Posted: 25/06
Wildbirds & Peacedrums were invited to record a session for BBC Radio 3's Late Junction show earlier this year, part of a series of monthly collaborative sessions that has so far taken in Adem + Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Tunng + Tinariwen and AGF + Gudrun Gut, all artists who have not previously worked together.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/latejunction

Mariam and Andreas were asked who they would like to collaborate with, and chose London-based Micachu. Recorded at Maida Vale studios when Wildbirds were in town for the recent drum circle show at London's Coronet Theatre, the five musicians spontaneously reworked two songs by Wildbirds & Peacedrums, one by Micachu, and a cover version of a piece by electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott.

The session will be broadcast today (25 June). The show runs from 11.15pm to 1.00am BST. You will be able to stream the show for a week from the BBC website using the Listen Again function. You can also find some photos from the session here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/latejunction/Sessions_homepage.shtml

The Swedish duo are playing several dates over the summer in the UK. A co-headline show with compatriot Loney Dear has been confirmed at Union Chapel in London on Thursday 10 September and a slot at Eurocultured Belfast in July has also been added. These will accompany appearances at Latitude, The Big Chill and End Of The Road festivals that we announced previously.

UK dates & festivals:
Sat 18 July Latitude Festival Uncut Arena 12.30pm www.latitudefestival.co.uk
Fri 7 August The Big Chill Eastnor www.bigchill.net/festival
Thu 10 Sept London Union Chapel £12.50 www.platformslive.co.uk
Fri 11 Sept End Of The Road Dorset www.endoftheroadfestival.com

Praise for Wildbirds & Peacedrums:
“Wildbirds & Peacedrums music is equally hedonistic, sweet and foreboding”
5/5 The Guardian, live review
“The greatest trick any artist can pull is being a fresh concept. And Wildbirds & Peacedrums are pulling it hard” Plan B, live review
“One of the most attention grabbing albums of the year” 4.5/5 The Sun
“On their way to becoming the White Stripes in reverse” 4/5 Observer Music Monthly
"Seriously stripped-down and unexpectedly intoxicating” The Observer
“A wild trip indeed” 4/5 The Independent
"Astonishing, disturbing, beautiful stuff” Time Out
“Like Bat for Lashes at her wildest” 4/5 Q
”Pretty exceptional” 4/5 Mojo
"beautifully imaginative... magnificent" 8.3 Pitchfork
“There are moments of songwriting brilliance here” 4/5 Metro
“The pair eschew the common conventions of pop craft to strip their music back to
spine-tinglingly bare essentials” Music Week

Posted: 19/06
We’ve got two fantastic free gigs coming up over the next few days…

Little Dragon at Hyde Park, Sunday 21 June, 6.15pm

Little Dragon play on Sunday at The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, as part of the One Taste festival happening this weekend. Go to http://onetaste.co.uk/ for more information. With the likes of DJ Shadow, David Sitek and rather randomly, Wendy and Lisa from Prince & The Revolution as fans, keep an eye out for the new album Machine Dreams due out 17 August. The band return to the UK on July 24.

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White Denim at Rough Trade East Monday 22 June, 7pm

White Denim are playing an in-store at Rough Trade East on Monday, the same day as their incredible new album Fits is released. get there early!

The new single ‘I Start To Run’ is due out 6 July and their UK tour starts on 23 June, culminating at Heaven in London on 8 July.

“One of the best live bands on the planet right now” NME

Praise for Fits :
“Pinning down this frighteningly smart, awesomely self-assured and joyously adventurous album is like trying to grab on to a buttered fog. Impossible – but an indecent amount of fun trying” 5/5 Time Out
“This second White Denim set is a revelation, both brain-frazzlingly original and a fabulously sequenced whole… Fits is sublime’ 4/5 Mojo
“It’s a rare pleasure to hear a band so at ease with themselves… Fits is even more gloriously schizophrenic and extreme than their debut” 4/5 Uncut
“Brilliantly insane, and like Workout Holiday, utterly unpredictable… it’s absorbing on every level” Dazed & Confused
“A white hot cauldron of sonic intensity… Amazing.” 5/5 The Independent
“A good band just became a great band” 4.5/5 The Sun
“White Denim somehow manage to cover all points of the musical compass without ever losing their overall sense of direction” 4/5 Observer Music Monthly
“4/5” Q Magazine
“4/5” The Guardian
“A fantastic record, a slow-burn masterpiece” 8/10 NME
“White Denim once again end up walking a fine line between offering a revivalist view of past times and challenging the listener into un-chartered territory” Artrocker
“White Denim just seem to ooze music… Fits never sits still, demanding your attention yet rewarding your patience” 8/10 Clash

