Alexander Laurence's Blog, page 88
May 22, 2025
Richard Ashcroft shares first single in seven years ahead of UK tour with Oasis
SHARES FIRST SINGLE SINCE 2018
JOINING OASIS ON UK / IRELAND TOUR
STARTING JULY 4TH
"LOVER" OUT NOW
"Lover"
LISTEN: https://richardashcroft.lnk.to/lover
WATCH: https://youtu.be/a0jxbliRYg0
(May 22, 2025) - Richard Ashcroft, vocalist of The Verve, returns to share "Lover," his first single since his 2018 album Natural Rebel. Debuted on BBC Radio 2 with Vernon Kay, "Lover" arrives ahead of the rocker's big summer where he will be joining Oasis on their highly-anticipated reunion tour for the UK and Ireland dates.
Written by Richard and co-produced alongside Emre Ramazanoglu, "Lover" incorporates elements of one of Richard's all-time favorite works, "Love and Affection" by Joan Armatrading, whom he approached before recording the arrangement. The track represents his first new material since his 2018 album Natural Rebel debuted at #4 on the UK Official Album Chart. Since then, Richard also released the career-spanning Acoustic Hymns Vol 1 set, which hit #2 and became his highest charting record in fifteen years.
Richard’s vision for an immersive project was realized with a mobile LED virtual production courtesy of CUBE StudioX. It matched the emotion of Richard’s songwriting and performance by surrounding him with striking visuals displayed on an 18 x 4 meter led volume in a large studio space. The video was co-produced by Roy Kimani, CUBE Studio’s co-founder and Director of Innovation.
A two-time Ivor Novello Award winner (Songwriter of the Year and Outstanding Contribution To British Music), Richard Ashcroft has become one of the most accomplished and influential songwriters around over the course of a career that spans three decades. His first chapter with The Verve reached a remarkable peak with Urban Hymns, a hit-laden set ("Bitter Sweet Symphony," "The Drugs Don’t Work," "Lucky Man," "Sonnet") which is one of the biggest selling albums in UK history with 11 x Platinum certifications. The band achieved a second #1 album with Forth and won three BRIT Awards.
His solo career continued that acclaim with his debut Alone With Everybody shooting to #1 and all five subsequent studio albums landing between #2 and #5. Between The Verve and his solo work, he has achieved three UK #1 albums and another five Top 10 records, plus a #1 single and five Top 10 hits.
News of Richard’s special guest set on the upcoming Oasis tour continues a long-term mutual admiration between the two. The Verve and Oasis played shows together both before Oasis’s breakthrough and at their absolute peak, leading to a continuing friendship between Richard and the Gallagher brothers. Noel dedicated "Cast No Shadow" from (What's the Story) Morning Glory? to Richard, before Richard provided backing vocals on All Around The World from 1997’s Be Here Now. In 2021 Liam featured on a reworked version of Richard’s "C'mon People (We're Making It Now)."
Check out "Lover" above and see full live dates supporting Oasis below.
Upcoming Live Dates
7/4 - Cardiff, UK @ Principality Stadium
7/5 - Cardiff, UK @ Principality Stadium
7/11 - Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
7/12 - Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
7/16 - Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
7/19 - Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
7/20 - Manchester, UK @ Heaton Park
7/25 - London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
7/26 - London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
7/30 - London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
8/2 - London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
8/3 - London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
8/8 - Edinburgh, UK @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium
8/9 - Edinburgh, UK @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium
8/12 - Edinburgh, UK @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium
8/16 - Dublin, IRE @ Croke Park
8/17 - Dublin, IRE @ Croke Park
9/27 - London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
8/28 - London, UK @ Wembley Stadium
5/25 - Stevenage, UK @ SMR 2025 at Lamex Stadium
6/7 - São Paulo, BR @ Blues & Rock Festival
6/19 - Oxfordshire, UK @ Blenheim Palace
7/27 - Newmarket, UK @ Racecourses
8/23 - Cornwall, UK @ Live at Scorrier House
Follow Richard Ashcroft:
Official site | Spotify | Apple Music | Facebook | X | Instagram | YouTube
Forth Wanderers To Release The Longer This Goes On Their Third Album, July 18th, 2025 Worldwide From Sub Pop
Watch the dizzying official video “7 Months” directed by band member Schifrin and his sister Elisabeth Schifrin.
The Longer This Goes On is available to preorder now on CD/LP/all DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com in North America, MM2 in the UK + EU, and your local record store, will receive the limited Loser Edition on Milky Clear (NA) or White (UK/EU) vinyl (all vinyl color editions whilst stock lasts!).
About Forth Wanderers The Longer This Goes On:
There’s one thing Forth Wanderers want to make clear as they prepare to release their third album The Longer This Goes On: “We’re not back,” guitarist Ben Guterl says emphatically. It’s perhaps an unexpected sentiment to pair with the band’s first album since they parted ways seven years ago, but the band insists it’s just an honest answer—they came together to record the ten intricately constructed gems that make up this new record, and they’re still figuring out what being in Forth Wanderers means to them, over ten years after the project’s conception. Listening to these songs, each a glittering celebration of vocalist Ava Trilling’s urgent and intuitive lyrics and the band’s natural musical chemistry, though, it’s hard to feel like there’s much of anything left unsaid. Filled with spit-shined melodies, chiming vocal harmonies, and slinky, slanted rhythms, the album is more expansive than just a return to form. Here, the band aren’t afraid to take the scenic route to a hook, layering instrumental flourishes to fill in the empty spaces, creating room for Trilling’s haunting range, or repeating a riff or a lyric until it becomes a Zen koan. On The Longer This Goes On, Forth Wanderers sound more self-aware and self-assured than ever before. Just don’t call it a comeback.
