Festival on Saturday July 25. The Disco heads welcome the sublime DJ talents of Zurich’s Lexx (aka Kawabata from Drumpoet Community) to the wild west.
August’s Kilkenny Arts Festival features Mathew Nolan of 3epkano curating the Wired section at the event, which is now in its 36th year. One unusual act to see will be the electronic quartet Amiina from Iceland, a four-woman collective with a penchant for making contemporary classical, ambient and electronic loops…

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