Looking Forward To… (2004 Edition)

cLOUDDEAD
cLOUDDEAD

A few days ago, I wrote about the upcoming Bark Psychosis album, Codename:Dustsucker (which, just so you remember, comes out on March 22 on Fire Records). (Note, “Rose” still enthralls me everytime I hear it.) Well, I thought I’d mention a few others releases that I’m excited about, and give you all a heads up for what is shaping up to be a promising year in music. (Please keep in mind that a some of this is just conjecture, and all dates are subject to change… though I hope not.)

cLOUDDEAD will be releasing a new album, titled Ten, in the spring of 2004. I picked up cLOUDDEAD’s self-titled release a few months ago, and it just floored me. Despite being a bit too sprawling in places (due in large part to it being a collection of 10-inch singles the group had previously released), there were many moments on the disc that just blew my mind. Despite being a relative hip-hop virgin, it’s easily one of the most groundbreaking and intriguing hip-hop releases I’ve heard. And based upon what I’ve heard already — check out this MP3 of “Rifle Eyes” — “Ten” is going to be pretty sweet as well.

Not only is Low planning to release a new album sometime in the fall of 2004, but they’ll also be releasing a boxset featuring 3 CDs of b-sides and rarities, a DVD with videos and a documentary, and a 32 page booklet. While I’ve always loved Low, their previous album Trust rekindled my love and I’m excited to hear what they do next. And I’m excited to hear all of those b-sides too, though I doubt it’ll feature the live performance of “Do You Know How To Waltz?” featuring Godspeed You Black Emperor!.

A new MP3 from Starflyer 59 has been circling the net. I’ll confess that Old didn’t do much for me, but the new MP3 has me excited, as it’s more along the lines of the band’s classic/stadium rock phase a la Americana.

In an interview a few months ago, Neil Halstead mentioned that they’d like to try and reissue some of Slowdive’s albums, as well as some unreleased material. It’s not a sure thing, but it IS Slowdive (perhaps the most perfect band to ever grace God’s green earth), and one must always have hope.

Same goes for the My Bloody Valentine boxset/new album. The band was supposedly holed up in a studio re-recording some tracks that were supposed to have gone on 1989’s Glider EP, and was also working on a boxset that should’ve been out by now. We all got our hopes up when Kevin Shields recorded some new material for the soundtrack to Lost In Translation, but alas no boxset appeared. At this point, talking about new music from My Bloody Valentine is one those things you do when you and your music snob friends have nothing better to talk about, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be chomping at the bit if/when the darned thing gets released.

The Cure will be releasing a boxset titled Join The Dots on January 27th. The boxset will contained 4 discs of b-sides and rarities spanning 1978 – 2001, and will be released on Rhino. For a complete tracklisting, check out The Cure’s website.

It’s been awhile since I’ve listened to Soul Whirling Somewhere’s music, but I must confess a slight stirring when I saw mention of “The Great Barrier”, a retrospective of Michael Plaster’s music.

I’ve recently been getting back into Robert Rich’s music, and he has a new album titled Calling Down the Sky coming out in January on Soundscape.

Sigh… looks like I’ll need to start budgeting now.

(For more upcoming releases, check out Brainwashed’s releases page.)

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