Light at the end of the tunnel

Two of Ireland’s finest dance talents team up this month for an evening of high-quality homegrown electronic music. Donnacha Costello and Corrugated Tunnel form the double bill for Tenth Planet Presents... Saturday August 20 in Dublin’s Crawdaddy, which will feature a rare DJ set from Berlin-based Donnacha and the long-awaited new full live set from Cork’s Corrugated Tunnel, aided by his regular vocalist Antoinette.

“Each one of the guys puts on a great show in their own right,” says Tenth Planet mainman ‘Ene’. “It’s even better for us to put them on together. We’ve a great night in store. We had Donnacha and Ed (Edwin James of Corrugated Tunnel) down before and we’re very honoured to have them back to rock another Tenth Planet.”
The enfant terrible of Irish dance music Lorcan Mak has been busy over the summer remixing and releasing new material, the latest being two EPs for Reset Robot’s new label Rooba and a remix on up-and-coming tech house producer Prince Club’s next EP (on hybrid record label/multimedia design studio Dementori).
“I’ve got a new project on the go too,” reveals Lorcan. “So far I’m keeping it quiet in Ireland. The feedback in Europe has been great.” Find out more at facebook.com/djlorcanmak. Other He’s Electric regulars Dibby Doherty and Johnny Pluse have been firing out cheeky bootlegs, with Dibby taking on Bat For Lashes’ ‘Trophy’ and Johnny giving Limp Bizkit the ghettotech treatment. He’s also put together a ghettotech remix of his own ‘Drinking In The Sun’. Both of Johnny’s tracks are previewed on souncloud.com/johnnypluse.
Movida’s annual DJ competion is looking for a candidate to represent Northern Ireland. The heats are about to start but you can still enter by contacting Alan Johnson, at [email protected] with a 30 – 45 minute mix, or checking out movidacorona.com. Six DJs from up North will battle it out on Saturday August 20 at Kellys, Portrush to get through to the first level of the national finals, held at Ministry Of Sound, London. The competition final will be held in Madrid. Entrants must also register at movidacorona.com.
Beating the clubland recession is Technotic Eire which celebrates five years on the dancefloor this month. To mark the occasion they’re taking over new venue King Street Seven on Capel Street, Dublin on August 19. There they will be hitting us with a double whammy of pure techno. The founder of Labyrinth Records, Michaelangelo, makes it over from the US to top the bill, backed up by Duality Records’ founder Rick Miller. Able support comes from a team of Irish techno warriors: Brian Cairns (the man behind the clubnight), Adam Kelly back to back with Warbaby, and P-Hocto. Whet your appetite with a podcast from Michaelangelo at soundcloud.com/labyrinth/michaelangelo.
Those who ventured into deepest Wicklow back in April for Surge’s Wicklow Wander rave will agree it was one of best organised secret parties of the year, as well as a thundering good time. Surge are back with the Midsummer Wicklow Wander, featuring Rob Hall and Lucy on Friday August 19. Once again, admission is by invite only with no paying at the door. So get in with a chance to be invited by contacting [email protected], to be directed to the Facebook event page.
Waterford has been nurturing a major new talent in the last year or two in the form of Dan & Martin with their Get Down Edits alias, in particular causing a stir on Juno Downloads with their take on Sister Sledge’s ‘He’s The Greatest Dancer’ and the funk classic sampled by Basement Jaxx for ‘Red Alert’, Lockdown’s ‘Far Beyond’. They head a Waterford-heavy line-up at Fatty Fatty Phonographics on August 13 at The Sugar Club, which includes the city’s Torann Drummers and Aaron Dempsey. Go to facebook.com/fattyfattymusic for more details.