Popstars in the ascendant

Northern Irish electro house outfit The Japanese Popstars follow the release of their debut album We Just Are with a remix of chart-toppers The Ting Tings’ new single, ‘Be The One’.

The trio put the wheels in motion with a chance meeting at this summer’s Oxegen festival in Punchestown, and the project will be completed amidst a flurry of fresh studio action.
Decky Hedrock, Gary Curran and Gareth ‘Galo’ Donoghue are also adding their electronic flourishes to The Music (’Drugs’), Grand National (’Cut by the Brakes’), and Shinichi Osawa (‘Star Guitar’).

Their next Japanese Popstars single, ‘Rise Of Ulysses’, is released on September 8. The video features licensed footage from the cult cartoon series Ulysses 31.

Techno producer Edwin James releases his mesmerising second album I Am Corrugated on Invisible Agent Records in October on CD and digital download.

There will also be a 12-inch-only single featuring two tracks from the album plus remixes by Edwin and fellow Leeside native Mark O’Sullivan, who also mastered the album.

Regular Hot Press readers will already be aware that the return of Belfast pioneer David Holmes looms large. His long-awaited fourth solo album drops through Universal in September, and the four tracks recently uploaded to his Myspace site suggest The Holy Pictures could be a career-best.

The first single from the opus, ‘I Heard Wonders’, will be released at the end of August with remixes from Andrew Weatherall amongst others.

Fellow Belfast producer Micky Modelle hopes to follow the chart success of his hits with Jesse a few years back – ‘Show Me Heaven’ and ‘Dancing in the Dark’ – with his cover version of Journey’s ’80s hit ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ which has been doing the rounds for almost a year.

The track has been signed by Ministry – for its Hard2Beat stamp – and will be released under the moniker Weekend Warriors. Remixes come from another Northerner, Aaron McClelland in his Fonzerelli guise, along with Uniting Nations and Ghetto-Busterz.

Trance producer Bryan Kearney reports that his recent single on Full Tilt, ‘The Walrus,’ was caned by Paul van Dyk, Eddie Halliwell, Marco V and Sander van Doorn among others.

Next up from the young Dub – who recently played to 15,000 people in Poland after Tiesto – is a full-on trancer ‘You Will Never Be Forgotten’ on Discover Records.

The next Full Tilt outing is the debut from Tralee DJ Jonno Brien. The acid houser ‘My Groove’ comes with a top-notch remix from Jon Rundell (of Intec fame) while the techno-infused ‘Enforcement’ gets a twisted rework from Dubliner Brian Taaffe.

The Pete Tong tipped UK tech-house DJ Pete Wales supplies single number 30 for Dubliner Barry Dempsey’s Monad Music imprint. Out this fortnight (from monadmusic.com), it features two original tracks, ‘Turned Over’ and ‘Seventeen’.

The second single from Omnis Recordings offshoot Amalgam Audio is ‘Spiral Trauma’ from Fady Ferraye. It includes a host of remixes and is scheduled for release at the end of August.

The Dublin-based electronica stamp made its debut in June with a single from Boshell & Cody, who have just turned in a tech-funk remake of ‘Turning Tricks’ by Royal Sapien for NYC label Olaris. It rocks.

Darren Nugent’s Elevation Recordings marches forth with single number 21, ‘Wipeout’ by Greek producer Steve Mill. It flexes its deep and techy muscles with the aid of remix workouts from fellow Greek Kosmas Epsilon and Dutch producer Johan Vermeule.

Old skool Dublin DJ Latin Wolff hopes to resurrect his career with ‘Summerland’ in the autumn. It’s a breezy trance workout which has been remixed by fellow ’90s legend Jason Dee, and it will be released by the pair of them on their own label.

RTE dance guru Mr Spring has announced the release of another EP lifted from his Not For Sale album. The ‘Not For Hire EP’ features ‘Tina’s Waistband’, ‘Messiah’, ‘Real Deal’ and ‘Machine’ and can be purchased exclusively at online store Juno.

Dublin-based house stamp Queep turns up the heat in August with the release of Quelectro Volume 5, the latest in its electro house compilation series. The album includes brand new tunes from Jackindabox, A.C.K. & Simon Point, Washing MaJazzz and Kid Handsome among others.

It’s followed later in the month by the single ‘Kvas’ by emerging Polish artist Insaneman, an uplifting slab of progressive electro.

In a telling sign of the times, dominant English hard house label Tidy Trax recently ceased putting out vinyl singles. Last month it launched the new monthly album series, Tidy Music Library, a double-CD featuring a host of new releases alongside remixes of Tidy classics. It leaves drum ‘n’ bass as the last scene driven predominantly by DJs playing vinyl.

On the subject of hard house, meanwhile, Dublin club Revolution celebrates its third birthday on September 27 in Dublin at an as-yet-undisclosed city location with almost 40 DJs and three rooms that will also cater for trance and old skool crowds from 1pm until 1am. Your Beats & Pieces scribe will be performing a set in each room… THE BEAT GOES ON!