Global Gathering

WIN! We’ve a pair of weekend tickets to this year’s Global Gathering to give away. To enter, simply ‘like’ us on Facebook, and answer the question in the comments below today’s post over there.

Winner will be chosen at random on Friday 6th July, and informed via Facebook. Entrants must be over 18 and will need to provide ID. More information about this year’s event after the jump.

GlobalGathering – the UK’s most diverse and progressive electronic music festival returns to Long Marston Airfield, Stratford Upon Avon on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th July featuring headline performances from Tinie Tempah, Chase & Status, Armin van Buuren, Skrillex, Friendly Fires, Chase and Status, Nero, Annie Mac, Sub Focus, Magnetic Man, Boy Better Know and many more promising to make the 2012 festival the highlight of the summer for dance music fans.

2012 boasts the festival’s most exciting line-up to date, with numerous spectacular live acts and DJs that span the entire electronic music spectrum, as well as a series of brand new arenas from some of the world’s most exciting promoters. From stadium straddling stars to industry insiders’ tips and the latest breaking acts, the festival team promise more live shows, epic productions, and groundbreaking arenas than ever before.

Find out more about GlobalGathering at www.globalgathering.com

Weekend General Admission Ticket: £105 + booking fee

Camping and car parking free of charge.

Chapel Club

Having released their debut album Palace earlier this year, Chapel Club are closing out the year with a series of special UK shows. At each gig the band will play twice each night – once with a main set featuring songs from Palace and 2010′s Wintering EP, plus an earlier, special set made up of entirely new material. Having started debuting new material in their festival sets over the summer, the band are keen to continue to develop their new ideas in a live setting. You can win two tickets to see the band at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire – their biggest gig to date – on 18th October by answering a very simple question. All you have to do is enter on our competition widget below.

Want to win two tickets to Chapel Club's show at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on 18th October? Just answer the following question.

What was the name of Chapel Club's very first single?

The rest of Chapel Club’s October UK tour dates are below:

10th Manchester Sound Control
11th Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire
12th Sunderland Independent
13th York Duchess
15th Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
16th Brighton Komedia
17th Oxford O2 Academy
18th London O2  Shepherds Bush Empire

Mechanical Bride, AKA 25 year old songwriter and self-taught musician Lauren Doss, made quiet but confident waves back in 2008 with her debut release, a collection of beautiful songs called Part II: EPs. She’s gained her critical acclaim as an exciting and talented new British songwriter, being offered comparisons to the likes of PJ Harvey, Bat For Lashes and Laura Marling.

Now back with the release of her debut album Living With Ants, Doss is set for big things. And you lucky old Muso’s Guide readers are in for a chance for FREE TICKETS to go see Mechanical Bride playing a very special full band show in London at Dalston’s Boys Club in London to showcase the new album on 19 April.

Doss’s music captivates the listeners; each song tells its own story filled with weird and wonderful characters. The main character being Mechanical Bride, who was created by Lauren to describe the relationship between record players and the records they play; a mechanical partner with which they share their lives with. 

Living With Ants, Mechanical Bride’s debut album, is a defiant step up from Part II: EPs. It sees her song writing blossom from the stark, black and white songs on Part II, into fully formed techni-colour flourishes. “I wanted to find the beauty and colour from dark places that exist inside and outside of ourselves, the title ‘Living With Ants’ means learning to co-exist alongside niggling issues and worries that we maybe create for ourselves”.

Making music has always been a way to escape for Lauren; the new album is rooted in escapism and fantasy. There is a strong animal theme on the album, with some of the songs and even the album title, having animals in its name. As with the opening track ‘Magpie’, which begins with a sweeping piano, joined by Lauren’s gloriously stunning voice, reminiscent of singers form a bygone era. Laced with sighing strings, soft trumpets and lightly brushed drums, it slowly builds to a beautiful crescendo.

‘Young Gold’ (You Stole My Heart)’ is the kind of song you think you’ve heard before, it sounds so familiar. An uplifting ode to a friend or lover, the delightful melody intertwines with the horns and delicate beat, all masterfully produced with care and restraint by Nick Abbott and Lauren herself. Upcoming single ‘Colour Of Fire’ out 9 May, is a stand out track with Lauren’s voice once again tugging at your heartstrings as she sings around a swirl of piano and strings.

