Last trance saloon

Belfast-born trance producer Greg Downey is about to blow up with his nine-and-half-minute epic ‘Vivid Intent’, due next month on Discover. Greg’s original is coupled with a new mix from Dutch duo, Guiseppe Ottaviani and Marc van Linden.
Dutch trance lord Armin van Buuren recently made Downey’s effort and Navan-based trance icon John O’Callaghan’s remix of the new Ronski Speed single, ‘The Space We Are’ (due soon on Euphonic) Tunes of the Week on his A State Of Trance radio show, which is broadcast worldwide via the web and satellite TV.
Two of the ever-growing Irish trance community’s other leading lights – Simon ‘Dogzilla’ Patterson and Bryan Kearney have also been busy.
The latter – who made his London DJ debut earlier this month – has remixed Bodyrox’ featuring Luciana’s massive new rave anthem, ‘Yeah Yeah’ and has completed two storming new techno tracks with the aforementioned O’Callaghan, ‘The Temple’ and ‘Pendulum’.
Belfast ex-pat Patterson has finished work on a Dogzilla remix of Kuffdam and Plant’s ‘The One We Love’ for the Vandit label that is already receiving massive club and radio DJ support in Britain, and he’s got a brand new solo track ‘Panic Attack’ in the pipeline.
Cork-born producer Edwin James’ techno stamp, SeedyR, this fortnight unleashes Spectrum, the debut album from Irish electronic producer, Asciinoid aka Liam Dunne.
Dunne had gained some notoriety in recent times under the guise of Lmd64, and his Asciinoid material is heavily influenced by the tech/minimal/electro house of the likes of Rex the Dog and Alter Ego. Spectrum also includes an electro-rock cover of White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’.
There are three official launch parties to mark this release, at The Hub, Temple Bar on October 21, Trinity Rooms, Limerick on November 24 and Fast Eddie’s, Cork on December 1. Support on all dates comes from SeedyR’s main man in his Corrugated Tunnel guise.
Irish hip-hop duo, Messiah J & The Expert, have just dropped their second album, Now This I Have To Hear, an assured and entertaining set which includes collaborations with vocalists Leda Egri and Nina Hynes, and Definitive Jux rapper, C-Rayz Walz.
An equally exciting hip-hop opus is the second from the British Low Life label’s owner, Braintax, Panorama.
Electronica fans will drool over Christopher Willit’s lush Surf Boundaries on the always excellent Ghostly Tryouts label, and Squarepusher’s less experimental, more enjoyable, tenth album, Hello Everything (Warp). While Boy George pops up as a guest vocalist on Dark Globe’s Nostalgia For The Future album (on Global Underground).
Thievery Corporation’s ESL Music stamp celebrates its 100th release with ESL Remixed. Ame, still enjoying ‘tune of the year’ status with ‘Rej’, unleash Mixing (Sonar Kollectiv), and Laurent Garnier and Carl Craig team up on BBE’s new compilation series, The Kings of Techno.
New singles include Jamcat’s cheesy anthem, ‘Music N You’ (which borrows from Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Move on Up’), Future Funk Squad’s breakbeat stormer ‘Towards The Sun’ (which also includes a crisp Paul Woolford house remix), Crazy P’s ‘Can’t Get Down’ (in new mixes from Ashley Beedle), and Yousef and Steve Mac’s 12-minute chilled house epic, ‘The Idea’.
2FM’s Mark McCabe resurfaces this month in his Digitribe guise alongside Jay Cisco with a single on the American label, Rawthentic, entitled ‘India’.
Meanwhile, the 2FM Sessions Tour website is now online at www.sessionstour.com. The next date is November 18, at Traveller’s Friend Hotel in Castlebar, Co Mayo, and joining RTE’s Mr Spring on the ones and twos is Dutch superstar, Ferry Corsten.
Everything But The Girl’s Ben Watt is the special guest when Waterford record and DJ equipment store, Rotate Records (www.rotaterecords.com), celebrates its third birthday on November 4 at Ten. Fresh from closing the inaugural Hi:Fi festival, French electro whiz, Vitalic, returns to Ireland to play Dublin’s Ambassador on November 2.
Enjoying considerable success with his first ‘solo’ record, The Bullet Catcher’s Apprentice EP, Andrew Weatherall will be blowing out the candles at Galway club 110th Street’s eighth birthday party on November 8.
It’s also birthday time at Dublin club, Strictly Handbag. The Monday night institution notches up 12 years at Ri-Ra on November 6, and Dusseldorf’s Frank Popp will be leading the festivities.
Ahead of all that, the October bank holiday is one of the busiest on the clubbing calendar. Comical hip-hop entertainers The Cuban Brothers perform live at Trinity Rooms Limerick on October 28, with Latin DJ supreme, Roger Sanchez, filling their shoes a night later. While on the 27 at nearby Coco Brown’s, Cork legends Fish Go Deep play Club Vinyl.
And the all-Irish DEAF 06 runs across the capital from October 25 to 31, with one of the key parties a three-roomed Pogo special at PoD on October 28. Performers include Mark O’Sulllivan, Decal, Code, Polska, Alpha Omega, Zero Tolerance, Beta 2, Drew the Bastard, Subtle Audio Records Showcase, Rob Rowland and Ikeaboy. Phew!
BEATS & PIECES’ favourite DEAF contribution is Dennis McNulty’s Anti-Tour: The Nineties, which will see the former Decal man perform intimate gigs in apartments built in Dublin in the ‘90s. To request such a performance in your living room, just email [email protected]. Full details on the rest of the DEAF 06 calendar can be found elsewhere this issue … THE BEAT GOES ON!