From BBC.co.uk:
The UK Film Council is to be axed as part of a cost-cutting drive by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), it has been announced.
The organisation, founded in 2000, had an annual budget of £15m to invest in British films and employed 75 people.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he wanted to establish a “direct and less bureaucratic relationship with the British Film Institute”.
The new Autolux album has taken ages to come out because, as their website put it, they were busy “getting the business end of the music squared away”. A few weeks ago, a 128kbps version leaked. I’m no audiophile, but even I chose to hold out for something better. Checking in to one of my favourite forums tonight, I discovered that the album had finally become available to pre-order.
The band have chosen to release the album with Topspin – who I’ve blogged about before. They’re fast becoming a favourite among artists that want to stray from the archaic record company format, and offer their fans variety and control over what they buy. Topspin have an excellent reputation for paying their artists well, and they provide excellent customer service to the fans. It is good that they are growing.
The site says that the album will be released on the 30th July, but on paying for the digital release (a measly £5) I was sent a download link instantly. I’m copying it to my desktop right now.
This will be the first time I’ve paid for an album before listening to more than one song in a long while. I’m excited.
- We Are Scientists – UK tour in November in support of their latest album Barbara
- Belle and Sebastian – currently recording a new album which they will debut in December
- 1-2-3-4 Festival – on sale at 12.34pm (get it?) tomorrow. Some people you’ve never heard of, but will pay hand over fist to see in years to come.
- Man Ray artwork made from coathangers found in somebody’s attic
- That Mitchell and Webb Look is back on BBC2 every Tuesday night – and it’s still A Bit Like Fry and Laurie.
- Ever wanted to look closer at the IT Crowd set? Now you can – and purchase some of it for yourself.
And in quite a timely manner, here’s David Mitchell’s latest podcast on climate change:
David discusses why tackling climate change is always presented to us by people who either tell us off or patronisingly try to convince us that tackling it is “cool” or “fun”, when actually it’s just something we have to do, because of facts.
Some interesting information on this one:
- The Icelandic Volcano saved the airline industry over 200,000 tons of carbon emissions
- Cattle produce 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
- If the US went vegetarian for 7 days they would save 700 megatons of greenhouse gas – the equivalent of taking all the cars off the road.
- NASA space launches provide only 0.003% of th ecarbon emissions generated by the US automobile industry
- Travelling economy for a 1000km flight creates 60% less CO2 than travelling first class
- Qatar Airways are about 4 times more carbon-friendly than United Airlines
Read more on the click through:
Press Release:
Robbie has teamed up with Gary Barlow on his next single, Shame, which is not only co-written but also performed with his former bandmate. The duet between the two superstars is set for release on 4th October later this year and working on this track is the first time the two have written and recorded together since Robbie left Take That back in 1995, that’s 15 years ago!
from the website:
Welcome to PEACE, the first music atlas in the net, coproduced by Buffetlibre and Amnesty International Catalunya. Just make your donation and download the full mp3 compilation, with 180 exclusive new songs by artists from more than 50 countries. The collected money will be used for AI’s investigation and action campaigns aimed at preventing cases of Human Rights abuses around the world. Enjoy!
The full line-up is below. All 180 songs can be purchased for a measley 5 euros – less than 3p per song. If you’ve torrented from any of the artists below, this is probably the most economical way to pay them back.
NORTH AMERICA:
USA: Micah P. Hinson And The Pioneer Saboteurs, Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3, Ra Ra Riot, Plushgun, Crocodiles, Dan Deacon, Voxtrot, Marissa Nadler, A Place To Bury Strangers, The Antlers, Asobi Seksu, The Spinto Band feat. The Beast Pageant , Port O’Brien, Bart Davenport, Dent May & Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City , KI: Theory, Mike Viola, Her Space Holiday, Pretty & Nice, Sic Alps, Blacklist, DeLeon, Gala, Jeffrey Lewis, Gregor Samsa, Thao + The Get Down Stay Down, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Still Flyin’, Softlightes, Princeton, Odyzë, This Will Destroy You, Cruel Black Dove, Avian X
CANADA: Apostle Of Hustle, Buck 65, Malajube
MEXICO: Mexican Institute Of Sound, Hello Seahorse!, Sussie 4
CUBA: Martha Galarraga
SOUTH AMERICA:
BRAZIL: Bonde Do Role & DJ Chernobyl
CHILE: Javiera Mena, Francisca Valenzuela, Dj Raff
COLOMBIA: Frankie Jazz
BOLIVIA: Surfin Wagner
ARGENTINA: Entre Rios, Manosanta
VENEZUELA: Fordelucs, Kid606 feat. Barbara Panther
EUROPE:
UK: Marc Almond, 4hero, Mogwai, Patrick Wolf, Dubstar, Rose Elinor Dougall
Si Begg, frYars, Gyratory System, Darren Hayman, Cicada, Lucky Soul, Official Secrets Act, The Ultrasonics, Trouble Over Tokyo, The Boy Least Likely To, You Love Her Coz She’s Dead, Catherine A.D.
