Ragged News
Ragged News
"My head, my heart, my heart, the flooor / My Eyes keep movin' ever closer to the door..."
Having endured the dubious rite of passage of hearing hyperbole's Zane Lowe practically wet himself (twice) live on air in response to their new song, The Cast of Cheers have now gone and released an official video for the track in question. 'Family' will be the Dublin quartet's official debut single when it sees the light of day on February 20 via School Boy Error/Cooperative Music. The accompanying vid was directed by Russell Weekes, and features some 5,000 separate photos of the band all stop-motioned together. Like the song itself, it makes for a pretty spiky, high-energy two-and-a-half minutes.
With an album produced by former Clor maestro Luke Smith set to follow later this year, 2012 already looks like being a busy and very rewarding twelve months for our ex-New Favourite Band. While you're waiting for that LP to arrive, you can see why we reckon TCOC are one of the most dynamic Irish live acts in ages by catching them live in the coming weeks. The band play Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen tomorrow night (January 26) alongside Theme Park, Man Without Country and Citizens!, as well as a White Heat show next Tuesday (January 31) with Welsh popsters (and fellow YNFB alumni) Race Horses at Madame JoJo's in Mayfair. A co-headline UK tour with Theme Park then follows in late February/early March - go here for full details.
Even the grinchiest of grinches would have to admit that, with Christmas now fast approaching, there's an unmistakeably festive buzz in the air. And while we're not sure whether Dublin multi-instrumentalists Halves plan on performing any yuletide carols at their hometown show this Friday (December 9), we do know that it's shaping up to be a pretty memorable evening.
The gig is happening in a church for starters - The Unitarian Church on Stephen's Green to be precise. If you've been to a gig there recently, then you'll know just how special the atmosphere and acoustics in the venue are. Frequent Halves collaborator Jennifer Evans will be lending support, while the band themselves will be accompanied by strings (courtesy of 3epkano) as well as live visuals projected onto the church walls by acclaimed AV outfit Slipdraft. We're also told there'll be mulled wine and mince pies to (ahem) beat the band. And because 'tis the season and all that, your ticket will also get you in to the aftershow party taking place Upstairs in Whelans around the corner from 11pm.
As if that weren't enough, the Halves lads will also have a limited run of hand-numbered gold and silver screen prints for sale on the night. The prints look a little something like this, and are particular to this very show. We reckon they'd make an ideal Christmas gift for the post-rock-loving uncle in everyone's life!
The icing on the (Christmas) cake is that we've got a pair of tickets for the show, along with a proper nice screen print, to give away. All you have to do to stand a chance of winning them is email info@raggedwords.com (remembering to put 'Halves tickets' in the subject line) with the correct answer to the following question:
What is the name of the opening track on It Goes, It Goes (Forever & Ever), Halves' debut album from last year?
Get your answers in to us by 3pm on Friday, at which point a randomly-selected winner will be notified via email. Best of luck!
Oh, and if you didn't know already, Friday might well be your last chance to catch Halves' stellar live show for the foreseeable future. Per the press release: "This will be Halves' last Dublin show for some time as they take time out to record the follow-up LP to 2010’s It Goes, It Goes (Forever & Ever)". In other words, even if you don't end up winning tickets you'd be a festive fool (last Christmas pun, we promise!) not to head along.
To whet the appetite a little further, here's a video of the last time the band rocked a church, which was down in Dingle a few years back for series seven of Other Voices:
Having tipped them for success back at the start of the year, we'd be lying if we said we weren't a tad disappointed that 2011 has failed to yield a debut album from Clock Opera. That hotly-anticipated LP is now due for release "some time early in the new year", we're told - fingers crossed it'll prove worth the wait when it finally arrives.
The London four-piece haven't just been standing idly by for the past twelve months, however. As well as releasing a brace of promising singles in 'Belongings' and 'Lesson No. 7' (video below), they've been busy honing their live show as tourmates of Metronomy and Crystal Fighters, among others. They've also been hella busy on both sides of the remix desk: you can check out some of their wares right now below. That dancefloor-ready Feist reworking, in particular, is a real gem...
Tonight the band play a gig at Dublin's Academy 2 - their first ever Irish headline show, we believe. Promoters MCD have kindly given us a pair of tickets to give away; all you have to do to stand a chance of winning them is email info@raggedwords.com (remembering to put 'Clock Opera tickets' in the subject line) with the correct answer to the following question:
What UK record label are Clock Opera signed to?
Be sure to get your answers in to us by 6pm this evening, at which point a randomly-selected winner will be notified via email. Best of luck!
