Hear Entire New Album By The Knife

The Knife (in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock) have announced that their new record, ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’, is now available buy directly from the Rabid Records store as a download or pre-order a CD copy and receive the download instantly.

The album features songs Olof and Karin wrote for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma’s opera based on Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of the Species.’and will be available worldwide on iTunes and Amazon beginning Febuary 1st and the CD will be in stores on March 1st.

You can pre-order the CD or FLAC and stream every track here.

Fever Ray on Amazon US Daily Deal for $2.99

If you don’t already own Fever Ray’s magnificent debut album, your music collective has serious credibility issues. Fortunately, Amazon US Daily Deal is offering an MP3 download of the album for $2.99 (today only). You can order Fishpork’s second favorite album of 2009 here.

MP3: New Track From The Knife: “Colouring Of Pigeons”

The Knife announced plans to release the studio version of the music they scored for the opera ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’, on the 1st March 2010 in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock.  Olof and Karin wrote the music for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma’s opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species.’

They have released their first track free for mailing list subscribers and can be  downloaded here: “Colouring Of Pigeons”

Read the full details from their press release including track list below.

Commissioned by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma to write the music for their opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species’, The Knife decided to make this a collaborative process, working with artists Mt. Sims and Planningtorock for the first time, to capture the huge width of the Darwin and evolution theme. They extensively researched Darwin related literature and articles, with Olof attending a field recording workshop in the Amazon to find inspiration and to record sounds.

‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ is a unique musical project. Richard Dawkins’s gene trees have formed the basis of some of the musical composition, artificial sounds have been mixed with field recordings, with the music inspired by everything from the different stages of a bird learning its melody, to a song based on Darwin’s loving letters about his daughter Anne. These are compositions that challenge the conventional conception of opera music.

Pushing the experimental process further still, composer, choreographer, costume designer and set designer worked separately, only coming together 3 and a half months before the first performance of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ in Copenhagen on the 2nd September 2009. Described as “shifting the position of operartic art in a single leap”, further performances of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ are confirmed to take place in Athens (8-9 Jan), Stockholm (29 Jan-1 Feb), and Munster (5 June), with further dates to be announced.

Olof Dreijer says: “At first it was very difficult as we really didn’t know anything about opera. We’d never been to one. I didn’t even know what the word libretto meant. But after some studying, and just getting used to opera’s essence of pretentious and dramatic gestures, I found that there is a lot to learn and play with. In fact, our ignorance gave us a positive respectless approach to making opera. It took me about a year to become emotionally moved by an opera singer and now I really do. I really like the basic theatrical values of opera and the easy way it brings forward a narrative. We’ve approached this before in The Knife but never in such a clear way.”

Tracklist:
CD 1
01. Intro
02. Epochs
03. Geology
04. Upheaved
05. Minerals
06. Ebb Tide Explorer
07. Variation of Birds
08. Letter to Henslow
09. Schoal Swarm Orchestra

CD 2
01. Annie’s Box
02. Tumult
03. Colouring of Pigeons
04. Seeds
05. Tomorrow in a Year
06. The Height of Summer

Bonus track
07. Annie’s Box (alt. vocal)

Video: Fuck Buttons Live in San Francisco

Yours Truly has posted a beautifully shot video of Fuck Buttons performing “Rough Steez” from their brilliant record Tarot Sport.  It was shot in San Francisco from earlier last month at the Bottom of the Hill venue.  

Watch and learn the true meaning of electronic performance:

Holy Fuck Streams Live From Brussels

After a pair of shows in Denmark, Holy Fuck continues to treat fans with live streams of its international performances. With the addition of Matt Schulz on drums, Holy Fuck has found its niche in a saturated electronic genre. If these live shows are any indication, their string of American tour dates that are approaching are going to be worthy of our attendance (Williamsburg here we come). The band has played a lot of new material from their next album, and all signs point to an excellent record. You can watch the live stream of Holy Fuck today at 3pm EST here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/holy-fcuk.

Spend New Year’s Eve with Crystal Castles!

Bring in 2009 with Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, better known as Crystal Castles, at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The Hall will be hosting our favorite electro-thrash Canadians on New Year’s Eve this year and is without a doubt one of the best venues in the NY area to see a show.  The Modest Mouse secret show and Deerhunter show earlier this month were easily the best shows of the year. If this show is anything like their Webster Hall performance, it will be a night to remember.

Their self-titled debut album released earlier this year is sure to be in many of the Top 10 lists that will begin to pop up over the next few weeks.

