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Introducing… All The Luck In The World!
Brighton based Irish three-piece, All The Luck In The World, are pleased to announce the release of their self-titled debut album, available 3rd February 2014 via Barfilm Records.
The young band, who are comprised of Neil Foot, Ben Connolly and Kelvin Barr, were previously recording tracks in their living room in between lectures at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music and would soon see their popularity explode after uploading the resultant tracks to YouTube where the band picked up 70,000 hits. Following this initial success, ATLITW embarked on a whirlwind year that has seen the young band land a record deal with German indie label Barfilm Records as well as their album track, ‘Never’, achieving international recognition after being picked up by the travel firm TriVaGo - the advert receiving 800,000 hits. The band have been able to continue their sharp upward rise by skilfully executing the composition of a mature debut album.
You can stream the track on the band's official Soundcloud page.
Watch the music video via YouTube.
On All The Luck In The World, the band have created a record that is wise beyond its years - boasting a sound that is accomplished and confident, while maintaining a real sense of identity. There can be no doubt that this release sounds exactly as the band intended, with a strong backbone of indie-folk used expertly to explore familiar themes of love, loss and loneliness. ATLITW’s music uses Neil Foot's heartwarming vocals and lyrics to paint bittersweet pictures over gorgeous acoustic strings, with the added emotional weight of a full brass section and strings. Instrumental departure "Low Beams" allows the band to explore their experimental side, with some mesmerising acoustic production techniques creating a sumptuous soundscape that resonates through the speakers beautifully.
Most bands spend a lifetime trying to hone and craft their sound. All The Luck In The World appear to have managed this at their first attempt and at the tender age of just 19 years old.
All The Luck In The World is released 3rd February 2014 via Barfilm Records.
A Badge of Friendship Wraps Up an Amazing Year!
2013 has been an amazing year for us here at A Badge Of Friendship; we've worked with some amazing acts from loads of different countries and genres, giving us one of our most diverse rosters to date. We thought we'd summarise it all here in our final mailout of 2013. Below you'll be able to download and stream some of the great artists we've worked with in 2013.
We had some great electro artists on our roster this year, acts like Saturday Night Gym Club picked up some great press from publications such as Clash Magazine, who hailed their second EP, The Nowhere Team as "a mature, confident return".
Unmap impressed The Line Of Best Fit and Artrocker Magazine, among other publications, with their debut album, Pressures, dubbed "…an LP that demands your attention."
XFM's John Kennedy was blown away by Death Rattle's "Lynchian-grade dystopian opera", which is how The Line Of Best Fit described the duo's second EP, Fortress, while The/Das' debut EP, Speak Your Mind Speak caused a sensation with online publications such as The 405
and The Vinyl District.
Check out a selection of tracks below on our electro sampler compilation.
We also got the chance to work with some great labels from the UK and beyond. Berlin-based Sinnbus were responsible for a lot of our output this year (as you may have noticed), as they celebrated their 10th anniversary as well as co-ordinating releases for bands such as Rue Royale, Unmap, The/Das and Jan Roth. Check out their label sampler below.
Sonic Anhedonic was another label welcomed into the ABoF fold, bringing along massively talented artists Vincent Vocoder Voice, Chalk and The Lunchtime Sardine Club.
As always, Scotland featured massively in our roster, and we continued our relationship with former Idlewild guitarist, Rod Jones' band, The Birthday Suit, by promoting their latest single, A Bigger World, which gained great exposure over the airwaves, making the XFM evening playlist, and featuring heavily on Vic Galloway's show on BBC Radio Scotland, as well as Amazing Radio. The single is taken from their forthcoming album A Hollow Hole Of Riches out 3rd March 2014.
Algernon Doll's second album, Citalo-pop, once again showcased Ewan Grant's ability to find inspiration within the toils of his extreme anxiety disorder, picking up rave reviews from publications like Artrocker Magazine, and support from Vic Galloway on BBC Radio Scotland.
Flutes saw their cover of Haddaway's iconic, "What Is Love" picked up a ridiculous amount of attention over on Soundcloud, while Campfires In Winter released their latest EP Picture Of Health before embarking on a Scottish Tour, and This Silent Forest gave us a heartfelt, personal debut album with Indivision.
Perhaps the most surprising emerging act from Scotland this year was the balls-to-the-wall, hard edged and dirty rock pumped from the grunge-soaked amps of Dundee-trio Fat Goth. We weren't alone in our adoration of the band - Kerrang awarded their album, Stud 4 out of 5 Ks as well as a huge page feature in the mag, Rock Sound, Q, Terrorizer and Metal Hammer also gave the boys rave reviews plus they got to go on tour and support American alt-metal band Torche and play an array of festivals. With a new album dropping in May 2014, we'll be seeing plenty more from them next year.
Our 'Top of the Scots' playlist we created earlier this year is still available to stream on Soundcloud.
We're always on the look out for new and interesting experimental artists, and this year we hit the motherlode.
Atom Eye (aka Elsie Martins) followed up her critically acclaimed Trilogy120 EP with her long awaited debut album, The Otolith Sessions. It was extremely well received, with Prog Magazine calling it "…a classy sea of sound…" and Artrocker Magazine awarding it 3 out 5 stars.
We hooked up with emerging artist Pincers, and his debut EP Molt, alongside the mind-bending videos that accompanied satire laced tracks "A Sociopath To Flame" and "Loanshark" causing quite a stir in the music press form Notion to A New Band A Day and many more.
Another new addition to our roster of experimental artists was Sunset Graves, who released his debut album, Variant in September. The 405 called it "…an understated album that's undeniably impressive" and Artrocker Magazine awarded it 4 out of 5.
