Fred Perry Sub-Sonic Live presents a very special evening curated by David Rodigan MBE

Fred Perry’s Sub-Sonic Live returns with a specially curated event by legendary ambassador for British reggae, David Rodigan MBE. Fred Perry has enjoyed a unique relationship with music and street style since the 1950’s and the Sub-Sonic Live nights celebrate the musical and cultural pioneers who have left a lasting influence over contemporary culture.  Sub-sonic Live brings together the most influential heritage artists and tomorrow’s trailblazers and previous guests have included Andrew Weatherall, Afrika Bambaataa, Terry Hall, Greg Wilson, The Horrors, Factory Floor, Tom Vek and King Krule.

David Rodigan MBE has been famous throughout Britain’s reggae dance-halls for over 30 years. His extensive knowledge of Jamaica’s every artist, every song and every rhythm track, makes him the perfect choice to curate this very special Sub-Sonic Live, focusing on reggae and British reggae - two of the most significant subcultures of the last forty years.

Joining David is Lee "Scratch" Perry. A recording pioneer of the reggae world, Lee "Scratch" Perry is one of the most important artist-producers to have ever stepped into a recording studio. Building an experimental recording studio in his back yard in Jamaica, "Scratch" was producer on early recordings for such notable musicians as Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Byles, The Heptones, and Max Romeo. Now in his seventies, Perry continues to contribute to the forefront of new music, with his recent work including collaboration with electronic explorers, The Orb.

Completing the line-up in the main room is live dub act Resonators, heralded by David Rodigan as "British Reggae at its best" and drawing praise from Mark Lamarr, Lauren Laverne and Craig Charles among others.

Appearing on the night will be Venum DJ’s aka Kris Snakes and Monkey Harris, two lifelong friends with a penchant for all things vinyl and in search of the perfect beat.  Their sets draw from funk, soul, hip-hop and reggae through to the early drum and bass scene and beyond.  Also taking to the decks will be Jet Letts, son of the legendary punk filmmaker Don Letts who is rapidly making a name for himself as a DJ and producer who marries house and post-dubstep to mesmerising effect.  Jet will be joined by some very special friends on the evening.

This show is part of Fred Perry’s Sub-Sonic Live series. Sub-Sonic Live has been an integral part of Fred Perry’s Subculture website reporting on the best of emerging international talent. Sub-Sonic Live is the live manifestation of the concept. 

www.fredperrysubculture.com

Ticket Price £5 – Available from

www.fredperrysubculture.com and www.ticketweb.co.uk
www.facebook.com/FredPerrySubcultureOfficial
http://twitter.com/SubSonicLive 

Breton announce debut album and Video

Debut album ‘Other People’s Problems’ - Released on Fat Cat Records - February 2012

THE COMMISSION (album track) - VIDEO

Art pop architects Breton are releasing a stunning new video to accompany their new song ‘The Commission’. It’s a strikingly beautiful song with a black heart and overwhelming sense of inevitable foreboding. The accompanying video perfectly encapsulates this. It was directed by BretonLABS and Stuart Sinclair, a motion graphics artist who makes computer generated clips of space and satellites. Breton front man - artistic experimentalist, songwriter and filmmaker Roman Rappak, invited Sinclair to collaborate on the video. The actor is Patrick Lyons, a beat poet from Boston – and legend on the south London squat party scene. The pair met when Breton started out and regularly played the squat party circuit.

and listen to 'The Commission" here:

http://soundcloud.com/bretonlabs/breton-the-commission

‘The Commission’ is taken from Breton’s forthcoming debut album, ‘Other People’s Problems’, due for release in February 2012 on Fat Cat Records. It’s the follow up to their critically acclaimed ‘Counter Balance’ EP, which was released in December last year on Hemlock, the specialist label responsible for launching the careers of James Blake and Fantastic Mr Fox. The EP was lauded by the blogs, raved about by the likes of Dazed & Confused, Clash and The Fly and championed by key tastemakers at radio, in particular Mr Huw Stephens.

Under the moniker BretonLABS, the band have delivered innovative remixes for Local Natives, Tricky, Maps & Atlases, Tom Vek, Temper Trap and made videos for Penguin Prison, 80's Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Flats.

Breton recently supported Tom Vek on his sold out comeback tour of the UK.

www.facebook.com/bretonlabs

www.twitter.com/bretonlabs

www.youtube.com/bretonlabs

http://soundcloud.com/bretonlabs

www.myspace.com/bretonbretonbreton

Tom Vek to play O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

 

 

 TOM VEK: 'LEISURE SEIZURE'

THE NEW ALBUM RELEASED 6^TH JUNE 2011 ON ISLAND RECORDS

 

Five years on from his acclaimed debut album, Tom Vek is back.

 

The self-taught recording artist's process and musical output is loaded with cryptic contradictions; his scrappy, chopped-up, beat rock sounds are housed in contrasting clean and precise artwork; this new era's trademark, the obsessively refined pair of British made Anglo American glasses, sit unworn on the cover of the focused new 12-track album. Even its title, Leisure Seizure, is an intriguing juxtaposition.

