Tyneside music firm on track for international success

A Tyneside music company is on track for international success after taking its expertise to the US.

Loft Music, of Newcastle, specialises in the creation of modern contemporary music, which through its partners, it markets directly as album releases as both CDs and downloads. The company also offers a comprehensive service providing music for the television and computer games industries.

The company was keen to broaden its horizons and to identify potential overseas markets, which included the United States of America. The company has already sold three tracks to the producers of CSI Miami and has secured several contracts within the American computer games industry and further contracts are expected.

Andrew Archer, a partner with Loft Music, said: 'UK Trade & Investment helped us to realise just how much potential the USA market offered us... I frequently visited America following up the leads, liaising with the commercial officers there and meeting potential customers... Now things are really taking off. We are about to sign major deals with a company that supplies music to a range of TV shows including 'House' as well as several other computer games companies...We're also selling our own electronic music throughout the US. We're delighted with what we've achieved so far.'

For more information about Loft Music visit www.loftmusic.co.uk

NO-FI co-produce tour for CMN

Two of the UK's busiest leftfield promoters, NO-FI and [no.signal] join forces this September to present Approximately Infinite Universe - A Caravan Of Raw Sound Magic From Finland And The US, an eight-date tour, supported by CMN and media sponsored by The Wire Magazine, which will travel the length of the UK. Featuring special commissions and unique collaborations from some of the most innovative and exciting acts of Finland's underground with the haunting Islaja, the beautifully disorientating Kemialliset Ystavat, the epiphanies of Es and the genius collages of Tomuntonttu (Jan Anderzen) most represented by the influential and exploratory label Fonal.

Tickets available via ticketweb.co.uk, wegotickets.com, venues' direct website and various national record shops.

Visit www.no-signal.net/aiu for more details

iNDEX03 - NEW DiN COMPILATION ALBUM

iNDEX03 is the third DiN compilation album and includes two tracks each from the titles DiN21 - 29. The artists include Robert Rich, Ian Boddy, Tetsu Inoue, Radio Massacre International, Surface 10, Parallel Worlds, Hoffmann-Hoock/Wostheinrich & ARC.

As with the previous two DiN compilation albums, iNDEX01 (DiN10) and iNDEX02 (DiN20), DiN label boss Ian Boddy has mixed and cross-faded the 18 pieces into a continuous ambient mix that not only showcases the albums on the disc but presents an exciting and varied album in it's own right. It also highlights the varied and intruiging music that the DiN label conjures up on it's releases from deep analogue synth grooves through glitchy, digital soundscapes to powerful, epic ambient atmospheres. An intoxicating mix of the old and new beautifully presented in a slimline cardboard wallet with an extra front flap which just adds to the value and collectability of this disc.

www.DiN.org.uk

NEWS FROM KITCHENWARE RECORDS

Sirens new album Say Goodbye To L.A. L.A. Land was released this month and celebrations were in order as their single 'Club LA LA' reached No. 1 on the US national XM dance chart, giving Sirens their first top 25 Billboard Dance hit.

Kitchenware have signed the Bronx rapper Najee who featured on the video for Club LA LA. His debut album West Side Story is currently being mixed in New York.

Also mixing her debut album (and its a stunner) is Karima Francis. Karima played her first Glastonbury last weekend as Editors played for the first time on the Pyramid Stage before heading off to support REM on their european dates.

Also in the studio this week are The Changes and Love Bites And Bruises (formerly The Motorettes) both of whom are demoing tracks for their forthcoming albums.

HYDROGEN SIGN WORLDWIDE THREE ALBUM DEAL WITH DEMOLITION IMPRINT DR2 RECORDS

** FIRST ALBUM, DEADLY PASSIONS RELEASED JUNE 23RD **

DEMOLITION RECORDS would like to announce the signing of Ashland Kentucky based rockers HYDROGYN to the UK based label DR2.

This signing comes on the heels of the band's success with their Billboard charting Bombshell release in 2006, Strip'em Blind Live CD success in 2007, coupled with their relentless touring in Europe over 2007.

"This is exactly what we were looking for, and the label we were looking to do it with." said JEFF WESTLAKE of the band. He also went on to say "We feel Demolition has a great focus on their future, they know what they want to do, and have the unique drive that we were looking for in a label to get the job done."

The deal is a world-wide three album deal that will start with the first of those releases, DEADLY PASSIONS, coming in June, Worldwide. The new album was recorded in Huntington West Virginia's Smash Hits Studio.

Keep your eyes on www.hydrogyn.com and www.myspace.com/hydrogyn for touring developments as we get closer to the release in June.

DEMOLITION RECORDS SIGN WEDNESDAY 13 FOR EUROPE ON NEW LABEL, DR2 RECORDS

Wednesday 13 is pleased to announce that he has partnered with Demolition Records for the overseas release of his upcoming album, Skeletons.

Skeletons, released April 29 in the US and May 12 throughout the UK and Europe, is Wednesday 13's most personal album to date. Although still infused with horror overtones, this album truly delves into Wednesday 13's personal life - past, present and future - as well as his almost life ending depression.

Commented Wednesday 13 "We are very excited to be part of the Demolition family. They have a proven track record and have been very easy to work with. We are even more excited to be one of the first bands on their new imprint label DR2. DR2 is going to focus more on the newer bands, while Demolition will continue to bring the best from the more established artists!"

UK TOUR DATES

12th May 2008 WOLVERHAMPTON, WULFRUN HALL
13th May 2008 NORWICH, WATERFRONT
14th May 2008 LEICESTER, THE CHARLOTTE
15th May 2008 CARDIFF, UNIVERSITY
16th May 2008 EXETER, PHOENIX
17th May 2008 LEEDS, COCKPIT
18th May 2008 SHEFFIELD, CORPORATION
19th May 2008 ABERDEEN, MOSHULU
20th May 2008 GLASGOW, GARAGE
21st May 2008 OXFORD , ACADEMY
1st June 2008 LONDON, LA 2

Visit www.myspace.com/officialwednesday13

New Release - DiN29 Robert Rich & Ian Boddy: React

React is the third collaboration between American ambient pioneer Robert Rich and DiN label boss Ian Boddy. However, unlike their previous two studio outings on the DiN label, Outpost (2001) and Lithosphere (2005), this is a record of their first ever live performance at the Star's End Radio Show 30th Anniversary Celebration Concert in Philadelphia in June 2007.

The duo forge a fascinating sonic collaboration that allows for glimpses of each other's musical personalities to be seen within the evolving musical landscape. Boddy is mainly responsible for the rhythmic content which he mutates and morphs from the sonic input of Rich's MOTM modular system. There are references to a couple of tracks from Outpost (Ice Fields and The Edge of Nowhere) and the title track of Lithosphere but they're presented in a more energised and dynamic version. Meanwhile Rich paints a tapestry of sound with muted keyboards, flutes and his trademark gliss lap steel guitar voicing.

The music ebbs and flows from abstract soundscapes through gentle reveries to up tempo sections that combine thunderous analogue bass and glitchy percussion overlain with a mesmerising mix of keyboards, flutes and gliss guitar. A truly unique concert performance by two of the most accomplished musicians in modern ambient electronica.