BEATS & PIECES

FIRSTBORN’S QUEST FOR global domination continues with ‘The Mood Club’ being co-opted on to the soundtrack of the new Brit-pack film, Peaches. Keeping them company are such wigglesome types as Groove Armada, Basement Jaxx, Andrea Parker and David Gray… With the first beano selling-out in double quick time, the Temple Bar Music Centre hosts The Iedance Party – Part 2 on May 5th. Giles, John Braine, Sunil Sharpe, Cozzy and Ron’s Mobile Disco are just a handful of the personages who’ll be on SL1200 duty. For those of you who aren’t in the know, http:groups.yahoo.com/ group/ie-dance/join was set up in 1994 by Robert Early as a clubbers’ forum, and carries over 2,000 messages a month…That hardest of German house merchants, Sven Vath, plays a rare Dublin show at Mono on May 4th. Support is provided by local boys done good Dean Sherry and François. Rather less edifying is the £17.50 that punters are being asked to cough up for the privilege… The Waterford Forum goes from strength to strength with their May line-up boasting such treats as Eamonn Doyle, Rob Rowland and Alan Smith (5th); Disconauts and Paul Bryan; and Ron’s Mobile Disco, Necksnapper, Ikeaboy and Travis Bickle (19th)…Meanwhile, the pick of the bunch next month at the Redbox are Cosmo Vitelli, Alex Topher and a deejaying St. Etienne (5th) and the Tortured Tour Night starring Billy Nasty, Umek and guests (25th)… The rumours are true – Carl Cox is currently engaging in studio intercourse with Norman Cook. “Carl’s doing an album of collaborations – it’s his duets album,” says the Fatboy. “Actually, it’s the longest overdue collaboration in the history of dance music. It all started in 1989 when I gave him a lift home and we decided to do a track together. He’s saying ‘Star 69 Pt. 2’ now, so I guess I need to find a catchy vocal hook for it.”…

Irish hip-hop crew the 3rd Eye Surfers release their debut lp, Filthy Folklore, on Blacksheep records in mid-May. Featuring 10 tracks from rappers Poetic, Big Al, Lisa D and Richie C, it’s produced by Glen ‘DJ Wool’ Brady. Top UK hip-hop beatmaster Deckwrecka has contributed a mix of crowd favourite ‘Craic Agus Ceoil’, while Irish hip-hop legend DJ Mek also offers a mix. It also features guest appearances from Public Enemy’s Chuck D, seminal Noo Yoik graffiti artist Phase2 and MTV’s soul sista, June Sarpong. It’s available from all good record stores from mid-May…!

On a similar tip, Dublin DJ Simon Milligan has started a new hip-hop label, Equilibrium, as an outlet for Irish hip-hop from da underground. The label aims to offer a “different perspective for hip hop” and allow “creative individuals to express in their own way what it means to be Irish”. The first release is a doubled A-sided collaboration between beats man Troubled Soul (aka Simon) and rapper Exile Eye, called ‘Supersubversive/Inessence’…

Limerick promoters Blue Media make their first foray into the world of vinyl with the release of ‘Anomaly/BXA 2001’ by the District Attorneys, a hard house-cum-progressive thumper dedicated to the Lust massive at Phoebe’s Hotel in Tipperary. The District Attorneys are none other than Lust’s resident spinner Dermot C and his hell-raising buddy, DJ Alex Ellenger. The two are heading off to Ibiza at the end of May where they’re both residents at Nightlife in San Antonio and God’s Kitchen. We wish them and their livers well…

Jon “Monkey Mafia” Carter is the latest superstar DJ to get their fader-fingers on U2’s ‘Elevation’ single. The results, we’re told, are the dog’s proverbials…

America In More Taste Than Ireland Shocker!’ He may have been criminally ignored on this side of the Atlantic, but our colonial cousins can’t get enough of Madonna’s mentor Mirwais. Indeed, if it weren’t for Chili Hi Fly’s ‘Is It Love?’, he’d be enjoying his first US number one this week with ‘Naïve Song’. And the beat goes on! b