News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson

New Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds website
• Mute Records has announced a new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds website at www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com. All the anticipated content is presented including a full length preview of their next single "Bring It on" featuring the duetted vocal from Chris Bailey (of The Saints), here.
See Release's previous Nick Cave website news here. /Alex Veronac

Fading Colours album release postponed
• The delays just keep coming for Poland's Fading Colours. Their new album "Come" has been pushed back into the second quarter of 2003. No reason is given for the delay. A compilation of their early work, "The Beginning 89-93" is out now on Black Flames Productions. /Peter Marks

Busy year for Cevin Key

De Kleer with the Pink Dots live 2002.
Photo by: Alex Veronac (Release)

• Cevin Key has been having a busy year in the recording studio 2002, including some drumming added to Martijn de Kleer's first solo effort. de Kleer is better known as a musician with Legendary Pink Dots who plays guitar, mandolin and violin. Also to help contribute are LPD alumni Ryan Moore (Twilight Circus Dub Sound System), Phil Knight and Raymond Steeg (Girlfriends, Beequeen). Martijn's sporadic vocals are encountered on the collection, which trippy 26 minute cut on the LP employs a chorus of Himalayan children.
This release entitled "So Close Yet So Far out" is in a double gatefold vinyl package and limited to 500 copies on that extra thick quality 220 gram vinyl. There is to be a CD version coming in April with the same track listing. /Alex Veronac

The Angels of Light come home
• The new The Angels of Light album called "Everything Is Fine Now/Please Come Home" will be out in 2003 on Young God Records. The band is fronted by former Swans ringleader Michael Gira and have two studio albums and one live album prior to this new release. Gira states that this Angels of Light album "will be very, very different from the other two Angels studio albums". A tour will follow the release of this album next year as well.
In other Gira news, the second edition of The Body Lovers project is slated for release in the new year. This project is a fairly cinematic endeavour by Gira and a host of conspirators. /Peter Marks

Last Rites busily working on their second album
• The as-yet untitled sophmore album from the Wright brothers is currently being worked on at an undisclosed location in England. The band recently finished a tour of England to rapturous audiences. Dreamcatcher Records will release this new album when it is finished.
Nod and Paul Wright are best known for their work in Fields of the Nephilim. They also worked with fellow ex-Fields guitarist Peter Yates and currently re-enlisted Nephilim bassist Tony Pettit under the name Rubicon in the early to late 90:s. /Peter Marks

All dog all the time
• Skinny Puppy are continuing to work furiously on their new album and have enlisted Pat Sprawl on guitar to aid their first new work since 1996's controversial "The Process". Skinny Puppy will embark (sic) on a massive tour in the coming year to promote their new music.
In related news, a re-issue of the original 12" with ADuck and Philth, which started the whole Subconscious Recordings label back in 1993 is being planned in an edition of just 200.
Further news from the manic Canadians is that two discs worth of Floatpoint and Off and Gone (a side-project of Phil Western aka Philth, Captain Stargazer) is in the works. Subconscious have already peppered 2002 with releases from Download ("Inception", "III Steps Forward"), Plateau ("Iceolator"), Skinny Puppy ("Puppy Gristle") and plan to release the "final" "Back and Forth" wittily entitled "Back and Forth Vol. 6". This final vault release from Skinny Puppy will include the first ever recorded track by Skinny Puppy which was made on December 20, 1982 and is a six-minute version of "Meat Flavour". A shorter version of this song was made available on 1993's re-issue of the first "Back and Forth" release which came out in 1983. /Peter Marks

Belgian festival season gets cracking in 2003

Clan of Xymox, always ready for a festival gig.

• We take a look at three Belgian festivals which have just revealed their details.
January 25 will see the Eurorock winter festival in Antwerp with Corvus Corax, Clan of Xymox, Nosferatu, The Crest, Psyche, Erben der Schopfung, Killing Miranda, E-Craft, Gardens of Gehenna and God's Bow performing.
Eurorock's spring festival will commence on April 4 and end on April 6 at the Soeverein event hall in Lommel, Belgium. Praga Khan, Funker Vogt, Male or Female, Neon Electronics, Plastic Noise Experience, Project-X, Iris and several others will appear.
Finally, on April 26 a "gothic" metal mega show will take place in Hof Ter Lo, Antwerp, Belguim with Oomph!, Evereve, Subway to Sally, The Cascades and Skinflick among the attendants. The Sisters of Mercy will not be caught dead there. /Peter Marks

DJ Hell break lose

• The EBM genre seems to be increasingly respected these days and the examples are numerous. The famous DJ Hell from Munich has a new CD and vinyl compilation out called "Electronicbody-housemusic" on the UK dance label React. Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Bigod 20, Liasons Dangereuses and Chris & Cosey are featured. /Jens Krause

Elizabeth Fraser and Emiliana Torrini in "The Two Towers" soundtrack

• Howard Shore's soundtrack for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" includes vocals in one song, "Isengard Unleashed", by Elizabeth Fraser, known from Cocteau Twins and her work with Massive Attack. The closing titles features the unique voice of Icelandic-Italian Emiliana Torrini in "Gollum's Song". Clint Mansell, once Pop Will Eat Itself member, is heard in the majority long version of the theatrical trailer. A version is also included as "Zoo Work" on super DJ Paul Oakenfold's 2002 album "Bunkka". Reviews of Torrini and Oakenfold can be found at On Record. /Mikael Kahrle