 

Vek spontaneously released his first album just as the digital age was dawning, guest starred on The O.C. and then disappeared. British-born, his references are rooted in American culture, ranging from mid 90s alt-rock, cable access TV shows and post-war fiction. Raised in south-west London, Vek originally trained in graphic design at Central Saint Martin’s. During this time he wrote and recorded his debut album, We Have Sound. The album was released on the cusp of the information age with social-networking sites such as MySpace enabling anyone to release their music into the public domain, and artists being able to document their every thought and move. Just as everyone began registering online, Vek successfully created a mysterious persona. After a five-year disconnection, the artist returns with Leisure Seizure, released 6th June 2011 on Island Records. 

 

Following the justification of his debut album's reception, Vek wanted to fulfil the idea of a ‘multi-faceted individual’ and remain in complete control of his creative output. An artist with a unique and singular vision, Vek has a systematic way of working. The second album's creation was two-fold: a 3 year set-up period followed by a 2 year stretch of musical output. A process encapsulated up in the album's title, Leisure Seizure. Pragmatic and enthusiastic about the 'mechanics' of making music, Vek found a suitable studio space in east London, and set up PALLET Recording Studio (which also took on a double life, shaping the sound of underground Dalston as the venue for his friend Rory Atwell's productions). Vek procured new equipment – including the customised, concisely equipped mixing desk, lushly yet ironically presented in the album's sleeve notes – and taught himself new production skills. With a framework in place, he was ready to begin recording – a phase he describes as "unashamed creativity". Any scrutiny beyond this point would mean the all-important cryptic nature of the Tom Vek brand would be missing. 

 

The first single, A Chore (released 18 April 2011) is accompanied by a concept video, which acknowledges the artist’s five-year absence. Having been out of the public eye for so long, Vek takes the role of presenter of T.V. Island, a self-imagined American cable show that references Glenn O'Brien's cult TV Party and BBC's Desert Island Discs. Whereas guests on the BBC radio show are asked to imagine themselves stranded on a metaphorical island for an hour, Vek acknowledges his long absence it its entirety. Characteristically wry, sarcastic and mischievous, the song and video are a fitting analogy – five years on, the perfect desert island isn't the place one first imagined.

 

Vek's debut album was spontaneous – in both its release and its sound. Leisure Seizure is a distinct development; a more controlled, consistent and elaborated version of the unique, raw sound of We Have Sound that intrigued and captivated its audience. The formula remains the same: Vek begins with an unusual noise or recording and develops the track from there, with the final process an objective and sensitive co-production from Tom Rixton and Liam Howe. Equally engaging, Leisure Seizure typifies Vek's self-coined beat rock. Music that is engaging with an emphasis on groove and cryptic angular statements. A sound that doesn't slot into or borrow from current nor nostalgic musical movements. Working as a solo, multi-instrumentalist means there is never any obligation to use an instrument that isn't absolutely necessary. 

 

Five years on, the mystery ends. Satisfied and excited about the release of his second album, Vek is looking forward to a period of open experimentation, collaboration and starting with one of his own (A Chore re-edit) producing remixes for the first time.

 

Tom Vek recently marked of ‘Leisure Seizure’ with a five date UK headline tour, but has just announced a new London show at O₂ Shepherds Bush Empire. Details below

 

Wed 16^th November                  London O₂ Shepherds Bush Empire                

 0844 477 2000

Tickets are £16.50

On sale Friday 1^st July 9am – www.gigsandtours.com / 0844 811 0051

 

WWW.TOMVEK.TV

Breton announce Tour supporting Tom Vek

BRETON announce their signing to FatCat Records, the label who discovered Sigur Ros, Animal Collective and No Age.

The signing follows a very busy year for BRETON, a year that saw them release a critically acclaimed EP trilogy, as well as creating fantastic videos (Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Penguin Prison, Flats) and remixes (Temper Trap, Local Natives, IS TROPICAL, Chapel Club, Tricky, Esben and the Witch) under their bretonLABS incarnation.

Breton have also announced they will be joining Tom Vek as sole support on his long-awaited UK tour later this month.

Here are full dates:

13 June – Ruby Lounge, Manchester

14 June – Classic Grand, Glasgow

15 June – HMV Institute Library, Birmingham

16 June – Heaven, London

18 June – Concorde 2, Brighton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Ia_H9pP40

Straight after the Tom Vek tour BRETON will leave for Mosfellsbaer, Iceland, where they will be recording their self-produced debut album inSigur Ros' Sundlaugin Studio.

The as-yet untitled album is set to be released on FatCat Records in early 2012.

To give a taste of things to come, BRETON have made available a free download via their Facebook page a demo version of a track set to appear on the forthcoming album.

Head over here to download “PACE MAKER (LABScut)” for free:

http://www.facebook.com/bretonlabs?sk=app_178091127385 

or get it on Soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/bretonlabs/pace-maker-labs-cut

“what Breton achieve in just a handful of tracks is an utterly unique spectacle" – THE FLY

“Stoner hip hop beats meet jazz references, along with plenty of bass weight and a sardonic sense of humour. Promising.” – CLASH

‘Electronic music that has heaps of moody sass about it’ – DROWNED IN SOUND

http://www.facebook.com/bretonlabs

http://twitter.com/bretonlabs

http://www.youtube.com/bretonlabs