Beats & Pieces

Hailed as "Ireland’s answer to Wu Tang Clan", Creative Controle follow their many rave reviews with a debut single that manages to recreate their explosive live show with ease. Mesmerising turntablist Mayhem and producer The Expert combine blunt beats with emcee Messiah J’s thoughtful prose on the accomplished tracks ‘Bloodrush’ and ‘The Dose’. It reaches the shops this fortnight on Volta Beats…

On the subject of hip-hop, the scene he left behind has since become ‘loved-up’, so it will be interesting to observe whether Suge Knight’s re-emergence will throw a spanner or two in the works? 36 year-old rap mogul Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, who co-founded Death Row Records, is just out from prison, after serving nearly five years of a nine-year term for violating probation on assault charges from a fight at a Las Vegas hotel in September 1996. Hours after the fight, rap star Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting as he rode in Knight's car. Let’s hope such gangsta antics are a thing of the past…

Tom Cole fans will be thrilled with the imminent onslaught of TC vinyl after a year spent largely in the recording studio with fellow DJ Steven Carroll. ‘Certified Madness’, ‘The Forge’, and ‘Elements’, under the umbrella of The Collaboration EP, are the first fruits of their labour, surfacing on Abbey Dancefloor this month. Tom’s had interest from labels like Bedrock, interest likely to increase now that his Irish anthem ‘Devotion’ is set for a UK release across two twelves on Pied Piper. I’ve heard the storming Northface remix and can report it’s already in the boxes of Sasha and Diggers…

dEcal release an album on acclaimed producer Mike Paradinas' Planet Mu label later this year, preceding it with the single ‘Moylough’, and there will also be a mini-album on the electro tip coming out on Alan’s trama industries stamp… Agnelli & Nelson have just remixed ‘Fire In The Sky’ from Midas for Mainline Records… The Irish remixes of The M Experience’s ‘Rock Ya Body’ (by the Raffdagaff and Baby Doll crews) are currently on promo from Detonator Records in the UK … Dublin label Impulsive Records releases their sixth single next month. Derek Duff’s ‘All But Forgotten’ is flipped by ‘After Dark’… Paddy Sheridan and Darren Flynn have new tracks released on vinyl only on Abbey Dancefloor about now. Another homegrown effort around in limited quantities is John Kerrigan vs Club Crashers’ ‘Crashtracks Vol. 1’…

Popular Dublin techno live act Ron’s Mobile Disco (who brought proceedings on the dance stage at Wittness to a memorable climax) makes their auspicious debut on Ronan O’Ciosoig’s One Louder label this fortnight with ‘Subconscious Threat’/ ‘Native Calling’…

Belfast’s Slide Recordings, the progressive label that’s hugely popular with the likes of Sasha and Nick Warren, have just launched the new website at www.slide-recordings.com Also just launched online, check out www.babydoll.ie for news, reviews, charts and DJ mixes from the Irish hard house scene…

Carl Cox, Sasha, John Digweed, Robbie Butler, Johnny Moy and John Power are the acts on the bill at this year’s Winter Party, running at the Point Theatre on October 13th… Paul Oakenfold and Paul Van Dyk appear at the Redbox weekender (Oct. 26th-28th)…

Lust at Phoebe’s in Thurles has closed, re-opening later this month on Saturdays at nearby club The Rag…

Forthcoming events to note include Basement Jaxx at MCD’s newest ‘clubbing’ venue The Ambassador on December 15th and 16th. Richie Hawtin is at the same venue on October 20th, Dreadzone pay a visit on October 6th, and The Orb get the ball rolling on September 28th. Cream and Bugged Out will be running on Saturdays once a month. St. Germain play The Olympia on September 26th, and Faithless return to the scene of what Rollo recently called "their worst ever gig", The Point on December 1st. Tickets for all these shows are on sale now…

Claude Young plays Temple Bar Music Centre on September 22nd …

Congratulations to Camolin’s Club Space, which celebrated its third birthday recently…

You read it here first: several independent radio stations are currently considering a proposal from a leading UK club for a syndicated Saturday night prime-time show to be hosted by two of Ireland’s well-known turntable technicians … which reminds us, where the hell is Spin FM? THE BEAT GOES ON!