Category: Music News

The UK DJ Championships have been announced.

The best turntablists in the country will battle it out on July 17th to take their place as the UK representative at the world DJ Championships in Septemeber. With past winners including Plus One, DJ Blakey and The Scratch Perverts, it’s a good indication of the wealth of talent in the UK.

This year’s event will be hosted by Cutmaster Swift and Trip with PAs from Million Dan, DJ Skitz, Le Shadow and Beat Torrent [DJ Pfel and DJ Atom from C2C] and the finalists are:

Pandamonium
Loop Skywalker
Skully
Switch
Jeppa
Furious P
Rasp
Asian Hawk
JFB

www.dmcdjchamps.com

Legendary French turntable crew Birdy Nam Nam are hitting London.

The four man crew will be heading down to Koko on July 12th with supper from DJ Kazey and Ed Banger’s DJ Feadz.

With world tours, great albums, theatre scores and film soundtracks in their back pocket, Birdy Nam Nam are definitely a group to check out. Have a video to see what they do in their spare time:

www.birdynamnam.com

Swervedriver have announced their UK return.

The band, who went on a decade-long hiatus, will be playing London and Glasgow in September with more UK dates set to follow. The dates are:

September 16th – London, Scala
September 18th – Glasgow, King Tuts

www.myspace.com/swervedriver

Millencolin have announced a UK tour.

The Swedish punks will hit the UK in September to support their latest album, Machine 15. The full dates are:

23rd – Birmingham, Academy
24th – Bristol, Academy
25th – London, LA2
26th – Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
27th – Nottingham, Rock City
28th – Manchester, Academy 3
29th – Glasgow, Garage

www.millencolin.com

Massive Attack have revealed they’re almost finished with their fifth album.

3D of the grop said that though they hadn’t released an album since 2003, they wouldn’t hurry the release adding:

“You develop as you get older and more mature, and as you change and move through life and experience stuff. Hopefully we’d like to think that that comes out in the music – so do it in your own time is my motto.To be honest, until its mixed I can’t even tell you that and the mix will probably be one of those long, drawn out processes which will probably see us scrap at least half our recording budget in two weeks as we do it all over again!”

www.massiveattack.co.uk

The Bronx have posted a song from one of their recently announced records.

The album is expected in September of this year and you can hear Knifeman by clicking the link below. Nice and simple, see.

www.myspace.com/thebronx

Norma Jean have released the tracklisting for their new album The Anti-Mother.

The album is out in August and you can hear Robots: 3, Humans: 0 on their MySpace page. The full tracklisting is:

1. Vipers, Snakes, And Actors
2. Robots 3 Humans 0
3. Birth Of The Anti Mother
4. Self Employed Chemist
5. Death Of The Anti Mother
6. Surrender Your Sons
7. Murphy Was An Optimist
8. Opposite Of Left And Wrong
9. Discipline Your Daughters
10. And There Will Be A Swarm Of Hornets

www.myspace.com/normajean

The Chemical Brothers will release a double best of compilation album.

Brotherhood will be released on September 1st and will feature 14 singles from the band’s back catalogue as well as a new song, Keep My Composure featuring Spank Rock on the vocals. The second disc will feature the ten tracks the band have made under the name Electronic Battle Weapons’, the series of tracks they made for DJs to test in clubs.

The tracklisting of the first disc of ‘Brotherhood’ will be:

‘Galvanize’
‘Hey Boy Hey Girl’
‘Block Rockin’ Beats’
‘Do It Again’
‘Believe’
‘Star Guitar’
‘Let Forever Be’
‘Leave Home’
‘Keep My Composure’
‘Saturate’
‘Out Of Control’
‘The Golden Path’
‘Setting Sun’
‘Chemical Beats’

www.thechemicalbrothers.com

Kings Of Leon have announced details of their new record.

Their fourth album will be called Only By The Night and will be released on September 22nd. The album was co-produced by Angelo Petraglia, Jacquire King and the band themselves, and is the follow up to Because Of The Times which was released last year.

www.kingsofleon.com

The Shins are planning to go it alone for their new album.

The band, who have released three albums on Sub Pop, want a dael that will let them retain ownership of the masters whilst using the label’s marketing and radio promotion assets. Their manager said:

“The deal will be more of a [pressing and distribution] deal than a traditional record deal. That partner could very well remain Sub Pop, who have done a remarkable job with the band and have a great staff of people who really love music. It could be a digital partner with respect to other rights. All of this is being determined. The first goal is to make the record and see where that takes us.”

www.theshins.com