Posted: 16/06
Artist: Antony and the Johnsons
Title: ‘Aeon/Crazy in Love’ single
Release Date: 3 August 2009
Label: Rough Trade
Formats: 7” Vinyl & Digital
Cat Number: RTRADS518
Distribution: PIAS
Web: www.antonyandthejohnsons.com
www.myspace.com/antonyandthejohnsons


“The Crying Light shows Antony boldly, indefatigably following his own eccentric star. It’s a journey that looks set to continue, fascinatingly, for a long while yet”
Uncut ‘Album of the Month’

After yet another rapturous reception to the latest live incarnation from the UK May/June tour dates (The Guardian and Telegraph both gave 5/5 reviews), Antony and the Johnsons will release the ‘Aeon’/’Crazy in Love’ double A-side single on August 3rd through Rough Trade.

‘Aeon’ is one of the glowing highlights taken from the hugely acclaimed album The Crying Light which debuted at #1 on the European chart. The band recently appeared on Jonathan Ross and The Late Show with David Letterman in the US. Antony and the Johnsons’ audacious and impassioned cover of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”, a long time live favourite, is being released officially for the first time.

Antony and the Johnsons will perform a special double header in July at the Manchester International Festival with 36 piece Manchester Camerata and singular lighting designer Paul Normandale.

UK Tour Dates:
Friday 3 July Manchester Opera House International Festival www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Saturday 4 July Manchester Opera House International Festival www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Praise for The Crying Light:
“Hegarty’s 21st century soul - rarefied, churchy, but fallen pagan too – will cast its spell once again” ‘CD of the Week’ The Observer
“4/5” ‘Album of the Week’ The Independent
“There’s a lingering sweetness to these songs that makes The Crying Light far more useful in life than after it.” ‘Album of the Week’ 4/5 The Times
“It’s a deep, philosophical, poetic album that will withstand playing to the end of the year – if not, perhaps until the end of the world” ‘Pop CD of the Week’ Daily Telegraph
“Yet another extraordinary record” 4/5 Mojo
“Emotion drips from every breath” 4/5 Q
“The Crying Light is a personal, emotional, incredible brave album by a unique talent” 4.5/5 The Sun
“With The Crying Light, Antony and the Johnsons continue to explore the creative boundaries of pop while covering all emotional bases. For that, they should be celebrated.” 8/10 NME
“It’s hard not to be astonished at its breathtaking beauty… A truly exquisite and extraordinary album” 4.5/5 The Fly
“One of those albums that dares to mean everything to everybody and deserves every success that comes its way” Wire
“The Crying Light manages to be entirely outside fashion but as relevant to existence as the dusk” Plan B
“Wondrous” 5/5 Independent Information
“This third album, linked by Hegarty’s strangely disconnected, other worldly warble, confirms him as an artist of genuine stature” 4/5 Evening Standard
“Long may his light shine” 4/5 Daily Mirror
“4/5” Observer Music Monthly
“5/6” Time Out

Posted: 16/06
Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan has personally asked DM Stith to support her at the sold out Somerset House show on 16 July. Stith will also be performing his own headline date at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen on Monday 20 July. Please get in touch for further details.

You can hear the lead track from the forthcoming EP out 13 July, by following this link to a free download of ‘BMB’ http://asthmatickitty.com/mp3/dm_stith_-_bmb_-_bmb_alternate_version.mp3

Yet another deft DM Stith video can be found here http://vimeo.com/4312808

Thu 16 July London Somerset House with Bat for Lashes SOLD OUT
Mon 20 July London Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen £10 www.seetickets.com 08700 603777


Artist: DM Stith
Title: ‘BMB’ EP
Release Date: 13 July 2009
Label: Asthmatic Kitty
Formats: CD/Digital
Cat Number: AKR061
Website: www.myspace.com/dmstith
Video: http://vimeo.com/4312808