Blood Orange 'Champagne Coast' Clock Opera Remix by DominoRecordCo
Feist - How Come You Never Go There? (Clock Opera Remix) by clockopera
Symphonic pop five-piece The Gorgeous Colours will be launching their new single 'Chopped Heart' with a gig at Dublin's Grand Social tomorrow night (November 11), and we've got the exclusive first play of the track for your listening pleasure below. What's more, we've also got a pair of tickets to the launch show up for grabs, so listen up if you want to get your name in the hat.
As we've come to expect from TGC, 'Chopped Heart' is a deftly-arranged slice of radio-friendly goodness, its brass flourishes and guitar echo giving way to a cheeky handclap breakdown halfway through, before a runaway rhythm section takes over towards the end. The tempo is certainly more jaunty than on the band's excellent last single 'It's OK to Be Normal', but the message is similarly upbeat, lead singer Geoff McArdle encouraging the object of his affection with the simple refrain: "Don't stop, just do what you do". The track will be made available to download in the coming days, but for now this is the only place you can hear it.
As mentioned above, the lads have given us a pair of tickets for tomorrow night's gig to give away. All you have to do to stand a chance of winning them is email info@raggedwords.com (remembering to put 'The Gorgeous Colours tickets' in the subject line) with the correct answer to the following question:
What is the name of The Gorgeous Colours' latest EP, released this time last year to widespread acclaim?
Be sure to get your answers in to us by 5pm on Friday, at which point a randomly-selected winner will be notified via email. Best of luck!
Oh, and in case you were wondering, there's no need to fret over missing any of the Estonia Vs. Ireland Euro 2012 Qualifier if you're planning on heading along to the gig. No support acts have been announced, and the band won't be getting their set under way until after the final whistle. The game will also be shown live beforehand on a big screen in The Grand Social's downstairs bar, which is all the more reason to get there early and make a night of it if you ask us. We're reliably informed that Mexican waves will be actively encouraged at the gig, although vuvuzelas are strictly banned. For more info on the single release and the show itself, check out this here Facebox event page.
This tune's been widely blogged since first surfacing late last week, and now there's a suitably mind-melting video to go with. Drowned In Sound have gone with the catch-all tag of "dance-drone post-futurists" to describe London trio Factory Floor's pummelling industrial dance sound, but we'd rather suggest that 'Two Different Ways' sounds a bit like Liquid Liquid covering XTRMNTR-era Primal Scream. At an acid house rave. In an East Berlin abbatoir (ehh, or factory (floor), I suppose).
The fluorescent K-hole of a promo that accompanies it will have you either gurning with delight or else running for cover - probably depending on what time of the day or night you chance upon it at. We nearly gave ourselves a nosebleed this morning watching it on full-screen with the volume all the way up... But that's not really important right now; what is important is that 'Two Different Ways' continues Factory Floor's slow-and-steady rise to prominence beyond the cocooned world of buzzblog comment boxes.
In all honesty, DFA is the only proper home for nine-minute belters like this - and that's exactly who's going to be putting the track out as a single both digitally and on 12" next Monday (November 14). The wax is bound to be snapped up quicksmart, so get yisser pre-orders in right now to save any tears.
If, along with April's Optimo-released 'R E A L L O V E' behemoth, 'Two Different Ways' is a sign of things to come from the band – and if they can succeed in translating their fearsome live reputation to a full-length record for DFA – then 2012 could very well be theirs for the taking.
And speaking of that live reputation, Factory Floor are set to headline a free Fred Perry Subculture Sub-Sonic night at The Garage in North London on Friday, November 18. Yup, we did say free. Additional info can be found here.
By his own prolific standards ("I have 16 free tunes on Bandcamp", as he reminded us last night), we haven't heard much from Irish electro enigma Hunter-Gatherer of late. There was June's standalone cut 'Risen' – still available as a free download, by the way – followed by an awesome, under-the-radar August mix for Dublin's The Social magazine. And now he's back with another free-to-download track that's just about as icy as one of these still November evenings.
As anyone who's managed to catch H-G playing live before will confirm, 'Mask' is a suitably apt and concise title for the Dubliner's latest slice of disembodied electronica. The eight-minute workout puts those long nights spent listening to Tangerine Dream LPs in a darkened room to good use, while also riding a sort of Kraftwerk-meets-Orbital wave during its mid-section. Oddly enough, we reckon it wouldn't sound entirely out of place on Cliff Martinez's recent Drive score.
