The internet’s biggest and best dance music outlet Beatport has ranked Ireland’s Orla Feeney in their recent Most Inspirational Female Artists poll. The RTE jock, festival favourite and budding producer has joined veterans like Ellen Allien and DJ Rap in a poll which, according to Beatport, "salutes the women making dance clubs more equal – not to mention more fun – for everyone".

As well as co-producing upcoming remixes for hard trance labels Vandit and Goodgreef, Orla has also landed the coup of a monthly guest appearance from one of the genre’s biggest names, John O’Callaghan, on her weekly Tuesday night Taster show on RTE Pulse. The article and Orla’s current Beatport chart can be seen at www.beatport.com.
Dublin’s Lorcan Mak is going from strength to strength: not only are the likes of Laidback Luke, Feadz and Brodinski foaming over his Brass My EP release and his Crystal Fighters remix on Kitsune. He’s also caught the ear of one Graham Sinden, who on hearing his monster anthem ‘For The Love’ promptly signed him up for an EP on his new label Grizzly.
Another Dublin producer catching the right ears is Irish Dance Music Awards nominated Detboi, who has remixed current NME darlings The Glamour. Tipped as the new Klaxons, the Milwaukee band bagged him for a remix of their next single, ‘Met The Music’, after being sold on a sneak preview of his forthcoming debut album, Curse Of The Voodoo Drums. A teaser will be available very soon at www.myspace.com/detboisplace. Also, legendary electronica label Warp have given the seal of approval to Ireland’s Psychonavigation records, cutting an exclusive distribution deal to sell their output on their prestigious Bleep.com online portal.
2010 is beginning to heat up for Irish clubbers with the announcement of a few big names coming over in the near future. Crookers play a rare Dublin DJ set in The Academy on Easter Sunday April 4, Calvin Harris plays The Temple Complex in Carlow on April 24, and Faithless perform an intimate show in The Olympia on May 19. Also over the Easter weekend, Irish promoters Shock feature heavily at the London Airbound festival, with a big contingent of top Irish DJs and producers infiltrating the acclaimed festival, including a special Bodytonic party on a barge up the Thames. More details at www.shock.com. Croatian producers living in Ireland SymbolOne remix the upcoming Canadian-Irish Deadbots Much Better EP. For a chance to win an advance copy of the EP plus an exclusive Deadbots t-shirt, click here