NEWS

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.

Animal Collective is happy to announce the Monkey Been to Burn Town remix EP, set for release on 12” vinyl (RUG525T) and digital (RUG525D) on May 27th. Drawing from the band's latest record Centipede Hz, the EP features remixes of "Monkey Riches" by Gang Gang Dance's Brian Degraw, Chicago Juke producer Traxman and New York underground dance producers Teengirl Fantasy, as well as a remix of "New Town Burnout" by Seattle based hip-hop collective Shabazz Palaces. Listen to Brian Degraw's remix of “Monkey Riches” here.

The Monkey Been To Burn Town EP can be preordered on 12” vinyl here. Everyone who pre-orders from Dom Mart will get an instant gratification mp3 download of Brian Degraw's remix.

The band is returning to Europe next month for headline performances at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Spain and at Field Day in London, before embarking on a summer North American tour.

For a taste of the band’s live show, watch the band’s live videos for “Applesauce,” “Moonjock” and “Amanita” here. Filmed in conjunction with The Creators Project, the videos catch the band’s impressive stage show, which was aptly described by Pitchfork as “giant, gap-toothed Nickelodeon dentures on either side, a curved inflatable structure that resembled scorpion tails dipped in PAAS dye, a centralized TV running constant, blaring images. Basically, the cover of Centipede Hz gone widescreen.”

Earlier in 2012, Animal Collective released their 10th and latest album Centipede Hz. The band’s first record since 2007’s Strawberry Jam to feature all four original band members, Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin, Centipede Hz was hailed by critics as a return to Animal Collective’s experimental roots. The album can be ordered via the Animal Collective webstore here. 

Tracklisting:

A1 - Monkey Riches (Brian DeGraw [Gang Gang Dance] Remix)
A2 - Monkey Riches (Tha Traxman Teklife Remix)
B1 - New Town Burnout (Shabazz Palaces Remix)
B2 - Monkey Riches (Teengirl Fantasy Remix)

The 20th of May 2013 will see the much anticipated Domino vinyl re-issue of Tragedy - the hugely celebrated, long out-of-print and intensely coveted debut album by Los Angeles based artist Julia Holter. Originally released in two runs of five hundred copies only on Los Angeles label Leaving Records in November 2011, Tragedy proved to be that year's most captivating, adventurous and inspired debut album and announced the arrival of a major new talent. Inspired by Euripides' Hippolytus, the sheer scope and scale of ambition evident in Tragedy's fifty minutes is staggering. Comprised of voice, synths, drum machines, piano, cello, saxophone, samples, vocoders, ensemble musicians and a chorus, Tragedy is a transcendental amalgamation of avant garde and pop conventions and of organic and electronic compositional forms - an entire universe of a record blessed with its own beautifully peculiar logic.

Following the loud and fevered reaction to Accelerator in April 1998, Royal Trux decided to release an EP to coincide with their hotly-anticipated European tour.  Swiftly, three songs came together and 3-Song EP was born. Having re-issued Accelerator at the tail end of 2012, it seems only right to do the same with 3-Song EP and it will be released through Domino on June 17^th 2013.

Originally released in August 1998, 3-Song EP was required to quench the fans’ thirst. The combination of wack-ass knob twisting and crowd-pleasing singalongs that featured on Accelerator reflected some absurdly inverted sense of What People Wanted. Having assembled a band made up of artists on their American label Drag City, several domestic shows were scheduled, and the players arrived at Royal Trux’s rural Virginia ranch ready to rehearse, only to be told that a recording session was the first order of business.

In short order, the three songs were recorded, along with a fourth, a cover of Dire Straits’ ‘Money For Nothing’ which was set aside to be used as a b-side for a planned UK single release.

The songs were a funky bunch — ‘Deafer Than Blind’ was a sweet ‘n’ sour ballad built off a drum loop, ‘Run, Shaker Life’ was a Richie Havens cover with spiritual overtones and later became a favourite live opener. ‘The United States vs One 1974 Cadillac El Dorodo Sedan’ was a proggy group jam that featured an extensive libretto and comprised one of the longest Royal Trux song yet. The static-crisp high end of Accelerator was abandoned in favour of a smeared, bottom-heavy sound, showcasing the thunder in the stomping rhythm section and a darker tone in Neil Hagerty’s bent-neck histrionics. This was something that one might almost regard as straight-up rock in Royal Trux terms, and Neil and Jennifer Herrema harmonized in their own unique way throughout the record.

After a successful European tour, Royal Trux motored ahead with increasing speed, spending their last couple years making two more INSANE rock records and another totally OUT EP, in addition to playing lots of dates as well.

3-Song EP will be released on Domino on June 17^th 2013 on CD (RUG76CD) and 12” (RUG76T) and can be pre-ordered HERE.

3 Song EP Tracklist:

1. Deafer Than Blind
2. The United States vs One 1974 Cadillac El Dorado Sedan
3. Run, Shaker Life

With his already critically lauded debut Big Inner evidently becoming one of the indie crossover successes of early 2013, Matthew E. White has gifted us the brand new official video for the psychedelic sonic portal of ‘Steady Pace’ – his celebratory new single set for release on Domino on 6 May 2013. 

