German dance music may be characterised by the likes of Paul Van Dyk, Sven Vath and Hardfloor, but the country has always boasted an underground
alternative. Richard Brophy talks to one of its main proponents, Pole.
End of the millennium psychosis techno? Political partying house? Dance music with a social conscience and a sense of humour ? If you re looking for all of the above, then look no further than Green Velvet s new LP, Constant Chaos . On the soapbox: Richard Brophy.
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
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.
Under the X-Press 2, Ballistic Brothers, Black Jazz Chronicles and Black Science Orchestra guises, Ashley Beedle has been responsible for all manner of funky, soulful dance music. Now he s gone and put together Influences, an album that documents his twenty-year-long obsession with music. Words: Richard Brophy.
Funk, Disco, Breakbeat and a testicle-admiring Gary Numan. All this - and more - is to be found on the new Plump DJs album. Ronan Fitzgerald meets the Glaswegian dance mavericks.
Disco house and electro are credible dance music flavours, but Les Rythmes Digitales Jacques Le Cont has nonetheless been slated for his love affair with the 80s. In an exclusive interview with Digital Beat, Le Cont defends his musical passions.
Ian Pooley s third album, Since Then, is his finest to date. It s also potential crossover material, but that doesn t make any difference to one of house music s most gifted producers. Richard Brophy investigates
James Zabiela was spinning tunes in his bedroom when he won a Djing competition. Before he knew it, he was opening for Sasha and helping to save dance music.
For a man with 200 production credits to his various aliases, chris cowie is still relatively unknown. this is all set to change with the release of his best behaviour compilation. richard brophy meets the man of many monikers
Now that minimal techno has become a trendy cliché, it’s time for the cutting edge of dance music to find a new direction. Trentemoller has pointed the way with a compelling new album.
Derrick May is often referred to as The Godfather , The Legend and The Innovator , the creator of dance music s most magical moments. But does he really prefer trainers and jeans to Versace and Patrick Cox? Richard Brophy goes beyond the exterior.
He s only twenty three years old, but rest assured you ll be hearing a lot more about DJ Hyper in the not too distant future. Richard Brophy profiles one of the newest faces on the break beat scene.
They may be about as prolific as giant pandas, but now the waiting is over. The mighty LEFTFIELD are back with their first new material in almost five years - the new album Rhythm And Stealth - and it looks set to have the same genre-redefining impact as their debut long-player Leftism. BARRY GLENDENNING talks to mainman PAUL DALEY about media critics, professional jealousy, John Lydon, banned videos and that Guinness ad.
Annual article: Phil Kieran and DJ Papillion were two of the outstanding names in a fantastic year for dance music, says Mark Kavanagh. Plus the dance charts of 2005.
Or how a short-term model, aspiring novelist and Indie kitten became a sophisti-cat and lived to twitch her tale. Peter Murphy meets the multi-layered Sophie Ellis Bextor
Backstage at Creamfields, JOHN WALSHE talks to FATBOY SLIM about the joys of fatherhood, being one half of the posh and becks of the chemical generation; sharing a hot-tub with Baz Luhrman and how he got Christopher Walken to tap-dance
While Ireland's club scene is often praised, sometimes excessively, there is no parallel between the standard of Irish nightlife and the quality of indigenous dance music production.
In the increasingly bland, one-dimensional world of dance music there’s nothing better than discovering that the renegade, maverick spirit still exists.
If you thought German dance music alternated between tops off Teutonic trance and willfully obscure experimental electronic music, then think again as DJ Hell takes to the controls for the second mix CD from legendary techno club FUSE.
The Queen of re-invention is at it again, and this time it’s all about dance music. Co-produced and co-written by Stuart ‘Les Rhythmes Digital’ Price, this album is a creative leap into ‘future disco’ that captures the thrill of the iconic superstar’s earlier hits.
De Costa drops more broken beat, stripped-back techno: there’s the busy, glitchy lead track ‘Coxtone’ and the combination of groovy bass and clicky beats on ‘Lazy Monday’, which consolidate Noir’s reputation for making dance music from the outer limits.
My My member Lee Jones delivers a tune that will warm even the hardest heart. ‘There Comes…’ is a melodic, tripped out groove that references UR in space techno mode and Larry Heard in well, Larry Heard mode, which is as far out as dance music gets.
What happens when trip-hop producers stop making credible dance music? On the evidence of James Lavelle’s new Unkle album, they start churning out radio-friendly rock music.
We should always make room in our lives for a bunch of eccentric Brazilians peddling their own brand of down and dirty dance music, and just because CSS happened to pop up first doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t give Bonde Do Role a bash. Their own particular remit is a mad take on funk carioca, the sound of Rio De Janeiro’s shanty towns, and one that mixes old skool hip-hop with punishing electro (courtesy of M.I.A. collaborator Diplo) and comically dirty shout-rapped Portuguese lyrics. Solta O Frango translates as Release The Chickens, which is all you need to know.
Perhaps I’m placing too many expectations upon the nine tracks that made the final cut, but suffice it to say that were it not for nostalgic value, this might well have been the album the discography forgot. Die-hard fans might well be appeased but for anyone seeking cutting edge, grab-you-by-the-cochlea dance music, then you won’t find it in this release.
Coldcut have been around since the dawn of dance music and, while they have a propensity to dabble in dull multimedia ‘projects’, this new album resonates on a number of levels.
Sound Mirrors has crossover potential, with the bluesy vocals of ‘Man In A Garage’ and the orchestral ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes’ outdoing Air or Zero.
More importantly though, Coldcut are sick of electronic music’s inability to make political statements: Mirrors rails against corrupt international aid agencies on ‘Aid Dealer’, and the senseless destruction of the environment on the old school house-pianos-meets-jungle bass of ‘Island Earth’. They are right-on, tree-hugging hippies, but these days, we need Coldcut more than ever.
Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge are widely credited for making dance music that indie kids can groove to. Their last album Melody AM, and especially the hit singles ‘Poor Leno’ and ‘Eple’, saw the Norwegian duo heralded as the future of ‘intelligent’ dance.
Cast your mind back a year to the release of Warm Leatherette, one of 1980's most misunderstood albums. The critics who scoffed, were looking at the intriguingly ridiculous cover rather than listening to the hot and heavy dance music on the record.
I don't know whether the labyrinthine beauty and complexity of contemporary dance music has trained my ear into high expectations, but nowadays rock, pop and punk has to be top class for me to find it remotely interesting. And I'm afraid this latest offering from Green Day – their first album in three years – just doesn't cut the mustard.
In an unusually frank interview, Dave Clarke talks legal wrangles, crap trance, techno survivalism and government sponsored drug conspiracies. Richard Brophy listens in amazement.
