Littlebig welcomes King Midas Sound! The new project from Kevin Martin (The Bug) & Roger Robinson with additional vocals from Hitomi (Dokkebi). The trio mixes intimate city living poetry with heavy 'n' hazzee basslines to create an audio opiate of deep delights. Hitomi appears on three of the album tracks to add a layer of disorienting bittersweet vocals that remind you of the sound of jilted lovers rock and haunted garage. Their new debut album "Waiting for You" has just landed on the already legendary Hyperdub and has had many a great review... see below for a few of them. If you're interested in booking King Midas Sound....
"One of the years most anticipated albums from the dubstep/future dub quarters has finally landed. Regarded by many as the source of his finest material, in his King Midas Sound guise Kevin Martin concentrates on the haunted and somnambulistic qualities of dub music, like a tracing paper facsimilie of his Bug project dialled from 6 feet below the rave, still feeling the choking bass weight, but filtering the vocals, sirens and atmospheres to a frosted shade of his other self. The magnificent teaser single 'Cool Out' is still resplendant in it's austere majesty, leading the ghostly carnival procession through 12 tracks united by an ethereally themed concept. Title track 'Waiting For You' strips the juicy flesh of what could be a bittersweet Lovers Rock track down to the shuddering bones, offering scant melodic light from Roger Robinson's floating falsetto, while the Tricky alike moods and male/female vocal counterpoints of 'Earth A Kill Ya' perfectly encapsulates that sense of dread paranoia that lurks large over this whole set. The outstanding 'I Man' fleshes out the previous dub version included on the preceding single with achingly soulful vox from Robinson, while bass fiends are in for a serious treat with the all too short 'Blue' and 'Lost' perhaps gives a nod to RZA's Ghost Dog soundtrack with a crooked leaning hiphop killer. Like the best of Martin's productions, this is just intensely heavy, but with a twist of densely smoked paranoia that makes it something of a modern classic for the late 00's. Highly Recommended!"
The 3rd release in TTT's EP series 'EP3' was released in April along with a tour showcasing yet again the unique talents of this London trio.
EP3 tour
09.04.2010 Friday - Rotterdam NL @ Nighttown (Motel Mozaique)
10.04.2010 Saturday - Kotrijk BE @ De Kreun
11.04.2010 Sunday - Brussels BE @ AB (Domino Fest)
23.04.2010 Friday - Cardiff UK @ Cardiff Arts Institute
24.04.2010 Saturday - Bristol UK @ Start The Bus
25.04.2010 Sunday - Manchester UK @ DEAF
26.04.2010 Monday - Edinburgh UK @ Electric Circus
27.04.2010 Tuesday - Birmingham UK @ Hare & Hounds
28.04.2010 Wednesday - Brighton UK @ Freebutt
29.04.2010 Thursday - London UK @ ICA (Rockfeedback)
The Club Transmediale opening on Friday January 29 at WMF is the international premiere of a breathtakingly surreal new stage-show designed with custom-built, state-of-the-art audiovisual software, and featuring material from Planningtorock’s brand new album, Planet 9, to be released soon on James Murphy's DFA records.
After her critically acclaimed debut album, Have It All, and worldwide tour, Planningtorock returns with a stage show equal parts romanticism, spectacle and satire, a gesamtkunstwerk of transfigured futurism, heavy with exhibitionist sensuality. PTR will be flanked by DJ sets from specially invited artists: Hot Chip’s Al Doyle & Felix Martin and Jackson, who all contributed to the album, and from the original techno-sexualist, Mount Sims.
Planningtorock is British born, Berlin based musician and visual artist Janine Rostron. Her debut album, Have It All, was released in 2006 on her own label, Rostron Records, and distributed worldwide via Chicks On Speed. Since then Planningtorock has been touring her 'larger-than-life' one-woman show extensively throughout Europe and the US – both solo and together with artists such as LCD Sound System, Hot Chip, Peaches and The Knife.
After two years on the road, Planningtorock returned to Berlin to begin work on her second album. After two years of writing, recording and producing, Planningtorock worked with friends Felix Martin and Al Doyle (Hot Chip) on production and mixing and travelled to New York to record with Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem) on drums. In conjunction with new writing, recording and producing, Planningtorock has developed a brand new live show for which to tour the record. Constructing an elaborate world of multi video projections, using new video tracking technology and distinctive imagery made from personal sketches and footage, Planningtorock is taking her already unique show to another level.