The road to The Longer This Goes On began in a Brooklyn coffee shop during the summer of 2021. There, Guterl and Trilling met for the first time since Forth Wanderers’ dissolution in 2018. “We talked for four or five hours about everything under the sun,” Trilling explained. “At the tail end of our conversation, Ben asked if I wanted to try making music again.” The question took her by surprise, but Trilling agreed. The three years they’d been apart had deflated some of the pressures the band felt when they were touring their previous music: “It felt like there wasn’t as much riding on the band,” Guterl added. “We all felt free to mess around and have fun.” Guterl remembers the reassurance he felt when he reconnected to play music with bassist Noah Schifrin, guitarist Duke Greene, and drummer Zach Lorelli: “It felt the best it had between us since we had started the band. It felt like we were just in high school again.”
From the bottom up, the band reimagined the way they were used to working. “Prior to this, the band built songs from demos Ben would send us,” Schifrin explained. “This is the first time where a lot of the music was formed organically.” “All five of us really contributed to the writing process in ways that we hadn’t before in the past,” Guterl added.
There’s evidence of this collaborative environment throughout the album: Take the simmering slowburn “Honey,” which opens with just a reverberating guitar and Trilling’s honeyed vocals, weaving a languid, lazy melody, before a drum fill introduces a gallop. By its end, the song sounds something closer to a blissed-out disco, a honky tonk in heaven. On “Springboard,” the guitar’s melody seems to sizzle, melt, and burst as Trilling’s lyrics twist the voyeuristic gaze on her imagined observer: “Do you like to watch me dance?” But for every slow, sauntering groove, there’s the ebullient pop rush of “Barnard,” which opens with the fervent march of a drum and never looks back, stacking guitar riffs like the fireworks as the song careens towards its explosive conclusion. “Bluff,” by contrast, opens with the cool tones of the keyboard and auxiliary percussion, Trilling’s voice guiding the song through to its melancholic core. These moments, under the watchful eye of producer Dan Howard, capture the band at their most present and unburdened, creating their sound in real time for the very first time.
The distance since the band’s initial split also allowed for some much needed time for growth and reflection. “To be able to apologize for things and address things, to acknowledge how hard it must have been to be a young woman in a band of dudes—we were working through a lot, and it was hard,” Schifrin added. They were, at various points, still only teenagers when their music started gaining traction with musicians like Lorde, and the distance between that adolescent fame and their adult lives has allowed for reflection. “Seven years later, we’re coming together as… not different people, but adults. There’s not the pressure to be labeled a certain way or stay in your comfort zone,” Trilling said. “We had more fun with style and testing what we could get away with, whether it’s bluesy, country, slower, or darker; whatever sounded good.”
Indeed, the fiery spirit of country and blues is present across the record—from the swaggering bassline of “Make Me” to the spun-out melodies of “Spit”—a fitting mode for Trilling’s lyrics, which are at turns wry, painfully honest, and always burning with an undeniable forthrightness. “Don’t pull me up / I’d rather we lie down. Move my tongue / so I can make a sound,” she sings on “To Know Me/ To Love Me,” sounding equal parts overwhelmed and over it, as if overcommitting oneself is just the price of entry for a life worth living. On “7 Months,” she sings of sleepless nights and weeks spent lying in bed, only to hope that the nameless “you” in the song will stick by her side. These kinds of confessionals—broad enough to make anyone lost in the mess of an uncertain romantic limbo feel understood, yet so precisely written that it must have clearly come from lived experience—are exactly what made Forth Wanderers songs both so universally relatable and specifically felt. On The Longer This Goes On, they’ve deepened that ability to pull at potent threads of romantic ennui with minimalist lyrics and lush instrumentation.
Forth Wanderers aren’t sure what’s next—they’re not sure if they’ll continue to record new music or if they’ll ever perform these songs live. These recordings, then, are ten fleeting yet invaluable impressions of the time spent as a band; rekindling of friendships between high school buddies whose dreams catapulted them into the spotlight before they were old enough to drive; songs that capture the uncertainty of the future as much as their music cements their own self-confidence in the present. On The Longer This Goes On, Forth Wanderers are making music on their own terms.
What People Have Said About Forth Wanderers:
“Forth Wanderers Made An Indie Rock Record For The Ages” [Forth Wanderers] STEREOGUM
“… Guterl’s spry and smoky guitar lines and Trilling’s blunt, diaristic lyrics gave the band an urbane sensibility, one that feels not just older in age, but in sound.” [Forth Wanderers] Pitchfork
“Forth Wanderers are built on warm and weathered guitar hooks complementing vocalist Ava Trilling’s dreamy and apprehensive voice, which is drenched in suburban ennui and hazy sweetness.” [Forth Wanderers] EXCLAIM!
