Beats + Pieces: Hit Me With Your Rhythm Sticks

The Sticks have just completed work on their debut album, following the success of the Rock ‘N’ Roll EP earlier this year, and it will be released in spring 2005. Sticks member Grit Greenglow is also working on some new material for Crash Test Recordings. The Irish hard dance stamp may not have a physical distributor for vinyl or CD releases in the UK, but its entire catalogue can be purchased online at www.trackitdown.net. With most club DJs now using CDs alongside vinyl, sites like trackitdown.net may well be the way forward. This particular site is in its development stages and its main strength is harder-edged dance music, although its nu skool breaks section is very impressive …
Meanwhile, Grit Greenglow is one of the forty or so Irish DJs appearing at the Evolution Eire festival at Glenart Castle, Arklow, Co Wicklow on November 13. The three outdoor heated arenas will be attached to the stately home itself, which will have a full bar extension until 2am. Musically, it’s a diverse line-up, with the main arena focussing on hard dance and headlined by 2FM’s Mister Spring and his sidekick DJ Pressure. Others taking part include DJs from Dublin clubs Bassbin, Technologic, Electric City and All City. The event runs from 3pm until 3am, and added attractions include holistics rooms and the like. Incredibly, Arklow gardai have sanctioned the affair, according to one of the promoters DJ XS (of Sonic Trip fame), and tickets are available from Ticketmaster and usual outlets, priced E45 …
Albums on release this fortnight worth investigating include Unkle’s (pictured) Never Never Land, David Morales’ 2 Worlds Collide (vocal house on Ultra), Shock City Maverick from Beans (innovative hip-hop from a master lyricist on Warp) and the ironically-titled The Multi Platinum Debut Album from Hangar 18 (rocking old skool flavoured hip-hop jams on Definitive Jux).
Two Lone Swordsmen make a welcome return to Dublin on November 12. Andrew Weatherall and Alan O’Boyle will also be DJing at the TBMC bash. Tickets are on sale now …
Bassbin celebrates ten years of drum ‘n’ bass magazine Knowledge on November 6 at Metropolitan in Dublin with Equinox and Rohan spinning. The Dublin drum ‘n’ bass club is releasing its first album in the New Year, and launched it recently with two parties at PoD and Metropolitan. The album, Rare Grooves Volume 1, will feature contributions from artists like Calibre, Zero Tolerance, Paradox, Polska and Seba. More details as we get them … Jacques Le Cont plays Backlash at Wax in Dublin tonight (4th) … Godskitchen brings Lisa Lashes and Judge Jules to the Point this fortnight. Tickets for the November 13 party are almost sold out …
And finally, what words to express our heartfelt sympathies to the family and friends of recently deceased BBC broadcaster John Peel. That he touched so many lives on this side of the Irish sea is a measure of his great contribution to the world of music. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, on crackly old medium wave radios, usually listened to under duvets, John’s late night BBC Radio 1 show was a window to the world of Joy Division, the Bunnymen, The Fall and New Order for many a teenage Irish music lover. There was nothing like his show on Irish radio, and 25 years after we first began listening, there is still no bigger champion of new music on the Irish or British airwaves. In recent times, it was most comforting to tune in and find 60-something John spinning banging hard house and happy hardcore; like many a genre they would be sneered upon by so many, but never by the open-minded Mr Peel. Who else could host shows on BBC 1FM and Radio 4 but ‘This Charming Man’? Big Respect …
JOHN PEEL RIP