Danish band Efterklang will be releasing the follow up to their 2004 debut Tripper with a second album, Parades, due out on 15 October on Leaf. The album follows the magnificent mini album Under Giant Trees released earlier this year. While Under Giant Trees was conceived while the band was touring, Parades is the fruit of eighteen months of recording and involved more than thirty guest musicians, including a string quartet, a brass quintet and three separate choirs.

The band have this video teaser which uses one of the tracks of the album, Horseback Tenors. The video is directed by Conkerco.

You can view a high resolution 8mb Quicktime version here.

Efterklang, augmented with three additional members, will be undertaking a world tour this autumn which is due to continue at least until summer 2008.

Efterklang | The Leaf Label

VLADISLAV DELAY
Multila
HUUME09
Huume Recordings 2007
07 Tracks. 71mins87secs

For over ten some odd years now, Vladislav Delay has been exploiting a simple collection of elements - dub, techno, ambient - and the different sets one can form out of them. In so doing, paradoxes and inconsistencies set in - on no seldom occasion, they were coddled, understood, and integrated, but at yet others, they remained an antagonistic challenge, representing a crisis and critique that sustained, on Sasu Ripatti’s part, an endless sliding from one motif to another. Continue Reading »

CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA
Ma Fleur
ZENCD122
Ninja Tune 2007
10 Tracks. 49mins08secs

The mid-late 90s produced a boom of acts deriving their sound from what could be called “jazz”. There were jazzy breaks, trip hop, nu-jazz, acid jazz. Swimming in this melee (and anchored on Ninja Tune, arguably the most quality label for this downtempo fix) were J. Swinscoe’s Cinematic Orchestra. After a minor splash with their debut, Motion, and an interesting fore into composing a new soundtrack for Dziga Vertov’s classic film, Man With A Movie Camera, the Orchestra released a bona-fide stunner with 2002’s Every Day. Featuring some truly soul-jarring vocals from the legendary Fontella Bass, in addition to what is possibly Roots Manuva’s finest performance to date on the introspective-without-getting-corny-or-preachy All Things To All Men, it was a direct hit to all those who claimed that such nu-jazz genres were derivative nostalgia with nowhere left to go. Continue Reading »

THROBBING GRISTLE
Part Two – The Endless Not
TGCD16
Industrial Records 2007
10 Tracks. 67mins21secs

For a group so notorious for the bombast of its artistic statements, Throbbing Gristle’s breakup was a low-key and unexpected end. In 1981, TG announced its disbandment with a simply phrased postcard reading, “Throbbing Gristle: The Mission Is Terminated.” At the cusp of new wave and synthpop, TG were beginning to enjoy commercial success, bringing an illogical and abrupt end to a dense, wild, and frequently shocking trip.

It should, perhaps, not have been a surprise that, as sublimely as they broke up, Throbbing Gristle reunited some two decades later. Shortly following the reunion was the issue of the TG Now EP, and, now, the appropriately titled full length, Part Two. Continue Reading »

This is the first in an ongoing series of playlists which will be available as iMixes from iTunes. These will randomly feature new and recent tracks mixed with classic tracks from, er…, yesteryear.

VS0807 - Virtual Soundtrack August 2007 (launches iTunes)

Murcof: Mir
Martes, LP, The Leaf Label

Taxi Taxi!: Heart
Taxi Taxi!, EP, Rumracket

Porn Sword Tobacco: Cubical Fever
New Exclusive Olympic Height, LP, City Center Offices

Coppé: I Turn
Fi-lamenté, LP, Mango & Sweet Rice

Rusuden: Snogon
Fe IX/X 171 A, LP, Soho Six Records

The Black Dog: lt-Return-Dash-Kill (Derailleur Remix)
Remixes 2, EP, Dust Science Recordings

Rubens: Breaking Into Smile
Carnivalesque, LP, Herb Recordings

The Future Sound Of London: Egypt
ISDN, LP, Virgin Records

Battles: Atlas
Mirrored, LP, Warp Records

Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid: Our Time
Tongues, LP, Domino Recording Co.

