The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 5 June

Joy Division – the video game; David Lynch announces second LP; Madlib speaks; The Smashing Pumpkins to expand The Aeroplane Flies High; new music from Palms, Beck, Wu-Tang Clan, Hot Chip and more; plus the latest festival and tour news

Feature by The News Badger | 05 Jun 2013

LOVE WILL TEAR US ATARI: JOY DIVISION, THE VIDEO GAME
Although not created in collaboration with any of the original Joy Division members nor officially sanctioned by Factory Records, a new online game has been inspired by Joy Division's classic track Love Will Tear Us Apart, and is full of visual references to the band's work.

Originally reported by Consquence of SoundWill Love Tear Us Apart is an online video game created by Gordon Calleja and Mighty Box Games. Calleja states that the game is a "browser-game about relationships on the brink of breaking up... delivering a dark and frustrating perspective on love, [with] each verse in the song represented by a level in the game." 

Calleja continues, saying the game will allow players to "reflect on the darker side of love: miscommunication, emotional impasse and the sadness of separation. Solace may be found in the brief moment of lightness that comes over us when we come to terms with the reality of an irreconcilable relationship." Watch a rather beautiful animated trailer for the game above, and visit the game's offical website to start playing

The game is the latest in a wave of Joy Division-related art, clothing and meme-based confusion, showing that the band still have enduring appeal long after their tragic end, with the death of singer Ian Curtis in 1980. Recently, tee-shirt designer Adam J. Kurtz saw his website crash after a wave of orders for his satirical take on the Unknown Pleasures cover - have a look here, and below.

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS TO REISSUE THE AEROPLANE FLIES HIGH
The Aeroplane Flies High, released by The Smashing Pumpkins in 1996 at the height of their fame, collected all of the singles and b-sides the band had released from their album Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness. This career-defining album was the last to feature the band's original lineup of Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'arcy Wretzky and Jimmy Chamberlain, before Chamberlain was fired from the band in 1996 over his drug use. Wretzky, who left in 1999, also had trouble with substance addiction. Later albums featured Corgan and various other musicians, including Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Mar, although Chamberlain re-joined the band on more than one occasion. Billy Corgan is the only surviving Pumpkin in the band's current lineup.

Often lauded as much if not more for their b-sides and rare tracks than they were even for their classic albums, The Smashing Pumpkins have been generous with their bonus material, releasing rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot in 1994, covering the Gish / Siamese Dream period, and later the even more comprehensive box-set The Aeroplane Flies High. The exclusive material included cover versions of tracks by Alice Cooper and The Cure, among others. This week, it was reported that the band plan to release a remastered and expanded version of the box-set, with a whopping 90 additional demos, rarities and alternate takes of classic tracks. Two extra discs, containing live performances and concert footage, will also be included.  

Our own Mark Shukla has been reviewing the remastered, expanded Pumpkins editions over the past year or so – see our reappraisals of Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, Pisces Iscariot, Siamese Dream and Gish. The new version of The Aeroplane Flies High drops on 23 July. It's a well-loved album – its title track gets a superb 8-bit re-rub in the clip below...

MADLIB IN INTERVIEW
Recorded in October last year but only surfacing late last month, this rare interview with Stones Throw producer and rapper Madlib, aka Lord Quas, aka Beat Konducta, offers some fascinating insights into his past, present and future as a hip-hop artist. In the interview, filmed by Tom Stokes, Madlib plays some live beats, discusses his forthcoming albums (including Madvillainy 2, his long-awaited second team-up with DOOM, and the Quasimoto b-sides/rarities album Yessir, Whatever), and declares his love for the Brainfeeder crew. 

NEW MUSIC: HOT CHIP, BECK, WU-TANG CLAN, STATIK SELEKTAH, DRIFTLESS RECORDINGS, MR MUTHAFUCKIN EXQUIRE
Hot Chip have a new single out in July – Dark & Stormy, due for release on 22 July, will be a stand-alone single, backed with a re-recorded version of Look At Where We Are, from their 2012 album In Our Heads. Hot Chip will be appearing at the Latitude Festival on 20 July.  

Beck's new album will be an acoustic affair, his first new material since the sheet music-only Song Reader project, and his first recorded material since 2008's Modern Guilt. This week, he revealed a new track, Unfriended, with a more electronic bent. It will be released as a stand-alone single in the next few months. 

Wu-Tang Clan's hotly-anticipated 20-year reunion album, A Better Tomorrow, is due out next month, although a specific date is yet to be confirmed (as is the presence of core member Raekwon). A new track surfaced online this week after being played exclusively on NYC radio station Hot 97. Although it's as yet unclear whether the track will appear on their mooted return LP, it's a sentimental cut, with Ghostface reminiscing about his nan. D'awwww. The Wu play the O2 Academy in Manchester on 25 July – one of two UK dates on their anniversary tour.