If anyone's going to represent the break beat scene in all its various hues and shapes then it's Rennie Pilgrem. After all, the TCR boss has been involved in breakbeat driven dance music since day one, releasing hardcore bombs like 'Comin' On Strong'.
Despite his qualifications, Selected isn't a brand new artist album, but a collection of his finest moments to date.
Dance music far too often falls into one of two extreme camps - either anal-retentive 'underground values, maaan' or else cheesy, commercial Ibiza-anthems hell.
It's been half a decade since Robert Hood's first Nighttime World installment. In the interim, the minimal sound the former UR member pioneered on benchmark releases like 'Minimal Nation' and 'Internal Empire' has been squeezed dry of all innovation by hordes of copyists, but the jazzy, musical leanings on Nighttime World are still relevant to forward thinking dance music.
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
SO YOU reckon dance music is dull, repetitive and only marginally more fun to listen to outside of a club environment than a Black & Decker power drill.
Well, if 2 Unlimited and their thousand zillion beat per minute chums are your yardstick, I'd have to agree.
SO YOU reckon dance music is dull, repetitive and only marginally more fun to listen to outside of a club environment than a Black & Decker power drill.
Well, if 2 Unlimited and their thousand zillion beat per minute chums are your yardstick, I'd have to agree.
More than Leftfield, more than Underworld, it was Orbital that managed to translate dance music into a form acceptable to studious (ale drinking) big brothers all over the land
To most clubbers Smirnoff Experience has become synonymous with cutting edge club-nights all around Ireland, representing house, progressive, trance and, tonight, the harder end of dance music
Trent Reznor’s working in the wrong field: he makes gothic metal records, with nods to electronic dance music and IDM. He should be making electronic/IDM records, with (perhaps) the occasional shade of heavy metal.
Basement Jaxx have never been purveyors of any kind of pigeon-hole dance music. From early excursions like the ragga-influenced ‘Flylife’ to the anthemic Latin groove ‘Samba Magic’ and especially on the 1999 album Remedy, they’ve always experimented with a varying array of styles and steals.
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.
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
KMLA ARE a band who have no difficulty articulating a vision and a sound that?s at one and the same time intrinsically Irish yet insistent in glancing outward at the shapes and colours of music from all over the globe. Rossa O?Snodaigh, one of Kmla?s main movers and shakers sees roots music?s popularity as an inevitable result of the disillusionment with pop and rock formats.
MARK KAVANAGH reports on the continuing controversy over the awarding of Dublin's dance radio licence, while, below, EAMON SWEENEY, looks at the still- vibrant world of pirate broadcasting.
David bickley, aka Mobius of hyper[borea], tells Olaf Tyaransen about dance music as gaeilge, Bronze Age atmospheres and how he came to throw his Hot Press Award off a cliff.
Noko, squadron leader of dance cosmonauts Apollo 440 talks about his new album Millennium Fever and the small matter of what the universe will be like in the year 2,000. Ground control: John Collins
Swayzak continue to be refreshingly out of step with dancefloor norms. Richard Brophy hears about the duo’s latest offering – club grooves for your sitting room
As the summer festival season goes into overdrive, Richard Brophy talks to Slam's Stuart Mc Millan about his involvement in the T in the Park knees up in Scotland next month.
Having scored huge chart success with the dance anthem ‘Maniac’, acclaimed Irish DJ Mark McCabe is now broadening his musical horizons with his intriguing debut album, Music From The Fourth Place.
DONAL SCANNELL of Quadrophonic Records responds to a recent Phantom item
which criticised his late now departed Insomnia show on the former Radio Ireland.
Operating in the interstice where Sonic Youth meet the Jackson 5, Brighton dance-rock outfit The Go! Team are deservedly brewing up a storm with their debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike.
Sliabh Notes are a trio of renowned traditional musicians who play dance music that long preceded the breed that flourishes these days in the club scene. Siobhan Long pays a visit to them in the best place possible to hear the music: a wedding reception in Kerry.
Earlier this year, the dance music community was shocked by the sudden departure of Darren Emerson from Underworld. However, the band continues to blossom, embracing new technologies and ideas to remain at the forefront of electronic music. Richard Brophy catches up with Rick Smith to find out more.
Unofficial curator of the New York club scene and head of a creative emporium many have described as a contemporary version of Warhol’s factory, LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy is rapidly emerging as one of the biggest players in the U.S. underground. He tells Barry O’Donoghue how it happened
Gaspard Augé of acclaimed electro duo Justice on the group’s stunning live performances, upstaging Kanye West and putting the humour back into dance music.
One of the highlights of this year's Witnness festival Basement Jaxx drop hints about their forthcoming third album, explain why Brixton is so important to their sound and preview the live show
It s taken ten years, but AGNELLI & NELSON have finally made it to the top of the DJ pile with their Hudson St. album. COLIN CARBERRY meets the Ulster dance merchants whose superstar fans include U2
So famous in Chicago that they've named a day after him, Frankie Knuckles has used his position as the world's top house DJ to highlight the cause of people living with HIV.
While the likes of Cream and Ministry Of Sound have struggled, Belfast superclub Shine continues to go from strength to strength. Barry O’Donoghue reports on one of Irish dance’s big success stories
Pete Tong has long been one of the most influential figures in contemporary dance. His latest project sees him joining Heineken in their search for new djs, via the Heineken Thirst Extravaganza.
Leaving behind his desk job, Paul Oakenfold has enlisted a galaxy of stars to perform vocal duties on hs new album Bunkka including Tricky, Nelly Furtado and, uh,
Hunter S. Thompson
The end may indeed be nigh for discos and dance clubs in Ireland, with the Government s proposed changes to licensing legislation putting over 10,000 jobs and 650 businesses at risk. Mark Kavanagh reports.
The debut solo album from Moloko singer Roisin Murphy embraces the avant-garde end of dance music. But it's still a great pop record. Interview by Peter Murphy.
Annie Nightingale on BBC Radio One is Dance Music s fixture for insomniac clubbers. But for the BBC s first-ever female DJ this is just the latest incarnation of a career that began, sort-of, by insulting John Lennon. ANDY DARLINGTON reads the book, sits in on the show, and even finds time for an interview.
Phuture are the creators of 'Acid Trax', and the people who introduced the Roland 303 'acid box' to the music world. They are arguably one of the most influential groups ever. So why are they still doing day jobs? Richard Brophy talks to original member Spanky and new addition Professor Trax, and reports on a travesty of justice in the dance world.
New York house DJ/producer Junior Sanchez has joined forces with Dutch techno prodigy Laidback Luke to create Riot Society’s impressive ‘Understand Me’.
