XL Recordings

"I LOOK AT OUR CURRENT SUPERSTARS LIKE LEGENDS IN THE MAKING... LIKE JUSTIN IS THE NEW MIKE , BEYONCE'S THE NEW TINA TURNER, GAGA'S MADONNA, JAY IS SINATRA... WAYNE IS HENDRIX, THOM YORKE IS ROGER WATERS, THESE ARE THE CHAMPIONS AND SHOULD BE DOCUMENTED AS SUCH."

-- Kanye West is going to put every music critic on planet Earth out of a job if he keeps cranking out blasts of brilliance like this. (Roger Waters?) (via Kanye's blog)

Flimsy issues, lacklustre content. Does the economic downturn herald a doomsday scenario for US music magazines? Nevermind, there's always Freekly...

What is the best choice of collective noun for a large group of music journalists? A pack? A herd? A medley? A shoal? An eisteddfod? I think perhaps "a vendetta" works as well as any.

Six weeks ago, a vendetta of 70 or so grizzled survivors of the British rock press got together in the suitably hedonistic and old-school surroundings of a Smithfield oyster bar to do what they do best: eat a meal that someone else has paid for. It was inevitable that such a gathering would produce a number of talking points â€' from the matchless urbanity of Phil Spector biographer Mick Brown, to the extraordinary powers of endurance exhibited by Roy Carr's hair â€' but the pressing nature of the business in hand would soon render such frivolous concerns irrelevant.

Three people were about to present this ominously unresponsive crowd with a blueprint for its digital future. The first of our trio of virtual visionaries was a nameless suited man who used to work for Simon Cowell at Sony, but left because he wanted "to do something more entrepreneurial". The second was Barney Hoskyns (tireless pursuer of Tom Waits, and curator of the Rock's Backpages website). But it was the third and most impassioned member of this forward-looking troika who really ruffled everybody's feathers.

Having identified himself, rather surprisingly, as Ben Boilerhouse...

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Welcome once again to the Pitchfork Guide to Upcoming Releases, our seasonal guide to upcoming releases! Four times a year, we round up a big ol' list of albums, singles, EPs, and DVDs set to be unleashed over the coming months, hoping to get you pumped about going out and buying records. (You do still do that, right? RIGHT?) This installment covers early 2009.

Compiling such a list isn't easy in this day and age, with different release dates for digital and physical versions of albums, as well as different release dates for different countries. So we tried to stick with North American physical release dates as much as possible, with exceptions as noted. When an album's North American release date differs from its overseas one, we also made a note of that. Keep in mind that release dates are as slippery as an eel on rollerskates, and any one of these is subject to change at any moment.

JANUARY

01-06:

Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion [Domino] [vinyl release]
Beausoleil: Alligator Purse [Yep Roc]
Destroy Destroy Destroy: Battle Sluts [Metal Blade]
The Ecclesia: Birdsong Over the Interior Castle [Arena Rock]
Glasvegas: Glasvegas [Columbia] [U.S. release, out now in the UK]
The Gourds: Haymaker! [Yep Roc]
High on Fire: Live From the Relapse Contamination Festival [Relapse]
Jessie Kilguss: Nocturnal Drifter [self-released]
King Khan & BBQ Show: "Animal Party" 7" [Fat Possum]
Pumajaw: Curiosity Box [Fire] [U.S. release, out now in UK]
Soporus: 24,110...

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Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor offes a low-key solo album á la Thom Yorke's The Eraser-- in this case, a refreshingly simple collection of tender ballads and quirky set pieces.

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Björk has continued her fight to protect Iceland's fragile environment (while helping to uplift the country's struggling economy) with an editorial in yesterday's London Times. (Via The Daily Swarm.) In the piece, titled "After financial meltdown, now it's smeltdown", she touches on many of the points discussed in her recent Pitchfork interview, focusing on the importance of halting the construction of more aluminum factories in the Icelandic wilderness.

"Usually I don't notice politics," Björk writes. I live happily in the land of music-making. But I got caught up in it because politicians seem bent on ruining Iceland's natural environment." As the country's economic crisis continues, many people in power are attempting to get these factories built quickly, without any precautions taken to prevent pollution. They see the aluminum industry as the key to getting Iceland out of debt.