“‘Taste,’ in particular, came from diametrically opposed places in their young love lives. … Still, the distance — emotional and physical — doesn’t undercut the dizzying intimacy of the song.” NPR MUSIC
“A driving slice of indie-rock that’s propelled by clashing drums and vocalist Ava Trilling’s powerful, sometimes swooning vocals.” [“Not for Me”] DIY
“As wholesome and heartening as we’ve come to expect, led, as always, by Ava Trilling’s tremendous lead voice which leaps between glowing energy and something altogether more melancholic, but always pushed to sumptuous heights by the muscular backing of the band, which continues to be a bold and pertinent facet of the band’s stature. A woozy, wonderful return”. [Not for Me] Gold Flake Paint
“A feral dose of guitar noise that somehow holds itself together over that four minute span.” [“Not for Me”] CLASH
Forth Wanderers
The Longer This Goes On
Tracklisting:
1. To Know Me/To Love Me
2. Call You Back
3. Honey
4. 7 Months
5. Spit
6. Springboard
7. Make Me
8. Barnard
9. Bluff
10. Don’t Go Looking
Isabella Lovestory announces sophomore album + shares new single & video
ISABELLA LOVESTORY ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM
VANITY
SHARES NEW SINGLE & VIDEO “GORGEOUS”
Isabella Lovestory by Polina Boyko
“Gorgeous”
WATCH: https://youtu.be/9N3Y2pEL49Y
LISTEN: https://found.ee/gorgeous
Vanity
PRE-SAVE: https://found.ee/lovestoryvanity
(May 22, 2025) - Honduran experimental popstar Isabella Lovestory announces her sophomore album Vanity, out June 27th. Vanity subverts any expectations of an overly polished sonic facelift that its title might suggest, instead reflecting the intoxicating nuances of beauty and its decay. Stripping away all pretenses, Isabella’s new album playfully experiments with different sounds and palettes, exemplifying her collage-like approach to music that ponders every turn of the radio dial from her childhood across Honduras, Virginia and Montreal. Isabella explains the album as follows: “Vanity has a metallic analog vibe: a robotic funeral. Ghost in the Shell mixed with a pop-y ultra-feminine sound. Shiny yet rusty, fancy yet trashy, like ancient encrusted diamonds. Thematically this album explores fragility, how easily a mirror shatters, but it also explores the indestructible and eternal essence of beauty. I don't mind when things break, I like to collect the pieces and create something new.”
That playful disdain for genre boundaries is front and center on new single “Gorgeous”, which also releases today. Produced by Chicken, Isabella opens the new track with an inescapable hook reminiscent of early 00’s R&B before violins signal a shift toward her immersive experiment of molding modern pop in her image. Paired with a minimalistic and sleek music video directed by Jim Alexander, purposely different from her usual maximal approach. “I wanted the video to feel timeless and elegant, not tied to any specific aesthetic. What does being gorgeous even mean? To me it might mean a dusty car garage, a stray cat, or hot pink acrylics. Tarkovsky vibes.”
Vanity turns its eye directly on navel gazing itself, playing on the horror innate in the idea of beauty and the fractured identities it entails. The announcement arrives fresh off of starring in her own campy body horror drama with “Telenovela”, directed by Charlotte Rutherford, which The FADER called “a pure assertion of dominance from a pop star at the top of her game. The album is a transgressive and addicting medley that embraces the darker side of her sound, aligning itself with Latin trap and goth electronica, while also developing all of the creative direction for the visual elements of her own gothic novela. Isabella began the year with the single “Putita Boutique” featuring Argentina’s TAICHU, pouring gasoline on the flame that she started with last summer’s standout singles “Botoxxx”, “VIP” and “Puchica”.
Announced earlier this month, Isabella will play LadyLand Festival in Brooklyn at Under The K Bridge, joining a lineup that features the likes of FKA Twigs, Cardi B, Pablo Vittar, Eartheater, and more. Fans can also catch her at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound and Paris’ We Love Green Festivals this June.
Born in Honduras before moving to the US and then Canada at 17 years old, Lovestory has positioned herself as a trailblazing force paving her own way at the cross-section of pop and reggaeton, making her an icon in experimental music. In 2022, she made her mark with her debut Amor Hardcore, which Pitchfork characterized as “playful, maximalist, and flirtatious to the core.” With an experimental reggaeton sound equally influenced by Spanish trap and goth electronica, Isabella’s forthcoming body of work extends her maximalist sonic experiment even further outside the lines, drawing on her beloved Y2K pop influences, textured synth-wave, her K-pop peers, and the defiant unapologetic women she looks up to, such as Lady Gaga and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon.
Check out “Gorgeous” above, see below for more details on Vanity, and stay tuned for more details on Isabella's next album coming very soon.
Isabella Lovestory
Vanity
Giant Music
June 27, 2025
Connect with Isabella Lovestory:
Jane Remover shares new single featuring funeral + 'Revengeseekerz' out everywhere now via deadAir
JANE REMOVER SHARES NEW SONG
“SUPERNOVA” FEATURING FUNERAL
CURRENTLY ON SOLD OUT TURN UP OR DIE HEADLINE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
PERFORMANCES AT PRIMAVERA AND OUTBREAK NEXT MONTH
REVENGESEEKERZ OUT NOW VIA deadAir
"Supernova" feat. funeral single artwork
“Supernova” featuring funeral
Revengeseekerz
https://stem.ffm.to/revengeseekerz
Everyone is talking about Jane!