The clip, created by Travis Robertson – an artist also hailing from White and the Spacebomb family’s beloved Richmond, Virginia – is a one-way trip deep into the visual heartland of Big Inner, bringing to life the record’s iconic cover art to reveal what lies beyond the borders of what we know – and don’t know – about Matthew E. White.

Matthew and his extremely gifted band of Richmond-based friends and collaborators (about whom you can learn more from the man himself here) arrive in the UK this week to play a string of shows including a long sold out date at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall (a September date at Shepherd’s Bush Empire is on sale now) as well as debut visits to Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow.

Alongside this, the band will be participating in the very special Sister Ray Records street party for Record Store Day. This event is free and will take place in the afternoon of Saturday April 20^th outside the shops premises on Berwick St, in Soho, London. Find out more about this terrific event here.

Matthew E. White on tour: 

Sun 21 April Bristol Thekla (tickets)
Wed 24 April Glasgow Arches (tickets)
Thurs 25 April Manchester Sound Control (tickets)
Fri 26 April London Queen Elizabeth Hall SOLD OUT

Thurs 23 May Barcelona Primavera SOLD OUT

26-30 June Glastonbury SOLD OUT

Fri 30 Aug Dorset End Of The Road (tickets)

Wed 4 Sept London Shepherd's Bush Empire (tickets)

Thurs 5 Sept Isle of Wight Bestival (tickets)

He Took You In His Arms is the first single from Bill Ryder-Jones’ new LP, A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart, and will be available on 3^rd June 2013.

Bill Ryder-Jones recently performed the track exclusively for Topman CTRL, watch it HERE.

The official video for He Took You In His Arms was filmed by rising star Alex Southam who has previously shot videos for Alt-J, The Walkmen & Lianne La Havas. It can be viewed here.

Ryder-Jones has now added shows at Liverpool Sound City, Stag & Dagger Festival in Glasgow as well as dates in Bristol and York, to the already announced Beacons, Festival Number 6, and London Lexington show on May 8^th. UK dates with ticket links are as follows:

May 3^rd – Liverpool, East Village Arts Club Theatre, Liverpool Sound City

May 8th - London, The Lexington

May 18^th – Glasgow, CCA, Stag & Dagger Festival

June 6^th – Bristol, The Louisiana

June 9^th – York, The Duchess

Aug 16th to 18th - Beacons Festival

Sept 13th - 15th Festival Number 6

A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart, which is out now in the UK, marries Ryder-Jones masterful capacities as arranger and composer with his first firm steps as a singer songwriter. The album was recorded in Ryder-Jones’ old bedroom in the upstairs of his mother’s house in Liverpool. Two friends from local band By The Sea made up the backing band for the recordings, which were then produced and mixed together with James Ford.

After selling out their Hoxton Bar & Grill show in less than 24 hours, Austra can now announce a date at London’s KOKO for 25^th November. The Canadian six-piece will also be performing at Latitude Festival on Sunday 21^st July. Full UK dates are as follows:

17/06/13 London - Hoxton Bar & Grill – SOLD OUT

21/07/13 Latitude Festival

25/11/13 London – Koko

Olympia, the second album from Austra, will be released on June 17^th in the UK, (June 18th in the US). Olympia is an album of transformation. Though it has only been two years since their 2010 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. “Previously, I would flesh out songs before I brought them to the band, but this time I left them bare and let the others fill them in” explains Katie Stelmanis, the principal songwriter/vocalist.

Olympia is also the first confessional record for Stelmanis as evidenced by the heartfelt lyrics of piano driven lead single "Home" (stream now). "Home" expresses the anxieties of waiting up all night for a lover to return. “I was mad and upset and the song just wrote itself,” says the singer. The album touches on a range of sentiments that stem from a relationship ending, a relationship beginning, and friends' struggles with addiction and motivation. Despite the sometimes dark lyrics written in collaboration with band member Sari Lightman, Olympia is bubbly and buoyant— fundamentally a dance record, which Stelmanis says was the band's aim all along. “We are really into dense harmonies and big beautiful melodies, but I also love techno and dance music. I wanted to bring those elements together.” 

Though Olympia is filled with electronic and synthetic sounds that reference everything from Trax Record classic cuts to Yazoo’s Upstairs At Eric’s, it’s free of programming and loops. Everything was played live by the band in the studio and all of the percussion including a wild set up of marimbas and congas was performed by drummer Maya Postepski.

Austra is Katie Stelmanis (lead vocals), Maya Postepski (drums), Dorian Wolf (bass), Ryan Wonsiak (keys), Sari & Romy Lightman (backing vocals).

Between The Walls is the third album by About Group, the quartet of John Coxon, Charles Hayward, Alexis Taylor and Pat Thomas, and will be released through Domino on July 1^st.

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. ‘The balance between songwriting and free playing, and a lack of clarity about which mode we will be in for any given amount of time, is the key to About Group’ - Alexis Taylor.

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.

BETWEEN THE WALLS TRACKLISTING:

01 - After Video                               

02 - Walk On By                                

03 - All Is Not Lost                            

04 - Words                                         

05 - Graph Paper        

06 - Make The World Laugh

07 - Love Because

08 - Nightlife/Sinking

09 – Untitled

10 - I Never Lock That Door

11 – Yes

12 - If You Can't Love Me

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. 

For more info head over to Ribbon Music.

For more info head over to Double Six