Jamie Lidell - New Album 'JIM' and touring with full band
February 18, 2008
Jamie Lidell is back in 2008 with a stunning album entitled JIM out April 28th. The UK tour is announced and selling like hot chesnuts on a snowy day. Koko is almost sold out! We are now looking at very select festival stages for Jamie + band to appear on through the summer.
The album was written over the last year with help from long time collaborators Mocky & Gonzales and recorded in LA with producer wizard Justin Stanley (who has worked with many including Beck and Prince). This album sees Jamie hit the heights of songwriting and vocal perfection that he has been working towards for many years.
Jamie says of JIM:
“The most important thing was the vocal, to capture the balance of me delivering the songs with full gusto, and at the same time retaining the grain and the grit.”
Jim will switch you on in the morning, move you on the dance-floor and take you down in the small hours. It’s a bold, promiscuously diverse album, mixing up gospel grooves, sweetly sung and fiercely passionate soul, delicately moving ballads, thumping early R & B, synthed-up disco, and even a touch of ‘hillbilly funk’. “I haven’t tried to hide the influences,” he says “This is the music I love.” But, listen closely and you can hear Jamie moving in new directions, creating a sound and style that is entirely his own.
Check the mini warm up studio jam with Jamie & band ::
Jaime Lidell is currently in the studio, working on his follow-up album to the excellent album 'Multiply', released by Warp in 2005. Like the finest of wines, it will be well worth the wait.
Officially, he's not taking any bookings. Nevertheless, he's been tempted out by a couple of stonking shows in 2007, most notably supporting one of his biggest fans - Björk. Don't miss these rare and exclusive shows from the one-man überfunk machine!
Confirmed shows:
June 9th, 2007
Leeds @ The Warehouse
June 30th, 2007
Istanbul @ Radar Festival
July 8th, 2007
Amsterdam @ Westerpark (Supporting Björk)
July 13th, 2007
Rotterdam @ North Sea Jazz Festival
September 1st, 2007
Ireland @ Electric Picnic Festival
Jamie Lidell press quotes
but by far the most exciting thing I witnessed at festival was a mesmerisingly manic performance by mad dog Englishman Jamie Lidell. Blessed with a sweetly classic r&b voice, and a passion for improvising with technology, he sampled and mashed his own singing like a 21st century reincarnation of Little Richard Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph (SONAR Festival)
a wonder to behold. remarkably for an Englishman in his twenties, he possesses a soul voice fried in honey like Sly Stone or Prince, and a beatboxing talent to make Muhammad Ali quake in his Everlast. Lidell constructs his tracks live, voicing and layering right in front of your eyes, effortlessly whipping them out of the air and forging them into clanking electro riffs and deathprod funk grooves. His maniac scat is deployed through vocoder, and his real-time arranging follows chaotic but gripping patterns.? The Wire (SONAR Festival)
it was exhilarating in a masochistic kind of way, most of all in Jamie Lidell's astounding solo performance, which combined ecstatically abandoned singing with a lightning-fingered performance on samplers and sequencers, building up polyphonic textures of fearsome violence Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph (Ether Festival)
a wired vaudeville act somewhere between crazed disc jockey and furious music theorist. during his shattering 15 minutes, prince is in bed with Stockhausen, MTV is shook up by Luis Bunuel and there?s blood and soul all over the sheets. If Jamie Cullum is the Roy Castle of post-modern showmanship, Lidells the Jimi Hendrix Paul Morley, Sunday Telegraph (Ether Festival)
Jamie Lidell digitised, looped and corrupted his voice as he sang and beatboxed, dressed in a spangly suit and putting on a thrilling, visceral performance? Independent on Sunday (Ether Festival)
Lidell's set was pure, visceral power: a scintillating display of demented musical and physical energy. He transformed his voice, and his body, into a musical cyborg, sampling vocal riffs and noises that built into textures of shuddering intensity. His performance was projected on a giant screen with live visuals by Pablo Fiasco, who placed cameras on Lidell's head and among his equipment, creating a cinematic experience that was almost as rich as Lidell's soundscapes. It was a thrilling live performance, both experimental and immediate. Lidell was the highlight of the evening The Guardian (Ether Festival)
Jamie Lidell will be performing live at a diverse array of venues and events in the coming months ? MISS HIM AT YOUR PERIL!