“shape-shifting”
Billboard
“simultaneously their most maximalist yet most direct music yet”
Pitchfork
“Jane Remover makes the hellish landscape of digicore, hyperpop, hardcore, and hip-hop deliriously fun and equally insightful.”
Stereogum
“a boundless album with no visible outer edges”
The FADER
“It isn't just auto-tuned, glitchy music evoking a sentient, malfunctioning DDR machine — it is also distinctly anarchic, even by hyperpop standards.”
NPR
“a popping culmination of Frailty’s most digital moments and Census Designated’s heaviest strains of chaos”
Paste
“a furious, fiery explosion of polyrhythmic synths glittering like space debris”
Vogue
(May 22, 2025) - On the heels of the release of their highly praised third full-length album Revengeseekerz, Jane Remover shares the new single “Supernova” featuring funeral, today. The track, originally only available on the physical Revengesekerz CDs sold on tour, is now available on all streaming platforms. “Supernova” arrives on the final date of Jane’s sold out headline North American TURN UP OR DIE tour, which wraps up in Phoenix tonight.
Jane is set to perform their first ever shows across the pond this summer with their inaugural performance at Primavera A La Ciutat on June 8th. Directly following the Primavera performance in Barcelona, Jane will perform two sold out headline shows in London at ICA on June 11th and 12th ahead of their performance at OUTBREAK festival in London on June 13th alongside Turnstile, Alex G, Knocked Loose, Model/Actriz, Sunny Day Real Estate, Glass Jaw, julie, Danny Brown and more.
Revengeseekerz arrived as a surprise following a trail of breadcrumbs left by Jane via cryptic socials posts and includes the standout tracks “JRJRJR,” “Dancing with your eyes closed,” “angels in camo,” and “Psychoboost” featuring Danny Brown. Revengeseekerz was written, performed, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jane Remover in Chicago this winter. To get better insight on Revengeseekerz and its genesis, check out Jane’s feature with PAPER Magazine, where interviewer John Norris stated, “On the ferocious new ‘Revengeseekerz,’ the electro-indie-digi-punk savant that is Jane Remover comes in hot — as well as relentless, slightly mad, funny, and liberated like never before.”
Revengeseekerz follows their groundbreaking debut album Frailty, which rose up from the underground music community in 2021, cementing Jane as one of the brightest stars during the height of the digicore and hyperpop explosion. Their 2023 follow-up Census Designated, a foray into guitar-centric music, arrived to much critical acclaim, including The Guardian donning it with 5/5 stars.
This February, Jane’s artist project venturing released the debut album Ghostholding via deadAir, which received praise from the likes of UPROXX, The FADER, and Pitchfork, who described the album as “full of sprawling, fearsome beauty.”
Check out “Supernova” featuring funeral and Revengeseekerz above, see upcoming live shows and full album details below.
Upcoming Live Dates
** = w/ Lucy Bedroque
5/22 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom**
6/8 - Barcelona, Spain @ Sala Apolo
6/11 - London, UK @ ICA [SOLD OUT]
6/12 - London, UK @ ICA [SOLD OUT]
6/13 - London, UK @ OUTBREAK Festival
7/12 - Queens, NY @ Outline Festival
Revengeseekerz album artwork
Revengeseekerz
Jane Remover
April 4, 2025
deadAir
1. TWICE REMOVED
2. Psychoboost feat. Danny Brown
3. Star people
4. Experimental Skin
5. angels in camo
6. Dreamflasher
7. TURN UP OR DIE
8; Dancing with your eyes closed
9. Fadeoutz
10. Professional Vengeance
11. Dark night castle
12. JRJRJR
Connect with Jane Remover:
Smerz present: Big city life
SMERZ
OUT NOW ON ESCHO
Watch Big city life Trailer Here
Watch the music videos for
A thousand lies| You got time and I got money | Roll the dice | Feisty
Big city life is a collection of feelings and moments gathered by Smerz over the past four years. It is a sonic rite of passage, a transition in many forms documented through songs and production. While known for being world-builders en passant, instinctively constructing total imaginative spaces, Big city life is not built. Though still a collage, Smerz are looking at their own world instead of constructing one.
Formerly based in Copenhagen, Denmark, the duo recently relocated to their birthplace of Oslo, Norway, but not before living in and passing through other big cities. Perspective is fluid for Smerz, as experience teaches them relativism: both Copenhagen and Oslo are, in reality, small cities. Big city life, thus, embraces such flips in view, loving the small and adoring the big. Smerz’s signature, and the place where magic is located, is in their travels between the two ways of looking and considering the world.
The lyrics, noticeably present and direct, guide the listener between fiction and reality. All are rooted in experience, or perhaps many experiences, distilled into distinct packages of word and sound. Stories lived and imagined—of friendship, apathy, loneliness and internal monologue, love, and full-blown, near-manic freedom.
Some songs are advice to ourselves. Others exist just to release pent-up energy. Some emerge from pure passivity, while others become doorways into dreams. Some songs are secret wishes. Some are written for someone who is not here. And some are predictions.
