Friday, November 08, 2013

Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde Launches New Duo Snowbird, Announces Debut Album

Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde has launched a new project called Snowbird with singer-songwriter Stephanie Dosen.

The pair will release their forthcoming debut album titled 'Moon' in January on Raymonde's label Bella Union, with cover art by famed designer Vaughan Oliver, who has worked extensively with 4AD and Cocteau Twins. The record features guest appearances from Radiohead's Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway, Midlake's Eric Pulido and McKenzie Smith, alongside Lanterns on the Lake's Paul Gregory, and Jonathan Wilson.

In a press release, Raymonde said of the album contributors: "Having [the collaborators] add their magic to the record was a thrill, but really, I think this is very much Stephanie's record. She's a really special singer and I feel the simplicity of my music was the perfect backdrop for her stories and her incredible vocal arrangements." 

"Stephanie was the first singer I had worked with since Elizabeth [Fraser of Cocteau Twins] that I had a real musical empathy with. She could do anything. No one had ever sung with Midlake on record before Stephanie, while Massive Attack asked her to be their lead singer on tour—ironic really given that Elizabeth had too! She also sang with Chemical Brothers. But we'd never written music together at home." He added.

About the band he said: "It would be a little odd if it didn't remind people of Cocteau Twins."

On the album: "I wrote every piece of music at night, in semi-darkness so that the space didn't feel like my living room. The moon was very important for the light it reflected."

Raymonde has also unveiled "Porcelain" the lead cut from the album, which is light as a feather... Have a listen below.

Watch: Joe Goddard Drops New Video For "Taking Over"

Hot Chip's frontman Joe Goddard have dropped a new video for "Taking Over".

The song is part of our current playlist and is the title track from the DJ/producer latest solo EP, which was released in June through his own label Greco-Roman. You can get your copy from iTunes.

About the title Joe said "is a reference to that moment when the music at a club starts to really hit you, when it forces you to focus on it and the night ahead."

The video was directed by Mark James. Take a look below.

Watch: Chevalier Avant Garde Share New Video For "Killing Fields"

Montreal's euro-sleaze twosome Chevalier Avant Garde have shared a scratched, ripped-from-VHS music video for "Killing Fields". 

The song is taken from the band's latest 'Resurrection Machine', which was released on September 10th via Fixture Records. You can grab your copy here.

VHS-hacking music video director Rob Feulner (who also directed the clip for "Rose Rider") said: "The original footage is a snippet from The Terminator. It’s a really gorgeous scene: this passionate embrace, which gets interrupted by a robot. It worked so well with the atmosphere and lyrics: two damned souls, love won't save them; but desire and co-dependence are a good distraction."

"This video mostly consisted of three or four back-and-forth dubs of increasingly damaged VHS footage of that scene. When I finally reached the level of noise that I wanted, I juxtaposed it with a much cleaner DVD-to-VHS dub. The ending of the video, which is the clean version, with my finger lightly rubbing against the VHS head, is much more visually coherent than the rest. I tried to convey that, while things in the past were still kind of bad and noisy, it could always be so much worse." He added.

Take a look below.