Work It, Girl

Normally the phrase ‘chicks on decks’ is enough to have you turning the page at speed, but Girls@Work at Arklow Rugby Club on August 20 is the real deal. Featured are Effective Records’ Lucy Fur and label mate DJ Dirtybitch. They'll be serving up back to back punishing hi-octane hard house, backed by a rising talent on the hard dance scene, Dublin spinner Scorchio and Miss WKD. More details at www.harderfaster.net

Dublin promoter Bodytonic is branching into new territory with a record label, named after their successful Saturday night flagship club, Pogo at Twisted Pepper. Pogo Recordings will open their account this month with a release from Carlow’s TR-One, ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’. The alter-ego of their Detroit-influenced Broken Audio Movement project, a low bpm deep house sound dominates the three tracks of which Bodytonic’s Conor L says: “We’ve been long time supporters of the lads, so it was a natural move to choose them to kick off the label.” Stream the tracks at soundcloud.com/pogorecordings or buy it on Juno.
Also making their mark with a debut release are Belfast duo BoredAudio. Their output is consistently denting the Juno top ten downloads and the boys are thanking their fans for the next two months with a free download every week. The freebie will come from their large pool of club-friendly bootlegs and mash-ups, including a hypnotic tech overhaul of Bat For Lashes’ ‘Pearls Dream’ and an inventive merge of two classics, Underworld’s ‘Dark & Long’ with Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’. Check them both out at soundcloud.com/boredaudio/tracks.
The summer dance festival season ain’t over yet, with this Saturday seeing a new addition to the yearly circuit, the Cyberfest in Lesfelim, Athlone. Running from 12pm (in the campsite) to 2am, there’s a leftfield mix of dubstep, techno, drum ‘n’ bass and reggae with underground names like Lukes Anger, Wiggle, Natty Wailer and Sukh Knight alongside a range of national acts, topped up with African drummers and fire jugglers. Find out more at cyberdawgpromotions.com
As promised by He’s Electric some months back, the enfant terrible of electro-techno, Ivan Smagghe continues his Dublin residency, What’s Your Pleasure Jerry? with long-term supporters and fans Big Dish Go. Previous Dublin gigs have seen him spar with the likes of Andy Weatherall and Kompakt’s Michael Meyer one-on-one behind the decks, but this time round he’s hogging the limelight, supported only by possibly his biggest fan, Shock promoter Jon Averill. “It’s the gig of a lifetime for me,” beams Jon, who has brought Smagghe to Dublin twice in recent years, “I just hope I don’t get stage fright and forget how to DJ!” There’s more details on the residency at bigdishco.blogspot.com