The sound of Big city life is synergistic and deeply personal: mushy, groovy, and strange. Henriette and Catharina have held everything close, writing, performing, recording, and mixing all their own work. That intimacy is important when moving from one place to another, creating something new from the cauldron of change.
Some songs just happen—written in five minutes, a pure hit of emotion—while others are drawn out, taking years to come together. Like the liquid metal of the T-1000, sounds are blown to pieces across the world only to reform into something whole. Catharina describes songwriting as an attempt to capture a moment or, better yet, to stretch it, to make it last.
You got time and I got money was one of those songs that just happened in a moment. A soul-sample-like beat and sweeping string arrangements—something classic, something familiar—wrapped in Smerz’s voices and the bold minimalism that defines them. “It is a love song," says Catharina Stoltenberg. "Some songs just come from what’s happening in real time. I wrote the lyrics when I got my first real grown-up job and was in love at the same time."
Roll the dice. A minimal drum-synth-piano-riff, soft-cornered and groovy, carries this anthem to yourself. There's a certain self-awareness in "You've been here before, so you know this at last," that Catharina sings to herself. The song took shape in a very dull room, reminiscing about returning to New York, 50% real memories and 50% made up. “It’s a post something situation song,a thought experiment in a taxi on the way home.”
A thousand lies. Opening with a reverberated piano riff echoing the light, airy feel of a ’90s film score, the track suddenly dives into a hypnotic, arpeggiated electronic pattern while their unmistakable voices weave through the composition like a conversation unfolding in real time—decoding and encoding the complexities of companionship. It’s Smerz at their most intimate, drawing listeners into a world where reality and memory blur, crafting a new place to be.
Big city life moves like a conversation through a day in the life—staccato synths stab a tempo, drums crack and tumble, a circular piano riff ticks away like a clock, marking time but still not on time.
But I do. "Something that has been a theme in a few of the songs is this feeling—thinking you are one thing, but realizing you haven’t really changed. You’re still your old self, but you can sense and see what you will become. There’s some self-criticism there—a tool of exorcism.”
On Dreams, the sonic palette stretches toward the sky—synthesizers elevate, reaching higher, while at the same time sounding like a completely crushed EDM dance floor. All the while, Henriette’s vocals turn inward, drenched in reverb, chanting as if casting a spell: "Dream about me, dream about me." "I'm trying to make someone dream about me—attempting to steer someone. The thing is, dreams are the one thing you can control the least. So trying to do so was, I guess, almost a disillusioned action/reaction to reality."
Listening to the album is to enter a friendly maze or view a familiar collage. It’s the energy of two teenagers whispering a song in their bedroom, afraid to break the moment. It’s grown and earned, too, with its extroverted and shiny energy, the kind of unhinged freedom where you abandon caution. The album’s multiple perspectives stacked on top of each other are fragile and chaotic, adding up to poetic but distorted conversations. Smerz embodies the vibrating tension, that in-between space where awkwardness and confidence crash into each other and reveal something that has always existed.
Smerz
Big city life
Escho
Tracklist:
Big city life
But I do
What
Close
Big dreams
Street style
Imagine this
Dreams
Easy
Smerz:
GORILLAZ ANNOUNCE A NEW EXHIBITION TO CELEBRATE 25 YEARS
GORILLAZ
ANNOUNCE A NEW EXHIBITION
TO CELEBRATE 25 YEARS
HOUSE OF KONG
August 8th – September 3rd 2025
COPPER BOX, LONDON
Exhibition Tickets On Sale Now
www.gorillaz.com/houseofkong
PLUS
FOUR VERY SPECIAL CELEBRATORY
ONE-OFF LIVE GORILLAZ SHOWS
AT COPPER BOX ARENA, LONDON
August 29th – August 30th – September 2nd – September 3rd
DETAILS COMING SOON!
WATCH EXHIBITION TRAILER HERE
This summer, the iconic gates of Kong – the fabled home of Gorillaz – will open for the very first time when a celebratory new exhibition House of Kong comes to London’s Copper Box for a limited run from August 8th to September 3rd 2025. Exhibition tickets are on sale now.
Visitors to House of Kong will take a jaunt behind the curtain of Gorillaz’ extraordinary world. A journey through the band’s life of misadventures, musical innovation and ground-breaking virtual ways since these four outsiders – bassist Murdoc Niccals, singer 2D, drummer Russel Hobbs and guitarist Noodle – first came together to blow up a pre-digital world with the release of “Tomorrow Comes Today” in 2000. An exhibition like no other, House of Kong is an experience for the brave and bold.
Watch exhibition trailer here.
Today’s announcement comes with even more exciting news for fans. House of Kong exhibition ticket holders will have exclusive presale access to four very special standalone one-off limited-capacity live Gorillaz shows at Copper Box Arena taking place on August 29th, August 30th, and September 2nd and 3rd. More details on the shows will be announced very soon.
House of Kong will be open from 10:30 am to 10pm daily, from August 8th to September 3rd 2025.
House of Kong exhibition tickets are priced from £25 and are on sale now.
