Tiga’s ‘No Fantasy Required’ Album Coming

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March 4 will bring a new album from Montreal’s Tiga, via Counter Records. While No Fantasy Required is set to be an aural experience unto itself, it also happens to be the third part of the trilogy that began with 2006’s Sexor and continued three years later with Ciao!, though Tiga seems reluctant to really get into what ties the records together. Come to think of it, Tiga’s reluctant to talk very directly about his music at all; in fact, he seems almost superstitious about it. “I never talk about the music itself,” he says. “It’s borderline sacrilegious to talk about the grooves. They have a language all their own, the grooves do. I just birth them and send them out into the world to make others happy. And that’s what makes me happy, and that’s what makes you happy.”

Fair enough, as long as he keeps hitting us with the kind of quality we’ve become used to from him. But that said, we can’t help loving the comments he offered up about the song “Planet E,” a track from the album that he’s sharing in advance. The tune, which you can catch below, was created with the help of Hudson Mohawke, and Tiga says, “This was a collaboration with Hudson Mohawke, another kindred spirit I identified and subsequently befriended. We worked on it while waiting for a cab at the airport. The rest of the details are blurry; all I have in my notebook on Hudson for that day is ‘Young, hip-hop – really good friends.'”

Prins Thomas Releasing Four-Sided Ambient LP, ‘Principe Del Norte’

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Oslo electronic music guru Prins Thomas, the man who once helmed the cosmic disco revolution alongside his buddy Lindstrøm, moves in decidedly different directions these days. His upcoming album, Principe Del Norte, which is due out February 19 from the Smalltown Supersound label, is an epic ambient excursion. It was listening to the work of the late Swedish musician Joel Brindefalk that first got Thomas thinking of treading an otherworldly, ambient path. Brindefalk’s music in turn put Thomas in mind of old-school ambient classics by the likes of The KLF and The Orb. It was then that he decided to begin construction on his latest project.

“I set off on the task at hand,” explains Thomas, “making an ‘ambient’ album, leaving conventional drums and drum machines out of the equation.” The result is a lengthy, dreamy expedition that stretches out over four sides in its vinyl iteration, and two discs in the CD version. In true utilitarian fashion, each of the eight pieces is titled for the vinyl side it accompanies: “A,” “B,” “C,” etc. Thomas has even spent some time thinking about the best way to absorb it all. “How you listen to this album is entirely up to you,” he says, “but I’d recommend finding center position in front of your speakers, a comfortable couch or chair and dedicate yourself to the music for a long hour.”

SoundCloud Inks Deal With Universal Music

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Berlin-based SoundCloud has faced its share of challenges lately, but it seems like things may be starting to look up for the company. They’ve made a licensing deal with Universal Music that will allow for SoundCloud to host Universal artists and for the label group to collect royalties from streams of their music on the site.

“At UMG, we have long-embraced empowering entrepreneurs and innovative services such as SoundCloud,” said Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge in a statement. He added: “We look forward to working with SoundCloud and supporting the company’s evolution into a successful commercial service.”

Over a year ago, SoundCloud came to a similar agreement with Warner Music Group, so in terms of the major labels, now that only leaves Sony to sign on. Whether the latter will eventually agree to climb aboard the SoundCloud train or not, there’s no denying that things are looking a lot rosier for the streaming service right now.

But it’s not all about the big guys, either. SoundCloud has made their peace with the indies as well, or at least some of them. They’ve made a deal with the digital rights agency Merlin, which represents a number of indie imprints. They even found a way to work things out with PRS For Music, the U.K. music licensing company that brought a lawsuit against them last year. (As is so often the way of these things, the two parties ultimately decided upon a settlement). So maybe it’s good to be SoundCloud after all…

M83 Hitting The Road, Releasing New Album

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Before the conveying of any actual information, kindly give us a moment to collect ourselves after viewing the jaw-dropping collection of vintage analog gear in the photo above. OK, thanks, we’re alright now. Anyway, Anthony Gonzalez, better known to fans of his dreamy electronic pop sounds as M83, has announced that he will be hitting the road hard and heavy this year, starting out in North America in April. In addition playing a batch of theaters and such, he’ll be making some major festival appearances; Coachella in California and The Governor’s Ball in New York are both on his agenda for 2016.

He’ll be wending his way toward Europe and South America in the summer too, stopping in Spain, Portugal, Germany and more. Ticket pre-sale happens January 13 at the M83 website, and the general sale date is the 15th. And not only are there more shows to be announced in the coming weeks, there’s a new album on the way as well. What does the man himself have to say about his next record? The phrases “more fun and fresh,” “a lot of eclecticism,” and “unexpected guests” will have to suffice for the moment.

Tour dates:

M83 Tour Dates:April 6 New Orleans, LA—Civic Theatre
April 8 Dallas, TX—Bomb Factory
April 9 Houston, TX—TBD
April 10 Austin, TX—Stubbs Waller Creek Amphitheater
April 12 Tucson, AZ—Rialto Theatre
April 13 Phoenix, AZ—Comerica Theatre
April 15 Indio, CA—Coachella
April 16 Las Vegas, NV—Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas
April 17 Oakland, CA—Fox Theater
April 22 Indio, CA—Coachella
April 23 Santa Cruz, CA—The Catalyst Club
April 25 Portland, OR—Roseland Theater
April 26 Portland, OR—Roseland Theater
April 27 Missoula, MT—The Wilma
April 29 Edmonton, AB—Winspear Centre
April 30 Calgary, AB—Grey Eagle Event Centre
May 27-30 George, WA—Sasquatch!
May 31 Morrison, CO—Red Rocks Amphitheatre
June 4 New York, NY—Governors Ball
June 6 Columbia, MD—Merriweather Post Pavilion
July 7 Bilbao, ESP—BBK Live Festival
July 9 Lisbon, POR—NOS Festival
July 15 Grafenhainchen, GER—Melt Festival
August 10 Oslo, NOR—Oya Festival
August 11 Gothenberg, SWE—Way Out West Festivall
August 13 Helsinki, FIN—Flow Festival
August 15 Budapest, HUN—Sziget Festival