Alice gave a boot and smashed my camera into a few pieces at that show, but all that mattered was that the memory card survived.  Check out our pics from that show here. This is sure to be another great one on New Year’s Eve in Brooklyn.

Get your tickets here before it sells out.

CRYSTAL CASTLES - Courtship Dating (official video)
by Differentrecordings

http://www.myspace.com/crystalcastles

Year Zero May Become an HBO Series

Trent Reznor wants nothing more than to continue his Year Zero concept into a new medium, preferably series television. “It’s the most exciting thing on the horizon, it’s the thing that when I wake up in the morning it makes me say, ‘God it would be cool if that happened,” expresses the Nine Inch Nails mastermind of his ambition.

As stated in an earlier Fishpork news post, Trent Reznor’s Year Zero concept may be developed beyond the album and into a TV series, which he prefers to a film or graphic novel. ”That was the route we were going to go with initially. We talked to a different companies about releasing it. But it didn’t feel quite right. We thought about a film, but that has a different timetable and too many people need to say yes. That wouldn’t line up right. then I started thinking about how I could make it really interactive, something you experience rather than something you read.”

In the most exciting news of all, the LA Times is reporting that Reznor officially pitched the idea to HBO two weeks ago. “Ideally, we’re trying to get them to do a two-year limited series. I prefer that over a film, ” Reznor says of his intentions. So how is HBO responding to the idea of putting Reznor’s concept of a dark world 15 years into the future that has been devastated politically, religiously and environmentally? Reznor reports, “It was fun sitting and telling [the HBO] guys and watching them shake their head and having writers on board and producers that are in to it. It’s been a fun thing.”

The project has breathed new and exciting life. HBO is known for creating some of the most critically acclaimed series that television has ever seen (Six Feet Under, The Wire, The Sopranos, etc). Unleashing Reznor’s concept of a post-Bush era would add another significant notch to their belt. As for Reznor, he also plans to finish the concept with a second album and another tour. “There would be (another) tour down the road. The (second) record completes the story, the ending that no one knows. I know what happens. I knew when I started it. And it’s not what people think.”

For more information on the Year Zero Concept, check out 42 Entertainment’s Case Study here.

Year Zero: The TV Series?

Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) has mentioned in several dated interviews that he had contacted several people in “the business” about the possibility of bringing his Year Zero concept to cable television. He even mentioned conversations with Quentin Tarantino’s longtime producer, Lawrence Bender. All of it sounded promising. However, we’ve gone a while without any mention of the project, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Trent remained tight-lipped and surprised all with the quick releases of his last three albums: Year Zero, Ghosts !-V, and The Slip.

The good news is that Trent mentioned in a recent radio interview that the concept is alive and well and in the works with TV execs, although explicit details were not revealed. At this point, you have to think that this is really going to happen, especially with Lawrence Bender still potentially involved. Ideally, HBO or Showtime would be the ideal home for such a controversial and dark depiction of the near end of the world fifteen years in the future. However, a non-premium cable station like FX, known for pushing the envelope with shows like The Shield and Nip Tuck, would also work. Hopefully, the show will not find a home on network television opposite Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. 

In the interview Trent also mentioned that he is already working on the next project. When asked if the Lights in the Sky concept of the tour and the visuals on stage were supposed to invoke feelings similar to the Twilight Zone or other-worldliness, Trent responded, “Some of the imagery on the last record, The Slip, kind of dealt with that. And it also hints at what’s happening . . . what my next project is . . . which, of course, I can’t tell you about.”

You can listen to the interview here!

Lights in the Sky Set to Shine

Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have released three studio albums since their last North American tour. Year Zero, Ghosts I-IV and The Slip have not been properly supported by a full tour here in the mainland (NIN did play some Year Zero shows in Europe). However, that’s about to change tonight as NIN embarks on a 27-show tour that is being called Lights in the Sky over North America 2008. Vancouver gets the first taste of what Trent and company have been planning and rehearsing over the past several months. Many fans are hopeful to hear tracks from the three new albums, as well as recently unveiled live versions of rarely-played songs like Last and We’re in This Together. Eight shows will follow in Mexico and South America. As always, there are some very strong supporting acts joining the tour. Canadian-natives Crystal Castles will open up for the band in Canada and Minnesota. NIN will take a quick break from the tour to play at Lollapalooza in Chicago and the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. The remaining tour dates will feature Deerhunter, A Place to Bury Strangers, White Williams, and Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Here is a clip of Nine Inch Nails rehearsing the track 1,000,000 for the 2008 tour: