British Sea Power Return, Tour and New Album 'Machineries of Joy'.

Rejoice - British Sea Power are back! Their fifth album, Machineries of Joy, is released on April 1 and will be followed almost immediately by a full UK tour. What's more, fans are able to pre-order the new record now, when buying tickets for any of the upcoming dates. The first 500 fans to do so will also receive an exclusive bonus, EP containing new material and unique artwork.

Tickets and album pre-orders are available here.

 

Tour dates are as follows:

 

4th Apr 2013 Exeter Phoenix

5th Apr 2013 Birmingham HMV Library

6th Apr 2013 Newcastle Northumbria Uni

7th Apr 2013 Glasgow Oran Mor

9th Apr 2013 Leeds Metropolitan University

10th Apr 2013 Nottingham Rescue Rooms

12th Apr 2013 Manchester Gorilla

14th Apr 2013 Cardiff Coal Exchange

15th Apr 2013 Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms

16th Apr 2013 Norwich Waterfront

17th Apr 2013 London Shepherds Bush Empire

January Playlist (Volume 1)

Welcome to the first of a (roughly) fortnightly series of playlists. I've decided to do this because I wanted a record of what I've been listening to, that way I can return to each list and remind me what I was excited about months earlier. Also, some music just deserves sharing.

Most songs will be new, some might be old. Some will be quiet, some will be very loud. It will all be good though, trust me. This first one is a strong list, featuring everything from metal to classically infused techno from as far and wide as Germany and Denmark, Norway and Northen Ireland.

Edit: The Marnie Stern track for some reason won't work on the Cloud Player. Here it is.

 

The Tracks:

 

Thought Forms - Only Hollow

This is an immediately striking track from Thought Forms, who are signed to Geoff Barrow's Invada Records. Taut, fraught and fuzz-drenched.

The Men - Electric

Open Your Heart was bursting with honest intent, and reviews rewarded that, yet the album was inexplicably shunned by Album of the Year polls at the end of 2012. They deserve better in 2013. Third album New Moon arrives in March, and they'll be in the UK shortly after.

Iceage - Coalition

Iceage are back and this is great news. This track is as furious as you might expect from the Danes, but also hints at the new emotional depths plumbed on second album You're Nothing.

John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts

Haunting, shapeshifting slowburner from the ex-The Czars man. No matter what else I listen to, I keep coming back to this one.

Marnie Stern - Year of the Glad

Another welcome return, this time from Marnie Stern. This track and another early arrival, 'East Side Glory', suggest that on phenomenally titled new album The Chronicles of Marnia, Stern has reined in the hyperactive guitar wizardry just slightly, allowing her songwriting to shine through even more than on previous releases.

No Spill Blood - Good Company

Along with Okkultokrati's Snakereigns (below), No Spill Blood's Street Meat EP was one of my heavy discoveries of 2012. Another smart signing from the usually excellent Sargent House, the Northern Ireland hardcore band combine synth hooks with the power of Mastodon and the intensity of Converge. A forthcoming debut album is well worth looking out for.

 

Okkultokrati - No Ourouboros

Owing as much to 80's US hardcore as it does to much of the metal produced closer to home (the band are from Norway), Okkultokrati's Snakereigns LP is a snarling, sneering hybrid.

Brandt Brauer Frick - Broken Pieces Feat. Jamie Lidell
The first new music from the German Techno/Classical group since 2011's Mr Machine, this comes from their new album Miami, released in March. BBF arrive in the UK in late March, performing with Frank Ocean producer and Miami guest star Om'Mas Keith.

See also: Nina Kraviz and Theo Parrish.

Introducing: Embers Interviewed for The Line of Best Fit

Over the Christmas period I interviewed Manchester's Embers. They recorded two breathtaking videos in a monastery that caught the attention of a lot of people back in November. For an unsigned band (or for any band in fact) the ambition and the scale of their songs is pretty special. 

"It’s creative Darwinism in a way – to survive and stand out in the early stages you have to have a vision of what you want to be, be able to contextualise your music and out of necessity take influence from other sources. It just so happens that comes instinctively for us, and it’s something we enjoy doing."

Here's the interview...
...and here's the stunning video for 'Hollow Cage', filmed live in Gorton Monastery.

Clash One to Watch #464/NME Buzz Artist: Nadine Shah

I wrote these bits  for clash about Nadine Shah, who is just fantastic (includes Shirley Bassey references and some Cheryl Cole aggression, a precursor to when she did that racist attack on a toilet attendant in Guildford before she became England's rose and then America's most short-lived X-Factor judge - Cheryl, not Nadine).

"What Shah's music really shares with the members of that venerable roll call is a rich and at times devastating emotional intensity – that and occasional hints of a Bassey-esque snarl."

As well as the Clash piece, a short piece I wrote on Nadine coincidentally appeared in the NME on the same day. Here's the scan:

Now go and give Nadine's EP 'Aching Bones' a listen.