NEWS

All Is Not Lost will be released as the first single from About Group’s forthcoming third album on June 24^th 2013. The album, Between The Walls, will be available on July 1^st.

All Is Not Lost is a classic heartbreak ballad; hinting at a more modern r'n'b mode of writing, the strange but wonderful airlessness of such productions is replaced here with the electricity and liveliness of a straight to tape recording session, capturing the band in performance.

The accompanying video was directed by Swedish artist, Henrik Håkansson:

‘This film is a collage of projects that have recently been exhibited as single works, where bits and pieces are psyched together to create a visionary and open reading to words and music. The visions of my work use reflections of or by fragments in our surrounding environment, mirroring a personal statement on the state of our natural world today. In the end it is a shared vision of gain and loss.’ Watch it HERE.

About Group: All Is Not Lost on Nowness.com

About Group can also announce an album launch show at the Dalston Victoria in London, on July 4^th. Purchase tickets HERE.

Between The Walls captures the sound of a band 'playing' together, in both senses of the word - experimenting and trying things, being playful, as much as being a group performing as a unit together. Between The Walls is the sound of people pushing towards and pulling against one another simultaneously. It is the sound of buzzing amplifiers, sudden musical non-sequiturs, loud blasts of straight synth lines cutting through melody and structure. And it is also the sound of beautiful and odd electronic textures and brilliantly defined and deliberate drums, underpinning fragile but deliberate performances of sad songs and country ballads.

Between The Walls will be available on CD (WIGCD292), LP (WIGLP292), DL (WIG292D) and on special edition 2 x CD, featuring a bonus disc with DJ loops, available through Dom mart and indie stores only. Pre-order the album HERE. Download album track, Walk On By, HERE.

ABOUT GROUP:

Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now)

John Coxon (Spring Heel Jack, Spiritualized)

Pat Thomas (has played with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley)

Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip)

Between The Walls is About Group’s last album with Charles Hayward who now moves on to other projects. 

Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, the fourth studio album by Franz Ferdinand, will be released by Domino on 26^th August 2013.

Watch the trailer HERE 

Pre-order all formats HERE.

This exuberant, unencumbered record is the first from the Glasgow band since 2009’s Tonight. They seem to have rediscovered the imagination, vitality and fun found on their classic, era-encapsulating debut Franz Ferdinand.

Recorded over the last year at Kapranos’s Scottish studio, McCarthy’s Sausage Studios in London, Club Ralph and a couple of trips to Stockholm and Oslo, the LP cements their status as a unique and adventurous British band: emboldened by a decade’s undreamt-of worldwide success, but still daring and defiant. It’s an ecstatic rejection of the drab conventions often accompanying that level of attention and expectation.

When asked for a quote, Kapranos came back with: “The Intellect Vs The Soul, played out by some dumb band.”* God knows what that means, but the lyrics do seem more poetic this time. There were a few interesting collaborations, but more of that later…

The ten songs that make up Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action take what propelled Franz Ferdinand from the incestuous Glasgow Art School world to, well, the entire world - painterly lyrical detail, heavyweight hooks, precise aesthetic vision and that uncanny ability to marry arch artistic sensibility with pop punch – and push it even further. The breadth of influence, musicality and invention on show here is enormous. If this is unmistakably a Franz Ferdinand record, it is as much by virtue of its sonic daring and perfectly patch-worked eclecticism as the timeless songwriting flair that has long been their calling card.

Franz Ferdinand are still Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy, Bob Hardy and Paul Thomson. There’s still no one like them.

Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action will be available on CD (WIGCD255), deluxe limited edition double CD (WIGCD255X), LP (WIGLP255), via digital download (WIG255D) and a Deluxe DomMart only double LP (WIGLP255X) - packaged in a hand numbered die-cut gatefold sleeve. The exclusive bonus disc in both the double CD and double LP, entitled Right Notes, Right Words, Wrong Order, is a document of a thrilling live session captured at the legendary Konk Studios in London. 

In addition, Domino will be releasing Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action - The Passport Edition. Limited to 500 worldwide, The Passport Edition features a deluxe edition of each physical format of the album, all 7”s and 12” singles and access to the highest quality audio files possible as well as exclusive tracks and content. 

The tracklisting for the album is as follows:

1. Right Action
2. Evil Eye
3. Love Illumination
4. Stand On The Horizon
5. Fresh Strawberries
6. Bullet
7. Treason! Animals.
8. The Universe Expanded
9. Brief Encounters
10. Goodbye Lovers & Friends

It's been a long journey, but a good one.  People, we're nearly there now and on May 27, The Pastels fantastic new album, Slow Summits will finally be available from Domino Mart and all good outlets.  We are extremely excited to announce a last minute addition for all first wave purchasers.  