For tickets, information and FAQs, visit: www.gorillaz.com/houseofkong
About Gorillaz:
Created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, drummer Russel Hobbs and Japanese guitar prodigy Noodle, Gorillaz were formed following a collision of mishaps, meetings and pure luck to seize the title of biggest virtual band in the world with the release of their eponymous debut album Gorillaz in 2001. Based at Kong Studios in West London, the band settled into a life of musical innovation with an extraordinary roster of collaborators, a list that includes musical legends, geniuses and future stars from Elton John to Little Simz, MF DOOM to Jean-Michel Jarre, Grace Jones to Bad Bunny, Kali Uchis to Sidiki Diabaté, plus so many more. Gorillaz is a truly global phenomenon, achieving success in entirely new and unique ways, touring the world and winning numerous awards including the coveted Jim Henson Creativity Honor, along the way. The band is recognised by The Guinness Book Of World Records as the planet’s Most Successful Virtual Act
The band has released eight studio albums: Gorillaz (2001), Demon Days (2005), Plastic Beach (2010), The Fall (2011), Humanz (2017), The Now Now (2018), Song Machine: Season One – Strange Timez (2020) and Cracker Island (2023).
BAMBII recruits Lyzza & Sadboi for new single "Blue Sky"
BAMBII SHARES NEW SINGLE "BLUE SKY"
FEATURING LYZZA & SADBOI
INFINITY CLUB II OUT JUNE 20TH
VIA BECAUSE MUSIC
PLAYING FESTIVALS THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER
BAMBII by Kirk Lisaj (Download Hi-Res assets HERE)
"expansive, exuberantly fun, and future-oriented"
032c
"queen of the global dancefloor"
Dazed
"urgent, propulsive, and deliciously deviant"
The FADER
"the life and soul of Toronto’s club scene"
i-D
"Bambii brings the promise of club music’s infinite iterations to life"
Pitchfork
“Blue Sky” featuring Lyzza & Sadboi
WATCH: https://youtu.be/pLYKrG0y3Kk?si=_EYHS27bOv2zy5Xw
LISTEN: https://bambii.lnk.to/INFINITYCLUBII
Infinity Club II
PRE-SAVE: https://bambii.lnk.to/INFINITYCLUBII
(May 22, 2025) - BAMBII shares new single “Blue Sky” featuring Brazil’s Lyzza and fellow Toronto native Sadboi. The new single is the latest offering from her recently-announced EP Infinity Club II, out June 20th via Because Music. A vast sonic departure from her previous single “Mirror” featuring Jessy Lanza and Yaeji, “Blue Sky” embodies the controlled chaos of an underground rave with BAMBII at the helm. The production is subtle and subterranean, with a commanding bass that reverberates through a crowded dance floor past broken glass and a euphoric crowd.
Infinity Club II crystallizes BAMBII’s vision of electronic music, armed with the musicianship and instrumental prowess to build a new level of tactile and somatic depth to the songs that soundtrack her idyllic club experience. The club has also opened itself to both new and familiar collaborators this time around, including guest features from Ravyn Lenae, Jessy Lanza, Yaeji, Sadboi, JELEEL!, Aluna, Lamsi, BEAM, Scrufizzer, Lyzza, Lady Lykez and £Monzo.
Infinity Club II steadfastly defies categorization, and is decidedly an exploration of the sounds and experiences that she finds enthralling, leaving it open-ended and encouraging fans and listeners to embrace that unknown with her. BAMBII incites collisions of global club sounds informed by her travels with odes to her Caribbean roots, which makes for a project that’s deeply personal yet creates a universally resonant experience when played as it’s intended, unapologetically at full blast. The EP is available for physical and digital pre-order exclusively at bambii.lnk.to/INFINITYCLUBII.
The first Infinity Club project cemented BAMBII as one of electronic music's most prominent, audacious new voices, and she won a JUNO for Best Electronic album for it in 2024. The EP was widely lauded by the likes of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, 032c, and Resident Advisor. More recently, she graced the cover of DJ Mag, where she spoke about how her approach to her forthcoming project differs from the insular cohesion of Infinity Club, explaining “the dissonance between tracks is going to feel more like they’re oceans apart.”
She began 2025 with several sets opening for Jamie xx on tour and collaborating with Shygirl on “Flex” from her Club Shy Room 2 EP. This Summer, she’ll play a number of festival sets including RECESSLAND in the UK this weekend, Electronic Forest in Michigan, and a performance at London’s All Points East festival this Summer.
Listen to “Blue Sky” featuring Lyzza & Sadboi above, see below for more EP details and stay tuned for more from BAMBII coming soon.
