Sophie Barker, the sublime voice behind Zero 7’s stunning first two albums will release her new solo album ‘Seagull’ through independent label,  Ho Hum Records on May 9th.
You may know Sophie Barker as one of the vocalists on Zero 7’s Simple Things, that luscious, sweeping vocal at the forefront of the album’s breakaway hit ‘In The Waiting Line’. You may also know her for her work with Groove Armada, The Egg,  Grooverider, Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) and Muki, or maybe for her previous solo album Earthbound. She also worked on the Rainbow Collections, a series of children’s music.  It’s been a packed 10 years, that’s for sure – but with the release of Seagull, comes the chance to know the real Sophie.

Seagull reintroduces her with a more plaintive sound than before, and she talks about the new album with an incredible excitement  “It brought a great sense of relief and synchronicity – I’d found the producers and band I’ve dreamt of for years The magic I’m feeling now is similar to what I felt at the beginning of Zero 7.’ 
Sophie’s songs follow a minimal process, entirely stripped back of artifice – as soon as she came up with a lyric or melody, she headed straight for the studio, and entire songs followed. The addition of light, deft touches added by Alex and Mark in the studio add a certain brevity – spot the Motown-esque licks, the Joni Mitchell leanings and the occasional trip-hop beats.  This album marks Sophie out as an independent spirit armed with a fine collection of perceptive, soulful songs, - a fitting conclusion to its many years in the making.
Sophie has announced a series of UK dates to follow the album release on May 9th. The band line up will include Sam Johnson and Laurence Clack of Lucky Elephant (signed to Rob Da Bank’s Sunday Best label) who remixed the captivating first single ‘Say Goodbye’, which is soon to be used in the US series finale of hit TV show Skins.
Tour dates:
24/05/11 - Bristol @ Thekla
02/07/11 - Oxfordshire @ Cornbury Festival
10/09/11 - Isle Of Wight @ Bestival 

www.sophiebarker.com


Sophie Barker - I Sit & Hide

LEGENDARY PUNK ROCKER DUNCAN ‘KID’ REID WITH WHITE-HOT NEW BAND CONTINUES HIS PUSH TO BE PURPLE WITH “THE DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM”

There are only two people in the entire world who can claim to have played with the Ramones while not actually being tagged with the ‘Ramone’ nom-de-plume. Duncan ‘Kid’ Reid is one of those people. 

As singer and bass player of Joey Ramone’s favourite band, The Boys, Duncan rode on the crest of a wave during punk’s original late-1970s heyday as part of a wider collective of friends and peers that included Sex Pistols, The Clash, Generation X and a host of other power-chord pioneers. The Boys remain one of the best-loved and influential bands of their generation.

Fast forward to 2014 and Duncan’s new group The Big Heads, featuring multi-instrumentalist Alexander Gold, guitarist Sophie Lynch and drummer Ciara Lavers are powering their way around the globe and astounding audiences from Buenos Aires to Berlin to Dublin and back again. Montevideo, from the Big Heads’ debut album Little Big Head, has earned Duncan the keys to the Uruguayan capital (the only other musicians to achieve this being Elton John and Paul McCartney). The band has been joined onstage by members of Europe, German mega group Die Toten Hosen and TV Smith of The Adverts.

Following a cornucopia of stellar reviews for 1st album Little Big Head, The Big Heads develop their unique, effortlessly entertaining, melodic brand of harmony laden pop punk with new release: “The Difficult Second Album”. 

12 tracks dealing with close shaves in Rio, hen parties in London, growing old disgracefully, and hugging, combine to give a unique view of life.

For More Info check out: https://www.facebook.com/DuncanReidTheBigHeads or http://www.little-big-head.com/


Duncan Reid and the Big Heads - Another City

Max Raptor - The King Is Dead

Artist: Forrest
Album: Soluna
Release Date: 16th July
Label: Close To Home Records

Forrest are an alternative four-piece from South Wales that formed in 2010. Intense and intelligent, the band’s sound, in the most part, is a deep angst ridden hardcore rock with a dense washed out reverb covering everything. Their writing, harmonies, lyrics and riffs pulling the listener inwards into their comforting sheer wall of a sound.