During the making of Slow Summits, The Pastels listened to a lot of music; they always do, but what? We think we have the answer because Stephen and Katrina have compiled a small edition mix cd called Insane Energy Drop which is the perfect companion to the making of the record. At this stage, we're not prepared to reveal anything that is on it, but it's a beautiful Pastelesque mix of friends, fellow travellers and odd corners of their record collection. We're quietly confident that no non-Pastel will be able to identify every single track, but the thing is, you never know…

For the person that gets them all, or gets closest we are offering a signed high quality print of the cover art, something special from The Pastels own archive, and one record of your choice from the Domino catalogue.  To get into the competition we recommend that you pre-order your copy of Slow Summits immediately from Domino Mart, or your local record shop then send us what you think the tracklisting of the Insane Energy Drop mix is. Entries should be sent to: competition@dominorecordco.com by the 24^th June.

Good luck! 

Disclaimer: CDs will only be available in selected UK indie shops & with worldwide Dom Mart orders. Don’t worry if you don’t get your hands on a CD there will be a way for everyone to enter, just watch this space…

For more info, head over to the Weird World site.

With the release of Jon Hopkins' forthcoming album, Immunity, on June 3^rd, we are excited to premiere the extraordinary new audio-visual piece and collaboration with The Creators Project, ‘Immunity’. Watch it here: http://youtu.be/QWam1HlKGkI

The ‘Immunity’ video was an intricate collaborative effort between art director & typographer Craig Ward, biochemist Linden Gledhill and Jon Hopkins. Soundtracked by music from the forthcoming album, the piece features Gledhill's microscopic time-lapse photography of crystal growth and chemical reactions. Craig Ward explains:

"Jon's music is organic and flowing, yet with a hard and rhythmic electronic edge. The idea of delving down to explore chemical interactions under a microscope felt like the perfect solve to create the album imagery and our video for The Creators Project features much of the same - various immiscible liquids, dyes and chemicals interacting underneath the watchful eye of my collaborator on the project, biochemist Linden Gledhill."

To learn more about ‘Immunity’, visit http://bit.ly/10KQv4o. The Creators Project is an ongoing global arts and technology initiative created by Intel and Vice in order to support visionary artists, musicians, and filmmakers who are using technology to push the bounds of creative expression. 

Jon Hopkins has added a date at KOKO in London on 21^st September. His album release show at London’s Village Underground on June 12^th has now sold out. Hopkins will also be performing at Green Man and Bestival in the UK. Full live dates are as follows: 

Sat. May 11 - Geneva, CH @ Mapping Festival

Fri. May 31 - Montreal, QC @ Mutek [Metropolis]

Tue. June 4 - Brooklyn, NY @ Glasslands

Wed. June 12 - London, UK @ Village Underground~ - SOLD OUT

Thu. June 13 - Barcelona, ES @ Leisure System

Sun. June 23 - Westmeath, IE @ Body & Soul

Sat. June 29 - Derry, IE @ Celtronic Festival

Fri. July 5 - Amsterdam, NL @ Pitch Festival

Sat. July 20 - Gente, BE @ 10 Days Off Festival

Fri. Aug. 16 - Berlin, DE @ Berghain

Sat. Aug. 17 - Wales, UK @ Green Man Festival

Fri. Aug. 23 - Katowice, PL @ Nowa Musyka

Fri. Sep. 6 - Isle of Wight, UK @ Bestival

Sat. Sep. 21 - London, UK @ Koko

Thu. Oct. 26 - Munich, DE @ Münchner Kammerspiele

~ w/ The Field (support/solo live show), Nathan Fake (support/DJ set)

Open Eye Signal is the first single taken from the album and will be available on June 3^rd, with remixes from Happa, Lord of the Isles, Luke Abbott and Nosaj Thing.  STREAM "OPEN EYE SIGNAL" (NOSAJ THING REMIX) here: http://snd.sc/104I1Jk.

WATCH "OPEN EYE SIGNAL" video, here: http://youtu.be/Q04ILDXe3QE

Pre-order Immunity, HERE.

Domino are proud to announce that we will be releasing The Argument from Grant Hart on July 22nd, 2013.

As founder and half of the songwriting engine that drove the mighty Hüsker Dü to his maverick solo work, Grant Hart has cut a singular path across the last three decades of music.  It is with great confidence that we say he has made an album to rival his greatest achievements.  A double album based on John Milton's epic Paradise Lost, Hart distills its essence into pop and rock concoctions that nimbly flit through the history of 20th century music from Irving Berlin and David Bowie to... Hüsker Dü, even.  Ambition is the topic and Hell is the location for this project that is ambitious as Hell. Does he pull it off?  We say yes!