BAMBII 2025 Live Dates
5/24-25 - Margate, UK @ RECESSLAND
6/1 - Montreal, QC @ Piknic Electronik
6/22 - Rothbury, MI @ Electric Forest
6/26 - London, UK @ Glastonbury (Lonely Hearts Club)
7/12 - Meritt, BC @ Bass Coast Festival
8/2 - Calgary, AB @ Chasing Summer
8/16 - London, UK @ All Points East
BAMBII
Infinity Club II
June 20, 2025
Because Music
1. INFINITY CLUB II
2. Remember feat. Ravyn Lenae & Scrufizzer
3. Blue Sky feat. Lyzza & Sadboi
4. Mirror feat. Jessy Lanza & Yaeji
5. NSYNC feat. BEAM
6. Island Criminal feat. Aluna
7. IN MY MIND feat. Lamsi
8. Thunder feat. JELEEL!
9. IN MY MIND AGAIN feat. Lamsi & £Monzo
10. BAD BOY
11. Spit feat. BEAM & Lady Lykez
12. EJECT
Connect with BAMBII:
May 21, 2025
Natalie Bergman Releases "DANCE." Announces Tour Dates. Forthcoming Album Out July 18
FORTHCOMING ALBUM MY HOME IS NOT IN THIS WORLD
OUT JULY 18 - PRE-ORDER/SAVE
[THIRD MAN RECORDS]
NORTH AMERICAN HEADLINE TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED
PLUS DATES WITH RILO KILEY
UK & EUROPEAN TOUR STARTS SEPTEMBER 20
WATCH | LISTEN
“DANCE”
PRE-ORDER/SAVE
MY HOME IS NOT IN THIS WORLD
U.S HEADLINE TOUR DATES
07/11 - Hideout - Chicago, IL
07/18 - Public Records - Brooklyn, NY
07/25 - Masonic Lodge - Los Angeles, CA
RILO KILEY SUPPORT DATES
08/30 - Asbury Park, NJ - Stone Pony
08/31 - The Capitol Theatre - Port Chester, NY
09/01 - The Pines - Florence, MA
09/03 - College Street Music Hall - New Haven, CT
09/04 - The Met - Philadelphia, PA
09/05 - The Rooftop at Pier 17 - New York, NY
09/07 - MGM Music Hall at Fenway - Boston, MA
UK & EUROPEAN HEADLINE TOUR DATES
09/20 - Reeperbahn - Hamburg, DE**
09/23 - Strange Brew - Bristol, UK
09/24 - YES (Pink Room) - Manchester, UK
09/25 - Union Chapel - London, UK
09/26 - TBA - Lille, FR
09/27 - Tetris - Le Havre, FR
09/28 - Quai M - La Roche Sur Yon, FR
09/30 - La Maroquinerie - Paris, FR
10/01 - Le Marche Gare - Lyon, FR
10/03 - Covo - Bologna, IT
10/04 - sPAZIO 211 - Turin, IT
10/05 - Kaufleuten - Zurich, CH
**Festival Appearance
Natalie Bergman continues to tease her highly anticipated forthcoming album My Home Is Not In This World (Third Man Records) out on July 18, with a new song and official music video, out today. Listen HERE .
“Dance” offers another enticing glimpse of what’s to come from the critically acclaimed Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based songwriter, artist and musician. Directed by Alan Del Rio Ortiz, the video is a continued ode to another era and time in music that Bergman is so often inspired by. The classic grooves of the 60’s and a Carol Kaye-esque bassline, an expression of love, “Dance” is a “Motown-influenced dance party filtered through synthesizers and a homemade rhythm track,” shares Bergman. Starring The Rated Z Dancers and shot on 8-millimeter film. Watch the official music video to “Dance” HERE.
My Home Is Not In This World arrives into the world on July 18 via Third Man Records [Pre-Order/Save HERE ]. The project is described as a “re-envisioned and rebuilt Motown somewhere in the California desert”. Recorded analog-to-tape and produced by her brother and longtime collaborator Elliot Bergman, the 12-track record shimmers with gospel soul, country-western heartache, and rock 'n' roll grit, all filtered through Natalie’s unmistakable voice.
“The title is an acknowledgement of my longing for this place over yonder,” Natalie reveals. “It represents my desire to not be a part of what’s going on digitally. I was trying to be the antithesis of a lot of modern music. There are some earthy sounds and many of the songs are about love. At the same time, it’s about finding my place on earth—even though I’ve never truly felt like I belonged here.”
Where her critically acclaimed 2021 debut solo album Mercy was steeped in grief and spiritual reckoning, written in the wake of the sudden loss of her father and stepmother, My Home Is Not In This World emerges from new life and rebirth. Natalie gave birth to her son, Arthur, in 2024, and the experience of motherhood has transformed her music into something equally tender and transcendent.
Bergman’s solo work and debut album Mercy received widespread critical acclaim and acknowledgement from the likes of NPR and Rolling Stone. With My Home Is Not In This World, she steps further into her own mythology, one that feels both grounded in lived experience and elevated by an otherworldly grace. As she continues to evolve, Natalie Bergman is ready to move hearts, shake spirits, and remind us all where home truly lies.
“DANCE” is available everywhere now.
My Home Is Not In This World is out July 18, Pre-order/add/save HERE.
TRACKLISTING:
Lonely Road
Gunslinger
Dance
Stop, Please Don’t Go
You Can Have Me
My Home Is Not In This World
Looking For You
Didn’t Get To Say Goodbye
Changes
I’ll Be Your Number One
Song For Arthur
California
mark william lewis shares new single out today with A24 music
MARK WILLIAM LEWIS
RELEASES NEW SONG “TOMORROW IS PERFECT”
mark william lewis by Steve Gullick
LISTEN: “Tomorrow Is Perfect”
(May 21, 2025) - Today, mark william lewis has released his new song, “Tomorrow is Perfect.” The song is supported by a video shot in his home city of London. It begins a new chapter for a truly visionary artist who is creating music that is poetically sharp, visually vivid, yet texturally opaque.
