Amadou & Mariam will release their new album ‘Folila’ through Because Music on 2^nd April. Featuring appearances by Santigold, Theophilus London, TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Bassekou Kouyaté, the album is the follow-up to 2009’s acclaimed ‘Welcome To Mali’. A single ‘Dougou Badia’ will be released on 19^th March.

New single ‘Dougou Badia‘, which features Santigold, can be listened to here:

Amadou & Mariam, who will perform at the annual TEDx event in March, have confirmed a Shepherd’s Bush Empire show on 13^thApril. The duo will also take part in the Artangel ‘A Room For London’ programme at Queen Elizabeth Hall in May.

Fri 13^th April London O2 Empire Shepherd’s Bush

Brighton-based duo Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell will return this year with their 3rd album ‘In Time To Voices’ out on March 26^th  and a new single ‘Cold’, released on March 19^th via V2/Co-Operative Music. The band will also be hitting the road throughout the UK for an April and May tour.

Since the release of their debut almost 4 years ago, the duo have embarked on a gruelling, unrelenting tour schedule, seeing them travel the four corners of the globe and earning them an international fanbase.

Touring heavily throughout 2011, this year sees the band back on the road with no signs of slowing down with a full worldwide tour planned and UK dates confirmed, detailed below:

April:

27th Concorde 2, Brighton, 28th Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, 29th 02 Academy 2, Oxford.

May: 1st Trinity, Bristol, 2nd Waterfront, Norwich, 3rd Heaven, London, 4th HMV Library, Birmingham,  5th Academy 2, Manchester, 7th Zanzibar, Liverpool, 8th Cluny, Newcastle, 9th Tunnels, Aberdeen, 10th King Tuts, Glasgow, 12th The Cockpit, Leeds, 13th Rescue Rooms, Nottingham.

Pre-sale tickets go on sale from www.crowdsurge.com on Wednesday 25^th January at 9am. Tickets go on general sale at 9am on Friday 27^th January.

Evanescence’s highly anticipated self–titled album topped the Billboard album charts this week, it also made the No 2 spot in Canada, and No. 4 in the UK – where it is now certified Silver.  The first single from the album ‘What You Want’ has already notched up over 8 million views.   Now they have released a new single on January 16^th 2012.

Entitled ‘My Heart Is Broken‘, it was recorded in Nashville’s Blackbird Studios, and produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains, Rush, Deftones).  Singer Amy Lee said “Originally I intended to play harp on this song, but as it developed I changed over to the piano. I love this song, the emotional outpouring is kind of honest”.   It will be available on CD and as a download.

With rumors tweeted, posted and published throughout the Internet about a possible partnership, Hip-hop legends Cypress Hill and Dubstep DJ/Producer Rusko have finally announced the release of their collaborative effort Cypress x Rusko, out this April. Featuring the striking, signature sound of Cypress Hill alongside Rusko’s unmistakable beats, the 5-track EP shows the full capabilities of two music pioneers combining forces to create yet another raw and unfiltered sound. Download the first single ‘Roll It, Light It,’ today here – http://www.spin.com/articles/how-i-could-just-skrill-man-hear-cypress-hill-go-dubstep-rusko

Influential Southern California rock ‘n’ roll band Social Distortion have announced a series of performances throughout North America in support of their celebrated album Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes. The tour will kick off in Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel on January 27^th. Joining them on the tour will be the acclaimed English singer-songwriter Frank Turner and his band The Sleeping Souls and UK punk rockers Sharks

Social Distortion released their latest studio album Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes in early 2011 on Epitaph. A follow-up to their acclaimed album ‘Sex, Love And Rock ‘n’ Roll’, ‘Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes’ is the band’s seventh studio album and first release in over six years.

Social Distortion US tourdates 
(support: Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls & Sharks)

January: 27 – Las Vegas, NV – The Joint @ Hard Rock Hotel, 31 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater
February: 01 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre, 03 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theater, 04 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theater, 06 – Reno, NV – Knitting Factory, 07 – Reno, NV – Knitting Factory, 09 – Santa Cruz, CA – Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, 10 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater – (SOLD OUT), 11 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater, 13 – Chico, CA – Senator Theater, 14 – Modesto, CA – Modesto Center Plaza, 16 – Ventura, CA – Majestic Ventura Theatre  - (SOLD OUT), 17 – Pomona, CA – Fox Theater  - (SOLD OUT), 18 – Pomona, CA – Fox Theater  - (SOLD OUT).

It is easy to become a workaholic when your talent knows no limits.
Having exploded onto every tastemaker website and blog in the past 6 months with his remixes, collaborations and bandcamp EPs, Luxembourg’s Victor Ferreira aka Sun Glitters is a man with an already astonishingly adoring audience.

Title track ‘high’ sets things in motion, ebbing and flowing into colourful refrain, while ‘it takes me’ is an intense Mediterranean anthem and should be broken apart and examined by budding producers, for its ability to capture and sweep you along immediately is something to behold.
‘they don’t want to let you know’ bounces and sways, with its eerily atmospheric vocal manipulations offset against alluring blissful beats, it’s the standout track on the EP.
The final song on the EP is a remix of ‘it takes me’ by the sensational Jack Colleran aka MMOTHS (known previously as Moths). His fresh and new approach to the field of production has had blogs the world over buzzing with excitement. With the entire internet on tenterhooks for his upcoming EP and with a recent Interpol remix to his name, you’ll be hearing a lot more about MMOTHS in the coming months.