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.
and didn’t like what he saw... Fatboy Slim tells Stuart Clark about an encounter with Man Utd so unpleasant that even Zoe Ball is thinking of switching her allegiance to Brighton. Plus: the highs of Normstock and the lows of So Solid Crew
As the Creamfields dance juggernaut heads towards Punchestown we catch up with the carnvial at Prague in the Czech Republic and offer a preview of what’s to come
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.
Was the recent court ruling by a district judge in Galway demanding compliance to a 45-minute dinner break in the city s nightclubs on the eve of the Heineken Weekender a coincidence, a well-thought-out publicity stunt by the local Gardam, or an attempt to crack down on Galway s dance scene? Richard Brophy examines a puzzling amendment to Ireland s licensing laws.
Resistance Isn't Futile
EAMON SWEENEY reports on Detroit's pivotal Underground Resistance label, and the controversy ignited when Sony released a 'cover version' of one of the label's best-known tracks.
He’s collaborated with Bono, Mick Jagger, and Destiny’s Child, hung out with Bill Clinton and co-wrote the biggest selling rap album of all time. but that’s only the beginning. The multi-talented Wyclef Jean here discusses George W. Bush, the death of his father and why Michael Jackson might not be such a strange guy after all
Colin Dale has had a long and impressive career. His love for music and his talent have cut through the dance scene s rampant egos and petty policking. He spoke to Richard Brophy
Falling snow, falling bodies and equipment, and music to fall in love with: it’s Australian mod-disco anarcho-samplers THE AVALANCHES. Text: KIM PORCELLI
Unwilling to remain confined in a drum'n'bass pigeonhole, Justice, aka Tony Bowes makes music that straddles all modern electronic genres. Richard Brophy caught up with him prior to the release of his fourth album, Hears To the Future, to find out why he's become disillusioned with jungle.
May 2nd 1998, Liverpool superclub CREAM make their first foray into the festival world with their star-studded Creamfields all-dayer.
RICHARD BLAGGER BROPHY talks to Cream promoter JAMES BARTON about the event.
These words of wisdom belong to jim kerr, a working-class boy from Glasgow who proved that he was as good at scamming it as the next man. Now he's back for one more shot with the new Simple Minds album Neapolis. Interview: colm o'hare.
With the first in a series of Tortured mix CDs, Tortured Chambers, highlighting nu-skool European techno producers like Umek, Joel Mull and Adam Beyer, RICHARD BROPHY caught up with one of the hardest working, genuine nice guys in dance music, Billy Nasty
Norman Jay may have been accused of pandering to the establishment when he accepted an MBE – but he’s still fired by a love of the underground, and a desire to change things.
Radio has studiously ignored it but that doesn’t mean that Republic Of Loose’s ‘Girl i’m gonna fuck you up’ isn’t the best Irish single of the year. Tanya Sweeney meets the Dublin boys who just want to have fun.
Radio has studiously ignored it but that doesn’t mean that Republic Of Loose’s ‘girl i’m gonna fuck you up’ isn’t the best Irish single of the year. Tanya Sweeney meets the Dublin boys who just want to have fun.
Radio has studiously ignored it but that doesn’t mean that Republic Of Loose’s ‘Girl i’m gonna fuck you up’ isn’t the best Irish single of the year. Tanya Sweeney meets the Dublin boys who just want to have fun.
“There’s still nothing like the sound of a fat four/four kick drum on a great sound system,” say UK house merchants Futureshock, and Barry O’Donoghue isn’t about to disagree with them.
The most exciting merger of rock and dance since the heyday of The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream – meet The Rapture. Words Paul Nolan
He’s been the artist to watch for years in Belfast, with a critically acclaimed David Holmes collaboration one of his many achievements. Now Phil Kieran is finally getting around to releasing an album. He talks to Colin Carberry about the long journey from drawing board to completion.
The taut, stripped-down techno of Berlin's Get Physical is at the bleeding edge of contemporary dance music. Now the label has released its first mix album.
As soul-pop heavyweights M People gear up for another assault on the charts and a brief Irish tour, Nick Kelly shoots the breeze with their well-travelled Mancunian music maestro, Mike Pickering.
The star-spangled story of how Richard Melville Hall learned to relax and love sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. "Don't tell anybody but I'm actually the lead guitarist with Slipknot," he informs Stuart Clark.
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 future of house music is in the hands of a trainee teacher from Frankfurt. Sounds strange? Let Richard Brophy introduce you to the weird and wonderful world of Isolee.
She may be one of the biggest r&b stars on the planet, but that doesn’t mean MARY J/ BLIGE is happy with her lot. in one of her frankest
intervews yet, she tells HELEN TOLAND why she’s been given a bad rap
Minimalist practitioner, aficionado of asceticism and producer of note – Germanic groove technician Steve Bug is shaking up the continental dance scene in idiosyncratic and dynamic fashion.
Luke Unabomber explains how Manchester’s electric chair night has progressed from a “shitty little club” into one of the UK’s most successful dance events, with special guests, mix cd on release and worldwide touring dates. It’s about the music, apparently
The supposed one-hit wonders who are now big – no, make that massive – in Japan, Underworld are celebrating ten years of stream of consciousness, musical collages and, er, the greyhound form book.
While some white label mixes are illegal, Belgian outfit Soulwax have gone through an arduous process in order to licence the music featured on their 'legal bootleg' album 2 many DJs, as Eamon Sweeney reports
The guitar is back – and how! Instrument sales are healthier than they’ve been in years. but that’s not the only good news from Ireland’s music equipment shops.
He's resident DJ at Mr. C's End club, records for the End label, runs his own Plank stamp, and, with fellow co-Ender Layo makes some rather fine music as the Usual Suspects. He's Matthew B, and he's here to talk to Digital Beat. Interrogating the suspect: Richard Brophy.
Hard house is this year s biggest dance craze, and it was born at the most renowned
after-hours gay club in the world, Trade. MARK KAVANAGH talks to LAURENCE MALICE,
the Caligula of clubland , about excess, success and his Irish roots. Photographs: Myles Claffey
Fresh from his recent success with the Xpress-2 collaboration 'Lazy', David Byrne reflects on a musical journey that began in 1977 with the legendary Talking Heads
With their fifth album Push The Button, the Chemical Brothers have replaced big beats and star names with subtlety and even the odd anti-war protest tune.
Having survived the Stone Roses and a spell in jail, IAN BROWN briefly toyed with the idea of a career in gardening before re-inventing himself as the man most likely to bridge the gap between rock and dance. Ahead of his appearance at Homelands, he talks to RICHARD BROPHY.
In one his first ever interviews, James Ruskin, the man behind the Blueprint label, incendiary three-deck DJ sets and the landmark Further Design album, comes out of the shadows. Richard Brophy looks on in awe.