Forrest’s debut EP, titled ‘Before You Go’ and a split release with Ireland’s ‘The Winter Passing’, were largely met with positive coverage across all kind of blogs and websites after their release, building a small but dedicated following from the band’s BandCamp page and acting as a teaser which helped the band to develop their sound to a sweet spot with forthcoming debut album ‘Soluna’. 

The band spent a year writing and recording ‘Soluna’, taking the time in the studio to perfect each arrangement and their sound fully. The album features 8 tracks recorded and engineered by Paul Griffiths at PG Productions and mixed and mastered by Ciaran Parnell. Guitarist Ryan Heatman had this to say about the stretched-out nature of the preparation for the release of this record:

“It was a very long time writing and recording, and although it became frustrating at times, I don’t think it’s as frustrating as it might have been if we released something we felt could have been better. Overall, we’re really proud of the outcome and we spent a lot of time on it. We hope people have as much fun listening to it as we did making it!”

Soluna is the culmination of everything the band has been building towards since its inception, and it opens up a new chapter for Forrest. It’s an album full of nostalgia yet looking forward with ambition. 
 
www.facebook.com/forrestsouthwales 
https://forrestsw.bandcamp.com/

For more information contact Terry Emm at Cannonball PR on 07708031216 or terry@cannonballpr.com  


Forrest - Meet You There

Artist: 	Thomas White
Album: 	Yalla!  
Released: 19th March 2012
Label: 	Bleeding Heart Recordings 

Taking a break from his various other bands and collaborations (including The Electric Soft Parade, Brakes, British Sea Power and Patrick Wolf) Thomas White will release his third solo album ‘Yalla!’ on 19th March 2012 via Bleeding Heart Recordings.

How often do we really ever 'get away from it all'? And when we do, how much of that time is spent evoking our home, pining for what we've left behind? 

In September 2010, Thomas White left these shores for an extended break, spending six weeks in the blazing dry heat of Dahab, Egypt. Quite what brought on a trip of this scope remains a mystery, but a friend had offered a bed and lodgings, and the proposition of a month and a half of pure, unblinking sunshine proved too much to decline. On arrival, however, this wide-eyed wonder quickly turned to abject homesickness. What to do with six weeks in a town with a population of 5,000? Anticipating some 'free time' along the way, Thomas had wisely packed with him a travel guitar, a laptop computer, and by means of a microphone, an old Sony Handicam. 

Perhaps the Gods were looking down, perhaps the stars were aligned, but several days into the trip the songs started coming, thick and fast. A pattern emerged - wake and bake, record the previous night's ideas, head for the sea, snorkel, find a suitable bar, note down any thoughts, drink through the evening, collapse, wake up, commit the previous night's ramblings to tape, take a dip, repeat. Within days another theme was also revealing itself - not some rose-tinted travelogue, but rather a deep yearning for home - any and all memories were called upon to evoke the land left behind. In perhaps a week and a half, the album you hear now was written, recorded and mixed. 

Obliquely touching on the untimely death of Thomas and his brother (and The Electric Soft Parade band member) Alex's mother in 2009, explicitly referencing Brighton people and places, and dealing unflinchingly with issues of sexuality and identity, "YALLA!" (meaning, "Let's get going," in Arabic) is perhaps Thomas's most unrelentingly personal solo effort to date, utilising just vocal, guitar and the sparest of production, yet somehow saying so much more. One might cite Mark Hollis and Billy Mackenzie as similar artists who have shunned a deep, varied palate in favour of arrangements that lay bare both singer and song. If 2008's ‘I Dream Of Black’ was the bedroom-producer-gone-maximalist, and 2010's ‘The Maximalist’ was the dark dream in frightening technicolour, then ‘YALLA!’ is the sound of a man turning his back on ten years' experience and truly forging ahead. Gone is the need to shroud all meaning and nuance in multi-tracking and studio trickery - with ‘YALLA!’, Thomas White has finally caught up with himself.

Thomas has just completed touring Europe with The Electric Soft Parade in support of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. He will be performing solo shows in support of ‘YALLA!’ - First confirmed show is HMV – NEXT BIG THING @ The Jazz Café in London  Friday 10th February  - Other dates to be announced soon.

