The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 25 February

PLAYSTATION 4: ULTIMATE PLAY?
Although no official release date has been announced (beyond 'holidays 2013'), the buzz around Sony's Playstation 4 reached Twitter-hogging heights late last week, with the unveiling of a new video featuring excited commentary from some big-league game developers. Tech site IGN confirms that Blu-Ray discs will be the main content delivery platform for the machine, while Tech Radar has discussed the new machine's available spec at length, including a look at the new DualShock 4 controller, with improved motion sensors. While some of the announced design features seem a little unnecessary, in particular the machine's elaborate 'social' functions, there's no doubt that the PS4 will be heralded as a new revolution in console gaming. For more info, and a look at the graphics of Sony's new toy, visit the official site.

WATCH NEW BELLE & SEBASTIAN DOCUMENTARY
The latest documentary in the Pitchfork Classic series sees director RJ Bentler exploring the story behind the creation of Scottish indie-folk legends Belle & Sebastian's seminal breakthrough album, If You're Feeling Sinister. During the writing of the album, singer Stuart Murdoch was suffering from chronic fatigue, leaving him housebound. He tried to write about "normal" situations and characters: "I always wanted to write about normal people doing normal things, because I wasn't normal, I was out of the game," he says in the film. "It was very attractive to me what normal people were doing." Watch the entire hour-long documentary below.

CREATIVE SCOTLAND: PUBLIC CONSULTATION DATES ANNOUNCED
In the wake of last year's furore over representation, apportioning of funds and engagement with the artistic community, Creative Scotland lost its chief executive, Andrew Dixon, and its creative director Venu Dhupa. In an effort to fix the problems perceived to be plaguing the organisation, they have committed to a series of public consultations over the coming months, to allow Scottish artists and Scottish people to have their say in how the organisation should be restructured and reformed. You can read the organisation's official statement about their new programme of change here. To have your say, come along to the meetings at DCA, Dundee on 15 March, Dovecot, Edinburgh on 19 March, The Beacon, Greenock on 11 April, Eden Court, Inverness on 16 April, and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye, on 23 April.

NEW MUSIC: IGGY & THE STOOGES, FAINTING BY NUMBERS, JACOB'S MOUSE, SMALL BLACK, THE PASTELS, MAJOR LAZER
The music world was set alight today with news that the incarnation of Iggy and The Stooges that was behind the influential 1973 album Raw Power, have recorded new material, with an album due out on 30 April via Fat Possum. Now a reformed touring unit for some years, original Stooge Scott 'Rock Action' Asheton, James Williamson and Mike Watt convened with Iggy Pop for the outing. Pop praised his bandmates today, saying: "My motivation in making any record with the group at this point is no longer personal. It's just a pig-headed fucking thing I have that a real fucking group when they're an older group they also make fucking records. They don't just go and twiddle around on stage to make a bunch of fucking money." You can pre-order the album here.

Fainting By Numbers is a collaboration between experimental German 'compu-soul' producer Justus Köhncke and Hot Chip singer Alexis Taylor. The duo have collaborated on an ad-hoc basis since 2003, trading remixes and working on music, eventually developing a performance style of 'song-jaying' - DJing and singing live. Now they have made the collaboration official, releasing a split single with the song A Stone In The Ground, and a cover of John Lennon's Watching the Wheel. It's out 15 April – stream a track below. 

Jacob's Mouse were celebrated by Kurt Cobain and John Peel before splitting up in 1995. The noise-rock band, from Bury St. Edmonds, bagged high-profile support slots with Nirvana, Suede and the Manics back in the heydey of grunge, and now their first two releases – The Dot EP, and debut album No Fish Shop Parking – are to be reissued. They are available digitally from the Bandcamp of Sturm Und Drang, with physicals to follow on 4 March. Stream a track from the album below.

New York's hip-hop beat-sampling neo-shoegazers Small Black are working on a new album, following on from last year's excellent Moon Killer mixtape. No release date has yet been announced, but you can stream a preview of the album below. 

Respected Scottish indie band The Pastels are also back with a new album – Slow Summits will be released by Domino on May 27. It's their first record as The Pastels since 1997's Illumination, and has been produced by John McEntire of Tortoise. The band recorded a collaborative album with Japanese band Tenniscoats in 2009, but this is the first new material from the core duo of Stephen McRobbie and Katrina Mitchell under the pastels moniker for many years. Stream an album preview below.