The inaugural Thirst event in Cork featured Paul Oakenfold, a DJ competition for some of Ireland’s best emerging spindoctors and 1,200 up-for-it clubbers determined to have the night of their lives
JOHN WALSHE talks to fresh-faced Euro-pop outfit NV about their quest for pop superstardom, the new Coke ad, and the pros and cons of being a Friends lookalike!
What promoters and clubbers perceive as Garda heavy-handedness in the -war on drugs- is making life increasingly difficult for dance venues across the country. STUART CLARK reports.
Hero of the underground; the fastest, most exciting DJ in the world; creator of wildly experimental, white-knuckle techno; and now a photographer hosting his first ever show! Richard Brophy catches up with the Purposemaker in London and discovers a new side to the Jeff Mills mystique.
Dance is dead, says Roisin Murphy, but if any act is going to raise it from the grave it’s Moloko, proud authors of the over the top and utterly sincere Statues, an album of tremendous pop songs that recapture the glory of classic disco.
EAMON SWEENEY meets RELISH, a northern band just signed to EMI. Up for discussion: Ash, landing a deal, Van Morrison and ghosts in the (studio) machines.
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.
Roots music may help build bridges between past and present and us and them, but the media stance is still often isolationist. So says simon emerson of the afro celt sound system. siobhan long takes notes.
Roots music may help build bridges between past and present and us and them, but the media stance is still often isolationist. So says simon emerson of the afro celt sound system. siobhan long takes notes.
LCD Soundsystem's frontman James Murphy talks about working with Justin Timberlake, his Cork ancestors and recalls the time he almost hooked up with Arcade Fire
MY VITRIOL are young, angsty and ambitious. They talk to NADINE O’REGAN about fame, their debut album, Finelines, and the merits of female bass players
They were among the one of the first acts to pioneer the big beat sound, two Irish lads with a barrel full of funk and an ear for killer tunes. Now the Dirty Beatniks have returned, minus one of the founding members, older, wiser and with a raw new album, Feedback. Richard Brophy investigates
After years as son of Charles , ERIC MINGUS is forging his own musical identity. He talks to PETER MURPHY about jazz purists, hip-hop and playing bass with Nick Cave.
Cian Ó Cíobháin has been presenting acclaimed cult radio show An Taobh Tuathail (The Other Side) on Irish nationwide RTE Raidió na Gaeltachta since its inception in May 1999.
After making their name with the glacial atmospherics of Felt Mountain, Goldfrapp work up a sweat on their new album Black Cherry. John Walshe hear how they “defrosted” their sound
He helped invent synth-pop and is famous for his huge open-air shows. Now Jean-Michel Jarre is going back to basics to reprise his landmark Oxygene album.
Welcome to Galway . . . now turn out your pockets, face the wall and spread your legs. Olaf Tyaransen reports on how new laws are being used to spoil the party way out west.
Live at the Marquee on Friday June 29: They were the gaudiest of the ‘80s pop sensations. 20 years on, Duran Duran leader Simon Le Bon explains why the good time boys are a band for the long haul.
Pete Kushnereit and Rene Lowe, better known as Scion, have released a mix album of Jamaican-inspired electronic tracks by the elusive German technocrat Maurizio
Surviving the exit of Darren Emerson, as well as various personal traumas and professional challenges, Underworld have re-emerged with their most positive album yet in 100 Days Off
Having conquered the music scene in their native Sweden, purveyors of dark electro-pop and socially aware lyrics The Knife have turned their attention to the rest of Europe.
Those angry young Marxist Punk-Rockers THE MEKONS are back with a new album I Love Mekons and a contribution to a pro-abortion Woman’s Rights compilation . . . but they’re no longer quite so angry or young, not exactly Marxist, and their Punk is reinforced by Folk, Country and World Music! ANDY
DARLINGTON finds out what the hell is going on in Club Mekon.
From the biggest international names to the most dynamic local creations, festivals make Ireland a good place to be in summer, even when the sun refuses to put in an appearance
He’s just knocked Lady GaGa off the top of the UK charts with his banging new single ‘I’m Not Alone’. So why is CALVIN HARRIS so worried about sounding like an oldie chasing after his fading youth?
Between recording the theme music for The Saint and fending off accusations of satanism, Orbital mainman PHILIP HARTNOLL barely has time to do the washing up. STUART CLARK stands by with the tea-towel.
Private, reserved and self-controlled, Tanita Tikaram seriously wonders if there’s a place for her music in the world of frantic rock and frenetic rave. Interview: Joe Jackson
Throughout the '90s and beyond, The Frank And Walters were effectively a lone beacon for Cork rock. But over the last year all that changed, with the emergence of an exciting new scene in the city, centred around the Cork Rocks phenomenon. If the momentum can be maintained, there's enough outstanding young bands strutting their stuff to ensure that the city by the Lee becomes the focus for unprecedented A&R interest.
A visit from Larry Harvey, creator of Nevada’s legendary Burning Man festival, looks set to be one of the highlights of Dublin’s forthcoming convergence weekend.
In a 25th anniversary rose-tinted special, Hot Press' dance correspondents select their 25 most influential floor fillers. The editor's decision is final and all that
It's been almost two years now since Anam's Brian O hEadhra unpacked his rucksack from top to bottom, two years of tearing all over the globe, from Düsseldorf to Darwin, Chicago to Castletownbere. With three albums well and truly reared, the band have recently been coaxing their fourth offspring, First Footing, out into the big bad world, blinkering its eyes against the glare of daylight.
“I hate these questions,” cries David Holmes, DJ, re-mixer, producer, free associate, film-scorer and friend to the stars. Yet he gamely faces the pan-ish inquisition that is the hotpress mixed grill
Are you ready for hip hop, be-bop trad? Then EILEEN IVERS is ready to take you to the bridge. SIOBHAN LONG meets the fiddle player with the world at her fingertips.
Gone are the booming synths and melodic choruses. Instead, techno darlings The Knife have embraced their gothic side. But why are they dressed as birds?
One of the new breed of DJs emerging from the UK, Craig Richards and his DJing partner Lee Burridge have been lauded for their ability to seamlessly join the gaps between breakbeat, tripped out tech-house and deep trance. Resident at London superclub Tyrant, friends with the enigmatic Sasha and on the brink of releasing the definitive Tyrant mix CD, one of the hottest DJs on the planet talks to RICHARD BROPHY.
. . . or overlooking Fountainstown beach in Co. Cork, anyway. METISSE have everyone talking, owing to the sheer unique nature of their music. KEVIN BARRY met them.
He was one of the most controversial figures in the history of Irish broadcasting, turning Radio Nova into a money-making machine and courting confrontation with the gardai, RTE and the NUJ. With the end of the pirate era, he moved to England, where he came unstuck, following a scam that deprived Rupert Murdoch of millions. Many a colourful adventure later, Chris Cary is back in the news - and determined that he can convince the powers-that-be to let him operate the national long-wave frequency that once housed Atlantic 252.
