News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson

EMI acquires Mute

Daniel Miller.
Photo by: Tobias Seeliger

• London based legendary company Mute is no longer an independent music label. EMI Recorded Music (UK) have announced they purchased record label Mute for £23 million, plus up to £19 million of potential performance-related payments, over a period of four years. The top sales of acts like Moby and Depeche Mode may have helped the sale materialise. Label founder Daniel Miller, will continue to be responsible for all of the company’s global activities. What we ask now is, can Beggars Banquet and 4AD be far behind? /Alex Veronac

Zprochek signs to Prototyp

• The "hard-hitting, fast and furious electrotechno" debut CDM by Zprochek will be out later this year. The newcomers are signed to Memento Materia/Prototyp and will also be released on Synapse Records in Canada. This new act has done a cover of the legendary Klinik's "Moving Hands". /Peter Marks

Moby festival with Bowie

• Moby's travelling music festival renamed Area² is making a return with veteran David Bowie, Busta Rhymes, Blue Man Group, The Doves, Ash and many DJ acts in the techno tent already confirmed. A North American tour starts late July and continues through August with more details to follow. /Alex Veronac

Lollapalooza plans squashed
• Lollapalooza's festival plans have been squashed as a late start has hampered the event's organisers once again. Festival main man Perry Farrell is now looking to 2003 to resurrect the event. See earlier Lollapalooza news here.
By the way, Farrell's main band Jane's Addiction are set to do gigs at Fuji Rock Festival (Japan), Reading (UK) and Leeds (UK) by summer's end. /Alex Veronac

European dates for Siouxsie and the Banshees
• Siouxsie and the Banshees are scheduled to play five European dates. On July 1 they will headline the Athens Rockwave Festival, then concerts in Dublin, Glasgow, Sheffield and London follows. /Alex Veronac, Mikael Kahrle

Launch for Memento Materia newcomers Colony 5

• Now it's launch time for electropop newcomers Colony 5. The longplayer entitled "Lifelines" is now out in Germany. May 13 marks the release in Scandinavia. The band's single "Colony 5" is still on the DAC after four weeks time and the records are released via Memento Materia sub label Prototyp.
Colony 5 will be playing some live dates in their home country Sweden as well as in Switzerland and Belgium. /Peter Marks

Synthpoppers Perfidious Words are "Spreading Silence"
• German synthpop duo Perfidious Words has just released their second full length album "Spreading Silence" on Trisol. The disc contains nine new tracks of moody, mellow synthpop. Perfidious Words debut album "Hydrogen Skies" received mostly positive reviews when it was released a few years ago and "Spreading Silence" will surely please those who appreciated the band's first born. /Niklas Forsberg

Reshaped Coil in search of US promotion for tour
• The English masters Coil are currently looking for a reliable promoter for their upcoming 2003 US tour. Interested parties may contact the band via their web site.
In other news, Thighpaulsandra has rejoined the band and will be accompanying them on tour and in the studio for upcoming shows and releases. One can perhaps consider that this tour will coincide with the release of the long-long-LONG delayed Nothing Records full-length album. /Peter Marks

Go east with Twice a Man
• Swedish electronic music veterans Twice a Man are back with their first album in years. Small Gothenburg based record company Sw/eden now puts out "Agricultural Beauty", an album which is quite different from all previous Twice a Man releases.
It is dedicated to the "view towards the east". Member Karl Gasleben and his friend Zac O'Yeah have travelled through India to collect inspiration and sounds for both a radio program and this album. Most songs offer atmospheric, laidback music built on Zac's lyrics, sung and read by Twice a Man vocalist Dan Söderqvist. Twice a Man are discussing new performances. A review is in progress. /Mikael Kahrle

New Swedish label 23hz gets busy


Project Grudge have a new home.