Track Listing:
 
1.	All The Fallen Leaves
2.	I’ll See Her Again
3.	That Heavy Sunshine Sound
4.	Ocean Green
5.	Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls
6.	Lungful Of Air
7.	King Of The Kingdom
8.	I’ve Seen The Sunrise 
9.	Diver’s Torch
10.	The English Sargasso
 
For press enquiries and further information, please contact Jamie Danan at Cannonball PR on 07885 670 294 or email jamie@cannonballpr.com


Thomas White - Ocean Green

This is new track from the new mixtape "Holla@Braydz" dropping very soon!
for more info contact jamie@cannonballpr.com

Braydz - Braydz In Paris (Remix Jay-Z & Kanye West - Ni**as In Paris - Explicit)

Free Download of Tough Love.
Watch the video http://vimeo.com/40712022

Stockholm band Sailor & I have carved a niche for themselves with their thematic indie music. Their first release, John Franklin, paid homage to the late, great, explorer through song while simultaneously putting the band on the map. For their third release, the band has teamed up with Swedish producer Alexander Sjödin, and really let him take the reigns from song writing to production. The Tough Love EP, originally set for release Spring 2012, may be released a bit later in the year now after the groundswell of major labels sniffing around and flying out to meet the band after this track got leaked in February to become an overnight industry sensation. The Tough Love EP will be as much a musical journey for the listener as it is for the band - who employed a new range of instruments, including a string quartet, to further mature their sound. 

" “Tough Love” is a mesh of emotions that swim laps around the idea that love is tough and hard to hold onto. The music kind of sounds like what you would get if you put Noah And The Whale, Bon Iver, and Aztec Camera in a blender and digitally mixed what came out. The song really takes off at about the one minute mark, with the introduction of the first chorus, and musically shines through the murky waters of the angst driven lyrics until coming to full fruition in the bridge." The Music Ninja

Keep a very close ear on these guys! More at https://www.facebook.com/sailorandi


Sailor & I - Tough Love

IZZI DUNN
‘CRIES AND SMILES’
RELEASED 1st NOVEMBER
Been a fan for a long time, this album is a testament to her talent. Play on Izzi.
Jazzie B.
her ears are made of the purest platinum..... working with her is always an education and a pleasure. She really understands boom bap science... i am a big fan...
Roots MANUVA
Currently on US tour with Gorillaz and after collaborations and tours with other major artists such as Mark Ronson and The Good, The Bad and The Queen, multi-instrumentalist and singer Izzi Dunn returns with sophomore album ‘Cries and Smiles,’ released 1st November.
Izzi represents the next step in a proud tradition of British soul that dates back to Loose Ends and Omar, and has been moulded by everyone from Curtis Mayfield, Tracy Chapman and Prince, to Portishead, Massive Attack and Chaka Khan. The album enlists the help of The Pharcyde’s Booty Brown, Mark Ronson musical director and Stevie Wonder collaborator Stuart Zender, electronic disco Jedi Tom Middleton and The Brand New Heavies’ Andrew Levy.