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
Never met a dyke he didn t like! Joe Jackson boogies the night away with Zrazy, one of Irish music s most determined combos. 1993 saw this radical lesbian dance due release their debut album in the face of widescale indifference from the national media and here they tell of their struggle to assert their music and sexuality against overwhelming odds.
Technology is setting the pace in the musical instrument and equipment market of the ’90s, with one great leap forward following another, and the musican reaping the benefits in terms of a vastly increased range of product choices. But it’s a difficult market for retailers nonetheless, with the level of investment and exposure rising all the time. Report: Colm O’Hare
In a highly revealing interview, Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke talks about the inspiration behind one of the albums of the year, his current listening and the band's plans for the future.
RICHARD BROPHY journeyed to the Czech Republic to see CJ Boland perform at the Summer of Love dancefest. But the trip included encounters with lunatic drivers and Beretta-toting security men, too. Pics: Peter Matthews.
Why are the Spice Girls animals ? Why would Crispian Kula Shaker benefit from a hefty spell of National Service? And why should you never trust a hippy? These are just some of the burning issues that Dr. Alex Paterson of The Orb would like to address. Oh yeah, and he also talks about his band s ace new album Orblivion, as well as his exotic, not to say erotic, yesteryear escapades on the road with LL Cool J and Motvrhead. Our man with the shiny black Panasonic tape recorder: jonathan o brien.
The man formerly known as Dennis Pennis, Paul Kaye, has made a return to form as hedonistic DJ Frankie Wilde in the new Ibiza-set comedy, It’s All Gone Pete Tong. A rollicking mockumentary following the fortunes of its errant lead character, it aims to do for the dance scene what This Is Spinal Tap did for heavy metal.
Never met a dyke he didn’t like! Joe Jackson boogies the night away with ZRAZY, one of Irish music’s most determined combos. 1993 saw this radical lesbian dance duo release their debut album in the face of widescale indifference from the national media and here they tell of their struggle to assert their music and sexuality against overwhelming odds.
Basking in the warm glow of that first day's successful recording may tempt you to imagine that it's all over but for the fame and fortune. Wrong, and double wrong. JACKIE HAYDEN considers music marketing and PR.
STUART CLARK meets man-of-the-moment NORMAN COOK (aka FATBOY SLIM). On the agenda - tabloid intrusion, drugs, his love affair with Zoe Ball, and The Housemartins.
With their Adventura Majestica album currently enjoying critical and commercial success, Sack explain what a long, strange trip it s been. Stephen Robinson holds the tape recorder
As suede prepare for their headline slot at Dublin Castle next month, their stock has never been higher, thanks mainly to the success of their fantastic third album Coming Up. craig fitzsimons talks to singer brett anderson about it and invites him to take stock of the last few wildly successful months.
And that s just the band! Galway s finest, The Stunning, take time out from sticking pins in themselves as their debut album Paradise In The Picturehouse finds itself perched atop the Irish charts to explain the secret of their success to an attentive Michael O Hara, who undergoes a road to Damascus experience en route.
DERMOT HANRAHAN, Chief Executive of Dublin's FM104, is in fighting form. He tells Joe Jackson about the station's transformation from near-insolvency to runaway success, slates the station's critics, praises Eamon Dunphy and defends late-night talk shows. Dermot-ologist: MYLES CLAFFEY
Whether with THE SMITHS, ELECTRONIC, THE PRETENDERS or in brown trouser mode sharing a stage with PAUL McCARTNEY, GEORGE MICHAEL and NEIL FINN, he remains, by his own admission, the best JOHNNY MARR-style guitar player around. GEORGE BYRNE meets the cat others like to copy.
FAST tells Fiona Reid about the Fun Lovin Criminals' plans to posthumously record with Reggie Kray and takes her track by track through their new album Loco
John Walshe meets Paul and Ashley from The Frank & Walters and hears all about their latest album, Beauty Becomes More Than Life, why they don t want to go to posh parties and how major labels take all the fun out of being in a band.
JONATHAN O’BRIEN (real name) meets
WREKKED TRAIN DAVE (not real name) of the
LO-FIDELITY ALLSTARS (real name) and finds out how CLAUDIO GENTILE (real name) fits into their chaotic scheme of things.
Or perhaps we might have reached for another old familiar headline - Fears and Loathing in RTE - as the bosses at Radio 1 announce the chopping of virtually all specialist music programmes from the schedule. It is, writes Bill Graham, an act of cultural criminal negligence.
To give him his full title, he's the Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation with responsibility for local development and the National Drugs Strategy. But it's for the latter responsibility that EOIN RYAN TD has earned the unofficial title of "Ireland's Drug Czar". As a new seven-year strategy is unveiled, STUART CLARK enquires about leisure, legalisation, decriminalisation, health, creativity, crime and punishment – and whether or not cannabis really is "a gateway drug". Photographs: PHILLIP TOTTENHAM.
Think about direction, wonder why . . . It’s eleven years since Stano released his debut album Content To Write In I Dine Weathercraft. Despite his genuine originality and dedication to his art over the intervening years, he remains one of Ireland’s most enigmatic performers, more appreciated on the continent than in his homeland. Interview: Joe Jackson
As cult continental rockers Deus release their fifth album, frontman Tom Barman talks about interviewing David Lynch, collaborating with Glen Hansard and hanging out with Elbow's Guy Garvey.
THE GREAT RADIO DEBATE – 1993’s FINAL INSTALMENT
In strictly commercial terms, 98FM are by far the most successful Irish independent station. But over the past 12 months they have come in for severe criticism for a music policy which has frequently been described as anti-Irish. As a result, says their Australian Controller of Programmes Jeff O’Brien, there have been changes at the station – and there may be more to follow. Interview: Jackie Hayden.
With their debut single 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' zooming to no.1 in the UK, Arctic Monkeys ended 2005 on a high. They are destined to be the new band of 2006.
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
The initial rumours were that it was going to be a rock n roll record . Then subsequent whispers hinted at everything from trip-hop to techno to ambient. But U2 s eighth studio album, Pop, is all of these things and more. It s the first album since 1983 that they ve made without the assistance of Brian Eno, it s been a long time in the making roughly a full year, all told and it s selling like the proverbial warm buns. Here, NIALL STOKES talks to BONO and ADAM CLAYTON, as well as co-producers FLOOD, HOWIE B and THE EDGE, about its lengthy genesis and what the band hoped to accomplish in creating it.
Pix: STEPHANE SEDNAOUI .
They ve been gigging for 27 years and they were doing Words when Boyzone were still in the balls zone. They are Big Chief Flaming Star, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Little Thunder, Wild Hawk and Dull Knife (not their real names). They are
THE INDIANS
and they hope to still be on the warpath in the next millennium.