In addition to her personal projects, Planningtorock has also been collaborating with The Knife and Mount Sims to co-write a groundbreaking new Electro Opera about Charles Darwin titled 'Tomorrow, in a Year'. The opera debuted at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Theatre in September 2009. The double CD will be released March 2010 on Rabid Records.
As a visual artist Janine Rostron has presented works in various gallery spaces including MAMA (Rotterdam), Galleria Riccardo Crespi (Milan), Tate Modern (London), Extra City (Antwerp) and Centro Cultural Montehermoso (Vitorio-Gasteiz). She has performed internationally at high-profile art and theatre festivals and institutions.
The annual showcase industry meeting madness that is Eurosonic is now one of the most important festivals for new music in the world. If you're going you will have the opportunity to see more bands than is humanly possible in the realms of known space & time laws, just make sure you catch these three yeah....
Three Trapped Tigers - 14th Jan - Simplon (Main): 21:50-22:30
Loops Haunt (live) -14th Jan- Sub:Stance@Platformtheatre: 0:00-0:45
Mum DJ's - 15th Jan @ Shadrak (Main): 01.45-03.30
And if that's not enough, you can see me (ned) making a dick out of myself on the 'Agents Panel' on Friday 16:30 - 17:30 where I'll be joined by Tom Windish, Lucy Dickins, William Hann and Allan McGowan as we try to figure out what the hell is going on..
The infamous Michigan noise trio are back in the continent after three long, painfully silent years.
Wolf Eyes are Nate Young, John Olson and Mike Connelly. with over a 100 releases so far and hopefully at least another 100 in the future, Wolf Eyes constantly re-invent music, turning noise, death metal and industrial music into an intense, unforgettable live experience.
14.5 friday NL amsterdam @ occii
15.5 saturday DE bremen @ friese
16.5 sunday SE malmo @ singsang
17.5 monday SE gothenburg @ utmarken
18.5 tuesday DK copenhagen @ lades
19.5 wednesday DE berlin @ berghain
20.5 thursday CZ prague@stimul festival, archa theatre
21.5 friday AVAIL!!!
22.5 saturday CZ brno@fleda
23.5 sunday off
24.5 monday off
25.5 tuesday IT padova @ unwound
26.5 wednesday IT rome @ init
27.5 thursday IT bologna @ locomotiv
28.5 friday CH dudingen @ kilbi festival
29.5 saturday CH geneva @ l'usine
30.5 sunday FR lyon @ grrrnd zero
31.5 monday FR lille @ la peniche
1.6 tuesday UK brighton @ the engine room
2.6 wednesday UK london @ plan b
3.6 thursday FR paris @ vilette sonique festival
4.6 friday BE aalst @ netwerk
5.6 saturday DE cologne @ tba
6.6 sunday NL utrecht@ekko
"An ungodly Noise hybrid which sucks fragments of US hardcore, Industrial, free jazz ..., avant garde electronics and Death Metal into a sonic vortex. Cloaked in cartoonish horrorcore imagery, their music's obvious delight is its own intensity, as infectious as it is puerile." Nick Cain - The Wire
Mi Ami album on Thrill Jockey in March & Touring in May
January 11, 2010
Europe, prepare for rawkus fun, Mi Ami are back. Album on Thrill Jockey in March, touring in May. After Their 2009 album on Touch & Go alongside extensive touring, Mi Ami established themselves as an exciting, unusual and powerful new band. Now signed to the excellent Thrill Jockey label Mi Ami have just released the first single 'Cut Men' from their forthcoming album planned for March 2010.
If you're interested in booking Mi Ami as part of their May tour...
"It gives us great pleasure to announce that Mi Ami have signed to Thrill Jockey Records! Formed in August of 2007, the San Francisco trio of Jacob Long (bass), Daniel Martin-McCormick (vocals/guitar) and Damon Palermo (drums) has already issued a handful of limited 12" records on Lover's Rock (their own imprint), White Denim, and Hoss (not to mention a remix they did for Telepathe on Merok) as well as their first full-length "Watersports" and the "Echononecho" single on Quarterstick/Touch & Go in early 2009.