“Tomorrow is Perfect” is emblematic of mark william lewis’ gifts. The song conjures a vivid sense of place over its six minute run-time, whilst also leaving space for the listener to fill in the blanks.
His evocative, bass-led voice provides the ideal foil for the initially sparse instrumentation that comes into the song's climax. It is a deeply poetic track, one that unfurls with hypnotic grace and heralds the arrival of a singular talent.
Lewis says, “I wrote Tomorrow is Perfect at home in London. I wanted to capture and describe all of the images and places that meant something to me at the time and collage them together in one song.”
The release is the London-based artist’s first with A24 Music, following a series of celebrated self-released projects.
Over the past few years, Lewis has become a fixture in more innovative spaces of London’s live music scene, with his performances and music becoming a word-of-mouth success. This led to sold out US debut shows at Elsewhere and Public Records (NYC) and The Echo (LA) last year and a full headline show at a sold-out ICA earlier this year, before he embarked on a full UK tour. Stay tuned for more news coming soon.
About A24 Music
Founded in 2021, A24 Music is the studio’s home for original music — through the label, A24 has released an extensive catalog of projects, working directly with both established and emerging artists. Notable releases include original scores by Alex G for I Saw the TV Glow, Bobby Krlic for Beau is Afraid, Grizzly Bear for Past Lives, and Son Lux for Everything Everywhere All At Once. A24 Music has also debuted songs such as Sky Ferreira’s "Leash" from Babygirl, Sharon Van Etten’s "Quiet Eyes" from Past Lives, Charli XCX’s "Hot Girl" from Bodies Bodies Bodies, original songs for the I Saw the TV Glow Soundtrack, and "Le Monde" from Talk to Me, among others. Additionally, A24 Music made its mark with Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, the label's first fully produced album outside of film and TV.
Follow mark william lewis
THE ARMED ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM 'THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED'
THE ARMED ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED
WATCH THE DEVASTATINGLY BRUTAL VIDEO FOR FIRST SONG “WELL MADE PLAY”
ANNOUNCE SELECT TOUR DATES WITH SUPPORT FROM PROSTITUTE
Photo credit: Joseph Duarte
From left to right: Patrick Shiroishi, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Derek Coburn, Chris Elkjar, George Clarke, Dylan Fujioka)
The Armed have announced a new album, THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED, out August 1st via Sargent House. “Well Made Play” is the opening track and first single on the album—a grim reflection of a society that mistakes narcissism for self-awareness. The title references the 19th-century “well-made play,” a dramatic form built on clean narratives wrapped up with moral clarity—worlds that bear little resemblance to our own. It arrives with a dark, Christopher Gruse-directed video that offers a blunt, heavy-handed metaphor for the quiet humiliations of modern life. “While we chase distractions and small comforts, we’re pushed into endless competition with each other—often while those with real power take freely, right in front of us.” explains vocalist Tony Wolski. In it, two men beat each other senseless while chained together, fighting for the prize of a jet ski. A band plays, almost unnoticed in the background.
“Well Made Play” single/stream – https://lnk.thearmed.com/WellMadePlay
“Well Made Play” video – https://youtu.be/Smiq2FP9Mos
HE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED pre-order/pre-save -https://lnk.thearmed.com/TFIHAENTBD
After completing a trilogy of albums laser-focused on dissecting artistic authenticity in the Information Age, The Armed began work on new material with no premeditated rules or concepts—favoring only raw expression and urgency to herald a new era for the project. What emerged is a furious and confrontational new album—THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED. Still genre-defying, yet overtly pissed, it's an unfiltered expression of Weltschmerz, the German term describing the anguish of the world’s reality versus our idealized visions of what it should be. “It’s music for a statistically wealthy population that somehow can’t afford food or medicine—endlessly scrolling past vacation photos, gym selfies, and images of child amputees in the same feed. It reflects the dissociation required just to exist in that reality,” Wolski explains.
The Armed have also announced 9 exclusive headline dates in support of the album. Spanning from summer to winter cities include Boston, New York City, DC, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. Support on the tour will include fellow Detroit area brutalists Prostitute. Tickets for the tour go on sale this Friday May 23rd at 10:00am local time.
The album includes performances by Ken Szymanski, Patrick Shiroishi, Urian Hackney, Kurt Ballou, Troy Van Leeuwen, Meghan O’Neil, Cara Drolshagen, Tony Wolski, Brian Wolski, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Ben Chisholm, Prostitute, Zach Weeks, Mark Guiliana, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, and Derek Coburn.
THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED
Well Made Play
Purity Drag
Kingbreaker
Grace Obscure
Broken Mirror ft. Prostitute
Sharp Teeth
I Steal What I Want
Local Millionaire
Gave up
Heathen
A More Perfect Design
The Armed Tour Dates
8.14 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair
8.15 - New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
8.16 - Washington DC - The Atlantis
9.16 - Seattle, WA - SUBSTATION
9.17 - Portland - Mississippi Studios
9.19 - San Francisco - Rickshaw Stop
9.20 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy Theatre
12.12 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall
12.13 - Detroit, El Club
All Dates to feature Prostitute
FOR MORE ON THE ARMED