TOUR DATES:
APRIL
16 Catania, Sicily. Mercati Generali
19 London, Blow Up @ Metro Ticket Info: www.blowupmetro.com
MAY
01 Zaragoza (w/London Sinfonietta)
04 Rome, Parco della Musica (w/London Sinfonietta)
06 Vienna, Danube Festival
07 Bruges, Concertgebouw (w/London Sinfonietta)
11 Newcastle, Sage Centre (w/ London Sinfonietta)
13 St Petersburg, Red Club
21 Rome, Dissonanze festival
24 London, Royal Festival Hall (supporting Tortoise)TICKET INFO
26 London, A Taste Of Sonar @ Fabric (+ many others)TICKET INFO
JUNE
04 Malmo, Kontra-Muzik
10 Amsterdam Festival (w/London Sinfonietta)
11 Klibi, Ddingen (CH)
17 Barcelona, Sonar Festival
21 Bristol, The TheklaTICKET INFO
23 Glasgow, Record Playerz @ Glasgow School Of ArtsTICKET INFO
24 Edinburgh, HoneycombTICKET INFO
25 Leeds, Bad Sneakers @ FavershamTICKET INFO
26 Glastonbury Festival, Dance Village
28 London, 100 ClubTICKET INFO
29 Brighton, Pavillion TheatreTICKET INFO
30 Nice, Ar?ne de Cimiez
JULY
01 Belfort, France, Les Eurockeenes
02 Athens Synch Festival
09 Vienne (France) Jazz ? Vienne
11 Montreux Jazz festival
13 Five Days Off, Holland
15 Ten Days Off, Belgium
17 Dourfestival, Belgium
23 K?ln Isle of MTV
24 Futuresonic Festival, Manchester
31 London Isles of MTV, Truman Brewery, E1
AUGUST
26 Stavanger (Norway), Numusic Festival
27 TDK Cross Central Festival, London, N1
London Sinfonietta, Plaid and Jamie Lidell :: Summer Euro Tour ::
June 10th. Amsterdam, Holland Festival @ Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ
Main show is sold out - free afterparty entrance available featuring Jamie Lidell, plaid djs, N>E>D, Flat-E !
SUNDAY 1 MAY 2005
9pm, Auditorium (sala mozart),Zaragoza
WEDNESDAY 11 MAY 2005
7.30pm,Hall OneThe SageGateshead
+ 10-2am Warp Aftershow Party with Plaid DJs, Warp Djs in intimate surroundings of Sage Centre Hall 2
Programme:
Steve Reich.......Pendulum Music
Aphex Twin........Jynweythek & hy a Scullyas lyf adhagrow
Edgard Var?se....Ionisation
Plaid..................DJ/laptop set
Georges Antheil..Ballet M?canique
[interval 30 minutes] featuring screening of Warp videos including Chris Cunnigham?s Rubber Johnny with music by Aphex Twin
Steve Reich...........Violin Phase
John Cage.............1st Construction in Metal
Jamie Lidell...........solo set
Steve Reich..........Six Marimbas
Aphex Twin arr Kenneth Hesketh........ Polygon Window
Players ::
Jurjen Hempel.......conductor
Laurent Qu?nelle...violin
John Constable......piano
Jamie Lidell...........guest Warp artist, vocals
Plaid.....................guest Warp artists
flat-e, Bluespoon...visuals
Pablo Fiasco..........Jamie Lidell visuals
Fernand L?ger.......Ballet M?canique film
Sound Intermedia..sound design
London Sinfonietta/South Bank Centre co-production
First performed in London, March 2004 as part of a Contemporary Music Network tour
BALLET MECANIQUE video provided by Anthology Film Archives and Cineric, Inc., New York
The London Sinfonietta started ?a quiet musical revolution? when they joined forces with Warp records and sold-out the Royal Festival Hall at 2003?s Ether Festival, the South Bank Centre?s annual festival celebrating the possibilities of live performance within the context of electronic music and technology. Building on the success of this collaboration, they returned in 2004 with a new and inspired project, this time featuring live performances by Squarepusher and Jamie Lidell (Warp records), which toured the UK on a Contemporary Music Network tour.
