The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 13 March

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2013 PROGRAMME
The Edinburgh International Festival opens on 9 August and runs until 1 September, welcoming artists, composers, musicians, and theatre practitioners to one of the world's most respected and admired cultural festivals, with a history going back to 1947. This year's festival features a number of exciting new collabrations and world premieres, including new work by neo-modernist composer and fellow at the Massacheusettes Institute of Technology, Tod Machover, who will be layering and manipulating sampled sounds from throughout the city, donated by the public. The resulting work, Festival City, will premiere at this year's festival. Details of how to participate will be posted here. Other significant works showcasing at this year's festival include a tribute to Allen Ginsberg created by Philip Glass and Patti Smith, new work from Grid Iron Theatre, Scottish Ballet and Laurie Anderson, and new stage versions of Samuel Beckett radio and TV plays, by Pan Pan Theatre and Gate Theatre Dublin. For fulld details of the 2013 program, visit the EIF site, and watch the teaser trailer below.

FESTIVAL WATCH: A TRIBE CALLED QUEST & NAS FOR WIRELESS, ICELAND AIRWAVES, BIG BEACH BALL, POZNAN, CHAGSTOCK
A quick roundup of festival news: it has been announced that legendary hip-hop pioneers A Tribe Called Quest will headline Wireless Festival (12-14 July) at Queen Elizabeth Park in London, their first UK show in 20 years with their full original lineup. They join a bill that also includes Nas, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, alongside mainstream pop distractions Calvin Harris, Rita Ora and Justin Timberlake. Full lineup and tickets here. The 'Tribe have also been confirmed for Germany's Splash Festival, and Switzerland's Fraunfeld Festival, where they play alongside Wu-Tang Clan, Jurassic 5 and Run DMC.

Iceland Airwaves (30 Oct-3 Nov) has announced Kraftwerk as its headliner, joining a diverse bill which also features Gold Panda, Fatima Al-Qadiri, and Metz, among others. Details and tickets here.

The Big Beach Ball (5 May) is a one day festival in Aberdeen, and features a wealth of Scottish talent, including We Were Promised Jetpacks, S-Type, Miaoux Miaoux, Randolph's Leap, Jackmaster debuting his new Tweak-a-Holic live show, alongside visiting guests Kevin Saunderson and Inner City. Details and tickets here.

Poznań (24 Jun - 20 July) is a month-long cultural festival in Malta, featuring dance, drama, theatre and music. They'll be hosting headline concerts from Atoms For Peace and Kraftwerk over the course of the festival - details and tickets here.

Finally, Chagstock (19-20 July)in Devon will feature the original lineup of The Boomtown Rats playing live, alongside previously announced artists including Billy Bragg. Details and tickets here.

IRON MAIDEN MAKE BEER
When we first heard that Iron Maiden were to release their own brand of beer, described by mastermind of the project Bruce Dickinson as an "alchemical wedding of flavour and texture," we were pretty impressed. Digging down into the research however, we found that Dickinson was merely following in the footsteps of such other beer-brewing rock luminaries as The Grateful Dead, Lower Dens, Elbow, Municipal Waste ("Mine's a pint of Municipal Waste!" Yum...), Pig Destroyer, AC/DC, and errr.... Hanson (theirs was, presumably, a lite beer).

Lets face it, it's not the most original idea. The least the band could do is make some quality beer-based Maiden puns, right? So what have they called this fearsome, most metal of alcoholic beverages? We were hoping for something along the lines of Fear of the Dark Ale, Lager in the Rue Morgue, Number of the Yeast, or even Swallae Be Thy Name. But no. They've gone for the somewhat more prosaic Trooper. Here's Bruce mucking around with some hops.

SCOTTISH SOUL FOOD TAKEDOWN
The Scottish Soul Food Takedown is happening this weekend (16 Mar) at Linlithgow Palace, and features a mouth-watering cook-off between professional chefs Mark Greenway and Neil Forbes, who have been mentoring pupils from Linlithgow Academy to prepare them for the competition, going head to head with chefs from top restaurants Mhor Fish, Red Onion, and Crabshakk (one of our recommended venues in last year's Student Handbook). Also competing will be Fife Food Ambassador and professional chef Chrstopher Trotter. All the competitors are hoping to take home the crown of King or Queen of Scottish Soul Food, using nothing but locally-sourced ingredients in their cooking. The event is being filmed for an upcoming documentary for BBC television, Teen Canteen, which has followed the Linlithgow Academy students through a mentorship scheme with Greenway, Forbes and food entrepeneur Fi Buchanan. The students have been preparing to set up a ASoul Food Kitchen from their school, and it is set to open to the public on 25 March. Want to sample some top quality, locally-produced nosh? Get yourself a ticket here.

