The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 18 March

THE ORB VS. THE UPSETTER: ROUND 2
The Orb and Lee 'Scratch' Perry have announced a new collaboration, a follow-up to their 2012 album The Observer In The Star House. The new album, More Tales From The Observatory, will be released on 3 June. The Orb are preparing for a one-off live show at Electric Brixton in April, where they will perform the whole of their seminal albums U.F.Orb and Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld live in their entirety.

Speaking about the sessions with Perry, The Orb's Thomas Fehlman described the original Upsetter as "overwhelmingly creative" in the studio: "He was constantly active, referring to the tunes we were working on and hitting on bits of wood or stone to create percussion patterns and sounds... Lee Scratch Perry is a pioneer who expresses the future within the present times of anguish, hope and unity." No tracks have yet been unveiled from the new collaboration, but here's a classic cut from the last album, with Perry taking on the vocal from Police & Thieves, a track he produced originally for Junior Murvin.

STREAMING FRAUD: RISE OF THE 'VIRTUAL FAN'
The BBC reported this week on a growing trend within the music industry – the massaging of viewing and streaming figures on sites like YouTube, Soundcloud and others by services offering 'virtual fans.' These virtual fans are bots – programs created specifically to increase the number of plays on a clip, and leave generic comments. Although companies such as YouTube, Twitter and Soundcloud have strict rules governing how many people you can follow and unfollow, and proprietary software which allows them to track fake and spam-generating user accounts, a huge amount of this kind of fraud is still thought to be taking place.

A quick Google search for 'buy Soundcloud plays' or 'buy Twitter followers' will show you just how esy it is to make your track or video into a faux-viral sensation, or your Twitter account or Facebook page into an overnight success. The BBC's Newsbeat reports that 10,000 YouTube plays can cost as little as £30. They also quote a US data monitoring company, Next Big Sound, who they claim are about to name and shame artists in the industry they can prove to be massaging their stats. Read the full story, with video commentary from industry experts, here. 

NEW MUSIC: DEATH GRIPS, PET SHOP BOYS, SUEDE, TNGHT X LIL WAYNE & NICKI MINAJ, JEFF MILLS, BOYS NOIZE X CHEMICAL BROTHERS, DEPECHE MODE, GLASVEGAS, GARDEN OF ELKS
Sacramento noise/rap/punk duo Death Grips posted a series of mysterious clips on their YouTube page late last week, under the title No Hands. It's the first new material from Death Grips since the scandal over their leaked sophomore album for major label Epic, No Love Deep Web. The videos contain snippets of new music, and in-studio footage of band members Zach Hill and Stefan Burnett, alias MC Ride. The band play Glasgow's SWG3 on 30 April.

Another band to have recently abandoned ship from their label are the Pet Shop Boys, who have bid farewell to Parlophone to release new album Electric via the indpendent Kobalt Label Services (the label who recently released Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' album Push The Sky Away) in June this year. Their departure was decidedly more genteel than that of Death Grips however, with the band issuing the following statement: "We’d like to thank everyone we’ve worked with at Parlophone over the last 28 years both in the UK and abroad. When we signed to the label in 1985 we had no idea how long and successful a relationship we were embarking on. However it is also exciting now to commence a new phase." Watch a very brief preview of the new album below.

Fey, fringe-tossing Britpop veterans Suede are enjoying a creative renaissance thanks to their new album Bloodsports (reviewed here), and this week they gave away a free live track via XFM – grab a copy of Filmstar from their Soundcloud page, or stream it below.

The rap world is waiting patiently for news of Lil' Wayne's health, after the singer suffered a seizure late last week. I Am Not A Human Being II, his new album, is due out on 26 March, although there are fears the release may be postponed due to the rapper's critical condition. The news of his ill health came hot on the heels of the news that TNGHT, aka Hudson Mohawke and Lunice, had produced a beat for his album, on a track also featuring Nicki Minaj. It's one of the first beats TNGHT have produced for a mainstream rapper –Hudson Mohawke has already been credited with co-production on beats for the likes of Kanye West. Lay It Down, the TNGHT track, comes in at 7:40 in the preview video below.