‘Heavy Ghost is a strikingly dramatic, seductively strange and dizzyingly sensual record’
‘Debut Album of the Month’ 4/5 Uncut

DM Stith’s debut Heavy Ghost had, as its name suggests, an almost supernatural effect when it was released in March and was widely acclaimed as a stunning debut unlike anything else you’ll hear this year. Having received praise from critics as well as his musical peers (Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear recently twittered about it calling it a ‘lovely album’ and Bat for Lashes picked it for her New York Times playlist saying “It traverses all these magical landscapes… almost like Alice through the looking glass. Like you’re being sucked into a secret world”), Stith returns with ‘Be My Baby’.

A seven track EP – the first in a trilogy of EPs to be released before the end of the year – it heralds the arrival of DM Stith in the UK for his first ever live dates, with a string section in tow, to bring his epic songs to life.

The version of ‘BMB’ found on this EP is slower than the version on Heavy Ghost. A starker, almost skeletal song which displays the bare bones of the track, led by soft piano and ghostly choral chants and the occasional whisper with Stith’s reverb drenched vocals drifting over it. Where Heavy Ghost’s ‘BMB’ is a tease into a mid-album lacuna, a transition for the album’s themes of waking dreams and spiritual torment, this original resolves more like a traditional pop song, even using some of the most centrally canonical lyrics of the love ballad – “Be my baby…” in a sort of hopeless love song. A boon for Stith fans, then.

It is altogether fitting that Stith has here covered The Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby’. Losing the original’s famous backing vocals in favour of a more minimal melody, Stith’s falsetto is full of longing and obsessive desire, turning the classic 60s pop song into music that could easily soundtrack a David Lynch dream sequence. A brave, yet beautiful homage.

From one obsessive love song to another, the EP also contains an astonishing rendition of Randy Newman’s ‘Suzanne’ (taken from 12 Songs). If anything (and this is a bold claim given Newman’s formidable career) Stith has added to the creepy sense of the stalker and it becomes a truly ominous creature when delivering lines like “And when you go to the pictures/And I know you do/Don’t take no one with you/Cause I’ll be there too”.

Completing the seven tracks, alongside a new rendition of ‘Around the Lion Legs’ and the ‘Untitled’ finale, are two remixes for ‘BMB’ delivered by two promising newcomers – sometime Prefuse 73 collaborator Roberto Carlos Lange and another by Son Lux, recently championed by Nico Muhly, no less.

Praise for debut album Heavy Ghost:
‘Nothing is quite like DM Stith’ 4.5/5 The Sun
‘His debut album is extraordinary’ 4/5 Q
‘Fashions a brilliant, hermetically sealed world that makes unabashed emotional connection’ 4/5 Mojo
‘Quite remarkable’ Observer Music Monthly
‘Remarkable debut album’ 4/5 Metro ‘Album of the Week’
‘An uplifting, beautifully addictive cacophony like nothing you’ve heard before’
The Observer
‘An undeniable talent’ 4/5 The Guardian
‘A brave and fascinating piece of work’ Sunday Times
‘9/10’ NME
‘4/5’ The Times ‘Album of the Week’
‘4/5’ The Independent Information ‘Album of the Week’
‘5/6’ Time Out

Posted: 03/06
Artist: Little Dragon
Title: Machine Dreams album
Release Date: 17 August 2009
Label: Peacefrog
Formats: CD, Digital & LP
Cat Numbers: PFG134
Websites: www.little-dragon.se
www.myspace.com/yourlittledragon


Little Dragon Live in London
Friday 24 July, ‘Flomotion’ at Paul Hamlyn Hall, Royal Opera House
Tickets £14 - £16 www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=10404

Little Dragon return with a spectacular second album offering in August, a pulsating electro pop epic that Prince would be proud of (only fronted by a beautiful Swedish lady with a sultry voice). A bold and surprising side/two step onwards from their acclaimed 2007 self titled debut. Machine Dreams, with its nagging hooks and gloriously infectious tunes, will see the band break out into the mainstream.

