Tasseomancy is a continuation of what was a bare bones neo-folk duo. Formerly known as Ghost Bees, Canadian twins Sari and Romy Lightman have found a heavier, more ambient sound, ripe with dreamy, dissonant vocals, influenced by eastern song, drone music, phonography and myth.

As touring members of the electronic outfit, Austra, they return to their ancestral side with their second full-length album, Ulalume, co-produced and accompanied by Taylor Kirk and Simon Trottier of Timber Timbre, out now on Turf Records.

Tasseomancy have expanded its scope to move beyond earlier acoustic arrangements, combining the rhythmic soundscapes of Popol Vuh and Comus with the dream-like state of Julee Cruise. The outcome is both terse and expansive, haunting and resonant in the manner of early soul music, with a smoke ribbon shape and full peal all it’s own.

And to top it off, they’ve just released their new single ‘Diana’, to be found on this album. And you lucky readers can see the video exclusively here…

Tasseomancy – Diana from Tasseomancy on Vimeo.

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins will be undertaking their largest UK tour to date in the New Year. Taking in shows from Glasgow to Brighton and then on a roundabout route to Leeds, KC & Jon will be performing songs from their Mercury nominated Diamond Mine album, and a few extra treats. The majority of the shows will see KC & Jon performing as a duo, with their full band joining them in Glasgow and London only.

Full tour details are as follows, tickets for all shows go on sale on Friday the 14th of October:

Thursday 26th January Glasgow Celtic Connections (ABC)
www.celticconnections.com 0141 353 8000

Friday 27th January Gateshead The Sage (Hall 2)
www.thesagegateshead.org 0191 443 4661

Saturday 28th January Coventry Warwick Arts Centre
www.warwickartscentre.co.uk 02476524524

Monday 30th January Cambridge The Junction
www.junction.co.uk 01223 511511

Tuesday 31st January Nottingham Glee Club
www.glee.co.uk 0871 472 0400

Wednesday 1st February Norwich Norwich Arts Centre
www.norwickartscentre.co.uk 01603 660352

Thursday 2nd February London Shepherd’s Bush Empire
www.seetickets.com

Saturday 4th February Brighton St Georges Church
www.ticketweb.co.uk 01273 606312

Sunday 5th February Bristol The Fleece
www.ticketweb.co.uk 01179 299008

Monday 6th February Manchester St Ann’s
www.ticketweb.co.uk 08444 771000

Tuesday 7th February Liverpool The Capstone Theatre
www.thecapstonetheatre.com 0151 709 3789

Wednesday 8th February Lancaster Lancaster Library

http://www.seetickets.com/Event/KING-CREOSOTE-JOHN-HOPKINS/Lancaster-Library/595232

Thursday 9th February Leeds City Varieties
www.cityvarieties.co.uk 0113 243 0808

Interested in jazz music? Want to learn more about how a production company works? Want some hands on experience in Production, Communications and/or Development? Want to work with the likes of Ornette Coleman, MOBO winners Kairos 4tet, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Ben l’Oncle, Nik Bartsch and Stefano Bollani to name just a very small few?  Well then, this is the job for you!

The London Jazz Festival, in association with BBC Radio 3, is seeking volunteers to work with music production company Serious on the delivery of this year’s Festival. London Jazz Festival is London’s biggest city-wide music festival and bring together established stars and emerging talent, reflecting the traditions of jazz and illustrating its breadth and depth. LJF’s programme is made up of premieres, commissions, one-off collaborations, talks, family events, workshops and a fantastic Jazz for Free series. There are 280 concerts in over 50 venues taking the Festival to venues right across London.

Continue reading to find out more…

The role

Serious are seeking volunteers to work hands on in their team on the delivery of the Festival, which this year runs from Friday 11 – Sunday 20 November 2011. We require volunteers be available for a minimum of four days.

There are opportunities to volunteer in three separate areas of the Festival:

Communications: here you will assist the communications team with merchandise, the Festival information stands, guest lists and press liaison.

Production: here you’ll provide general running support to the production team

Development: here you will support the development team in delivering sponsor and supporter receptions

If you have great face-to-face and verbal communications skills, enjoy being in a busy creative environment and would like to volunteer please email Amy Pearce, Associate Director – Production on production1@serious.org.uk with a CV and covering letter illustrating:
1/ why you would like to volunteer
2/ what skills you could bring to the Festival
3/ what days within the Festival you would be able to work
4/ which, if any, specific area of work you are interested in

Timeline
The closing date for applications is 10am on Monday 17 Oct.
Successful applicants will be contacted by Tuesday 19 Oct.
Interviews will take place on Thurs 20 Oct.

Applications are welcome from those who can demonstrate a significant reason why they would be unable to interview on this date.

Serious is committed to equal opportunities in recruitment and employment, and embraces diversity of all kinds. Appointments are made on merit. We will be able to reimburse the cost of a Travelcard and a reasonable evening meal.

Wild Beasts are to release Reach a Bit Further as the next single from their widely acclaimed top twenty album, Smother. Reach a Bit Further is an exercise in the happy / sad love song built around Benny Little’s exquisite guitars, cathartic call and answer vocals from Hayden Thorpe / Tom Fleming and a distinctive galloping drumbeat from Chris Talbot. The single will be available on 14th November via digital download. Click below for your exclusive listen!

