The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 22 April

THE RETURN OF BOARDS OF CANADA?
The message boards, fan sites and blogs frequented by fans of reclusive Scottish ambient electronica pioneers Boards of Canada are currently lit up like a five alarm fire in the wake of Record Store Day. A select few shops across the USA and Europe (and possibly beyond) received a mysterious package on the morning of 20 April – a 12" by Boards Of Canada, cryptically labelled, featuring new material.

FACT Magazine, who found themselves the subject of the BoC fans' displeasure after an April Fools hoax announcing a new album from the duo, have reported on the possible meanings of the labelling, speculating that the 12" may be part of "a series of jigsaw pieces," and pointing to cryptic clues left on the band's YouTube channel.

A snippet of the vinyl can be heard below. So, is this the first missive from a new BoC album? FACT seem to think so, pointing at clues leading to an ASCII version of the word 'summer,' and other hints dropped by actor Peter Serafinowicz... no official statement from the band, or their label Warp Records, currently exists. Their last album was 2005's The Campfire Headphase.

SCOTTISH ALBUM OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2013
The Scottish Album of the Year Award (SAY) was launched last year to award the best album by a Scottish artist in any genre with a whopping great £20,000 prize. The inaugural recpients of the award were Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, for their album Everything's Getting Older. The duo took home the prize after beating off stiff competition from the likes of Conquering Animal Sound, Mogwai, Remember Remember, Rustie and any other Scottish artist with an album out in 2011, basically.

The nine other shortlisted bands also took home £1000 each. This year's judging panel, headed up by Glasgow University academic John Williamson, also includes novelist Christopher Brookmyre, Cornershop's Tjinder Singh, and a host of journalists and cultural figures from across Scotland. This year's longlist will be made public on Thursday – The Skinny will have a full analysis of the longlisted albums when they are announced. 

EIF GETS NEW DIRECTOR FOR 2014
Veteran theatre producer and festival curator Fergus Linehan was today named as the director of the 2015 Edinburgh International Festival. Linehan, who has previously directed festivals such as the Dublin Theatre Festival and the Sydney Festival, commissioning work by the likes of Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel and Roddy Doyle, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role. He was Head of Music at the Sydney Opera House for two years, and still works with the organisation, along with several others based in Ireland and Australia.

Linehan commented on his appointment: "I am delighted and deeply honoured to have been appointed as the next Director of the Edinburgh International Festival... Successful festivals respond to both place and provenance to create a unique identity and this is particularly true of Edinburgh, the preeminent Festival city.  It is with this in mind that I will begin the exciting work of developing my plans and ideas for the 2015 and future Festivals."

FESTIVAL WATCH: ROSKILDE, REYKJAVIK MUSIC MESS
Two Scandinavian festival updates for you today – Danish mega-fest Roskilde (29 Jun - 7 Jul), one of the grand old dames of the European festival circuit, has added a few new names to its bill – this year's festival will welcome everyone from Kraftwerk to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, from James Blake to Suicidal Tendencies, and from Slipknot to El-P and Killer Mike. It's such a huge affair that there is literally something for all tastes. Details and tickets here.

Now in its third year, Reykjavik Music Mess (24-26 May) is an independent festival taking place each year in the heart of Iceland's capital – this year they welcome Australia's DZ Deathrays, Edinburgh's Withered Hand, and a host of local talent including Oyama, Bloodgroup, Mammút, Muck and Sykur. Don't worry if some of those names are unfamiliar – you'll find a specially prepared playlist from the festival's organisers below. Details and tickets of the festival here. 

And finally, an update for those planning to head along to Playground (7-8 Jun) down in London - justly-adored 90s house and techno pioneers Leftfield join the lineup, which already includes Squarepusher, Gary Numan, Digitalism, Vitalic, Kavinsky and a whole host of electro, techno and bass music talent. Details and tickets here.

NEW VIDEOS: SAVAGES, CLINT MANSELL X THE FAUNS, TIM BURGESS X BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE
Savages are one band we've been keeping a close eye on here at The Skinny – the all-female group, hailing from London, produce the kind of excoriatingly intense guitar music that we thought disappeared along with the original post-punk vanguard. Their debut album is out on 6 May – this week they unveiled the punishing new video for Shut Up, the first single from Silence Yourself. We're pretty excited.

We posted the audio for this track a while back – now Clint Mansell and The Fauns have released a video for the former PWEI front-man and soundtrack supremo's remix of the experimental band, signed to Invada Records. The track was released for Record Store Day.

THE FAUNS 'Fragile Clint Mansell Mix' from Makinov on Vimeo.

Another RSD release to get a video treatment this week was taken from Tim Burgess' remixes album, released on Saturday – he has seen his latest track remixed by Anton Newcombe of legendary hedonists Brian Jonestown Massacre.

NEW MUSIC: MGMT, MOGWAI, BILL WELLS & AIDAN MOFFAT, SOULWAX X PULP, WOLF PEOPLE, KING KRULE
MGMT's RSD release, Alien Days, was previewed online last week – we now have an audio stream of the full track.

Another RSD gem that is now streaming in full online is the split 12" by Mogwai, and Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, remixed by Plasmatron (aka Stuart Braithwaite) and L.Pierre (aka Moffat himself). 

Pulp also saw their previously unreleased track After You, written over a decade ago, given the Soulwax treatment for RSD.

Psych-rockers Wolf People have a new album out on 29 April, and they are set to play at Manchester's Sound Control (10 May), and Glasgow's Stag & Dagger Festival (18 May) as part of their upcoming tour. They've shared an album trailer on their Soundcloud page - listen below.

Finally, King Krule, who features on two tracks on the new Mount Kimbie album, has unveiled an under-the-radar hip-hop side project, as Edgar The Beatmaker. The collection of songs has a half-made, lo-fi feel to it, but promises much Silver Age-inspired goodness.

AMERICAN PSYCHO: THE MUSICAL
We leave you with the depressing news, courtesy of the NME, that the writer behind the recently previewed Carrie remake starring Chloe-Grace Moretz is to write a musical stage adaptation of Brett Easton-Ellis' controversial novel Amercian Psycho. His previous credits include vomit-inducing twee-fest Glee, making him the ideal candidate (or not) for adapting a novel about a sociopathic bully brutally murdering hookers and models.

The 2000 film re-tooled the novel as a high-testosterone 1980s costume drama - a remarkably successful approach that managed to convey the depravity of Patrick Bateman's behaviour (thanks in no small part to a bravura performance from Christian Bale) while skirting around the novel's more brutal moments. Whether Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will choose to include a song and dance-based version of the notorious 'rat scene,' and quite how a solo ballad about whether or not to axe Paul Allen in the head will play to musical-goers more used to asinine, karaoke versions of Spice Girls and Abba hits and interminable Andrew Lloyd-Webber productions is anyone's guess.