Their Thrill Jockey debut is taking the form of a brand new 12" called "Cut Men" and features two new tracks. Recorded at Lucky Cat Studios (where they also did "Watersports") with Trans Am's Phil Manley, both songs were tracked in a single day and mixed the next. The A-side was recorded live with only vocal overdubs. The recording captures the energy and tension of a live performance with stunning clarity. The B-side is a dub. It's a heavy, deep, and oblique re-visioning of the A-side that began as a version but transformed into a song of unique character and energy. Recorded as an extended take, "Out at Night" was later manipulated with slight edits and further dub mixing."
The psychedelic soaked, hip-hop-folk of Bibio has been causing quite a stir of late, similar in ways to when BOC released 'Music Has The Right To Children' to a hyper clean electronic nineties. Bibio's art of crafting hazy melodies and tape blurred rhythms have won him many new admirers, including Boards of Canada themselves. In addition to creating one of Warps highlight albums of last year, the jaw-dropping debut Ambivalence Avenue, Bibio none the less follows things up perfectly with his short and sweet remix EP, The Apple and the Tooth. (Strange limited edition artwork video here ) Keep an eye out for upcoming releases as there are rumours of material from him and Clark surfacing in the not too distant future...
Múm are an Icelandic pop band with euphonic, yet tumultuous leanings, mixing sound with music and vice versa. The group has taken many forms and shapes since it started in 1997 and rarely cease to surprise and confuse. Carrying on from the success of their 'Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know' and after finishing a marathon live tour of the USA, Europe and the UK in 2009, (of which a vast array of beautiful images can be found here) Múm are now available select festival dates and DJ sets this year.
Check out this beguiling video for their title track 'Sing Along', directed by Kevin Phillips.
Mira Calix - Wins British Composer Award + New Album on Aperture
January 08, 2010
Mira Calix has won a British Composers Award for her composition 'My Secret Heart', commissioned by Streetwise Opera. Touted as the classical equivalent of the Mercury Prize, the award is yet another fantastic achievement for Calix and the creative team of 'My Secret Heart" . The the judges described the piece as "transformational, capturing raw humanity and giving voice to the disenfranchised in a sound-world which is original, absorbing and unsettling". My Secret Heart will be installed in Paris in April and continues to tour in 2010
Chorus, Mira's collaboration with United Visual Artists (video below), continues to tour in 2010, you can watch a brief documentary on Sky Arts to find out more about this groundbreaking work.
Lost Foundling - Clifford & Calix - Aperture Records - Release date: 01.03.2010
A new old album by Warp artists Mark Clifford and Mira Calix . They've been friend for a long while and during the 5 year period between 1999 and 2004, they'd meet up from time to time, hang out, drink a lot of coffee, smoke too many cigarettes, stay up all night and make some noise. The songs on Lost Foundling come from this very loose and irregular working period. Their initial plan was to come back to the tracks at some point, mix them and release them. However, they were both busy with other projects and when Andrea Parker expressed and interest in releasing the material on her newly established Aperture label, the duo discovered it was impossible to go back and meddle in their material as most of their equipment had become defunct. Lost Foundling captures a slice in time, a document of their discovery and experimentation as musicians, the songs have survived, unihibited, tender and instinctive. A remix Ep will follow later in the month and will include mixes by Luke vibert, Ultradyne and Andrea Parker.
Tim Exile touring UK in Feb with Imogen Heap + Free Track on Myspace
January 07, 2010
After the hugely successful US tour with Imogen Heap, Tim Exile is back again this time for the UK tour! Acting as support as well as performing collaborations with Imogen during her main shows means that Exile fans will get more than they bargained for! Check out the UK live dates below plus videos of Tim opening for Imogen and doing a bit of an impromptu collab on the recent US tour.
Don't forget to download Tim's free Christmas gift of a copy of McLiberty in MP3 format. Pick it up here!
UK TOUR DATES
07/02/10 Manchester @ Academy 2
08/02/10 Glasgow @ ABC
09/02/10 Leeds@ Met Uni
11/02/10 Bristol@ O2 Academy
12/02/10 Cambridge@ The Junction
13/02/10 Birmingham@ O2 Academy 2
15/02/10 Gateshead@ The Sage
17/02/10 Bournemouth@ O2 Academy
18/02/10 Oxford @ O2 Academy
19/02/10 London @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Keep an eye out on Tim's Twitter page as he will be giving away a few free tickets based on a first re-Tweet basis!!