LIAM FAY
pow-wows with an authentic showband phenomenon.
While women are still far from achieving equality of opportunity in music, the last thing women artists want – or need – is to be ghettoised, writes musician and journalist Kim V Porcelli. The point about the women who are at rock’s cutting edge – from Sinéad O’Connor through PJ Harvey to Peaches – is that they defer to no one in their pursuit of greatness.
With Lights Of The City, underground faves JUBILEE ALLSTARS have finally made the album they ve always talked about. And they re still talking about disappearing Dublin, real Irish pop, love songs, dinner parties and much more. words: EAMON SWEENEY. Star Charts: Declan English
Inevitably, The Best Of Nick Cave ... The Bad Seeds can only hint at the scope of the band's back catalogue. But if one listens to the group's ten studio albums chronologically, there are no gear-grinding changes of direction or radical overhaulings of the sound, all the more remarkable considering the amount of personnel that passed through the line-up.
With a new ‘Best Of’ bringing the band’s story up to date, U2’s guitar man steps forward to riff on good times and bad, the private life of a public figure, discovering the secrets of the universe on mushrooms, and why, after all these years, few things match the high of being a member of U2
Recorded in the bucolic splendour of County Westmeath, Bloc Party's second album is a labyrinthine concept album about urban living. Better to take a risk, says frontman Kelé Okereke, than to repeat yourself .
Peter Murphy meets former Led Zeppelin bassist JOHN PAUL JONES as he releases his first solo album. On the agenda pacts with the Devil, Jones musical education, and thoughts on Eno, Nico and Charles Mingus.
Every Picture Tells A Story
You don’t have to hire the services of a professional photographer or the PR agency to help your band achieve world domination. But it certainly helps! Colm O’Hare offers some valuable advice to the would-be stars of tomorrow and talks to some music biz insiders who can point you in the right direction.
Moby Comes Out To Play
IT S NOT often a Grammy nominee saunters into the Hot Press offices in the midst of the controlled explosion that is production weekend. But then, Moby s one of those freaks of nature a pop star who seems interested in what goes on around him rather than employing people to block it out.
In 1991, five years after the death of Phil Lynott, the late Bill Graham wrote in Hot Press of Philo's enduring legacy. Over ten years later his words are as relevant as ever
If it wasn't for the attentions of the gutter press, NICK HORNBY's current lifestyle would be pretty much blemish-free. His new novel, About A Boy, is racking up the sales figures with Overmars-like speed; he's just sold the film rights for it to Robert De Niro for #1.8m; and to cap it all, his beloved Arsenal are poised to do the league and cup
double. Tape: STUART CLARK. Pix: Mick Quinn
Don’t let her steal your heart away!
sheryl crow: Hot Press Readers’ Love Of The Year and Bob Dylan’s favourite singer-songwriter is the hottest new star in rock'n'roll. Helena Mulkerns charts the singular rise of Kennet, Missouri’s most celebrated slacker country queen.
Well when you've conquered the world, what else can the biggest band on the planet do except go into space? BONO and LARRY discuss matters cosmic and personal with Olaf Tyaransen
1993 may not have been a classic year for rock ’n’ roll but away from the bright lights and the glitter of chartland, there is still great music being made. GERRY McGOVERN talks to five bands who went to the heart of the matter over the past 12 months and made great and memorably soulful albums: TINDERSTICKS, LUNGFISH, MARXMAN, GIRLS AGAINST BOYS and SCRAWL.
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.
In the past, many Irish people suffered from an inferiority complex about their own culture – about the language, music, film and literature of this island. But music is one arena where things have changed dramatically. Report: Jackie Hayden
Full profiles on Faithless, Antony & The Johnsons, Slayer, The Who, Bell X1, Status Quo, The Flaming Lips, 50 Cent, Madness, Christy Moore, Elton John and Lionel Richie.
John Walshe talks to Jamiroquai mainman, Jay Kay, about the funk soul brother’s latest album, A Funk Odyssey, his testy relationship with British tabloids and why President George W. Bush is a “bad fucker”
When the offer came to produce the new Rolling Stones album in Dublin what answer could Don Was give but a resounding ‘Yes’. Mick, Keef & Co. are the latest in a long and impressive list of the man’s studio credits which includes Bob Dylan, The B-52’s, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and Paula Abdu. But throw in the small matter of the career of Was (Not Was) and the musical rehabilitation of errant Beach Boys’ genius Brian Wilson and we’re talking major industry player here. Bill Graham takes up the story . . .
Softly spoken off stage and complete lunatics on it, Kila have torn up the rulebook with their wantonly eclectic mix of styles. music, inner anger, revolutions and, er, women who cure warts are all discussed, as the band’s Colm O Snodaigh talks to Peter Murphy.
After two decades of electro-pop hits, the PET SHOP BOYS have gone back to basics with their new album Fundamental – and thrown some timely political digs into the mix while they’re at it. But the real battle is getting people to take them seriously.
Responsible dad or not, Liam Gallagher is still capable of some serious rock’n’roll hellraising and giving good quote. Roy Keane, Patsy Kensit, Nicole Appleton, Yoko Ono, Bono and magic mushrooms are all on the agenda as the Oasis singer shoots from the hip. Getting the beers in: Olaf Tyaransen
After being a magnet for A&R men during the 80s, Dublin has recently developed into something of an underachiever. The city may have the second biggest growth-rate in Europe but there are a hell of a lot of gigs and records that simply aren t selling. peter murphy casts a critical ear over the capital s music scene and decides that what s required is a full-scale artistic enema.
With a new 'best of' bringing the band's story up to date U2's guitar man steps forward to riff on good times and bad, the private life of a public figure, discovering the secrets of the universe on mushrooms and why, after all these years, few things match the high of being a member of U2.
Special hotpress.com members edition: "director's cut" featuring interview sections unavailable anywhere else.
Don’t go, they said. but they didn’t follow their own advice. Now, after much professional and personal upheaval, the Hothouse Flowers are back, once more in love with the idea of “ringin’ the bell”.
Greetings From LA
beck and tom petty get together in Los Angeles for an impassioned rap on songs, songwriting, showbiz, the Unplugged phenomenon and how too much music can boggle the mind. mark rowland listens in.
A special report on the arts in Northern Ireland which is alive and rocking with the whole gamut of cultural activity. Here James Elliott and Margaret F. Grundy give the lowdown on the province’s artistic and creative hub.