• After staying quiet for over a year, the new Swedish label 23hz is now announcing upcoming releases.
First we have Russian Tractor, a quartet influenced by as diverse acts like Human League, Depeche Mode, Ministry and White Zombie. Then Fade is a duo from the south of Sweden, and their music is described as a mix of eighties synthpop and nineties goth, resulting in a trip hop-like sound. Finally, we hear that Project Grudge are now signed to 23hz. They produce a heavy mixture of electronica and hard metal. /Johan Carlsson

Informatik for fans of VNV Nation
• US electro act Informatik recently released their new album "Nymphomatik" on Metropolis Records. It's an uptempo album with similarities to both VNV Nation and Assemblage 23. It includes the club hit "Perfect Stranger" as well as remixes by Stromkern and Negative Format. Future pop is spreading throughout the US. /Niklas Forsberg

Jello Biafra legal battle continues


Jello Biafra speaks in Toronto, February 2002.
Photo by: Alex Veronac (Release)

• This is a man known for many debates such as politics, censorship, poverty and US corporate oppression. Jello Biafra was the Green Party vice-presidential candidate behind Ralph Nader in the Gore/Bush Florida election fiasco in November 2000.
His former band, Dead Kennedys performed last in 1986 but recent legal activities by the other three members have them pursuing profits due to Jello not promoting their back catalogue enough. The three won a recent legal decision but Jello has appealed the court decision. East Bay Ray, Klaus Fluoride and D H Peligro of the San Francisco punk band have recently enlisted the talents of former child TV star Brandon Cruz (also known as singer for punks Dr Know) on their recent South American and US live dates. Biafra is suggesting fans boycott the live gigs and music re-releases on Manifesto Records as he thinks they are a karaoke act without punk sensibilities.
Always one with a point of view, Jello recently spoke in Vancouver, Canada. A view archive of his spoken word appearance there can be found here.
Jello speaks in the UK right now, between May 5 and 10. "The Big Ka-Boom, Part One", a new spoken word performance CD is out on Alternative Tentacles. /Alex Veronac

We are back
• The Release office has been closed due to holiday for a couple of days, but now we are back, fully recharged and ready to catch up with the News. /Mikael Kahrle

Godflesh is no more
• After the cancellation of the latest Godflesh tour, the band has now put up a statement on their web page saying that the band is no more. Singer and guitarist Justin K Broadrick had a nervous breakdown prior tothe tour, and has since then decided to call it quits entirely. /Johan Carlsson

De/Vision EP out now and more releases to come



• De/Vision's "Unplugged EP" is out now via Drakkar/BMG in Germany. There are eight songs on the EP, all of them taken from the latest "Two" album. A bonus video track of the single song "Heart Shaped Tumor" is also included.
De/Vision are working on a remix album for July and a new studio album for Spring 2003. And on May 21, two live albums from 1995 and 1996 will see the light of day. The planned single "Lonely Day" will not be released though. /Jens Krause, Mikael Kahrle

Bloodline is dead? Long live Dying Culture
• The German product manager, promoter and man behind Bloodline Torben Schmidt has formed a new label and a new concept under the name Dying Culture. The first releases are the new CD:s of Suicide Commando and XPQ 21. Bloodline stars Funker Vogt and In Strict Confidence have both left the label and started their own labels. At this point we don't really know what will happen with Bloodline. /Jens Krause

Peter Murphy starts world tour

Peter Murphy live at MusiquePlus 2002 yesterday.
Photo by: Alex Veronac (Release)

• Peter Murphy performed as a Metropolis Records artist for the first time last night (May 2) in Montréal, Canada. Murphy performed two new songs for the invited audience members, with his five touring band mates, then went on to indulge us to a third, Cascade's "I'll Fall with Your Knife". The fans were pleased to see Murphy upbeat about his new Album "Dust," his first studio longplayer in over six years. A sound bite from the his CD can be found here. Release will have an interview prior to the Toronto concert on May 6.
Catch our last Peter Murphy news report here. /Alex Veronac

Alec Empire returns with a musical hurricane



• The musical mastermind of Atari Teenage Riot, Alec Empire, returns to the scene with double solo album. The sound of the new album is that of a hardcore, electro-hurricane. The release date for the new Empire album "Intelligence and Sacrifice" is May 27. /Jens Krause

VNV Nation preparing live DVD
• According to Side-Line, Ronan Harris of VNV Nation has announced that a live DVD is coming soon. The announcement came during a concert in San Francisco where Ronan said "this show is filmed for a live DVD". /Johan Carlsson

Release supports new Swedish chart
• Swedish fanzine Popöga has started a new chart called "Swedish Fanzine Chart". On a montly basis the chart is compiled by votes from Swedish based media like ourselves, Close-up, Sonic, Zero, X3M!ST and Ettnollett. The first April album and single charts includes Release acts like Kent, Weeping Willows and Apoptygma Berzerk. VNV Nation and Statemachine landed just outside the chart. /Mikael Kahrle