With a little help from peers like Johnny Moy and Primal Scream, Mainline look like animating the Irish scene with some long overdue black-shades-and-scuzz-rock sleaze.
It’s hot and sweaty nights out ahoy! as LCD Soundsystem mainman James Murphy pays an October DJ visit to Dublin’s Button Factory with DFA pal Pat Mahoney.
In a single decade, Irish electronica and dance music has transformed the national scene. MARK KAVANAGH has been involved from the very beginning, as a DJ, activist, producer and hotpress columnist. Here, he offers a personal take on a long and winding but ultimately fruitful road, and reveals some of the new challenges he ll be undertaking as a DJ, producer and recording artist over the coming 12 months
Richie Egan (Jape) will perform a DJ set this Thursday (December 13) to raise funds for Temple Street and Crumlin's Children's Hospitals. Other acts include Large Mound, Johnny Moy and Hot Press' Mark Kavanagh.
Temple Bar Outdoors announced the launch of the first ever Latin Quarter Festival, which will run over the August Bank Holiday Weekend and features a host of international and local musicians and DJ’s as well as a street carnival experience across Dublin’s Cultural Quarter.
Invisible Armies have just released their killer debut EP, A Neutral Space. Richard Brophy talks to Leo Pearson, one-third of the band s core assault squad.
2003 was a year of reinvention for the Irish dance scene, as dance recession which had been the talk of UK dance mags in 2002 finally had some effect over here.
Spiritualised, The Redneck Manifesto, Redsettaz and Telepopmusic are merely a few of the latest additions to the delightfully overstuffed Witnness '02 bill
QUADROPHONIC diarist DONAL SCANNELL chronicles the Dublin-based collective s recent jaunt around the US of A, and reports that Uncle Sam is currently welcoming drum n bass with open arms. Pic: Bruce Dye
NIALL STANAGE identifies the contenders in the race to put a new youth-oriented radio station on air in Dublin and speaks to FIONA McLOUGHLIN and DONAL SCANNELL, CEO and Head of Music respectively at FUSE FM, one of the applicants.
From Sister Sledge to The Spikes, plus non musical attractions such as massage, fortune-telling and art exhibitions, Castle Palooza promises a festival in the conventional sense of the word.
In a rare interview, DJ, Sabres Of Paradise mainman and all-round geezer andrew weatherall tells stuart clark about why he won t be working with Primal Scream again, comes clean about his Van Morrison obsession, and does his best not to slag off Kula Shaker and Mansun.
Cork is happening enough at the best of times, but when the annual Guinness Jazz Weekend comes around, it's all too much. Where to go? What to do? What hangover cure to concoct? Let KEVIN BARRY show the way.
From A to Z, Paul Nolan and Ronan Fitzgerald introduce all the runners and riders for Punchestown – throwing in a baker’s dozen of acts who are not to be missed * along the way
DAVID HOLMES is about to leave his native Belfast for New York City, where he will record his third album. STUART BAILIE took a final opportunity to speak to the artist also known as Homer. On the agenda: Hollywood soundtracks, rumours of brawling, past glories and future plans.
Pics: MICHAEL TAYLOR.
The Headzinc bus takes the quickest route to destination happiness, no lengthy detours or painfully slow traffic jams permitted, and upon disembarking you’re itching to hop straight back on to enjoy it all over.
New Dublin station Spin FM (103.8) will soon be wrapping up their first day on the air. How did they do? Well, we'll tell ya. Also: "Dublin is a cosmopolitan city," programme director Liam Thompson tells us in this exclusive interview. "We don't need to play it safe. We can afford to take risks."
New Dublin station Spin FM (103.8) will soon be wrapping up its first day on the air. How did they do? Well, we'll tell ya. Also: "Dublin is a cosmopolitan city," programme director Liam Thompson tells us in this exclusive interview. "We don't need to play it safe. We can afford to take risks"
New Dublin station Spin FM (103.8) will soon be wrapping up their first day on the air. How did they do? Well, we'll tell ya. Also: "Dublin is a cosmopolitan city," programme director Liam Thompson tells us in this exclusive interview. "We don't need to play it safe. We can afford to take risks"
Seven hours and ten DJs later, it seems clear at this, the first Smirnoff Experience since the summer break, that dance music is in shockingly good health
One-off clubs, chillout nights, New Year's Eve events and of course gigs, gigs, and more gigs to suit your every mood: hotpress.com picks the very best stuff to do over the holiday
The full lineup for Co. Carlow's Solas festival has been announced, with Autamata, God Is An Astronaut, Kíla and Republic Of Loose among the highlights.
THERE WERE two Irish records in the UK club charts simultaneously for the first time ever recently. As Belfast boy Wand’s remix of Dubliner Kerri Ann’s ‘Do You Love Me Boy’ slipped from number 27 to number 29, Northern duo Agnelli & Nelson crashed straight in at number five.
Cuckoo could be heard all over Ireland and Britain during June and July as the northern band toured the two countries. They’ve just released their new album, Breathing Lessons, but aren’t stopping to catch their breath.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Some readers of this column may be surprised to learn that Judge Jules got one of the biggest cheers during proceedings at the recent BBC1FM One Big Weekend festival in Derry, for opening his set with ‘Teenage Kicks’, the seminal anthem from local heroes The Undertones.
Hey, it was messy out there. Nine evenings of dance music across town. Incessant surprises from DJs and the local dance practitioners. The collective shebang was called Digital Belfest, a development from the rock-tastic Belfest events that take place here on regular occasions.
Planetlove has always represented the best of Irish dance culture. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, the event is going from strength to strength.
Hot Press, in association with ritz, presents the definitive guide to the Irish dance scene, incorporating our regular dance column Digital Beat. Your authoritative host: mark kavanagh.
The final year of the millennium saw dance music reach to more creative, dizzying heights than before. Digital Beat was there every step of the way. Report: Richard Brophy.
Liverpool club Cream has, as expected, announced a major change in their DJ booking policy for 1997. From January the club will be concentrating on resident DJs in its main rooms, and guests will now only occasionally appear in the club’s Courtyard area.
Five years ago no-one would have believed it. But with dance music reaching new heights of popularity, Irish rock ’n’ roll is engaged in a desperate fight for its very survival. Reporting from both sides of the battle line: Stuart Clark