Having toured relentlessly since the last record, Little Dragon found themselves to be very popular in the US specifically on the west coast. After sessions on KCRW’s flagship ‘Morning Becomes Eclectic’ show, their album became the most played on the station after Radiohead. No mean feat for the little dragons from Sweden, especially when they didn’t have a US record label backing their forays. The track ‘Twice’ was even played on hit US show Grey’s Anatomy. The band’s US success brought them to the attention of the likes of notorious basement dweller DJ Shadow and David Sitek, the latter asking them to support TV On The Radio on their US tour in May 2009.

Recorded in their home city of Gothenburg, Machine Dreams is fresh and kinetic. Be it Yukimi’s warmly inviting vocals, Erik’s dextrous drumming, the vast array of synths and bleeps created by Hakan or Frederik’s bubbling bass lines, together they don’t sound like anything else around right now. The move towards a more electronic sound was a conscious one, as Yukimi explains; “These days, humans seem more and more like machines, and as technology evolves, machines feel more human and it becomes fuzzy and beautiful and science fiction-ish. We feel dependent on our machines to create and live, and their sounds reflect us”.

Album opener ‘A New’ breaks us in gently with a single whirring note on the synthesiser, an almost alien sound that gradually morphs into a slow, thumping bassline. Yukimi’s vocals flow alongside Hakan’s assortment of sound effects interspersed with militaristic drums breaks. A magical opener that sets the scene and seems to sink into itself, taking us with it, until the pace is swiftly ratcheted skywards with ‘Looking Glass’, the massive snare, crisp driving beat and spacey synths revealing the band’s current penchant for the 80s. This influence continues apace into stand out track ‘My Step’. Utilising a solid drumbeat that nestles next to jagged and playful synthlines, the track breaks down into motorik propulsion with a scuzzy techno bassline that Yukimi works with ease.

Upcoming single ‘Feather’ finds Yukimi’s voice at its most detached and seemingly nonchalant, yet magnificently seductive. Backed by Hakan’s keyboard atmospherics, the song creates a soundscape reminiscent of Tears For Fears’ more reflective moods. Gradually layering more vocals, synths, echoes and reverb, it builds to a quietly psychedelic, dreamy cosmic swirl. ‘Runabout’ brings forth a mini Airto style percussive breakdown at the tail end of yet another Little Dragon pop gem. ‘Swimming’ bursts into life with stabbing keys and reflective bass, while Yukimi sings of young love “and now so many years have past, my memories as clear as glass”. The song is over as quickly as it started, flowing into the next miniature masterpiece in the form of ‘Blinking Pigs’.

The album closes with the stunning ‘Fortune’, which has already caught the attention of none other than DJ Shadow, who wrote to the band personally to say how much he loved the track. It’s no wonder really, as the textured melodies blend with the drifting percussion, creating a blissful sonic mood. With a smattering of drums and bass and the magic of Yukimi’s voice and Hakan’s electronic dynamics floating on top, it’s the perfect song to end this fascinating journey through Little Dragon’s brave new world.

With disparate influences from Depeche Mode to Prince, LCD Soundsystem to James Holden, Dancehall to R&B, Jazz and Soul, Little Dragon take their place among artists who straddle many genres, yet somehow create their own and in doing so create “sounds that make time stop” (Yukimi). Futuristic yet somehow retro, Machine Dreams sees Little Dragon achieve something timeless; that elusive pop classic.

Little Dragon will play a one off London show on 24 July at Paul Hamlyn Hall, the beautiful atrium of the Royal Opera House. The event will be part of ‘Flomotion at The Royal Opera House hosted by DJ Nick Luscombe’ and will be streamed live on www.flomotionradio.com.

Praise for Little Dragon’s debut:
“Brilliant debut album of minimalistic, parallel-universe soul music… Clever, sexy and addictive” 4/5 Mojo
“Gorgeous, heartbreaking piano balladry” Metro
“The music on Little Dragon’s wonderful eponymous debut album is beguilingly mysterious mix of soul, pop, jazz, electronica and R&B… Little Dragon are very, very cool but they’ll keep you warm.” Sunday Times
“A fine debut, Little Dragon deserves a roar of approval” Word
“This will be an album you’ll keep coming back to” 4/5 iDJ
“A delicious debut… buy this or be bored by music” 4/5 Touch Magazine
“Slick, understated and gorgeous” Fact
“An original and refreshing blend of the current with classic sensibilities” Clash