BELGIUM: Vive La Fête, The Neon Judgement, Girls In Hawaii
AUSTRIA: Fennesz, a life a song a cigarette
GREECE: Marsheaux, Mikro
NORWAY: Rockettothesky, Ane Brun, Ingrid Olava
GERMANY: Stereo Total, Ascii.Disko, Console, Escape With Romeo, Jeans Team, Kissogram, Maral Salmassi & Zero Cash, Kitbuilders, Locas In Love
FRANCE: Tahiti 80, Black Strobe, The Toxic Avenger, Titi Robin with Karim Sami “Diabolo”, The Delano Orchestra, Amélie-les-crayons, Saï Saï, My Broken Frame, Debmaster
FINLAND: Jori Hulkkonen
GREENLAND: Angu
DENMARK: Cartridge, The Broken Beats
ITALY: Dusty Kid, Amari, Amycanbe, Le Man Avec Les Lunettes, Perturbazione
IRELAND: Hystereo, Mundy
ICELAND: Amiina & Kippi Kaninus
HUNGARY: We Plants Are Happy Plants
SWEDEN: I’m From Barcelona, Peter Von Poehl, Napoleon, Lacrosse
FINLAND / GERMANY: AGF/Delay
SERBIA: sevdahBABY
PORTUGAL: X-Wife
NEDERLANDS: Don Diablo, Marike Jager, a balladeer
SWITZERLAND: Heidi Happy feat. Paul Niehaus (Calexico), Low Motion Disco
SPAIN: Miqui Puig, We Are Standard, Olimpic, Boat Beam, The Requesters, After After Hours, The Pinker Tones, Triangulo De Amor Bizarro, Elastic Band, Undo, The Amplid, Niki, Chinese Christmas Cards
RUSSIA: Tesla Boy, Cut2Kill
TURKEY: Gooseflesh
ASIA:
JAPAN: Ryuichi Sakamoto featuring Christian Fennesz
TIBET: Loten Namling, Karjam Saeji, Techung
CHINA: The Pet Conspiracy
HONG KONG: The Marshmallow Kisses, Tramgirl Karaoke Club feat. maskopet
REPUBLIC OF KOREA: EE
ISRAEL: Ivri Lider, Tamar Eisenman, Karni Postel, Nico Teen, The Biting Sheep
ISRAEL / FRANCE: Keren Ann & Shlomi Shaban
INDONESIA: Mocca, Efek Rumah Kaca, White Shoes & The Couples Company
INDIA: Motherjane, menwhopause, Shaa’ir + func
IRAQ / DENMARK: Aida Nadeem
IRAQ / USA: Salaam
IRAQ / FRANCE: Aïwa
PALESTINE: CultureSHOC
THAILAND: Cyndi Seui
SINGAPUR: sonicbrat
AFRICA:
SENEGAL: Malick Pathé Sow
TUNISIA / ALGERIA: DuOud
ALGERIA: MHD, Maghrebika feat Bill Laswell, Baâziz
GHANA: Wanlov The Kubolor
MALI: Vieux Farka Touré
UGANDA: Seby Ntege
EGYPT: Bikya
SOUTH AFRICA: Mujava feat Nonsense
MOZAMBIQUE / SOUTH AFRICA: 340ml
CONGO: Kiala
OCEANIA:
NEW ZEALAND: The Veils, The Phoenix Foundation
AUSTRALIA: Jeremy Fowler, An Horse, Operator Please, Birds Of Tokyo, Aeons
Life, which makes stuff worth blogging about, is preventing me from blogging. April/May in brief brings death, a holiday to Greece, nightclubbing, and interesting websites that have been stumbled on. A note about maps will soon be required.
/microblog.