While visiting James Grauerholz, former friend and secretary for William S. Burroughs, James showed Grant an unpublished manuscript for Lost Paradise, William's science fiction story which portrays the fallen angels as men from distant planets and God as none other than fellow Missourian Harry S. Truman. James and Grant discussed adding music to William's story much in the same way that Tom Waits and William conspired to turn the German folk tale Die Freishutz into The Black Rider as staged by Robert Wilson.

From that point the seed had been planted, and the seed grew into the most beautiful tree in the garden of Grant's career.  Domino invite you to taste the fruit of this tree.  Go ahead, taste it.

Although lines from the poem are rarely quoted directly, all of the menace, pain and devotion of Milton's best loved work are here found.  But where Milton's poem was "unadorned by rhyme,'' The Argument contain many complex couplets, especially the title track, in which not only the ends of lines rhyme, but the word that ends a phrase is the same as the first line of the phrase after it, all while conforming to the original ten syllable structure devised by Milton.  Anyone who has ever had a conversation with Grant knows how patiently he chooses the words he uses.

As a double album of two halves, we wanted to show both the light and the dark of the album in its initial introduction, so we are offering two tracks for preview.  "Is the Sky the Limit?" is a melancholy song of the aftermath of rejection built upon the eerie and lonely sound of Sputnik 1.  To counterbalance this somber paean, "Letting Me Out" follows in all its propulsive Buddy Holly glory as the Artist formerly known as Lucifer offers up his cunning business proposition to populate the netherworld.

Both can be heard here: 

The Argument will be available on CD (WIGCD318), double vinyl (WIGLP318) and digitally (WIGDG318).  And without further ado... the tracklist:

1. Out Of Chaos
2. Morningstar
3. Awake, Arise!
4. If We Have The Will
5. I Will Never See My Home
6. I Am Death
7. Sin
8. Letting Me Out
9. Is The Sky The Limit?
10. Golden Chain
11. So Far From Heaven
12. Shine, Shine, Shine
13. It Isn't Love
14. War In Heaven
15. Glorious
16. (It Was A) Most Disturbing Dream
17. Underneath The Apple Tree
18. The Argument
19. Run For The Wilderness
20. For Those Too High Aspiring

The campaign around the release of this album is going to include extensive touring with his band, Grant Hart and The Burn/Burning, with plans for a more conceptual presentation.  Irish fans (and those in London) will be getting a special preview of the album with select dates leading up the album release:

May 31st                      Cork                            Stout Fest 2013

June 1st                       Clonmel                       O'Keeffe's

June 2nd                      Galway                        The Townhouse

June 7th                       Sligo                            McGarrigle's

June 8th                       Dundalk                      Spirit Store

June 9th                       Derry                           Sandino's

June 13th                     Belfast                         Voodoo

June 14th                     Kilkenny                     Cleere's

June 15th                     Dingle                         McCarthy's

June 16th                     Myrtleville                   Pine Lodge (afternoon)

                                   Clonakilty                   DeBarra's (evening)

June 18th                     London, UK               Water Rats

Austra are to release Home as the first single from their forthcoming much anticipated album, Olympia. A beautiful piano driven track with heartfelt lyrics expressing the anxieties of waiting up all night for a lover to return, Home will be released on the same day as the album - June 17^th in the UK (June 18^th in the US).

The accompanying video was filmed as one single take and features Katie Stelmanis and her band preparing for a show. The video was directed by That Go (Noel Paul & Stefan Moore - who have previously made videos for Bat For Lashes and Royksopp amongst others). "The band wanted the video to be intimate and simple, which we thought was perfect for the track. To that end we not only kept the format simple, but we also put the camera behind a 2-way mirror so the band couldn't see it. Whenever someone is looking at the camera they're only seeing their own reflection and the environment behind them."

Olympia is an album of transformation. Though it has only been two years since their2010 debut Feel It Break, it presents a quantum evolution in the Toronto-based band’s sound, structure and style. After three years of non-stop international touring with the likes of the XX, Grimes and the Gossip, when it came time to record Olympia, Austra had evolved into a complex collaborative effort between its six members.

Olympia is available to pre-order now via Domino on CD, limited edition double coloured vinyl and digitally via iTunes. All pre-orders through Domino will receive an instant mp3 download of the Home single and the six track Austra + Gina X ‘Mayan Drums’ 12” collaboration released earlier this month for Record Store Day. 