Wild Beasts – Thankless Thing by DominoRecordCo

Fancy honing your skills as a music journalist? Step right up, this is the competition for you!

Aspiring jazz and music writers looking to grow their skills are invited to apply to this year’s series of The Write Stuff, the new writers initiative that is held during the London Jazz Festival in November 2011.

Now in its ninth year, The Write Stuff is run by the London Jazz Festival in association with BBC Radio 3 and Jazzwise Magazine, giving new writers the opportunity to work with professional journalists to improve their writing skills and develop an understanding of jazz criticism and the music press as well as getting to see a stack of concerts!

The Write Stuff will include sessions on feature writing and live reviews by Jazzwise writer and BBC broadcaster Kevin Le Gendre; an insight into the history and development of the UK jazz and music press with Jazzwise editor Jon Newey; online journalism with Jazzwise and Time Out’s Mike Flynn and input from other writers and jazz industry figures.

Previous participants have come to The Write Stuff with a wide variety of different experiences. Several have gone on to have pieces published in The Guardian, The Wire and Jazzwise as well as work within the wider jazz and broadcasting industry. This year’s participants will have their work posted on both the Jazzwise and LJF’s websites and one review considered to be of particular merit will be published in a subsequent edition of Jazzwise.

If you are interested in participating in The Write Stuff, please email our very own Feature’s Editor Louise on louise.musos@gmail.com. She’s looking for a submission of 300 word review of a gig/concert that you’ve recently seen, a paragraph explaining what you’ll hope to gain from the experience and your CV by Monday 5th September.

For more information, check out the London Jazz Festival’s website at http://www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk/

NB Applicants must be 18 years old or over and be available in London on the following dates: Friday 11 November (evening); Saturday12 November (daytime) 16-18 November (evening) 19-20 November (day and evening).

Like the sour-faced girl at the back of the class, muttering about the beetle blood in your lollipop, Morrissey has turned his spite to the Norway tragedy of last week.

Performing in Warsaw on Sunday 24 July, two days after the massacre that left nearly 80 dead, Morrisey told the crowd: “We all live in a murderous world, as the events in Norway have shown…

Though that is nothing compared to what happens in MCDonald’s and Kentucky Fried S**t every day.”

You’re a vegan, we get it.

Over five million died in Poland during World War II, why not tie that into the real contents of the hot dogs you get at the fairground while you’re at it, Moz?

The Independent Music Podcast came from a bout of mutual frustration on Twitter between @GarethBearded and @MonoMusic, better known as Gareth Main and James Elliman, over the lack of dedicated new release radio. They both wanted a podcast that hand-picked some of the best releases of the week and delivered them to your ears every week.

After throwing a few ideas around, they conjured up the Independent Music Podcast, a weekly programme, downloadable free of charge, that showcased some of the most interesting independent music from around the world. The only rules were that the releases were 100% independent of major record labels, had a release either digital or physical and were interesting.

The show is presented by Gareth Main and Anthony Chalmers, Gareth brings along a selection of the week’s new releases, whilst London-based promoter Anthony brings along some tracks from his favourite unsigned bands and works in progress.

You can stream it from Mixcloud, or download it from iTunes - your call. It’s got the MG seal of approval…

R. Kelly

We’ve just found out that the incredible R.Kelly has announced dates where he’ll hit the UK for the first time since 2002, taking on Manchester, London (twice!) and Wolverhampton.

His first UK shows were at the Hammersmith Apollo way back in 1992, and it’s where he’ll be again come April. It’s a revisiting of his peak, through shows that’ll hopefully blow our minds.

Think about a 20-year career taking in such heights as ‘She’s Got That Vibe’, ‘Bump ‘n’ Grind’, ‘Ignition (Remix) and the frankly barking Trapped In The Closet series and we’re pretty sure you’ll find yourself in a tizz about the whole thing.

Here’s when it’s all a-go:

5 April Manchester  Apollo

11 April Wolverhampton Civic Hall

Just visit here for tickets, innit.

Joanna Newsom

Elfin goddess come sometime child neglecter, Joanna Newsom, is being cryptic again.

Following the announcement that she’s to tour Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and North America for the early part of this year, another clue in the form of a doodle appeared via the Drag City website, with the date of the 23rd of February apparent in the corner.

While initially there was no official report confirming any new releases from Newsom this year, during an after-party in Tokyo she let slip to fashion rag Vogue that a new album was indeed on the way.

This morning via her Australian label, Spunk, Have One on Me was confirmed for release February 19 in Oz, and the 23^rd for everyone else.

Laura Marling

At Glasgow’s The Arches yesterday, Laura Marling revealed that she’ll be releasing a Christmas single on December 21, which will also be on her as-yet-untitled second album (due out March 1), entitled I Speak Because I Can.

The single will be called ‘Goodbye England, Covered In Snow’.

This is all we have for you at the minute but we know that this kind of snippet will have a warehouse-full of you in a tizz so we had to share…