Although Mechanical Bride shares her name with a dark American science-fiction play by Fritz Lieber Jnr, the sinister nature of Part II EPs has been transformed like a butterfly, into the fully formed songs with lush arrangements, filled with colour and playful lyrics found on Living With Ants. Lauren has stepped out of her black and white music box and embraced all the outside world has to offer, without losing any of the childlike sense of wonder and magic. Everything on the album was recorded using vintage valve equipment, which contributes even more to that fantastical sound, like that from a lost and forgotten world.

If you want to win 2 free tickets to see Mechanical Bride on 19 April, simply click here to our Twitter account – the first to reply gets the tickets! God speed to you all.

Dour festival

ALERT! ALERT! GIVEAWAY PRIZE ALERT! FREEBIES BELOW!

We are giving away five pairs of tickets to Dour, including camping! All you need to do is send your name, your guest’s name, and both of your email addresses to musosguide (at) gmail (dot) com. Easy as. You don’t even have to answer a question! These are the T&Cs from the lovely festival-running people there…

You have until Monday July 4 to enter…

And now you can read the preview…

If the increasingly gentrified and innocuous UK festival scene bores you, and you hanker for something a little more adventurous, you can’t go far wrong with Dour Festival – taking place between July 15 and 18 this year (2010, future readers).

Now maturing into its early 20s, the Dour festival was formally Europe’s best-kept secret, nestled as it within the municipality of Dour, Belgium. However, with this year’s roster of bands such as Faith No More, The Maccabees, Chris Cunningham, Atari Teenage Riot, Los Campesinos!, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Owen Pallett, Chrome Hoof, New Young Pony Club, De La Soul, Fucked Up, Monotonix and GWAR to name but a meager selection, you’ll be hard pressed to find a festival with a staggeringly vast and varied array of music for the price (Just under £100 including camping or £198 for ticket, camping and ride).

With over 200 bands on six stages over four days, and continuing way into the early hours, toward its climax Dour begins to seem like more of an endurance test, albeit one set in an environment that’s as accommodating as it is relentless. Not so much about going to see the bands you know, but rather stumbling around to happen across some amazing European acts, Dour accommodates for the most esoteric and intrepid music fan.

We’ll see you there.

Errors

Those lovely folks at Eat Your Own Ears have given us a pair of prize tickets to give away for this fantastic triple-bill of a gig, headlined by post-electro band Errors, formed in Glasgow in 2004. The gig’s on March 4 at the Scala in London, and also features Race Horses and So So Modern.

To win, just answer the following question:

What was the name of Errors’ 2008-released debut album?

a)    It Is Something But It’s Not Like Um, I Haven’t A Clue Mate

b)    It’s Not Something But It Is Like Whatever

Send your answers along with your full name, contact number and address to musosguide <AT> gmail <DOT> com

Good luck!

Norway’s electro pop quintet CASIOKIDS play Camden’s Barfly on February 25, and we’re giving away a pair of tickets.

After the release of a few stellar singles in 2009, 2010 is looking exciting for this lot. Their bouncy percussive basement music, eerie melody and distorted bass are the product of inspiration from such diverse sources as Paul Simon’s Graceland, Ivor Cutler, King Tubby, Bob Hund, Cornelius And Fela Kuti.

To win tickets, just answer the following question:

Which label are Casiokids signed to? Is it:

(a) Galoshi Galoshi; or,
(b) Moshi Moshi?

Send your answers along with your full name, contact number and address to musosguide <AT> gmail <DOT> com

Good luck!

Communion

To celebrate Communion, the wonderful clubnight of the recently-launched label set up by Ben from Mumford & Sons and Kevin from Cherbourg, we’re giving away two tickets to their Christmas show on Sunday December 6 at Notting Hill Arts Club in London. Playing that night are The Agitator, Oddyssey, Treetop Flyers and Lucy Rose.

Now not only that, but we’re giving away LPs from the very wonderful Mumford & Sons and Alessi’s Ark, and an EP from Treetop Flyers, who’ll you get to see.

All you have to do is answer the following simple question:

Ben, who runs Communion, is a member of which band?

(a) Mumford & Sons
(b) Brotherford & Nephews
(c) Uncleford & Second Cousins
(d) Nanna & Daughters

Send your answers to us by Thursday December 3, when the competition will gloriously close. Please address your e-mails to musosguide ATTT (warren)gmail DOT comb (not literally). ‘Communion’ in the subject line please, and your full name and address in the body.

Best of luck!

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys haven’t played a gig in the UK for two years, but that’s about to change as they’ve announced a competition winners-only show in London.

The gig will happen on Wednesday August 26th at the Brixton Academy, and fans can apply for a pair of tickets through Babelgum who are hosting the competition.