The April Tears in French

• Swedish alternative rock act The April Tears have sent us a promo copy of an album by Canadian artist Stéphanie le Blanc. Three of the songs sung in French are new mainstream versions of April Tears tracks like "Hardcoming". /Mikael Kahrle

Lamb to release a new album in 2003

• Lou and Andy of Lamb are putting the final works of their new album to rest and plan to release it early in the new year. For this album, the original duo are joined on album for the first time by an actual guitarist, bassist and drummer. The band are quite pleased with the results and hope to tour extensively after it is unleashed on the public. /Peter Marks

Male reunion tonight
• Tonight in Düsseldorf, Jürgen Engler will play a reunion concert with his first punk band Male. Lately, he has been preparing the show, but is also busy with other projects.
- I work on Dkay.com remix versions. The new Dkay.com album is in demo and rough mix stadium. And I'll go on a US tour in April with Pigface and My Life with Thrill Kill Kult, he tells us. /Jens Krause

Cardigans doesn't like daylight?
• The multi-million selling band The Cardigans has finished the recording of the new album "Long Gone Before Daylight". It's due to come out on March 24, with a single called "For What It's Worth" on February 17.
The new album is recorded in diverse places like Spain, England and Sweden, and is produced by Per Sunding together with the band. Some guest artists will appear, and those are Howlin' Pelle Almqvist (The Hives), Ebbot Lundberg (Soundtrack of our Lives) and Nick Royale (Hellacopters). /Johan Carlsson

Lacrimosa back in January

• Goth rock stars Lacrimosa return on January 27 with the new album "Echos". The album features eight "gothic-meets-classic music" songs. The last two albums have been hard and guitar-driven, but "Echos" is harmonic with lots of strings. The first single "Durch Nacht & Flut" is available since November 11. Lacrimosa is released on mastermind Tilo Wolff's own company Hall of Sermon. He has now dropped all other bands signed to the label to focus on the future of Lacrimosa. /Jens Krause

Ex-Cubanate member makes Audio Warfare
• Since Graham Rayner departed from British industrial outfit Cubanate, he has found time to make music under the names K-Nitrate and Audio Warfare. His musical partner in these two ventures is Christian Weber, and Joanna Theobald on guitar for K-Nitrate.
Currently, the most active of these two projects is Audio Warfare, and the music is hard but danceable breakbeat techno. The boys themselves quote both Rage Against the Machine and The Prodigy as influences. Graham and Christian are currently searching for a label to release their second album.
K-Nitrate is kind of the bad brother - a lot heavier and more relentless. The closest musical term would possibly be industrial techno. K-Nitrate is in search for a label. /Johan Carlsson

Armageddon Dildos album in the Spring
• In November, we told you German EBM veterans Armageddon Dildos are reactivated. An album called "Morgengrauen" is scheduled for March or April on AMV and Ausfahrt. /Jens Krause

Beyond the valley of Snog
• Aussie mainstays Snog have a new album entitled "Beyond the Valley of the Proles" which will be released in due course on Metropolis.
Snog has existed since 1992 and has a profoundly anti-capitalist/corporate theme to their electro work. The new album is a continuation of the "spaghetti western" techno approach begun on Soma's 1995 album "The Inner Cinema" and further explored on Snog's 1997 album "Buy Me... I'll Change Your Life". Snog currently consists of David Thrussell but in the past its members have included Pieter Bourke (Soma, Eden, Lisa Gerrard). Thrussell also records under the name of Black Lung and has one solo album out entitled "The Voices of Reason", which was released by Ant-Zen in 2001. /Peter Marks

More "Disco" from the Pet Shop Boys

Let's dance.

• In their tradition of making dance albums tied to their regular albums, super British duo Pet Shop Boys is going to release ”Disco 3” on February 3. It will feature ten tracks, written, recorded or remixed around the time that ”Release” was made.
One interesting tidbit is that one of the new tracks is ”Try It (I’m in Love with a Married Man)” which was first made by Bobby "O" in 1983. He produced the first Pet Shop Boys tracks back in the days.
For the collectors, "Disco 3" also comes as a limited edition triple vinyl set, with some exclusive remixes by Felix da Housecat and Westbam. /Johan Carlsson

Jarre reissue after 30 years
• 30 years after its original release, Jean Michel Jarre will re-release "Les Granges Brulees" (the burning barns) in April. This is a soundtrack to a movie with the same name. This guy has been around for some time, that's for sure. /Mikael Kahrle

Catching up with EBM pioneers A Split Second
• A Split Second returns to the live stage after an aborted attempt earlier this year. The upcoming Belgian Independent Music Festival is a unique blend that offers the pioneers of the electro dance new beat genre.
UK DJ and remixer Paul Oakenfold has put his treatment to his favourite A Split Second record with the help of colleagues Trailer Trash for a B side remix. It's put out on his own label Perfecto as a 12" (PERF 044) and just the Trailer Trash remix of "Flesh" on his own 2CD "Perfecto Collection 2". "Flesh" was A Split Second's first single in 1986 and has been remixed many times over previously.
A Split Second started with schoolmates Marc Ickx and Chrismar Chayell (neé Peter Bonne) in 1985. The original live band played last during 1990's US tour. After 1991, Ickx and Chayell split with mostly remixes being released since. Ickx has assembled former members Fedjean Venvelt and Pete Boone (yes, his name is close to Peter Bonne) for the festival gig date. Chayell has shied away from A Split Second live and continues on his musical venture entitled Wasteland.
Catch earlier Release news on the festival gig here. /Alex Veronac