Jeff Mills announced his new album last week – a collaboration with Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri, about his trip aboard the Endeavour Space Shuttle in 1992, as hinted in his recent interview with us. The double album will include new tracks by Mills, and remixes from the Axis stable and beyond. Mills will also be releasing an animated film by artists Kenny Keil and Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca. No tracks have yet been unveiled, and as yet there is no release date for the album. Here's an excerpt from his recent cine-mix for Glasgow Film Festival (reviewed here), of Fritz Lang's The Woman In The Moon. 

German producer and label-head Boys Noize has prepared a very special 12" for his 100th release on Boys Noize Records: a split remix EP of Boys Noize tracks, featuring reimaginings by the Chemical Brothers and French electro titans Justice. Preview both tracks below – the vinyl is out today.

Depeche Mode have unveiled another new track from their forthcoming album Delta Machine. The new track, entitled Soothe My Soul, showcases a more electronics-led production than lead single Heaven. The album is now available for pre-order. 

Glasvegas have a new single out on 25 March – as yet the details are a closely-guarded secret, with the title announced as I'd Rather Be Dead (Than Be With You). An album, Later… When The TV Turns To Static, will follow in the summer. The band this week unveiled a mysterious, spoken word trailer for the single, which you can watch below. 

Finally, a mention for Garden Of Elks, whose new single Floaty / Clouds is available as a free download from their Soundcloud. The single was recorded by Matthew Scott of Skinny favourites PAWS, and is taken from their debut album Extended Play, out in May.

NEW VIDEOS: THE STROKES, BRITISH SEA POWER
The Strokes' new video is almost a 'greatest hits' compilation – Casablancas and co. have compiled gig footage, backstage clips and home movies into a backdrop for new single All The Time, taken from their new album Comedown Machine. The track itself sounds uncannily like early Pavement, in our opinion... which is no bad thing.

British Sea Power's new album Machineries of Joy is out on 1 April, and the band have already released the title track as the first single. The video for the track, which features a meditation on the joys of one particular machine – the bicycle – can be seen below.

ON TOUR: TEAM GHOST
French electro-shoegazers Team Ghost, who we interviewed last issue, have just announced a short UK tour to support their new album Rituals (reviewed here). They will play Glasgow's Broadcast on 10 April, and Manchester's Soup Kitchen on 11 April. Their latest video, for Curtains, is below. Get a sample of the Curtains EP at the band's website.

PUNK AS FUCK: STEVE GULLICK
Rock photographer Steve Gullick has an exhibition entitled Punk as Fuck on at the Indo Gallery in Whitechapel, London at the moment, featuring photos he took for magazines such as Melody Maker and Sounds in the early 90s. The exhibition features legends such as Nirvana, Soundgarden and Jesus Lizard, as well as lesser-known bands. Watch a video of Gullick as he prepares for the exhibition below.  

FESTIVAL WATCH: COMEDY AT ROCKNESS
RockNess (7-9 June) has just announced its lineup for its comedy tent – watch a video below from comedian Daniel Sloss telling you all about the featured comics on this year's bill, including Jim Jeffries, Dylan Moran, Des Clarke and Sloss himself. Full lineup and tickets here.

TRAILERS: ALAN PARTRIDGE, SPRING BREAKERS, VANISHING WAVES
Forget the big-budget, soulless tales of alternate Earths, zombie cowboys and post-apocalyptic struggles between good and evil. Forget the over-produced melodrama of muscular men in tights knocking seven bells out of each other with their 'magical' hammers and technologically advanced penis-compensators. This summer's big blockbuster movie event hinges on just one catch-phrase... "A-ha!" That's right – it's the Alan Partridge movie.  

Spring Breakers is the new movie from Harmony Korine, who we mentioned last week for his short film with Die Antwoord. It stars an almost unrecognisable James Franco as a drug dealer who bails out and befriends four troubled girls who take their partying a little too far at Spring Break. 

Vanishing Waves meanwhile is a new science fiction film from Lithuanian director Kristina Buozyte, exploring the concept of neuron-transfer, as a scientist experiments with thememories of a comatose woman. Violent and visually bold, it is Buocyte's third film.