The record’s title track, ‘Cries and Smiles’ in itself encompasses the highs, lows, conflicts, contradictions and very nature of modern life – a theme which ploughs the very centre of the album, which, incidentally, Izzi produced. “There are very few things in life we’re able to control, but we always keep a check, whether we’re aware of it or not, of our tears and our smiles,” she says. ‘Tits &amp; Ass’ is a confrontational song which shows the contradictions of sex in our so-called modern and progressive society: “We use sex every day to get by, or to get on,” says Izzi. “If it’s subliminal and tasteful we buy into it as something to admire, but the more blatant it becomes the more we vilify it, whether we like to admit this hypocrisy or not.” 
‘Loser’ is collaboration with Booty Brown, who Izzi met whilst touring with the last Gorillaz album. “I love Booty’s interpretation of what I’m saying here. In a world savaged by financial ruin we are still judged mostly by our material wealth – this remains the judge of our successes and failures.” ‘Oblivious’ is a stripped down track, with no big production. “It needed to be,” says Izzi. “Quite simply, it’s about my anger surrounding the war. I was angry at the government for aligning with the US, angry at society and furious at myself for being so apathetic towards the circumstances.” 
‘Kill Me Slow’ focuses on the pain of destructive relationships and the lengths they can spread to. “It’s about insidiousness and betrayal by the people closest to you and it tackles the hurt and how it eats you up,” says Izzi. “The production was very much inspired by old 60s film scores, by Serge Gainsbourg, Scott Walker, but also Portishead and Massive Attack.” And finally, on a lighter note, ‘Nothing But Love,’ co-written with house producer Tom Middleton is a tongue in cheek look at all the ‘walk a million miles’ style clichés that have been written about love over the years. “It’s probably fairer to say there isn’t a thing most people wouldn’t do for true love,” she says. 
The last few years have been immense for Izzi. The universally positive reaction to debut album ‘The Big Picture’ set in motion a domino effect that pushed a mutual friend to recommend her to Damon Albarn. He knew straight away he wanted her vibe on ‘Demon Days,’ and not only that, but he wanted Izzi to head up string section Demon Strings for the Gorillaz’s world tours.
Mark Ronson was next, and Izzi spent a further nine months on the road as part of his all-star revue. Add to that a spell with The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Albarn’s other supergroup, and you get the picture. The dominos were falling thick and fast, and over the years her talents have littered output by Roots Manuva, Bugz In The Attic, The Brand New Heavies, Soul II Soul and George Harrison.
“It’s been like a surreal bubble,” says Izzi. “Touring means you’re constantly moving, being pushed into circumstances with people you don’t know, and performing with such high adrenaline levels. You see so many contrasting countries and cities, but as part of a huge pop band. At one point I was on a tour bus with Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allan, who’s in his 60s, Paul Simonon from The Clash and Simon Tong from The Verve, discussing life philosophies.”
Izzi Dunn releases ‘Cried and Smiles’ on 1st November.
www.izzidunn.com


Izzi Dunn - Oblivious

'Changelings’
b/w ‘I Wonder U’ / ‘Changelings (The Enormous Shadow remix)

Release Date: 8th November 2010
Label: SomethingNothing Records (Digital Only Release)

“a dream-like tableau evoking Bjork, The Dirty Projectors and Vienna’s Soap & Skin as well as (Fever Ray’s) sly gift for otherness. At times it plays like a surrealist nightmare, with teeth in all the wrong places. At times it’s softer than that. - The Quietus

“Completely mesmerising, ominous and beautiful. Gazelle Twin does bring to mind the dreamy vocal allure of Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), the strange beauty of Fever Ray and the edgy seduction of Siouxsie Sioux. But the Exciting thing is that there is no one exactly like her." – Arwa Haider, Metro

Very rarely - and all the more striking and mysterious they are for it - an artist comes along who is just that: An artist with a capital ‘A’. Doing something so different and special it’s as if creativity, ideas and - in Gazelle Twin’s case - sheer magic is rising from their every pore and floating into the atmosphere.

For atmosphere is the key word here.  Gazelle Twin’s influences are as far-reaching as the rhythmic wonders of Prince (hence this b-side cover), the Terminator soundtrack, the early choral music of composer Carlo Gesualdo and a mythical creature named Loplop (from whom Gazelle Twin – aka Elizabeth Walling - borrows her astonishing shape shifting image when performing her mesmerising, dreamlike live sets). So with all of this in the melting pot that is Gazelle Twin’s visionary mind, it is of little wonder the music plays out like some surrealist dreamscape – evoking an almost erotic Twin Peaks-esque mood where the listening is simultaneously drawn in by it’s all encompassing otherworldly magnetism and unnerved by a creeping eeriness that’s almost claustrophobic. 

‘Changelings’ with its existential lyrics, dramatic symphonies and dark electronica seems the perfect introduction to Gazelle Twin. The accompanying video is, produced and directed by Gazelle Twin, and featuring an abstract world of shifting storms and changing faces. All adding a chilly, surrealist underbelly to a track already hauntingly beautiful. 

‘Changelings’ is released on 8th November on Brighton label SomethingNothing Records. The single’s b-sides come in form of an abstract cover of Prince’s ‘I Wonder U’ and a remix of ‘Changelings’ by electro renegade The Enormous Shadow.

Gazelle Twin releases a second single in February, with the debut album ‘The Entire City’ set for release in Spring 2011. 