Major Lazer, the Diplo-fronted project blowing up dancefloors since 2008, have delayed their album release again. The band issued an apology, and released a free mixtape, Lazer Strikes Back Vol. 1, to keep fans happy. Download it here.

NEW VIDEOS: CONQUERING ANIMAL SOUND, DISCLOSURE X ALUNAGEORGE, SOLAR BEARS
Edinburgh experimental electronics / pop duo Conquering Animal Sound have unveiled the new video for their track The Furture Does Not Require. With the duo's customary polyrhythmic, glitching beats and the enchanting vocals of Anneke Kampman set to some heady psychedelic processed imagery of churning seas and boats, it's taken from their forthcoming album on Floating Bodies out March 18. 

UK producers Disclosure have produced a video for their collaboration with alt.R'n'B duo AlunaGeorge, White Noise. The video, which does not feature either band, takes AlunaGeorge into polished house music territory with a narrative that follows a security guard who dances in abandoned buildings...

Planet Mu-signed Irish duo Solar Bears have released a strange little film featuring music from their forthcoming second album, Supermigration, due on April 15. The video, directed by Michael Robinson, features five tracks from the album set to some tripped-out visuals. Watch below.

CROWD-FUND CANNIBAL OX
Cannibal Ox were mainstays of the Def Jux label from 2001's The Cold Vein. There was never an official follow-up. A slew of EPs, mixtapes, comps and appearances by the duo – consisting of Vast Aire (who we interviewed back in 2011) and Vordul Mega – ensured the band never fell completely off the hip-hop community's radar, and now the band are back with a Kickstarter campaign to crowd-fund their new album and label. Watch the video and get involved below.

FESTIVAL NEWS: LA ROUTE DU ROCK, EDEN FESTIVAL, EXIT, MELT!, ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES
French music festival La Route Du Rock (15-17 Aug) takes oplace in the port town of St Malo, making it a very accessible option for those who can easily get themselves to the south of England. They just announced the first two acts on their bill for 2013, which will be topped by Hot Chip and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Details and tickets here.

Eden Festival (7-9 June) hasd announced its first headliners - the eco-friendly multi-arts festival will welcome drum 'n' bass legends Shy FX, Balkan fusionistas Sam & The Womp, the funk and soul sounds of DJ Craig Charles, and bizarrely, an appearance from Mr. Motivator. Full details and earlybird tickets available here.

The Melt! Festival (19-21 July) in Ferropolis, Germany, has a strong lineup this year, with alt-J, CHVRCHES, Everything Everything, The Knife, Flying Lotus, Joy Orbison and Purity Ring among others. They've just announced that Thom Yorke's supergroup Atoms For Peace will join as headliners. Tickets are available here. Atoms for Peace will also join the main stage lineup at EXIT Festival (10-14 July) in Serbia. Tickets and details here.

All Tomorrow's Parties: I'll Be Your Mirror (4-5 May) at Alexandra Palace in London has announced its first few acts, with sets from curators the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Grizzly Bear, plus The Locust, Nicholas Jaar, and a DJ set from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy. They join the likes of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Black Lips, Anika, The Field, Dirty Beaches, Van Dyke Parks, The Walkmen, Tortoise, Real Estate, I Break Horses and Cass McCombs. Details and tickets here.

TRAILERS: THE PROTOTYPE, SNOOP DOGG: REINCARNATED
The Prototype is the debut science fiction film from director Andrew Will. Telling the tale of a high-tech military robot which escapes FBI custody, and dealing with high-concept scientific theories about post-singularity robotics and machine consciousness, it could prove to be a very exciting debut for Will, who has worked as a writer, production assistant and in other roles on films such as J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, and has directed an episode of hit US drama Homeland. 

Reincarnation meanwhile comes to you co-produced by Vice Films, and tells the story of rapper Snoop Dogg's conversion to Snoop Lion, reggae artist and Rastafari-enlightened former gangster. Although Snoop's conversion has been the subject of a fair amount of mockery, the film looks both heartfelt and insightful.