John
New from the old. The 14 year drought is over. Former Talking Head David Byrne has announced a new album. Entitled American Utopia, it is his first solo release since 2004’s Grown Backwards. Remember: 2012’s Love This Giant was split with St. Vincent and 2008’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today with long time collaborator Brian Eno.
Per the email announcement: “I worked on American Utopia while collecting a lot of Reasons To Be Cheerful material, and I have a feeling this material informs this set of songs. Many of us, I suspect, are not satisfied with the world we have made for ourselves. We look around and we ask ourselves—well does it have to be like this? Is there another way? These songs are about that looking and that asking.”
Lead single “Everybody’s Coming To My House” was co-written with Brian Eno and features Byrne’s now trademark herky-jerky nervousness, especially in the vocals. American Utopia will be released on March 9th.
New from the old (again). The 24 year drought is over. Universal have announced a remastered vinyl re-issue of The Future Sound of London’s Lifeforms. The vinyl version has been out of print since the album’s 1994 release and at time of writing VG/VG copies are fetching anything from €80 to €200 over on Discogs. As long-time FSOL fans will know, a record’s surface noise is not conducive to the album’s ambient/techno heart. Refresh your memory here:
Bleep.com have opened pre-orders at €30 for a brand spanking new remastered copy that will ship on 25th January. In referring to Lifeforms “one of the most influential albums of the decade” they are not wrong.
As for a (hi-res) download, we’ll have to wait and see. FSOL co-founder Gaz Cobain says, “It’s not our release ( it’s Virgin / EMI / universal ) and I’m not sure what their plans are RE download”.
These two artists announcing new material and remastered old material on the same day serve as reminders of this website’s point of difference when it comes to music.
Whilst the vast majority of audiophile publications infuse their review commentary with heavy doses of classical, opera, jazz and females with their acoustic guitars, Darko.Audio is aimed at Music-First Audiophiles who, like yours truly, listen to 90s electronica and alt-rock – the same as it ever was.