Determined to establish a firm identity for their second album, A House forsook exotic locations and took themselves off to Inishbofin to record I Want Too Much, musically and emotionally their starkest statement to date. Bill Graham met up with them to discuss their new-found assertiveness and discovered a band with a single-minded approach to the music industry and its numerous pitfalls
This is THE CHIEFTAINS as you've never encountered them before - more like mad, trad and dangerous to know than the grand-daddies of Irish traditional music. Smoking dope with Philip Lynott! Busting muscles through wild sex! Yes, it's the bits that aren't in the official biography. But, soft, not a word to Paddy, OK? Part One of an exclusive two-part interview. By JOE JACKSON.
Ireland and Munster out-half, Ronan O’Gara, has a pivotal say in this country’s rugby fortunes. As what is potentially the most important season in Irish rugby history moves into its most competitive phase, he takes time out to reflect on the demands of being a big time rugby star, the cult of celebrity, his taste in music, Roy Keane’s infamous Saipan walk-out – and Ireland’s chances of Six Nations glory in 2005.
Ten, nine, eight… we count down the contenders for 2003. Words Hannah Hamilton, Colin Carberry, Niall Stokes, Richard Brophy, John Walshe, Eamon Sweeney and Stuart Clark
It’s all about broken down tour buses, Alan Partridge, high speed collisions, Moby, broken ribs, Mina Suvari, MTV stars and David Bowie as Ash launch a sonic assault on America. So riddle me this: can Ireland’s hardest-working rock’n’roll outfit crack the big one?
They go together like a horse and carriage. You can't have one without the other - or words to that effect. In fact, however, even rock 'n' roll has yet to invent an erotic language that does justice to the breadth and complexity of human desire. In pushing out the boundaries, madonna has taken on the role of sexual pioneer, and done it with courage and no little success. Niall Stokes weighs up the evidence . . .
Despite being peerless at his chosen profession, CHRIS MORRIS has been sacked from more jobs than most people will have in a lifetime. He announced the death of Michael Heseltine on live radio, was responsible for a debate about non-existent drugs in the House of Commons and once screamed Christ s fat cock! at Cliff Richard during an interview. BARRY GLENDENNING examines the career of the broadcaster commonly regarded as Britain s foremost media satirist.
As the management force behind Boyzone, Westlife and Samantha Mumba, LOUIS WALSH is Ireland s Mr. Pop. In a candid interview with Joe Jackson he talks about his relationships with his acts, the ones that got away, the importance of the producer, the uselessness of critics and why he s unlikely to end up managing Van Morrison. Portraits: Cathal Dawson
He was a midwife to grunge and has worked with artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson, Hole and Ozzy Osbourne. Far from being a studio boffin, though, Michael Beinhorn believes modern music is too often reliant on technology.
JOHNNY ROGAN didn't write just any old biography - he wrote a book about MORRISSEY which brought down a virtual pop fatwah on his head, with his subject declaring in public that he hoped the author would die a grisly death. Now, with the paperback version just published, the 'controversy' seems to have been given a new lease of life. It's not by any chance a publicity scam, is it? CATHY DILLON puts Johnny Rogan on the spot.
Exclusive: Kevin Shields, the missing presumed lost genius of Irish rock, re-emerges to tell the truth about sandbags and barbed wire, the making of Loveless, early Dublin days with Gavin Friday, Liam O Maonlai and U2, and his Bafta-winning work on Lost in Translation.
With Cameron Crowe s Almost Famous putting rock hackery on the silver screen, no less, Peter Murphy wonders if Seventies rock journalism is the new rock n roll. Helping him with his enquiries: PAUL MORLEY and GREIL MARCUS
Nirvana - Ten years after. Peter Murphy talks to producer Butch Vig, musician Mark Lanegan and critic Greil Marcus, and gets the inside story of the making of Nevermind, the classic album that changed the face of music, unveiled the anthem 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and brought the world face to face with a screaming soul called Kurt Cobain.
Everything about Derry electro three-piece Japanese Popstars’ debut effort is big. It’s got big beats, a big sound, big production and most importantly, big balls.
...or at least a fan of dance music: rumours that Creamfields '02 was off, are scotched as Faithless and Underworld among others are confirmed for the late August bash
Every once in a while an Irish dance compilation appears. Sometimes, it's nothing more than a corporate giant flexing muscles or, in the case of the D1 and Bassbin collections, a taster for greater things to come.
Oliver Ho is usually perceived as a hard as nails minimal techno producer, a soundtrack provider to those scary clubs full of men with their tops off and no females. Happily, his second album looks set to smash this misleading perception.
Cutting edge techno-tronica DJ John Braine’s dream of putting out a compilation of Irish dance music produced by members of an internet discussion group was recently realised, a year after he first asked for musical submissions from fellow IE-Dancers.
Si who?
Si Begg. Mind you, given the amount of pseudonyms he records under, Begg himself is probably feeling confused. Included in his long list of alter egos are names like Big Foot, Cabbage Boy, Buckfunk 3000 and, most recently, SI Futures.
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.
A few years back, Underworld were viewed as one of the most important bridging links between the mediums of rock and dance. Album number two Second Toughest In The Infants had consolidated their enviable position as darlings of the rock press, and 'Born Slippy' had blown up the mainstream following its inclusion on the Trainspotting soundtrack.
Pop fans d’un certain age will remember the jolt: the electrifying shock of the new, followed by the realisation that nothing will ever be the same again.
Delsin’s finest moment to date, the work moves from down tempo beats through nods to the contemporary tech house and tribal rhythms before serving up pure machine made emotion
This album sees Daniel experiment with a number of electronic styles- electro, house and tech-house, before deconstructing the grooves with his cut up, stripped down approach.
There’s a fair helping of standard Faithless tracks on Outrospective. The sinister dance epics ‘We Come 1’ and the dark and dangerous ‘Tarantula’ come from a familiar place. But the magic of Outrospective lies in the unexpected, which is magic thankfully in abundance.
It’s a case of “been there/done that/snogged someone I shouldn’t have to this track on Saturday night” – and by and large the scene is starting to collapse in on itself.
Looking to techno's more soulful and, dare we say it accessible side, Retuned is imbued with soulful male and female vocals and a laid back dub sensibility
The fantastic Static returns to The Shelter, Dublin, for the first Saturday of every month with some great names in the pipeline, beginning February 7 with Radioactive Man (RGC) live.
They may not have released an album in over fifteen years, but seminal electronic funkers 23 Skidoo were never too far removed from developments in contemporary electronic music.
By now we’ve become used to new bands arriving in a blaze of their own hyperbole, but even still Leicester’s Kasabian do seem to fancy themselves a fair bit.
The glitter cannon has been primed. The pyrotechnics are sorted, likewise a series of 40 foot video screens. A massive sound system will have been freighted in from London. And at midnight on New Year's Eve, a Shine club special at the King's Hall in Belfast will be hailed by much noise and a computerised system sequencing animation, music and samplers - a millennium shindig that's likely to be the best of its kind in Ireland
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.
