Patrick Wolf – Brumalia EP

Patrick Wolf - Brumalia EP

By Paul Faller

Ever the restless creative, Patrick Wolf follows up this year’s full-length album Lupercalia with six brand new tracks, courtesy of a new EP entitled Brumalia. Named after an ancient Roman festival that celebrates winter, the EP aims to offer a contrast to the generally more upbeat nature of Wolf’s last record.

Brumalia gets off to a strong start with ‘Bitten’ – oppressive beats are matched with mournful strings and skittering synths in a style that harks back to Wolf’s work on Lycanthropy and Wind In The Wires. Indeed, trivia fans may be interested to know that this is the first Patrick Wolf recording that he’s played theremin on since he was 13. It’s not just the sonic palette that has a touch of his earlier work about it either – the dark narrative concerning addiction is a continuation of the story of Lucy from ‘Bluebells’, a track which appeared on The Magic Position. … Continue Reading

Patrick Wolf – Lupercalia

Anyone still clinging vainly to the hope that the new Patrick Wolf record will be a return to the darker days of Lycanthropy and Wind In The Wires, please, stop – for your own sake. Indeed, you need only take a look at the cover of Lupercalia to get an inkling that he’s moved on – its stark white on white portrait of Wolf offers a clear contrast to the dark backdrops of his previous records (even the colourful fairground ride on The Magic Position was set against a black background). At 27 years old, Wolf is no longer the lost soul he was on his early records – he’s found love at last, and as such Lupercalia is a journey through the ups and downs that come with it. … Continue Reading

Singles of the Week: 23rd May 2011

Judging by this weeks release schedule, most bands are biding their time for festival season to get into full swing before releasing their summer singles. As such, there’s not a whole lot of action coming our way this week but there are a few gems in the singles that are seeing the light of day.

… Continue Reading

The Weekly Froth – with Wolf Gang, Patrick Wolf and Kim Ann Foxman

Wolf Gang

Our weekly look into the blogosphere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.

Track of the week:

‘Lions in Cages’ by Wolf Gang (Memory Tapes remix)

I assume the moniker Wolf Gang is a reference to he of operatic and composing fame in fair Vienna way back when. Perhaps that is why the piano takes my immediate attention, that and the background vocal haunts that are quite nice. Not that keen on the choir singing, which doesn’t sound as nice as I would want it to sound. Musically though, this is pretty lovely and sweet to listen to. Naturally, this is a Memory Tapes remix, so you can bank on it flowing superbly and being dreamy and ethereal. I mean, I don’t know how he does it, but Dayve Hawk just has such a keen ear for how sounds should merge and mix to make it pretty and like, well, music to my ears. So lovely to listen to this while looking outside with a warm cup of tea in one hand and a biscuit in the other.

http://hypem.com/track/1257961/Wolf+Gang+-+Lions+In+Cages+Memory+Tapes+Remix+ … Continue Reading

The Best Albums of 2009: Editor’s Choice

Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

As a companion piece to our 50-1 countdown that hit the internet gradually over the past couple of weeks (check the top three and work backwards), I’ve decided to do this piece on my own personal top 20. First person writing, the chance to eschew writing as voice of a consensus – my very own top albums of 2009 as some sort of deeper representation of what this here site’s all about.

The order is very loose, and I guess based on factors such as how and how much I enjoyed them. I could probably put these albums in a tombola, get them out re-ordered and still call it a fair representation of my year. That said, the top five would have to be the top five, and in that order. They are five incredible albums that have added a next-level fever to this year. … Continue Reading

The Best Albums of 2009: 30-21

Excuse the hopefully unnecessary patronisation, but if you’ve not read how we got this list (y’know, the formulae and the musoing), then you must! You really. Click here now, go on. … Continue Reading

Patrick Wolf, London Palladium

Patrick Wolf

November 15 2009

For all the flack he gets for being gay, posh and dressing like an idiot, you can’t fault Patrick Wolf’s drive and work ethic. This time last year, he was without a record company – he took his half-finished forth record and completed work on a double album, before splitting it into two discs. The first of these, The Bachelor, was released in June this year, with Wolf having funded the remaining recording work and subsequent promotion through the website Bandstocks. Ever the individual, the album featured dark, camp dance-pop songs and string-drenched epics, managing to end up on the right side – just – of overblown. … Continue Reading

Florence Welch and Alec Empire join Patrick Wolf on stage

Patrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf played a triumphant show at the London Palladium tonight, and the special guests he promised prior to the show proved to be worth the wait.

… Continue Reading

Patrick Wolf to play the London Palladium on Sunday

Patrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf is not only playing the stunning London Palladium on November 15th, but will also be joined by Marc Almond and Alec Empire on stage. The songs will be played with a live string section and gospel choir.

“It is a total honour that I am able to duet with the legendary singer-songwriter, Marc Almond. To me, he is one of the most genius brave and passionate renaissance artists of the last three decades, a total inspiration. He has explored music from Russian folk to Gypsy to being a complete original electronic pop star in his work with Soft Cell.  I met Marc totally randomly last summer whilst finishing off “The Bachelor”, he was moving into the house next door to mine and we bumped into each other on the street, me coming home with my groceries and him moving his furniture in. We hit it off immediately and he has since been a big support and encouragement to me over the last year. With Marc’s amazing new album “Orpheus in Exile” just released and me closing “The Bachelor” album tour in the U.K at the Palladium, it seems perfect for our paths to cross now on-stage. We will be doing two songs together… but time will tell what they may be. Hopefully one from each of our own songbooks. The other fantastic guest will be Alec Empire, flying in from Berlin, we are still preparing our collaboration on the night but it will definitely be a live continuation of the work we have done together over the last two years, representing our co-writes and production on The Bachelor and perhaps one of the forthcoming songs from my next album The Conqueror. To me, Alec is one of the seminal revolutionary beat makers and noise makers around and as always it blows my mind to think we are working together now, when I think back to sneaking in with a fake ID to the London Astoria to see Atari Teenage Riot play, aged 14.” … Continue Reading

Patrick Wolf apologises for tantrum

Patrick Wolf

Oh man. In case you missed that news about Patrick Wolf throwing a massive tantrum at C/O Pop, you may need to familiarise yourself with it before reading this more-hilarious-than-Raygun apology. Lucky for you, it’s right here. And here’s the apology, fully unedited:

“I am very sorry that I became too much wolf on stage at C/O Pop. I was singing Shakira’s new song “She Wolf” and I felt my animal instinct to protect my audience. My music is very tribal at the moment, I feel I am protective of all of them. It had been a very long day. I slept well but woke at 4 am to fly to Cologne to start a full day of back to back interviews and photos. My band and crew were setting up onstage and I had no idea of stage times as I do not wear a watch and wasn’t informed that my set was being cut short before I went onstage by the relevant parties. … Continue Reading