Björk disagrees:

"Iceland is a small country. We missed out on an industrial revolution and my hope was that we would skip it completely and go straight to sustainable hi-tech options. If anyone could achieve this, we could. There is a wonderful characteristic in the Icelandic mentality - fearlessness, with an addiction to risk-taking to the point of being foolhardy. In music-making, storytelling and creative thought, this risk-taking is a great thing. And after my introduction to a lot of Iceland's small, growing companies, I realise how many of them have shown this fearless approach either in biotechnology or high technology."

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While in Reykjavík for the Iceland Airwaves festival, we sat down with Björk for a lengthy chat about "Náttúra", her new single with Thom Yorke, and the Náttúra Campaign. In the process, she outlined Náttúra's plan for the development of a new, independent, environmentally friendly Icelandic economy. It isn't a quick fix. And it isn't going to be easy. But when has Björk ever taken the easy way out? [Part 2 of 2]

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While in Reykjavík for the Iceland Airwaves festival, we sat down with Björk for a lengthy chat about "Náttúra", her new single with Thom Yorke, and the Náttúra Campaign. In the process, she outlined Náttúra's plan for the development of a new, independent, environmentally friendly Icelandic economy. It isn't a quick fix. And it isn't going to be easy. But when has Björk ever taken the easy way out? [Part 1 of 2]

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Photo by Joseph Mohan

Someone from The FADER made their way to a listening party for Kanye West's forthcoming 808s and Heartbreak at Los Angeles' Ace Gallery last night. To the surprise of no one, the whole affair was very lavish, and totally weird. Things went down in a stark room packed with 40 naked ladies-- wearing masks ostensibly made of fake lamb's wool, obviously-- who were backlit by glowing lights as the music went on. The evening's visual portion was designed by Italian artist of note Vanessa Beecroft, and Mos Def, will.i.am, and Rick Ross were all reportedly in attendance [via Idolator].

As for the album, 808s and Heartbreak apparently has Mr. West singing in his beloved Auto-Tune on virtually every track, and features a relatively pared-down selection of guests, with cameos from Young Jeezy (not singing, we imagine) and Lil Wayne (who knows anymore). As the title might suggest, it's a breakup album, with the exception of closer "Coldest Winter", which is about Kanye's late mother Donda West. The Fader report likens the sound of the disc to that of "ADULT. or Thom Yorke solo, with the dispassionate electro beats playing against the plainspoken ache of the vocals." Well all right then.

West then showed up as things were winding down to note that 808s and Heartbreak concerns "emotional nakedness," that the album is "about the freedom to...

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Last week Pitchfork news reported on the new Björk single "Nattura", which features Thom Yorke on backing vocals and which was recorded to help protect the Icelandic environment. According to text on the promo, the song "highlights a grass roots movement in Iceland to reclaim the country’s natural resources and wilderness from the hands of big business and pollution." Someone has uploaded the song to YouTube, which of course means that it may not be the final version and could disappear at any time.

"Nattura" is described as "more of a protest and rallying cry than a lecture," and the aggressive drums and Björk's piercing vocals certainly bear that out. The only other sound heard, practically, is what would seem to be Yorke's voice, distinctive but certainly heavily processed as it floats in the background. It's a pulse-quickening song that flies by in three and a half minutes.

As reported earlier, "Nattura" shares its name with the website Nattura.info, a gathering place for the Icelandic environmental movement, and you can read more about Björk's thoughts on Nattura here.

[from the "Nattura" single; due 10/20/08 from One Little Indian]

As he frequently reminds us, Girl Talk mastermind Gregg Gillis is not a DJ. For him, it's all about the sly, relentless juxtaposition-- rather than the full-on manipulation-- of his source material.

Alexander "Sasha" Coe, on the other hand? Very much a DJ, and a veteran one at that. So when Sasha's long-awaited follow-up to acclaimed 2004 mix Involver lands this September, you know you're in for some unique renditions of some modern day classics.

Invol2ver descends on the world at large on September 9, thanks to Global Underground. The set packs in 13 Sasha re-workings of such gems as Ladytron's "Destroy Everything You Touch", Thom Yorke's "The Eraser", M83's very recent "Couleurs", and Apparat's very lovely "Arcadia". There's also, for some reason, a track featuring Ray LaMontagne.

Bonus! Folks who scoop up one of the first 10,000 copies of Invol2ver will get a bonus disc packing in some exclusive remixes, including a different take on Thom Yorke's "Eraser".

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