Having recently graced us with the sultry vocal melodies and crafty programming of their double A-side single release Underworld / Zeros, which, co-produced with Jim Abbiss, felt as complex and intriguing as any full length-album, the group with a penchant for eclectic compositions is back with a full-on full length record.
Duologue, the Indie-Electronic band from across the pond that we just can’t get enough of, are bringing their notable Indie-Electronic crossover sound that blends digital effects and effervescent acoustic tones to their new, highly anticipated release Song & Dance. The album, released on Killing Moon Records, made its digital debut yesterday, with a physical release hitting April 23rd in the U.K.
But more than simply producing intricate material in the studio, Duologue have the ability to masterly channel their genre-blending music onto the live stage — our very own stairwell included. The band performed “Machine Stop“ and “Zeros“ at The Orchard’s first-ever CMJ Stairwell Series last October, and needless to say, the Indie men from London did not need to be plugged-in to capture a memorable sound, rocking our beloved stairwell with just a violin, glockenspiel, some acoustic guitars, and haunting harmonies.
Just recently, the group sold out their album launch party at London’s Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, and you can expect similarly packed shows on their upcoming tour with Post War Years. After the European stint, the band will be coming stateside to perform at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
Get a taste for the new record now with the video for “Push It,” the first single off the album, below, and take a peek after the jump for full European and SXSW tour dates.
Friday is here! That’s right, you got past hump day and made it through the weekday grind – time to celebrate with Freeloader Friday.
To start your weekend off right, we have a couple of album previews from Sally Shapiro, Duologue, and The Lovely Bad Things.
Young Galaxy and AM & Shawn Lee are providing the soundtrack to your time off with new song streams, while The Virgins are getting nostalgic with the music video for their retro-flavored single.
Finally, catch Local Natives performing a live acoustic set of songs from their latest album, Hummingbird, in an unorthodox Parisian space…
Need we say more?
Sally Shapiro: Full album stream via Pitchfork Advance
Somewhere Else out February 26 on Paper Bag Records
Duologue: Full album stream via Clash Music
Song & Dance out February 25 on Killing Moon Records
Young Galaxy: “Fall For You” via Pitchfork
Ultramarine out April 16 on Paper Bag Records
The Virgins: “Flashbacks, Memories, and Dreams” video stream via MTV Hive
Strike Gently out March 12 on Cult Records
The Lovely Bad Things: Full album stream via Impose Magazine
The Late Great Whatever out February 26 on Volcom Entertainment
AM & Shawn Lee: “Two Times” via Rolling Stone
La Musique Numerique out soon on Park The Van
Local Natives: Live acoustic concert via La Blogotheque
Hummingbird out now on Frenchkiss Records
Success!! The Orchard’s first ever Stairwell Series *CMJ Edition* kicked off last week and it went off without a hitch. Diana Wollach here at our office, along with help from our client managers, coordinated an acoustic gig on the stairwell of our NYC office for each of the 4 days of CMJ.
We had the pleasure of hosting a diverse group of artists for this opening series, including the exciting Electronic group from England Duologue, the enchanting New York songstress Sophie Auster, the Electro/Glam/Rock Solid Gold and the ever-bright Pop/Rock band Pretty & Nice.
It was impressive to watch some of these bands play the most acoustic sets they’ve ever played, yet still capture the room. Some of us caught these bands outside of the office for their CMJ showcases and were further impressed. Thank you to all involved and we look forward to yet another great CMJ Edition in 2013.
Here are links to the videos for two of our favorite songs from each. Listen! Share! Buy! And most important: Enjoy!
Duologue
“Zeros”
“Machine Stop”
Underworld/Zeros out October 29 on Killing Moon Ltd.
Sophie Auster
“Back To Me”
“Little Bird”
Red Weather out November 13 on Lost Colony Music
Solid Gold
“The Pendulum”
“Armoured Cars”
Eat Your Young out now on Totally Gross National Product
Pretty & Nice
“Capsules”
“Hibernate”
Us You All We out November 6 on Lost Colony Music
Gone are the days when a sync placement purely involved just TV, film and advertising. An increasingly substantial part of the pie is now represented by gaming.
So it’s great news when we say The Orchard distributes 3 of the tracks on this year’s FIFA 13 soundtrack, including efforts by Duologue, Bloc Party and Stepdad. It will be one of the top selling games of 2012 and while I’m sure the fees generated helpful income, the real win comes from the exposure — it’s absolute gold.
Interestingly, the music supervisors appear to go for predominantly new bands, providing much needed exposure and giving them access to a mainstream audience. Over 1 million people in the UK alone have bought the FIFA 13 game — and it’s only been out a week. Many more of the world’s football (soccer for the Americans!) fans will purchase and play the game, but for lengthy periods of time, the game does not involve ‘playing’ football. It entails scrolling through menus, picking the teams, making transfers and choosing tactics — and all the while, music is playing from a select bunch of 50 tracks from around the globe.
The importance of this cannot be understated. Millions of people will hear these tracks repeatedly. It’s like being on the A-list of a top radio station for a year (until the next edition of the game hits the shelves) with the songs slowly being subconsciously digested. A FIFA-playing friend of mine became a huge fan of Yeasayer, even though he’s normally more inclined to listen to Dire Straits than hipster rock.
If your target audience is male and aged 16-30 — you’ve scored if you have a song placed in FIFA.
The 2012 edition of the CMJ Music Marathon may still be a couple of weeks off but we’ve already been excitedly penciling in our (exhausting!) show schedules and RSVP’ing to every party invitation that comes through the ol’ digital transom.
We’ve also assembled Spotify and Rdio playlists for some of our favorite Orchard artists performing at this year’s festival. Hopefully it makes some of your decisions easier.
We here present you with CMJ 2012: The Bands, The Music, The City. Happy CMJ!