Grab 'Mask' for free right now below, then go and lock the door before you listen.
Crystal Stilts – the Brooklyn five-piece responsible for one of this year's most durable full-lengths in the shape of April's In Love With Oblivion – will play their last European gig of 2011 tomorrow night (November 4) at Dublin's Grand Social, with stellar support coming from Slumberland labelmates Girls Names. In two weeks' time the New Yorkers are set to release a brand new EP entitled Radiant Door - and as luck would have it, following the appearance last week of that disc's opening track, the whole thing has now been made available to stream by Sacred Bones. You can also pre-order it here.
Girls Names also have new music out in the form of the C86tastic single 'Black Saturday'. It's the first cut to be lifted from the Belfast trio's as-yet-untitled second LP, which is due for release early next year. You can give the digital-only track a listen below, or else go the whole hog and download it for free from Pitchfork.
Tickets (€15) for tomorrow night's gig are still available from Tickets.ie.
"Load up the choppers like it's December 31st..."
Philly-based producer Emynd – who blogs as Crossfaded Bacon – reportedly has a full album of M83-versus-Weezy mashups on the way, entitled (wait for it...) The Carter 83. Last week Complex pointed us towards the first track to emerge from the project: the rather great 'My Tears Are Becoming John', which pits Rick Ross-featuring Tha Carter IV highlight 'John' against the lush opening track on disc two of the Frenchies' just-released Hurry Up, We're Dreaming grand oeuvre. Carter & Ross's lewd braggadocio works surprisingly well on top of an extended loop of Anthony Gonzalez's crashing synth melodrama, all of which bodes well for what's to come from Emynd.
We'll have more info on The Carter 83 as soon as further details become available, but for the time being treat yourself to a free download of one of the mashups of the year below. Oh, and you should also give the Spielberg-referencing video for Hurry Up...'s massive lead single 'Midnight City' four minutes of your time, if you haven't already done so.
*For the record, SoundCloud blocked our own attempts at uploading the track due to copyright issues – thanks a lot, MUTE! – so we've had to make do with Big O's Music Source's slightly abridged version (it basically skips the minute-long instrumental intro of Emynd's original, which you can of course grab at the original source if you prefer)
He's been compared to both Van Morrison and Terry Callier, has just finished supporting Adele in The States, and now British soul musician Michael Kiwanuka is set to play his first ever Irish gig this Sunday (October 30) at Dublin's Grand Social.
The twenty-three year-old is blessed with a voice that can stop you in your tracks, and his deceptively straightforward, retro-sounding songs have won him plaudits and fans alike, leading to him signing to boutique London imprint Communion Records earlier this year. His debut album, Home Again, will be released in the new year, by which time we've no doubt he'll be filling much larger venues than those he's visiting on his current tour. With that in mind, Sunday night offers Dubliners one of those rare chances to catch a rising star in an intimate setting - and then be able to tell all their friends "I saw him when..." for years to come!
Promoters MCD have kindly given us two pairs of tickets to give away for what should be a great show. All you have to do to stand a chance of winning a pair is email info@raggedwords.com (remembering to put 'Michael Kiwanuka tickets' in the subject line) with the correct answer to the following question:
What is the name of Michael Kiwanuka's most recent EP, released just last month?
*HINT: That's a live version of the disc's title track below!
Get your answers into us by 4pm on Sunday, at which point a randomly-selected winner will be notified via email. Best of luck!
With crafty remixes for Ital Tek and recent tourmates WU LYF now under his belt, Jon Pritchard (aka Young Montana?) returns with this soulful number that features the crisp "rapskills" of L.A. native Jonwayne. The Limerence producer has also just posted an even newer piece of work on his Soundcloud page: the altogether more disorienting 'Bambi & Beef' by Jinnwoo, on which the Coventry beatsmith shares production duties with Brainfeeder-affiliated Essex dude Lapalux.
Can't say we know an awful lot about Jinnwoo – he's from Leicester apparently, where he'll be supporting Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard tomorrow night (October 29) – but it would appear that he and Pritchard have been spending some studio time together of late.
As for Jonwayne, the Low End Theory stalwart has just followed up April's promising Bowser full-length for Alpha Pup with a brand new EP entitled The Death of Andrew. You can grab a free download of that disc's beat-heavy opening track right now below.
Jinnwoo - Bambi & Beef (prod. Young Montana? X Lapalux) by Young Montana?
Ragged News RSS
Most read this month
"My head, my heart, my heart, the flooor / My Eyes keep movin' ever closer to the door..."
Having endured the dubious rite of passage of...
