in the midst of life we are in debt, etc.

There are three interesting Irish releases up for discussion in todays post as well as some views on the new digital radio service from RTE. Alongside both of these we'll look at some of the recent vinyl purchases from my good self.

First up is the latest release from D1 Records here in Dublin. I just happened to be in Road Records when a chap came in armed with some CD's and looking to have them stocked. I laughed a little as Dave kept calling him Roger when his name was in fact Robert. Robert Doyle to be precise. I kept earwigging as he and Dave hammered out minutiae of the deal and approached the CD's that he left with great interest. I picked up the CD to see that it was in fact the latest release from D1 Records. Peculiarly the tracks were titled in Irish. That's not altogether strange as I remember David Donohoe had a 12" release on D1 that also had an Irish title. I asked Dave to put it on the speakers and he obligingly did (because he's so nice) and it turns out that the track is not the usual techno from the D1 stable. Instead its a traditional release of some acoustic tunes that are sung through the medium of the Irish language. This was quite a departure from the usual fare on the D1 label so I'm now wondering if Robert Doyle is in fact related to label owner, Eamonn Doyle. Answers on a postcard please.

The second release is from the Trensmat Label and features not one but two new seven inches due for global consumption this coming January. This time the releases are by Expo'70 and Black to Comm. These are now available for pre-order and are, of course, limited edition lovely 7" vinyls in full colour picture sleeves. Check out their website for previous drone magic.

The third release come just in time for Christmas and is yet another release on the Indiecater label run by MP3Hugger. This time its a novel approach to the Christmas album. Kev has collected 17 original compositions that will provide a nice alternative to the usual shite that gets repackaged and rereleased at Christmas. Amongst the more well known featured artists are Nina Hynes and Jape but there's also a United Nations of Musicians making up the other 15 artists. Check out the website for more information.

I was interested to see that the DAB service from RTE has finally got going. Today saw the six new digital radio stations go live. Amongst the six stations is RTE Pulse which is a dedicated dance music station. I was interested to check out the full schedule and did so today. It's reads like a Who's Who of people I've never heard of before. That might be a good or a bad thing, i'm not sure yet. I thought that they'd have some of the more well known DJ's that the Irish clubber would be familiar with. Instead it looks like they've gone for the option of drafting in fresh faces. Some of the pictures of the DJ's are pretty funny. It's nice to know that some people are more contrived in their photos than I am. Check em.

Finally, I picked up an album of note by LA based sloppy beat maker Ras G & The Afrikan Space Program. It's more of the sloppy beat hip hop that I've slowly become accustomed to. Olan in All City Records is a fan of this kind of stuff and has released some of it in his 7X7 series, most notably the last seven inch by Mike Slott. You can check out the MySpace of Ras G and do some background reading on Mike Slott in his interview over on the Cheebah site.