You can listen to the lead track from the ‘high’ EP on Sun Glitter’s Soundcloud page:

http://soundcloud.com/musicisforlosers/sun-glitters-it

Following the release of  Los Campesinos!, whose fourth album, Hello Sadness, came out in November last year on Wichita to an accompanying heap of critical praise. The Cardiff-based band are delighted to announce a full UK jaunt this coming March.

Recorded in Girona, Spain, Hello Sadness is ten songs of love, loss and heartbreak nail-gunned to a back-drop of broken, tangled bodies, creeping, dead-eyed animals, suffocating, looming shadows and World Cup exits. It is an honest, bare-bones documentation of breaking up and trying not to break up in the process. At just ten songs and 40 minutes, Hello Sadness is perhaps the first Los Campesinos! album that sounds lean and pruned, indulgence shorn away and filler ruthlessly excised. The youngsters that made debut You! Me! Dancing! are long gone. The band they’ve grown into, though, are something to fall for all over again. Hold tight for news on a new single in March to coincide with the following dates:

March: 20 – Exeter, Pheonix, 21 – Bristol, Thekla, 22 – London, Electric Ballroom, 23 – Oxford, Academy, 24 – Birmingham, Rainbow Warehouse, 26 – Manchester, Academy 3, 27 – Liverpool, O2 Academy 2, 28 – Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire, 29 – Newcastle, Academy 2, 30 – Norwich, Waterfront, 31 – Sheffield, Leadmilll.

Following a phenomenal 2011 for Example with a No.1 album, two consecutive No.1 singles, a sold out headline UK tour, 10 UK arena dates this year to come, a European tour and a certified gold sophomore album, he has kicked off 2012 inking a deal with label giants Mercury/Universal in the USA. The announcement follows the news that Example has received a BRIT nomination at this year’s awards for Best British Single for his smash hit ‘Changed The Way You Kiss Me’.

This huge track was the second biggest UK single from a male artist last year selling over half a million copies and US label bosses have been keeping a very close eye on him ever since its release. Billboard recently described Example as ‘a new contender for the throne of hottest British rapper in the world’ and with this deal Mercury US intend to break him State-side in a big way.

Example said ‘I’m pleased to have signed to a major label like Mercury/Universal in the US. It was important to me to sign with someone who understands not only my ambitions but also the way I work. I want to do it on my own terms, I enjoy a good challenge and can’t wait to get started.’

After rounding off 2011 with a stellar performance at End of the Road’s Christmas Shindig at Cargo in London, Dan Mangan will be returning to the UK in April for an 8-date tour, kicking off in Brighton on April 27^th. The full list of tour dates can be found below. Mangan will also be releasing new single ‘Rows of Houses’ taken from his critically-acclaimed album ‘Oh Fortune’ on March 19th.

You can watch the thought-provoking video for ‘Rows Of Houses’ here:

Dan Mangan will be playing the following UK dates:

April: 27^th: Brighton, The Hope, 28^th: Manchester, Castle, 29^th: Glasgow, Stereo.

May: 1^st: Newcastle, Cluny 2, 2^nd: Bristol, Louisiana, 3^rd: London, Bush Hall, 4^th: Oxford, Jericho Tavern
5^th: Leeds, Holy Trinity Church.

Strength comes from our bones – the knowledge that, deep down, nothing is impossible. ‘Bones’, the stunning new single, and album of the same name, from Young Guns, captures exactly that: it’s a hymn to bravery and boldness, the defining statement so far from one of our finest bands.

‘Bones’ picks up perfectly where lead single, ‘Learn My Lesson’, left off – with it’s instant anthemnic quality and most importantly, serves as further proof that Young Guns could well be on the cusp of something very special.

The band, who recently announced a run of small intimate shows to mark the release, a tour they aptly labeled the Bare Bones Club Tour, will also tour the UK with Enter Shikari in March. The dates for both can be found below:

February (Bare Bones Club Tour – Headline Shows): 02: High Wycombe Bucks University, 03: Leeds The Well, 04: LiverpoolUniversity Stanley Theatre, 06: Glasgow King Tuts, 07: Sheffield, Corporation 2, 08: Manchester Deaf Institute, 09: NottinghamRescue Rooms, 10: London Borderline (HMV Next Big Thing), 11: Brighton The Haunt, 12: Kingston, Fighting Cocks (Matinee’s at 12pm & 3pm), 13: Pontyprydd Muni Arts Centre, 14: Saltash Livewire, 15: Bath Moles, 17: Dublin Academy 2 (Matinee Show), 18: Belfast Speakeasy (Matinee Show).

March (w/ Enter Shikari): 17: Edinburgh Corn Exchange, 18: Hull University, 19: Manchester Apollo, 20: Wolverhampton Civic Hall, 22: Plymouth Pavillion, 23: London Hammersmith Apollo.