Efterklang: Towards the Bare Hill
Under Giant Trees, Mini LP, The Leaf Label

Colleen: Blue Sands
Les Ondes Silencieuses, LP, The Leaf Label

Retina.it: Apeiron
Semeion, LP, Hefty Recordings

A Hawk and a Hacksaw & The Hun Hangár Ensemble: Serbian Cocek
A Hawk and a Hacksaw & The Hun Hangár Ensemble, Mini LP, The Leaf Label

Dextro: Hearts And Minds (Alias Remix)
Hearts And Mind, EP, Gronland Records

Underworld will release their first studio album in five years on 15 October. Follow up to 2002’s A Hundred Days Off, Oblivion With Bells, released on the band’s own Underworldlive imprint, sees Rick Smith and Karl Hyde returning to the forefront of the dance scene following a string of internet-only releases. Announced as a return to the band’s sound of seminal Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Oblivion With Bells, also builds on the pair’s recent work with Gabriel Yared on the soundtrack of Breaking And Entering. The album will be preceeded by a first single, Crocodile, on 1 October.

Tracklisting for the album is as follow:

01. Crocodile
02. Beautiful Burnout
03. Holding The Moth
04. To Heal
05. Ring Road
06. Glam Bucket
07. Boy, Boy, Boy
08. Cuddle Bunny vs The Celtic Villages
09. Faxed Invitation
10. Good Morning Cockerel
11. Best Mamgu Ever

Explore: Underworld

Warp have announced details of the new Prefuse 73 album, Preparations, due out on 23 October, with a single, Class Of 73 Bells, with with New York’s School Of Seven Bells and Battles drummer John Stanier. The album, which follows Guillermo Scott Herren’s recent Golden Pollen (Anti) album as Savath & Savalas, will be a double album, with the first half being beat-orientated, while the second collects a series of modern classical compositions. The digital version of the album will only contain the first of the two CDs.

Explore: Prefuse 73 | Warp Records

SUSANNA
Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos
RCD2066
Rune Grammofon 2007
12 Tracks. 48mins10secs

Three years ago, Susanna Wallumrrød, sister of jazz pianist Christian Wallumrrød, and In The Country pianist Morten Qvenild teamed up on the superb Maps Of Lights And Buoys, their debut album as Susanna And The Magical Orchestra. Their impeccably restrained and pure pop, with Wallumrrød’s crystalline voice set against a stark backdrop of soft electric piano. Two years on, the pair returned with Melody Mountain, an entire album of covers on which they applied their highly sensitive atmospheres to songs by artists as diverse as AC/DC, Prince, Depeche Mode and Scott Walker.

Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos is Susanna’s solo debut. If the mood doesn’t immediately seem to depart or differ greatly from previous recordings, the soundscapes applied behind the voice are discreetly more elaborate and ornate. Continue Reading »

A new Rune Grammofon compilation, Runology 3, showcasing some of the label’s recent and forthcoming releases, will be given away to all subscribers of British magazine The Wire in their September issue. This is the second time the label and the magazine have teamed up to offer subscribers an exclusive compilation.

Explore: The Wire | Rune Grammofon

Rune Grammofon have announced release details of the new Supersilent album. Entitled 8, the follow-up to the band’s 2005 DVD is due out on 17 September. Details about the record itself are still very sketchy. The band will be playing a string of live dates during Septembre and October.

Current confirmed dates:

September:
14/09 – Budapest, Hungary (Mol Jazz Festival)
17/09 – Tilburg, Netherlands
18-20/09 – Olso, Norway
21/09 – Bergen, Norway
22/09 – Paris, France

October:
04/10 – Shanghai, China
05/10 – Guanzhou, China
06/10 – Beijing, China.

All Chinese dates with Susanna & The Magical Orchestra.

Explore: Supersilence | Rune Gammofon