America is calling for Irish trance phenomenon John O’Callaghan, who will be embarking on a number of coast-to-coast tours this year in the latest step on his path to global domination.

The Navan native played to 50,000 revellers at a recent stadium date alongside Paul Van Dyk, and he told Hot Press he aims to spend two or three weeks at a time in the US in 2009.
“I can’t afford to disrupt my studio work by constantly trekking around the world on long haul flights like I did in 2008,” he says, “so this year my agent has arranged for me to visit the States for two to three weeks at a time, doing as many gigs and as much PR as possible during each tour.”
O’Callaghan performed what Beats & Pieces regarded as the best DJ set of 2009 in Tralee in late December, blending no fewer than 14 of his own productions and remixes into a turbo-charged 90-minute set. His programming is flawless, its energy boundless and his mixing superb.
Also due to visit the US on a regular basis in 2009 are The Japanese Popstars, who along with O’Callaghan are among the favourites to scoop gongs at next month’s Irish Dance Music Awards 2009 ceremony.
The bash will take place on Wednesday February 4 in Dublin, most likely at the Tivoli Theatre, according to the organisers. You can vote online at slick-dj.com/limesurvey until the end of the month.
There has been no official confirmation that Planetlove Summer Session will be taking place this year at Fairyhouse Racecourse, but a number of leading international DJs have told Hot Press that they've been provisionally booked for the Ratoath venue for Saturday June 6.
Planetlove has, however, confirmed it will be taking part in the first ever Atomik Weekender at Prestatyn in Wales from March 20 to 22.
The Irish promoters are teaming up with UK giants such as Gatecrasher, Tidy, Slinky, Goodgreef, Inside Out, Clubland and Helter Skelter to showcase more than 80 of the world’s top DJs.
The Planetlove/Inside Out arena features Marco V, John O’Callaghan, Simon Patterson, John Askew, William Daniel, DJ Mog and your Beats & Pieces scribe.
Tickets are on sale now priced £80 (Silver), £105 (Gold) and £160 (VIP). A £5 booking fee also applies. For more information see atomikweekender.com.
One major summer event already confirmed is Bodytonicmusic’s first ever Airbound Festival in the Croatian resort of Petrcane during the August bank holiday, which promises open-air stages, pirate ship boat parties, blue seas and 16 hours of sunshine a day.
Running from Friday July 31 until August 2, the exciting new weekender boasts probably the cheapest festival price of 2009: early bird tickets are currently available for as little as €39 from tickets.ie.
The nearest airport to the village of Petrcane is Zadar (it’s only 20 minutes by taxi and is serviced by Ryanar), followed by Split (90 minutes by motorway) and Zagreb (two and a half hours).
Bodytonic claims that “musically it will be something for everyone, keeping it downtempo by day at the bar with a mix of yacht rock, warped electronica, folk and disco, then it moves to the outside terrace for dubstep, hip-hop and live bands, before the club kicks off with late night house and techno.” The line-up will be announced in the coming weeks.
The first release of the new year on Dubliner Christian Boshell’s Amalgam Audio imprint is Darwin & Backwall’s ‘Bananas Faster’, which comes with a remix from Ben Shaw.
Monad Music goes east for its first couple of 2009 outings. Russian outfits Animalize and Python are behind ’Synthetic Heads’ and ‘Sniper Girl’ respectively. Both singles are on sale online this month.
The 11th excursion from Donegal duo Timmy & Tommy’s Full Tilt Recordings has just been released on Beatport, Trackitdown and all of the bigger online stores.
‘Velveteen’ from Cid Inc (one half of Mashtronic) is a punchy progressive affair that adds weight to the stamp’s bid to cover all house bases, as does the groovy and melodic tech-house remix from the label’s head honchos.
Having been lucky enough to get a sneak preview of their early 2009 output, Hot Press can report the best is yet to come from this talented camp.
Northern Irish ex-pat Fergie has set up a new label, Rekluse, in partnership with Leeds-based techno producer Mr Henry Von. The Larne lad will be hoping it matches the success of his own Excentric imprint, which Carl Cox recently rated as “the best label of 2008.”
Rekluse opened its account with ‘Second To None’ by Slovakian superstar Umek and has just dropped the monstrous Location Unknown EP from renowned Belfast act Psycatron, aka Paul Hamill and Phil Johnston.
The three track EP, in fact, includes two tracks which are the first solo works from Hamill who will continue to use the Psycatron moniker in the future. He is now working alongside engineer Dave Lievense … THE BEAT GOES ON!