Now this collaboration is touring to Zaragoza (1 May), Rome (4 May), Bruges (7 May) and Gateshead (11 May) with live performances by Jamie Lidell and Plaid.
Defying preconceptions, this explosively percussive performance explored the parallels that exist between some of the world?s most exciting musical rebels from electronic and contemporary classical music. A tacit reminder of the way that ideas anticipate technology, rarely performed works by pioneering composers George Antheil, Edgard Var?se and Steve Reich plus John Cage rub shoulders with new works by Aphex Twin and live sets by Jamie Lidell and Plaid in a programme that also features rare film, video and visuals by 20th and 21st century artists such as Fernand L?ger and Chris Cunningham.
With Steve Reich?s Pendulum Music playing as the audience enter the auditorium, the concert is divided into three sections: Part I includes Var?se?s Ionisation; Antheil?s Ballet M?canique, performed to a film by Fernard L?ger and a DJ/laptop set by Plaid. Part II, which also acts as the interval, is made up of a series of videos produced by Warp artists including Chris Cunningham's Rubber Johnny (music Aphex Twin) and Come on My Selector (music by Squarepusher). Part III, sees Jamie Lidell performing a live set between music by Cage, Reich and Aphex Twin performed by the London Sinfonietta.
The father of electronic music, Edgard Var?se spent the majority of his life waiting for technology to catch up with him; "I long for instruments obedient to my thought and whim, with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds" (1917) and refused to submit to sounds he had already heard. The London Sinfonietta will give a rare performance of Varese?s Ionisation (1929-31) for thirteen percussionists, a work which introduced the siren as a musical instrument and was the first by a Western composer written solely for percussion - likened to ?a sock in the jaw? when it was first performed!
George Antheil?s Ballet M?canique (1924) was also way ahead of its time and has only recently been performed as originally intended, through the use of MIDI technology. Dubbed ?the bad boy of music?, Antheil was at the centre of the artistic avant-garde in 1920s Paris, where the first performance of his visionary Ballet M?canique caused a riot and marked both the zenith and nadir of his career; it symbolised the height of demented modernism, as well as being regarded as one of the masterpieces of the early 20th century. Using an orchestra of sixteen player pianos (now created and synchronised using MIDI technology), percussion, electric buzzers and aeroplane propellers, Ballet M?canique started life as the score to a Dadaist montage film by Man Ray, Dudley Murphy and Fernand L?ger, although the film and the music were forced to assume separate lives, again due to the technological limitations of the time. Antheil never really recovered from the disappointment of being ?completely misunderstood by those morons who listened to Ballet Mechanique in 1927? moving on to Hollywood to write film music and lonely hearts columns. It is therefore a rare and special treat for UK audiences to see the original L?ger film and Antheil?s music performed together as part of this project.
Unashamedly willing to take risks, the London Sinfonietta has remained at the vanguard of contemporary music for nearly thirty-five years. As early champions of the works of Xenakis, Ligeti and Birtwistle - who were largely unknown in the UK at the time - the London Sinfonietta has remained true to its roots. London Sinfonietta?s 2003 London season opened with a sold-out tribute to Xenakis, followed by a programme dedicated to Ligeti. In April 2005 they explored the soundworlds of Luigi Nono and, in June, will add to its extraordinary tally of over 250 premi?res - not to mention a further 125 commissions - with the first performance of a co-commission from Harrison Birtwistle, Neruda Madrigales..