Info:
http://www.myspace.com/gazelletwin
http://www.gazelletwin.com/
http://iamshelliambone.wordpress.com/
http://www.vimeo.com/gazelletwin


Gazelle Twin -  Changelings

Taken from the debut album 'Devil May Cry' which is about to be made available for free download in full on Monday 29th Nov on www.ironbraydz.com 

“I am so impressed… so impressed I have to go now and listen to this shit again. This future classic makes me so proud to be British. Iron Braydz, Rago Magazine salutes and congratulates you for doing something good for H ip-Hop music.” 5/5

“This is a true UK hip-hop statement through and through with constant reminders of the craft's quickly growing popularity and capability.” Sputnik Music

"If Poetic was still alive....and he heard your joint...I'd bet he'd say..ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhssssssshiiiiiiiiiit!!" Gravediggaz




Hang

Album release out now on digital & physical February 21st 2011 through Hypnote

www.myspace.com/thechemistrysetuk 

Psychedelic-Pop band The Chemistry Set have quite a history. Flexidisc kings and veterans of the Imaginary label (Chameleons, Cud, plus countless sixties tribute albums), they helped pioneer the late 80’s neo-psychedelic boom that was a pivotal phase in pop music history leading to the Madchester craze unfolding locally around them, and its quick absorption of electronic music. Indeed counting Factory & Hacienda boss Tony Wilson amongst their fans, The Chemistry Set reached the coveted Indie Top 20 as they were featured in both UK mainstream and underground music press. Receiving regular airplay on the legendary John Peel’s show (Peel even went so far as to sending the band a hand-written fan letter!), they also toured globally but have held a deep fondness for Spain, making lifelong friends there. The band split in 1991, took a bit of a hiatus, remaining silent… until The Chemistry Set “MACH II” remarkably reappeared in 2008! Their return came about when their unreleased LP from 1989 "Sounds Like Painting" somehow was uploaded onto numerous blogs and was downloaded over 10,000 times. 
Arranger/songwriter [and former Electric Prunes member] David Axelrod loves The Chemistry Set, saying “Real Music! Music that makes you think and really listen to!” He loved how they have added a symphonic section of his song "Sanctus" from The Electric Prunes’ masterwork "Mass in F Minor" into their new reworking on the album of Del Shannon's "Silver Birch". Originally found on Shannon’s "The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover", his cult 1968 LP widely acknowledged  by rock aficionados to be the to pop milestone of his post-“Runaway”/pre-suicide era. This calls to memory the occasion when The Chemistry Set once went so far as to insert a cover version inside of another cover. Their version of "See Emily Play" (for the Syd Barrett tribute "Beyond the Wildwood" [Imaginary]) has the "Bicycle Rider" section of The Beach Boys then still unfinished "Smile" album inserted within the song. Their cover was singled out in glowing reviews of the tribute and was highly noted.

This Chemistry Set’s new line-up brings a whole new dimension both live and ‘on record' (including which adds their longtime friends from Spain, like DJ Gato, who, besides turntable, adds even more electronics than the Mellotrons and Farfisas TCS fans might be accustomed to. Using instruments and methods old and new, acoustic, electric and electronic, together they were a big surprise at a few 2010 European festivals. This exquisite new album of songs flows together like a healing psychedelic journey of time and place ought to!

Clint Boon [Inspiral Carpets & XFM DJ] : "The Chemistry Set are a f**kin great band"
David Axelrod [Composer/Arranger/Songwriter/Electric Prunes/Genius!]: "Real music! music that makes you think and really listen to"
Ian Fraser [Terrascope]: “These are no mere 60s retreads but excellent songs in their own right that betray Lake and Mclean’s unerring sensibility for thoroughly cracking tunes. “She’s Taking Me Down” is the pinnacle of this astonishingly good collection, but “Seeing Upside Down”, “Look Into The Sky” and “If Rome Was Meant To Fall” all give it a damn good run for the gold medal. And there’s any number of others that could lay claim to the title of best in class if I’m honest. It is absolutely criminal that two men this talented aren’t household names and living in the lap of luxury"


The Chemistry Set - She's Taking Me Down

Some of the tunes on rotation in the office which we are very pleased to be promoting.

Portico Quartet - News From Verona

Welcome to Cannonball PR's Soundcloud, we're an online music promotions and digital marketing company promoting great new music from the worlds finest new and established artists. Have fun listening!!! contact info@cannonballpr.com 

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