Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Friday, 20 November 2009
Introducing: Is Tropical
Formed early this year, the IS TROPICAL line up of Gary Barber (Vocals/Guitars/Keys), Simon Milner (Vocals/Guitars/Keys) and Dominic Apa (Drums/Programming) hit the ground running playing a quick stint of live dates and club nights in and around London. Developing their live show and songs simultaneously, they improvise from scrounged instruments and create a constantly changing soundscape, which sees them effortlessly swoop from raw pop anthems to lo-fi dance songs.
Taking to the stage in their now trademark masks, cloaked by self-made video projections IS TROPICAL are one of the most exciting and mysterious bands in the country. Spontaneous, unindulgent, and instinctively inventive. IS TROPICAL will be playing the following dates in November and December, more live dates to be announced.
You Me At Six Announce New Album
Announce January 11th release of eagerly anticipated second album 'Hold Me Down' on Virgin Records
You Me At Six look set to cement their rise from underground heroes to mainstream success with the January 11th release of their second album 'Hold Me Down' on Virgin Records. 'Hold Me Down' is the follow up to their 2008 debut 'Take Off Your Colours.'
'Hold Me Down' finds the Surrey quintet fulfilling their potential with a collection of soaring hooks and irresistible melodies. It captures You Me At Six's live exuberance with 'Playing The Blame Game' breaching the gap between pop-punk energy and the snappy immediacy of new wave, while 'Safer To Hate Her' alternates between a tender, melancholic riff and a fiercely defiant chorus. But 'Hold Me Down'demonstrates that the band aren't reliant on pure energy as closing track 'Fireworks' escalates from its initial reflective tone into a soaring conclusion. The album also highlights a guest appearance from Kids In Glass Houses vocalist Aled Phillips on 'Trophy Eyes.'
An air raid siren heralds the hi-octane thrills of album opener 'The Consequence' which will preview the album when it's released as a free download from the official You Me At Six website on November 25th plus it features guest vocals courtesy of The Blackout's Sean Smith. The first full single to be taken from 'Hold Me Down' will be the crunchy power-pop attack of 'Underdog' due for release on 7th February 2010.
The album was produced by John Mitchell (Funeral For A Friend, Enter Shikari, Architects) and Matt O'Grady (The Blackout, Hexes), and mastered by Bob Ludwig (Radiohead, Coldplay, Pearl Jam).
You Me At Six soon became one of the most vital emerging talents around when they released their debut set 'Take Off Your Colours.'The album's continuing popularity was proven when it was recently released as a 2CD Deluxe Edition that featured their first Top 40 hit'Finders Keepers'.
However, it's been You Me At Six's famously adrenalized live shows that have cemented their growing reputation as one of the UK's most exciting ascending bands. The band will conclude 2009 with an arena tour as guests to Paramore, before returning for a full UK headline tour in March 2010 that concludes with a show at Brixton Academy.
www.youmeatsix.co.uk www.myspace.com/youmeatsix
Upcoming tour dates
December 2009 - as guests to Paramore
10th - Glasgow, SECC Arena
11th - Birmingham, NIA
12th - Dublin, O2 Point
14th - Cardiff, CIA
16th - Manchester, MEN Arena
17th - Brighton, Centre
18th - London, Wembley Arena
March 2010 - headline tour
9th - Birmingham, O2 Academy
10th - Newport, Centre
11th - Sheffield, O2 Academy
12th - Manchester, Apollo
13th - Newcastle, O2 Academy
14th - Glasgow, O2 Academy
16th - Leeds, O2 Academy
17th - Nottingham Rock City
18th - Southampton, Guildhall
19th - Norwich, UEA
20th - London, Brixton O2 Academy
DJ Hell to release single featuring Bryan Ferry
Hell featuring Bryan Ferry
'U Can Dance'
It was only a matter of time. Two genre-defining artists together…pop music and dance music's most famous arbiters of taste, collaborating at last. DJ Hell's "U Can Dance" is an interpretation of an unreleased Bryan Ferry song, but it's one that reflects a perfect melding of two distinct personalities, a record that sounds as if the voice and music were made for each other.
Hell, of course, has been riding high on the success of Teufelswerk, his masterpiece of a double album, a journey replete with fruitful experiments and club bombs. One that has yielded both massive hits and not a tiny bit of controversy along the way. Ferry, meanwhile, has been as busy as ever-recording a new album, performing in places as far afield as Siberia, opening up the Cannes Film Festival...basically just being Bryan Ferry.