Austra will return for a national tour in August and September. Tour dates below: 

06-02 Dublin, IE - Forbidden Fruit
06-06 Zurich, CH - Plaza
06-07 Luzerne, CH - Sudpol
06-08 Yverdon-les Bains, SE - L'Amalgame
06-10 Amsterdam, NL - Bitterzoet
06-11 Gent, BE - DOKBox
06-12 Paris, FR - Nouveau Casino (SOLD OUT)
06-14 Berlin, DE - Lido (SOLD OUT)
06-17 London, UK - Hoxton Bar Grill (SOLD OUT)
06-20 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg ^
06-23 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
06-26 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
07-18 Nijmegen, Netherlands - Valkhof Festival
07-19 Ferropolis, DE - Melt Festival
07-21 Suffolk, UK - Latitude Festival
07-26 Barcelos, PT - Milhoes De Festa Festival
07-30 Milan, Italy - Magnolia
07-31 Padova, Italy - Radar Festival
08-01 Feldkirch, AT - PoolBar Festival
08-02 Salzburg, AT - Stuck! Festival
08-03 Katowice, PL - OFF Festival
08-10 Helsinki, FI - Flow Festival
08-30 Detroit, MI - Crofoot Ballroom *
08-31 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall *
09-01 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock *
09-04 Seattle, WA - Neumos *
09-05 Portland, OR - MusicFest NW
09-10 Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom *
09-12 Dallas, TX - Trees *
09-13 Austin, TX - Mohawk *
09-14 Houston, TX - Fitzgeralds *
09-15 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks *
09-17 Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
09-18 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle *
09-19 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
09-20 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer *
09-22 New York, NY - Webster Hall *
09-24 Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall *
11-25 London, UK - Koko 

^ w/ Mozart's Sister
* w/ DIANA

Steve Mason has announced the release of his new single, 'A Lot Of Love'. More information can be found HERE

Capturing a community spirit that these days is more important than ever, the video for The Pastels’ new single ‘Check My Heart’ is both upbeat and charming. Taken from the forthcoming album Slow Summits, ‘Check My Heart’ is also available to download now.

Shot on 16mm film with minimum set-ups, Blair Young’s ‘Check My Heart’ promo is the story of one early spring Saturday in Glasgow. Lives overlap, connect, coincide, the music is a constant; sometimes it’s only playing in our heads.

As a track, ‘Check My Heart’ is all optimism, boldly announced by Katrina Mitchell’s intrepid vocal overlaps and Stephen McRobbie’s more melancholic counter.  The sound is 3D, vivid - The Pastels’ love of garage punk, soul crossover and first-wave independent clatter converging all too briefly, winding down the window and racing off into the summertime.

Pastelism 2013, Glasgow in the sun.

Promo by Blair Young for The Forest of Black.

‘Check My Heart’ is available to download now and will also be released on 7” on April 29^th including the b-side ‘Illuminum Song’. Both songs will be available digitally as a bundle from May 27^th. Slow Summits will be released on May 27^th through Domino. Pre-order the album on CD (WIGCD185) and LP (WIGLP185) HERE

The Pastels will be playing the following shows:

June 1^st Glasgow, CCA - Tickets

July 27^th: Indietracks Festival, Derbyshire Tickets

August 16^th: Green Man Festival, Black Mountains, Wales – Tickets

August 24^th: Doune the Rabbit Hole, Doune, Scotland – Tickets

Open Eye Signal is the new single from Jon Hopkins, and the first taken from forthcoming LP, Immunity (released on June 3^rd 2013 in the UK, June 4^th in the US). Open Eye Signal will also be released on June 3^rd and will feature remixes from Happa, Lord of the Isles, Luke Abbott and Nosaj Thing.

The video for Open Eye Signal was filmed by Aoife McArdle in California: "The track is really special. I saw it as a singular, hypnotic journey that's almost endless. You get lost in it. I liked the idea of a city kid taking us on that journey... just one day suddenly deciding to escape his life and see more of the world in the only way he understands...via skateboard.". Watch it below:

Immunity is a confident, dramatic record, defined by an acute sense of physicality and place and inspired by the arc of an epic night out. It feels like the hypnotic accompaniment to a journey of creativity, a trip inside Hopkins’ mind, using analog synthesis alongside manipulations of physical, real-world sounds to make dance music that feels as natural and unforced as possible.

Jon Hopkins will be performing a headline album launch show at London’s Village Underground on 12^th June. You can purchase tickets HERE. 

Exclusive digital bundles of Open Eye Signal remixes will be available from 29^th April, with a white label vinyl available from May 20^th.