The band Blackfield, featuring Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree and Israeli rocker Aviv Geffen, return this spring with their third effort, the cryptically titled, Welcome to My DNA. The album, set to be released on March 28, finds the band back in classic rock/pop form and backed with orchestral textures.
Between this and the previous Blackfield album, Blackfield II, Wilson recorded the solo album Insurgentes and the Porcupine Tree effort The Incident. He also oversaw the 5.1 remixes of the early King Crimson catalog alongside of KC mainstay Robert Fripp. Geffen recorded his first English-language solo with producer Trevor Horn (The Buggles, The Art of Noise, Yes).
A track from the new album, “Zigota,” is a reworking of a song from Geffen’s Memento Mori album from 2002. Blackfield has been known to rework songs from both Wilson and Geffen, most notably “It’s Cloudy Now,” found on the Blackfield debut and was the title of Geffen’s album from 1993.
Blackfield – Welcome to my DNA (Album Montage) from Kscope on Vimeo.
In other reformation/revival news, word got around in recent weeks that Van Halen Mach 4 are headed into the studio with producer John Shanks (Bon Jovi, Take That, Miley Cyrus) to work on their reunion album. The configuration marks the return of David Lee Roth as lead singer, who was briefly reunited with the group in 1996, contributing to their Best Of album’s two new tracks, “Me Wise Magic” and “Can’t Get This Stuff No More.”
The album would be the first not to include Michael Anthony on bass and backup vocals, instead finding Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang in that position. While news of new DLR-sung contributions would ordinarily thrill longtime fans, the contentious relationship between Roth and the brothers Van Halen is legendary. We will hold our breath, cross our fingers, wait and see.
The news, nonetheless, sparked lively conversation around the Popdose watercooler (a.k.a. our Google Staff thread) over who was the definitive lead singer of VH. The decidedly un-scientific results found us split between the two primary vocalists, being very sympathetic to the Mach 3 vocalist Gary Cherone (while agreeing that we never really need to hear VH3 ever again), and being unified with the fact that OU812 is better than you thought it was and, by the way Warner Bros., when are you going to remix and remaster it so it doesn’t sound like sonic crap?
In other news, and in brief, Roxette will release Charm School on February 11. It will be their first album of new material since 2001’s Room Service. Build A Rocket Boys! from Elbow and R.E.M.’s Collapse Into Now both drop on March 7. The brothers Cavalera offer up the second Cavalera Conspiracy disc, Blunt Force Trauma, on the 15th. The return of The Strokes bows on the 22nd, and the album is titled Angles.
Finally, from the “We’ll believe it when we see (hear) it” Department, Damon Albarn, busy bee as he is, says a Blur reunion is not totally out of the question for 2011. With projects like Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad and The Queen still in motion, and the fact that all we got from the last reunion was an all-too-brief tour and the Record Store Day single “Fools Day,” we’re not quite ready to pull out the cassettes of Modern Life Is Rubbish and brush up our Parklife Cockney accents. We hope you’ll understand.
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