Boasting a truly diverse line-up that united house music in all its various hues, as well as some good old fashioned rave attitude courtesy of Orbital, this was an extravaganza that lived up to the hype.
EAMON SWEENEY reports on Detroit's pivotal Underground Resistance label, and the controversy
ignited when Sony released a 'cover version' of one of the label's best-known tracks.
The forensic pop-visions of Brian Eno frequently feel dredged from places alien to human emotion. How, his music seems to ask, can the vapid and random flutterings of the heart compare with technology’s unblinking perfection?
For such reasons, Eno’s first album of five years, strikes a curiously retrograde note.
IT WASN'T too long ago that the use of the words 'Irish' and 'dance' in close proximity were enough to conjure up nightmarish images of hearty young lads and lasses hurtling round a community centre to the rousing strains of 'The Siege of Ennis'.
It's been a while in the making, but boy is it worth the wait. Sliabh Notes, a.k.a. Matt Cranitch, Donal Murphy and Tommy O'Sullivan whetted our appetites royally back in 1995 with their eponymous debut. With their ears trained to the holy ground of Sliabh Luachra, they gathered up a gabháil full of the finest local tunes, much to the delight of the aficionado and beginner alike.
After eighteen years in the business, the majority of which were spent wandering in the wilderness, The Waterboys are back with their first album proper since ’88’s Room To Roam.
If it’s in Cork this year than it’s automatically a cultural event. So in honour of Cork’s designation as European Capital of Culture, Heineken joined in the celebrations by giving the people of Cork not one but two Green Room Sessions events. It puts one in mind of the slogan that’s doing the rounds here among the local wags: Enjoy culture responsibly.
If it’s in Cork this year than it’s automatically a cultural event. So in honour of Cork’s designation as European Capital of Culture, Heineken joined in the celebrations by giving the people of Cork not one but two Green Room Sessions events. It puts one in mind of the slogan that’s doing the rounds here among the local wags: Enjoy culture responsibly.
With the same old trad royalty still being treated with grovelling reverence, promoter and manager David Caren thinks it stime the young and innovative got their dues. But will it happen? Report: SIOBHAN LONG.
Somebody is onto something, that's for certain. To begin with the name has a touch of magic. Dexy's Midnight Runners suggests something illicit, even apart from the drug reference. It's both strong and open, pointed and evocative. And in the end it's accurate because it registers the desired connection – Dexy's Midnight Runners are a soul band.
t’s all going on north of the border this fortnight with a new imprint launching in Belfast and a Derry electro duo giving Beyonce a banging make-over.
2FM dance guru Mister Spring has re-compiled his The Fifth Nine album, after objections to several questionable samples on the initial Spanish pressing.
No longer the poor relation, Ireland now has a dance scene that's as vibrant as any in the world. KEITH MARTIN takes a look at the DJs, clubs and record labels who are at the centre of the decks industry here.
Alter Ego, Mylo and Dizzee Rascal had almost as good a year as Annie Mac - who swapped a Queens University English Lit course for a high profile slot on BBC Radio One...
It s a kind of an honour to be invited in here. The scenery isn t so special a rented office in an industrial park in west Belfast, lined with concrete.
End of term reviewers are a bit like film censors. As they reel in the year, there is a tendency to cut and paste according to their own prejudices and passions.
Nobody's record collection is ever truly finished, but you can reach a stage of your life where you can be pretty sure you've got a song to hand for every day of the week and every swoop and soar of the heart and body.
Superstar DJ duo The Glimmers are giving their long-awaited debut album away for free on their forthcoming tour. So it's a good thing they're swinging by Ireland.
Two of Ireland’s top electronica composers are in celebratory mood after releasing a killer collaboration – and to mark the event they’re embarking on a brief tour of the country.
Some good news for clubbing fans – the annual 12 hour dance marathon at Fairyhouse Racecourse is to go ahead in the summer. And this time, it’s got a brand new name.
Barcelona might have Sonar, but, on the strength of its debut outing, Dublin’s DEAF is also set to become an essential date in the global electronic diary.
De Danann, outmoded by the Celts. Supplanted by the Iron Age. So they retreated into the hills and mastered their magical powers. The true traditionalists who still had the suss on the newcomers, and for all their old-fashioned ways were able to out-manoeuvre the modernistic and industrialised Celts. More traditional and yet more advanced.
Clubbers rejoice – the Planetlove summer festival is bound for County Meath. And the really good news is this year's event will feature some of the best in Irish DJ talent.
THE EXTREMELY WONDERFUL Mr. Adam Freeland is the headline attraction on August 18th as Breakdown returns to the Empire, Belfast. Bringing up the rear, so to speak, are Hedrock Valley Beats…
Garlanded with muchos praise by the hipster cliques for their edgy electro-pop, Cansei De Ser Sexy arrived in Cork for a Heineken Green Sphere’s event promising a riot of colour and noise.
'The Irish Are Coming' was the banner headline for a two-night musical extravaganza held at The Venue in London, organised in conjunction with Hot Press, that showcased some of the most promising Irish bands. Gerry McGovern gives a behind-the-scenes account of the weekend that was...
It was a year when all manner of ecological malaise seemed to come home to roost. In particular the Sudan was in turmoil, putting our own nasty little problems of smog, toxic waste and criminal fish kills into sharp relief –
As his first solo series concludes on Channel 4, respect is due to SACHA BARON COHEN,
creator of ALI G, comedy s king of keeping it real.
BARRY GLENDENNING says Bo selecta!
A communication from Peter Lundy comes in response to my recent musings about how Irish songwriters might choose to write from their own experience rather than recycling second-hand views
As the Irish Music Industry hurtles towards the next millenium, Colm O’Hare reports that the philosophy of the key players is to accentuate the positive and keep both feet on the peddle. Anyway, nobody ever said that world domination would be easy . . .
On the face of it, Westmeath s made more of a name for itself in the bellylaugh stakes than in the annals of music. Still, scratch beneath the surface of any town or townland, and you ll be rivetted to your seat with musical anecdotes.
Located in Dublin’s thriving Temple Bar area and owned by U2, The Kitchen is one of the hottest clubs in one of the most happening cities in Europe. Report: Colm O’Hare
AGNES BERNELLE s death last month brought a truly remarkable
life to a close. SIOBHAN LONG looks back, in the company of
Gavin Friday, Philip Chevron and Alan Amsby.
Equipment, like fame, has it price. Colm O’Hare goes bargain-hunting and discovers that spending your band’s hard-earned loot on new musical instruments need not be a traumatic experience.
Another one from the archives: in a feature from 1987 – as Michael Jackson releases Bad – Neil McCormick charts the phenomenal career of the enigmatic star.
