First and foremost: The East Wing has been quarantined for the forseeable future. We hope you enjoyed the exhibits while they lasted (and if not, more fool you), but the bloodwork was getting increasingly haphazard and the less said about the gallery attendants the better.

Moving on.

We performed live in September (on account of being a pop group with a new album out).

The delightful Aneta Jarzebska joined us on stage for corporeal bass destruction and white noise making. Very nice to have her along for the ride. Setlist (for those who worry about such matters) comprised

1. The Youth Remain Unbroken/Good Design
2. Filthy/Dirty
3. Vampires
4. Money
5. Burning Down The Witch House
6. We Hate You Little Mix (oh, the hilarity).

The charming and erudite Sir Francis Alford was also on hand to capture the happy occasion on camera. His visual reportage can now be found in the (recently refurbished) Photography section.  Our thanks, as always are due.

In other news, we’ve also reupholstered the website (up to date sections for all our criminal records) and a temporarily up-to-date Biography. Catch em’ while you can.

More live dates are rumoured (if we can try and get all three/four members of the collective in the same room this side of the Pagan Festivities).

More to follow anon.

Babyslave – Songs That Won The War. Released today via Valentine Records. Download it here

Ok, let’s start with the single:

Lead track Filthy/Dirty isn’t what you expect:  This is a tighter/more stripped down Babyslave than you’ve ever heard before – 3 minutes of in-your-face intent with the core elements of the Slave sound (sax, bass and pounding drums) brought right to the fore. Lyrically it’s a poisoned love-letter between two sadists. Or submissives. Or (more likely) both.  Charlie Machine will explain later this week….

The EP also includes two radical reworkings from the parent album in the form of Shirokuma’s ‘Westminster Funkthrobber’ deconstruction of Vampires alongside Daniel Maze’s speaker-troubling meltdown of the aforementioned Filthy/Dirty

Our thanks, as always are due…

Last but not least is the exclusive Burning Down the WitchHouse (which is either a homage/parody/denouncement of the Drag/Occult/Haunted House genre).  Make up your mind.

Burning Down The ▲ House is released via Valentine Records at Midnight on September 11th 2011. Date-related coincidences entirely intentional…

Babyslave – Burning Down The ▲ House EP – Download here

Expect fatalities. Tickets are available Here

Oh, and there’s a box-set they’re releasing that night which features a couple of old Babyslave tracks alongside a new/exclusive thing we wrote last month called Speak and Spell. It’s not on the album

Speaking of troublesome offspring..

Muthi Girls has been the subject of some contention since it was first plucked from the ether… In the end, even Miss H got bored of complaining about it and allowed it’s inclusion (if only to stop Messrs Lucifer and Machine from making jokes about lost orphans and ‘finding a home for Muthi Girls’). For the record it has nothing to do with Paul Simon and everything to do with William Bennett (or perhaps the other way around).

Does He Tek Sugar? Given this rather peculiar double-helix/trainwreck of a composition we are still (as yet) undecided. Give it a listen or three – perhaps you could help advice us on this pressing concern?

Go seek it out here

Babyslave – February 2011

A very sad day indeed. An incredible artist, musician, thinker and gentleman. RIP Sleazy

As things stand there will be 14 songs including Filthy/Dirty, Vampires, Berlin Phase and Europe After The Rain (all confirmed and through to the grandmaster final).

There’s also a couple of ‘difficult’ tracks (isn’t there always?) which we’re going to try and bring to heel in the next few weeks, but in the main it’s pretty much ‘in the bag’ (so to speak).

Gigs? Well, yes we promised some of those a while ago. But then Miss H ended up getting asked to tour Germany (how could she refuse?!) while Messrs Lucifer und Machine appear to have got sidetracked with their new (non-ironic) heavy metal project: Chalice. More on that to follow..

However… we (i.e. Babyslave) will absolutely definitely be doing a couple of 3.0 ‘roadtest’ live appearances this side of the pagan festivities.

Oh, and there’s going to be an ‘interim’ EP to keep everyone amused while we’re rearranging the proverbial deckchairs. Watch this space…

Following the relaunch of Valentine Records Plc he’s also reverted to his Joe Ladyboy moniker to present Excursions – an album containing both soundtrack material and 10 tracks recorded whilst travelling around Europe last summer. Each of the 10 was written/recorded and mixed in a specific European City (including Berlin, Prague, Amsterdam and Venice) and features field-music collaborations with Sven Schlijper and Manami N (amongst others). Both are available from the Valentine Records Shop alongside a special week-long blog describing the making of the album which can be read here

Today’s Riot Act Comprises the Following:

1: The East Wing (we bought a mansion/slaughterhouse/menagerie:
Let’s just say it’s got some ‘history’).
2: The Arc Delirium: We made an album last year. Take Note
3: Charlie Machine watches the watchmen
4: We will be playing live very soon. Details to follow
5: I Lucifer hates Javascript
6: Hypnotique doesn’t mind it (dust notwithstanding)
7: The new Chris Morris film is supposedly quite excellent
8: Deleted for reasons of National Security
9: Kill for Dada
10: The Now Brigade Shall Rise Again