THE thing about drum'n'bass is this: techno is dead on its legs and Happy House is too formulaic but Jungle perversely enough, has the musical wherewithal to last as long as ska. There be talk in the village that My Bloody Valentine's new album is heavily Jungle influenced, and I know Geoff Travis at Rough Trade is signing up Jungle acts at a rate of knots. Even though Jungle peaked some time last summer (as far as the white people who work on The Face and i-D are concerned) it is still massive (both club wise and record buying wise) in the less fashionable urban areas.
We'll be getting more than a taste of the drum'n'bass sound in our humble little country over the next while - first, the man who dragged Jungle kickin' and screamin' into the musical mainstream, namely Goldie, plays The Point in Dublin on May 5th (sales of Timeless have gone through the proverbial roof since its release eight months ago). Second, serving up the breakbeats this very night in The Kitchen in a special drum'n'bass night is the one, the only, DJ Peshay. Apart from his work on the Mo Wax and Metalheadz label, Peshay is a serious contender in the "more BPMs than is good for a body" stakes. It all starts at about 11 p.m. tonight and finishes when it finishes. If you're well behaved and show your appreciation, the promoters might just bring in Jungle DJs on a regular basis.
YOU know how it is you're waiting for years for a new band to come out of Derry and suddenly four come at once. Apart from Rare and Cuckoo and Scheer (now signed to 4AD), there's the highly promising Schtum, whose hardcore work outs put one in mind of Fugazi with Cathal Cough Ian on lend vocals.
"Like a lot of young Irish bands now, we take our influences from American, not British music," says guitarist Ivan, "and it's probably no coincidence that we have our biggest following there. The thing about our music is that the structure is very loose. There's no real verse chorus verse aspect to our songs. So far it's going great in the US for us; we've just heard we're getting more air play on college radio in the Boston area than Oasis." With their debut album, Grow, having just arrived in the record shops, the group are off on a massive US tour, co headlining with Ruby (featuring Leslie, ex Silverfish) and we'll be keeping an eye on their progress over the following months. By the way, the album is available at the specially reduced price of £9.99 (CD) and (cassette) in Irish record shops over the next few weeks.
IN another sporadic act of kindness the excellent Dublin lo fi band, Sewing Room, are giving away their new six track EP Drugfree free if you go and see them play in Whelans next Monday night (doors open 8 p.m., a mere £4 entrance). Full interview with Sewing Room in this column next week, but for the moment be warned that Wormhole are supporting on the night. Word from the US is that Wormhole's album is poised to crack the top 100 of the "alterno rock" charts next week. Can't be bad ... I saw this bunch support Oasis at Earls Court last year and they are the business: The Bootleg Beatles play the Mean Fiddler tomorrow night. Highly recommended ... Funny as it may seem, there's a whole generation of people (like me) who only know of Joe Ely because of his close association with The Clash, and not because of his huge country tinged back catalogue. He plays the Fiddler on Sunday at 8.30 ....... The man who was responsible for signing both Whipping Boy and Schtum to the Colombia label and has played no small part in the progress of both is Olan McGowan. Olan was very seriously injured in a diving accident last year - and to defray some of his massive medical bills the very wonderful Glam Tarts, supported by Tony St James, play a benefit at the Ormond Multimedia centre tonight. Doors open at 8 p.m. and there'll be all manner of fah and whizzo things happening throughout the night.
