Music
20 Mar 01

Sonarstate

While Ireland's club scene is often praised, sometimes excessively, there is no parallel between the standard of Irish nightlife and the quality of indigenous dance music production.

Granted, there are isolated pockets of brilliance, like Dublin's staunchly underground D1, Bassbin and Ultramack labels or Sweat residents Shane Johnson and Greg Dowling's pristine house excursions, but Ireland has failed to produce dance music that'll elevate the scene from the confines of its resolutely limited edition milieu to an international level.

Mindful that Ireland has an underdeveloped dance music infrastructure, Sonarstate.com, an online dance music talent search, was set up to tap directly into our potentially huge talent pool. Run in conjunction with Sony UK, the site offers the winner a worldwide recording deal as well as a management and publishing deal.

Over the course of eight weeks, 250 submissions were made, and this CD features the seven finalists.

Ranging in styles from Factor X's spine tingling atmospheric torch songs through John Lawless' euphoric trance, Stockholm City's deep, dubby house and Freakfunk's bug eyed, good time breaks, Sonarstate proves that Irish dance music is growing up.

And that has to be a good thing.