As well as watching the video for ‘Crying Lightning’, the band’s new song, you can listen to new tracks from forthcoming third album Humbug and see “making of” clips.

To be in with a chance of winning the tickets, visit Babelgum’s website.

Los Campesinos

Twee superstars Los Campesinos! will begin their latest U.S. tour at the start of August and, as ever, they’ve thought up a way to include their fans in their touring adventures. Gareth has announced the Los Campesinos Record Box Project 2009, where the band will take a record box with them on tour and fill it with items that they collect on their way – including seven inch records bought in record stores in each place they visit in the U.S.

If that wasn’t enough, the band will also be collecting items from many of their friends in bands across America – signed records perhaps, or ‘some other tat that they want to get rid of… probably a bit of pitta bread or something’. Sounds great! At the end of the tour, the seven inch, pitta bread filled box will be given away to a lucky fan via the Los Campesinos blog. The box already has a few things in it, donated by Gareth, including a split Xiu Xiu and High Places 7″! The full video and those U.S. tourdates, along with those for their recently announced UK tour, are below:

4 Aug 2009 Webster Hall (18+) w/Girls New York, New York
5 Aug 2009 9:30 Club (All Ages) w/Girls DC, Washington DC
6 Aug 2009 Grog Shop (All Ages) w/Girls Cleveland, Ohio
7 Aug 2009 Spin Nightclub (21+) Indianapolis, Indiana
8 Aug 2009 LOLLAPALOOZA Chicago
12 Aug 2009 The Firebird (All Ages) w/Girls Louis, Missouri
12 Aug 2009 Record Bar (18+) w/Girls Kansas City, Missouri
14 Aug 2009 Emo’s (All Ages) w/Girls Austin, Texas
15 Aug 2009 Granada Theatre (All Ages) w/Girls Dallas, Texas
16 Aug 2009 Warehouse Live (Studio) w/Girls Houston, Texas
19 Aug 2009 Launchpad (21+) w/Girls Albuquerque, New Mexico
20 Aug 2009 Hocofest Green Music Festival w/Girls Tucson, Arizona
21 Aug 2009 El Rey Theater (All Ages) w/Girls Los Angeles, California
22 Aug 2009 The Glass House (All Ages) w/Girls Pomona, California
23 Aug 2009 Detroit Bar (21+) w/Girls Costa Mesa, California
25 Aug 2009 Beauty Bar (21+) Las Vegas, Nevada
26 Aug 2009 Howie and Sons Pizza Visalia, California
27 Aug 2009 Brookdale Lodge Concert Hall Santa Cruz, California
28 Aug 2009 Outside Lands Festival San Francisco, California
29 Aug 2009 Street Scene Festival San Diego, California

21 Oct 2009 Kasbah (14+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) Coventry
22 Oct 2009 Joiners (14+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) Southampton
23 Oct 2009 Phoenix (14+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) Exeter
24 Oct 2009 SWN FESTIVAL: The Gate (14+)(w/ DANANANANAYKROYD, Copy Haho, Sparky Deathcap and more) Cardiff
26 Oct 2009 Deaf Institute (14+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) Manchester
27 Oct 2009 University (14+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) Newcastle
28 Oct 2009 Garage (14+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) London
29 Oct 2009 Zodiac (14+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) Oxford
30 Oct 2009 Cockpit (14+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) Leeds
31 Oct 2009 King Tut’s (18+)(w/Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap) Glasgow

Baaba Maal

Legendary Senegalese master musician Baaba Maal releases his new album Television on June 1.

With its subtle blending of electronic dance elements with the timeless tradition of West African musical traditions, the record is a groundbreaking successor to 2001’s Missing You. Television was made in London and Dakar, the Senegalese capital. Baaba Maal worked on its eight songs with various musicians, but most specifically in a collaboration throughout the recording with singer Sabina Sciubba and keyboardist Didi Gutman, both members of New York’s Brazilian Girls, who blend electronic dance music with a diversity of eclectic styles.

To celebrate the release, we’ve got Baaba’s entire back catalogue to give away:

• Live at the Royal Festival Hall – DVD
• Nomad Soul
• Missing You Mii Yeenii
• On the Road
• Djam Leelii
• Palm World Voices – DVD
• Television

To be in with a chance of winning this special prize, all you need to do is answer the following question:

Where does Baaba Maal come from?

1. Mauritania
2. Senegal
3. The Gambia

Send your answers along with your name, full address and contact number to musosguideATgooglemailDOTcom

Best of luck!