We once again got to work with the amazingly talented people at Believers Roast, with their latest offering, The Exquisite Corpse Game, a unique musical collaboration overseen by ABoF regular, Kavus Torabi (of Knifeworld and Cardiacs fame). Each artist on the recording was given only the last 20 seconds of the previous composition and had to continue by recording instrumental music in any way they saw fit. Whether they chose to develop themes or take an obtuse 90 degree turn was entirely up to them. It's a fascinating approach to composition, and proof that the concept album is by no means a dead art-form.
Check out our experimental sampler below.
Last, but by no means least, we got our rock on this year. We love music cranked up to 11 (we tried to find another metaphor, but this one just nailed it so well), and the chance to work on the aforementioned Vincent Vocoder Voice and his self-titled debut album, Fat Goth's breakthrough album Stud plus The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing's Steampunk "social commentary with a smile" The Gin Song/ Third Class Coffin, Atlas: Empire's Sonnus EP and One Unique Signal's Aether allowed us to cater to the heavier side of the music world, landing press from Rock Sound, Prog, Kerrang! and everything in between. Guitar music is alive and well!
Check out our rock sampler below.
We're sure there's lots of stuff we've missed out, as this has been one of our busiest years to date but we'll be back in 2014 with releases from clients both old and new, so keep your eyes peeled! And remember - have a fantastic Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
If there are any bands, musicians or labels out there wanting to find out more about what we do, please get in touch with us at info@abadgeoffriendship.com
Jan Roth video for ‘Einundzwanzig’
"A dark, mysterious realm shot through with rare blasts of pure, white light..." - Clash
Jan Roth released his brilliant debut album L.O.W via cutting edge Berlin based label Sinnbus during the summer. To mark the end of a successful year, he has released a video for the album track 'Einundzwanzig', a wistful, festive nod to quirky post-rock done in typical Jan Roth style.
Jan Roth's video for Siebzehn is also available to watch now on the Sinnbus YouTube channel.
You can also download 'Kleine Freiheit' free from the Sinnbus Soundcloud page.
Jan Roth’s L.O.W. is available now on iTunes, Spotify and all good online retailers.
A Badge Of Friendship Christmas Compilation 2013!
It's Christmas time again here at ABoF HQ and almost time for us to wrap up the year, put on our Santa hats and relax before we kick off 2014 with a bang!
In what has now become an ABoF tradition, we asked the bands on our roster to send us a Christmas song so we could put together a festive playlist for you all to enjoy. Some of the songs are covers, but we've also got some original tracks this year (who said the Christmas song was dead?).
You can stream the full playlist below, or head over to our Soundcloud page to download the whole thing. You can also check out some of the other fantastic releases from our artist roster while you're there. Grab your headphones and let the festivities begin!
The playlist features a gorgeous cover of "Deck The Halls", from Anglo-American Duo Rue Royale, who've had an amazing year touring their third album, Remedies Ahead.
Algernon Doll have submitted their own take on Christmastime, with an original and uplifting track, "Lights and Buzz". This year saw them release their second album, Citalo-pop, which picked up a cracking 5 star review from Artrocker Magazine.
Resident troublemaker Keith Top Of The Pops has gathered up a group of his musician friends to record his take on the novelty Christmas classic, "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas". They really don't write songs like this anymore - Simon Cowell, take note. Keith released his second album, the appropriately titled Keith TOTP2.
Never one to back away from a challenge, Pincers gave us his own dark and amusing take on the Christmas standard, with the provocatively titled "Noam Chomsky Is The Real Santa" (don't listen to him kids, the powers that be would never let that happen!).
Pincers had an amazing year, unleashing his debut EP Molt on the unsuspecting public, who couldn't get enough of his darkly satirical avant-garde approach to music, and his gloriously bizarre videos.
Channelling the spirit of Alvin and The Chipmunks, LA band The Blood Arm gave us "A Dog Named Jackie", a fun contrast to the mature sound of their fourth album, Infinite Nights.
Last, but by no means least, The Lunchtime Sardine Club wraps up our festive proceedings with "Santa Lives In Texas", an atmospheric and lo-fi slice of Americana inspired music that wouldn't have been out of place on his debut album, Icecapades.
So, there you have it. Another year gone, another fantastic selection of bands to get you into the Christmas spirit. We're off to hit the bottle of port Assistant Ed 'thinks' he's cleverly hidden under his desk. Until next year, have a Merry Christmas!
If there are any bands, musicians or comedians out there wanting to find out more about what we do, please get in touch with us at info@abadgeoffriendship.com
Hundreds return with free download, video + album news!
Hundreds return with their second studio album Aftermath on 19th May 2014, released via Berlin based label Sinnbus. The band have released a video and free download of "Beehive (Prelude)" an instrumental version of a track taken from the forthcoming album.
Download "Beehive (Prelude)" from the Hundreds Soundcloud page now.
The video for "Beehive (Prelude)" is available to watch now via the Sinnbus YouTube channel.
It's been two years since their self-titled debut album was released but with their second offering, Aftermath, the band return stronger than ever with the same, if not more, conviction, passion and excitement. Only a band like Hundreds could return with the same vigour whilst maintaining that enchanting, cool elegance that has become their signature sound and attitude.
After endlessly touring half the world, the Milner siblings were searching for a new approach to writing their music. They moved to the countryside and built their own studio in the middle of nowhere, starting from scratch, they began to write Aftermath. In their quiet seclusion, the band found their new approaching, writing organically and eventually producing twelve perfect tracks.
Aftermath is the story of opening up and letting go, growing older, but also of refreshing naivety and unconditional utopia. "Beehive (Prelude)", an instrumental version of a track from the album, is the perfect introduction for what's to come.
Aftermath will be released via Sinnbus on 19th May 2014.