TRAINSPOTTING SEQUEL CONFIRMED
This week, Danny Boyle told website The Playlist that mooted plans for a Trainspotting sequel, based on Irvine Welsh's novel Porno, were back on. Aiming for a 2016 release, Boyle is hopeful that Andrew Hodge, the original screenwriter from the 1996 film, will come back on board alongside the original cast, reprising their roles. ""This has been a long time coming," Boyle said. "There's always been this long term plan for Trainspotting 2, if John can produce a decent enough script, I don't think there will be any barriers to Ewan or any of the cast coming back. I think they'll wanna know that the parts are good so they don't feel like they are letting anyone down." The script will be "loosely based" on Porno. 

SUPPORT BENJAMIN CURTIS (SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS)
The music world is reeling from the news that School of Seven Bells' Benjamin Curtis has been diagnosed with cancer. He is currently trying to raise funds to pay for his treatment, and is remaining positive: a statement from the band says that while undergoing an MRI scan, he was trying to think of ways to sample it for use in his music. His illness is treatable, and support from fans so far has been encouraging. Get involved and donate here.

RECORD STORE DAY: TAME IMPALA, MGMT, CUT COPY
Yet more releases have been announced for Record Store Day: Australian psych-rock auteurs Tame Impala will reissue their debut EP on limited edition 12" vinyl, MGMT have prepped a new single, Alien Days, which will be released on cassette, while electronic duo Cut Copy will reissue their debut Bright Like Neon, on vinyl with new artwork. Record Store Day takes place on 20 April - ask your local independent record store what they have planned!

NEW MUSIC: FOUR TET, DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, DJ KOZE & MATTHEW DEAR, TEAM GHOST, EMPIRE OF THE SUN
Four Tet's been a busy boy of late - after releasing a free digital compilation of his early work, 0181, and a new collab with RocketNumberNine, and with a reissue of Rounds on the cards for later in the year, he's also been dropping some new tracks on his Soundcloud. There's his take on Justin Timberlake's Suit & Tie, and now this little house-flavoured number, For These Times.

Another band making a welcome return are avant-metal / mathcore veterans Dillinger Escape Plan - they're back with a new album, One Of Us Is The Killer, out 14 May. The band unveiled the driving, brutal first single Prancer this week - sounds like they've lost none of their brutal, feral power.

Matthew Dear released one of our favourite albums last year - when we spoke to him about his plans now that Beams is out, he told us he might be working on new material under his Audion alias this year. But the latest material to surface from the Ghostly International founder's camp is a collaboration with Germany's DJ Koze. It's a track from DJ Koze's fothcoming album Amygdala, out 26 March.

In brief - available for exclusive streaming over at This Is Fake DIY is the debut album of French electro-shoegazers Team Ghost. We reviewed Rituals here, and recently interviewed the band here. Click through to stream their entire album.

NEW VIDEOS: FOALS, EARL SWEATSHIRT, BIGG TAJ, WAVVES, BENGA & KANO

Foals are pulling no punches in their decidedly NSFW, sex and violence-fuelled new video for Late Night, taken from the album Holy Fire (reviewed here).  

Meanwhile, Odd Future alumnus Earl Sweatshirt has some help from Golf Wang head honcho Tyler The Creator (who also directs), in the video for his new track, Woah. In the video, a fairly normal day at the trailer park sees the boys smoking fags,skateboarding in filthy drained swimming pools and messing about in shopping carts. Swag.

Closer to home, beatbox champion and stalwart of the urban and hip-hop scenes in Scotland, Bigg Taj has a new video out - a collaboration with producer Bunty Beats. The video for All The Years sees the duo bouncing around Amsterdam, rapping and looking fly.

Staying with rap, Kano's back, collaborating on a new track with dubstep pioneer Benga, on a cut from his forthcoming album. It's an upfront, in-your-face speaker-smasher.

Probably the best video from this week's crop though comes from Wavves, whose apocalyptic clip for Demon To Lean On is both captivating and deeply strange. It slightly put us in mind of a cross between Lord of the Flies and Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome. The track is taken from Wavves' forthcoming album Afraid Of Heights, out 26 March.

THE UNDERACHIEVERS ON SIGNING TO BRAINFEEDER, TAKING LSD AND FINDING ENLIGHTENMENT
The Underachievers are a hip-hop duo from Flatbush, NY, and are among the most promising and most talked-about rap acts in the world at the moment. Coming from the 'Beast Coast' movement, which broadly encompasses bands like Flatbush Zombies and A$AP Mob, they have signed to Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label, and are working on new tracks with their stable of producers, including Lapalux, as he revealed in interview with us this month. The Underachievers fantastic debut mixtape Indigoism is still available free via DatPiff - now you can watch the band talk about their beloved psychedelic drugs, meeting Flying Lotus for the first time, and working on their debut EP for Brainfeeder in the clip below. They finish off with a short freestyle session.