Staying on a hip-hop tip, East Coast (US that is) hip-hop DJ and ShowOff Records head honcho Statik Selektah's new track features guest vocals from Lecrae, Posdnuos of De La Soul and Termanology. His album Extended Play (which, we have to point out, is what EP stands for - weird name for an album...) is out on 18 June. 

Outrageous hip-hop star Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire has come over all cosmological, indulguing in some serious Crowley-style sex magic on his new mixtape, Kismet, featuring guest spots from Danny Brown and Flatbush Zombies. Check out the X-rated artwork, and download the mixtape in full here

And finally, Driftless Recordings is a new label started by Joel Ford aka Airbird, the partner of Daniel 'Oneohtrix Point Never' Lopatin in Lopatin & Ford. Along with partner Patrick McDermott, Ford has created Driftless to offer a home to artists such as Ejecta and Megafortress. Their label teaser, featuring tracks by these acts and others on the new label, offers intriguing glimpses of avant garde elctronica, dream pop and spectral folk. "Driftless is not a pop label or an experimental label," says Ford in a statement, "but a label that unites a diverse cross-section of artists who are using music and field recordings and a general obsession with sound as a way of understanding the weird world they inhabit."

WATCH: THE ART OF BRIAN ENO
As well as being perhaps the most revered producer in the history of electronic music (if not music as a whole), Brian Eno is also an accomplished visual artist, often blending sonic sculpture with visual installations and pieces. In a short documentary from Red Bull Music Academy, he discusses his approach to visual art, including his current A/V work 77 Million Paintings.  

NEW VIDEOS: DAVID LYNCH, PALMS, JOE GODDARD FT. MARA CARLYLE, SHLOHMO FT. HOW TO DRESS WELL
David Lynch has announced the title of his sophomore album – Big Dream, a follow-up to 2011's Crazy Clown Time,  will feature a collaboration with Lykke Li, a cover of a classic Bob Dylan track (The Ballad of Holis Brown), and is described by Lynch as "modern blues." You can listen to the track with Lykke Li, I'm Waiting Here, on Spotify now.

"Most of the songs start out as a type of blues jam and then we go sideways from there," says Lynch. "What comes out is a hybrid, modernized form of low-down blues. The blues is an honest and emotional form of music that is thrilling to the soul. I keep coming back to it, because it feels so good." The album is out on 15 July.

Palms, the collaboration between former ISIS members Jeff Caxide, Aaron Harris and Clifford Meyer and Chino Moreno of the Deftones, received a hefty five stars from us for their debut album this month – the self-titled LP is out on 24 June, and you can now watch a trailer for it below. You can pre-order from the band's site.

More Hot Chip news – the band's Joe Goddard has an EP, Taking Over, out on DFA/Greco Roman shortly, and this week he unveiled the video for track She Burns, featuring British singer Mara Carlyle. 

Shlohmo, the lo-fi beat-oriented producer who dropped his Laid Out EP earlier this year, has unveiled the video for his collaboration with How To Dress Well, taken from that EP. How To Dress Well has been a busy lad since releasing his own Total Loss album, collaborating with Jacques Greene in a video we linked you to earlier this week.

ON TOUR: VISTA CHINO
Vista Chino, the band formed by John Garcia and Brant Bjork (formerly of Kyuss), will be visiting the UK later this year, after a successful tour under the guise of Kyuss Lives! Former Kyuss members Josh Homme (who you can read our interview with here) and Scott Reeder were not happy about the use of the band's original name, but rather than calling it quits, the duo have changed their name and hit the road again. They play The Ritz, Manchester on 30 October, and Glasgow's The Garage on 4 November. Recently signed to Napalm Records, the band will have an album out later this year - you can stream a song now, over at their Facebook page.

FESTIVAL WATCH: READING & LEEDS, VISIONS
A quick round-up of Festival news – 30 more bands have been added to the Reading & Leeds Festivals (23-25 Aug), including Mount Kimbie, Wavves, Deaf Havana, Villagers, Sonic Boom Six, Filter, Hawk Eyes, Savages, DIIV, and Dan Croll. Visit the websites (linked above) for details and tickets. Meanwhile the Visions Festival (10 Aug), taking place in three warehouse locations in London's Hackney district, has announced that they will be welcoming Fucked Up,  who join previously announced guests The Haxan Cloak, Iceage, The Soft Moon, !!!, and Cloud Nothings. Details and tickets here.

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