And now here they are together...It all started in 2006 when Hell dropped in to meet Ferry at his West London studio. At first they discussed Hell remixing an old Roxy Music track, and then it turned into something else - something new (U Can Dance).
They had similar impressions of one another-Hell: "I was impressed by his aura and his look," Ferry: "He impressed us with his sophistication and charm." Fast forward a few years later, and Hell is hard at work on Teufelswerk and putting the finishing touches on the aforementioned song titled "U Can Dance," a serpentine Moroder-esque disco burner. With the help of old friend Peter Kruder, of Kruder and Dorfmeister fame, Hell fashioned the song into a smoldering nine-minute highlight of the double disc set, in which Ferry turns in a typically assured vocal performance.
Ferry may seem like an unexpected fan of dance, but he's been going to clubs since he was a teenager, and in his lengthy career he's worked with legends such as Nile Rodgers of Chic and David Williams from Michael Jackson's band. "It's always a pleasure to work with people from that genre, who follow a singular groove."
HELL FEATURING BRYAN FERRY 'U CAN DANCE' - COMING JAN. 2010 from Gigolo Records on Vimeo.
The single follows in the wake of Hell's "The DJ feat. P. Diddy" which has won over floors and critics alike with its nearly 30-minute Radio Slave remix and fine work from the likes of Deetron, Jay Haze and others. On "U Can Dance" Hell and Ferry have similarly pulled out all the stops for the remixes, gathering up work from the Grammy-nominated producer Carl Craig, DFA mainstay Tim Goldsworthy and pop electro superstars Simian Mobile Disco.
There's also a video - directed by the suitably subversive Jo Apps. It features five beautiful sirens, styled by Nova Dando of Lady Gaga fame. In the fashion of both Roxy Music and the men behind "U Can Dance," the video captures the song's decadence perfectly...
TOUR DATES
Nov 6 2009 - Womb Tokyo
Nov 7 2009 - Mole Sapporo, Hokkaido
Nov 13 2009 - Boogee Basement Graz, Kärnten
Nov 20 2009 - Lux Lisboa
Nov 26 2009 Patrick Mohr x Hell, Munich
Nov 27 2009 - Bergwerk Altenmarkt
Nov 28 2009 - Fabric London and South East
Dec 3 2009 - Vienna International Human Rights Film Festival Wien
Dec 4 2009 - Alte Borse Zurich
Dec 7 2009 - Spacio Atlantico Roma
Dec 10 2009 Patrick Mohr x Hell, Berlin
Dec 11 2009 - Rex Paris
Dec 12 2009 - Watergate with M.A.N.D.Y Berlin
Dec 17 2009 -Wendy& Jim after party-Flex Wien
Dec 18 2009 - Velvet Leipzig
Dec 19 2009 - Park Motel Dresden
Dec 26 2009 - Playground @ Kornhaus, Bern
Introducing: The Duke & The King
The Duke & The King
New single "The Morning I Get To Hell" out on 14th December 2009 on Loose Music
The Duke & The King are a glam-soul-folk quartet from New York featuring Simone Felice, Bobbie Bird Burke, Simi Stone and Nowell Haskins. Named after the travelling Shakespeare Hustlers in Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' these curious blood-brothers (and sweet sister) have found a home together, a travelling church of harmony and sin where its OK to French kiss your cousin and all strays are welcome to come out of the cold and sing along to songs of love, loss, pathos and hope. The Duke & The King have been touring all corners of the globe in support of their internationally acclaimed debut album 'Nothing Gold Can Stay'.
The Duke & The King will be playing two UK shows in November:
Saturday 21 November - The Ruby Lounge - Manchester
Sunday 22 November - The Scala - London
Watch The Duke & The King performing "The Morning I Get To Hell" on Later with Jools Holland earlier this year:
"Exquisite -Already one of my favourite albums of the Year" - UNCUT
"Songs so perfectly formed they might have been around forever" - THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
"A wondrous album" - CD of The Week - THE SUNDAY TIMES
"The kind of record that cults are made of" - THE WORD
"One of my favourite albums of the year. Each song somehow sounding like a classic, each live performance suggesting we are in the presence of a rare, fiery brilliance" - THE GUARDIAN
"Nothing Gold Can Stay already has hovering not so very far above it the status of classic" - THE SUNDAY TIMES
"Haunted but rapturous. Treasure it" - THE MIRROR