While a posting on the official Delerium website said the upcoming album will be a return to the old-school Delerium sound (”think ‘Stone Tower’ with vocals”), the new single, “Dust In Gravity, ” is far from that. Featuring Kreesha Turner on vocals,the song is VERY commercial sounding, very much in the vein of recent efforts by Delerium and member Rhys Fulber’s “Conjune One” side project. For those unfamiliar with the band, Delerium was initially one of many side projects from Front Line Assembly members Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber. Early efforts, released on Dossier, were very dark, atmospheric soundtrack-style recordings. 1990’s “Syrophenikan” is my personal favorite from that era. Moving to Nettwerk in 1994, the Delerium project gradually shifted to a more vocal-driven, commercial sound. Guest vocalists have included Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer), Julee Cruise, Matthew Sweet and Sarah McLachlan. It’s a far cry from the heavy industrial/electronic sound of Front Line Assembly, and long time fans will find little resemblance between current Delerium music and the early work of Leeb and Fulber. Still, “Dust In Gravity” is slick and catchy, and should not disappoint fans of recent Delerium/Conjune One fans. It will be interesting to see if any of the upcoming album IS reminiscent of Stone Tower (which was one of the darker ambient releases) and if so, how it might meld elements of old and new Delerium.

The “Dust In Gravity” single is available through online music stores such as itunes and emusic. If you’re not currently a member of emusic, you get a free 25 download trial and help support Chaos Control in the process! (downloads are yours to keep even if you cancel). To preview the song, check out the audio player below.

Delerium – Dust In Gravity by nettwerkmusicgroup

With his various projects over the years, former Bronski Beat / Communards vocalist Jimmy Somerville has done some great cover versions (The Communards “”Don’t Leave Me This Way” is a personal favorite of mine.) So the fact that Somerville would eventually do a covers-only release comes as no surprise. But what is unexpected is that the resulting collection, “SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER,” was done acoustically  and does not lean towards just disco hits. According to an interview on German fan site jimmysomerville.net, the album came together spontaneously while Somerville was performing a series of acoustic shows in Australia. With a studio and musicians at his disposal for 6 days, he picked out a bunch of songs from his iTunes library and ended up with the album.

The tracklisting is as follows:

“Suddenly Last Summer” is available exclusively as a download (from most major only music stores.) Below is the video for “People Are Strange.” Be sure to also check out our  1999 interview with Jimmy .

Foetus (aka J.G. Thirlwell) is back with a new CD/DVD set entitled LOVE.

“LOVE is a sweeping dramatic epic drenched in harpsichord and orchestras with jarring left turns, bombast and seduction. It features duet with Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields and an appearance by the amazing Pamelia Kurstin, the world’s foremost thereminist!

“It also comes with a DVD containing 3 videos from LOVE including Blessed Evening directed by Karen O (YeahYeahYeahs) with director of photography Spike Jonze, and (not adam) directed by Jeremy Solterbeck, with trailers of the J.G. Thirlwell-scored Venture Brothers (currently airing on Adult Swim/Cartoon Network), as well as classic early live footage, the Rotoskop video Mary Magdalene featuring JGT, a video meditation on the song How to Vibrate by Kurt Ralske, never before seen footage from upcoming J.G. Thirlwell documentary and much much more! and lets not forget the deluxe 12 page booklet!”

The new release is available from the Foetus online shop at www.foetus.org. It’s priced at $14.00 plus/postage handling, and comes with a free sticker.

• Click to read a 2002 interview we did with Thirlwell
• Official Foetus website

Gary Numan has really been hit and miss over the years. He’s never put out a completely BAD album, but when not in top form can be a bit on the bland side. Fortunately, this new release ranks up there as one of his best since the early 80’s. “Jagged” is a very dark and aggressive album, but the production keeps the thrashing guitars and industrial noise restrained enough for Numan’s distinctive voice can really shine. The occasional generic sounding guitar riff brings things down a bit, but overall the disc has some great sweeping choruses and strong melodic hooks. “Jagged” is a very solid release that should satisfy long-time fans and appeal to anyone who likes dark electronic/rock hybrids. Just don’t expect the next “Cars,” as Numan is definitely NOT on the retro bandwagon.

• LISTEN TO & BUY THE CD from Amazon.com
• Click here to read an interview we did with Gary Numan in 2000.