Far from being a break from the grim reality of 2020, 2021 seems to have started as an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire scenario for a lot of people. We really hope that you are coping okay and getting whatever support you need. Speaking for ourselves, music’s importance has never been greater to us than in the present.
As you might be aware, one of the results of Brexit is that UK bands, particularly those at our level, will no longer be able to afford to tour Europe. As it stands, UK artists touring Europe will now need to pay for work permits, ATA Carnets (£360), EORI numbers to sell merchandise and much more.
This is devastating news for bands like us. Touring is freedom and liberation. It offers us the chance to meet new people and forge new friendships. It gives bands like us the opportunity to try and reach new audiences and to break down borders and barriers in a way that only music can. Music unites us in a way that politicians and bureaucrats never can.
We have written to our local MP Rachel Reeves to ask her to put pressure on the UK government to enter into urgent negotiations with the EU regarding the introduction of a Musician’s Passport; a reciprocal, free, work permit-free, carnet-free, EU-wide touring arrangement that covers musicians and crew.
In other news, Bandcamp Fridays are back in 2021 and we’ll be doing our bit to support other bands and artists on the 5th of February. We released a new album Chemical Reaction on double vinyl and download in June 2020. We also have a range of new tees available, featuring a design by artist Rosie Rackham.
We are HYDED to announce that we will play at El Dorado festival on 4 July this year, amongst an amazing lineup of acts such as Crazy P Soundsystem, Horse Meat Disco, Auntie Flo, Moxie, Purple Disco Machine and more.
We’re excited to announce our headline show at Hebden Bridge Trades Club on 30th August, supported by Mealtime.
Friday 30th August Galaxians + Mealtime + Country Club DJs £8/£10 [+10% booking fee] Doors open 8pm
“A night to remember with amazing live electronic disco-funk-house magicians Galaxians who have been making waves nationwide since the release of their debut album ‘Let The Rhythm In’ with special guests the Manchester 6 piece synthclash band Mealtime and Country Club DJs. Highly recommended!”
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be sharing the stage with NYC No Wave legends ESG on their final ever UK shows on 1 and 2 March 2019. Read on…..
ESG began life when the mother of the Scroggins sisters, afraid of the life of crime and drugs that awaited them on the streets of 70s Bronx, NY, presented her daughters with some basic instruments and encouraged them to make music together to keep them busy. What followed was, quite simply, a musical revolution.
The Scroggins sisters’ unique sound as Emerald Sapphire & Gold, or ESG, immediately spread right across Europe, with Tony Wilson’s FACTORY records releasing their debut EP in 1981. They played the opening night of the Hacienda nightclub, and their live shows have never been anything short of absolutely phenomenal.
They were welcomed into New York’s post-punk and no wave scene but in the end they’d prove more influential than most of their peers. Their style—funky and minimalist with a punkish sense of urgency—would become a key influence on house and the dancey side of indie rock (think LCD Soundsystem and DFA).
This exclusive UK is a rare opportunity to catch one of the most important DIY acts of all time in their native environment, the live stage.
GALAXIANS – LET THE RHYTHM IN
Debut album on Dither Down (Brooklyn, New York).
“A tour de force of exuberant club energy” CLASH
Available from Dither Down Records from 20 October on limited edition gatefold 180 gram double LP.
Pre-order the vinyl and download at Bandcamp. Vinyl available from selected record stores from 5 November.
Produced by Ross Halden at Ghost Town, Leeds 2016. Mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters, Los Angeles. Artwork and layout by Luke Drozd.
Photography by Tim Dunk.
GALAXIANS
(Dither Down / Stargaze)
G_P
(Stargaze)
VIDE0
Brudenell Social Club
19.10.17
8pm
FREE ENTRY
We would like to invite you to party with us as we celebrate the release of our first long player, Let The Rhythm In. The record is our first as a trio and our third release on Brooklyn New York imprint Dither Down.
GALAXIANS
Within the music of Galaxians – the trio of Emma Mason, Matt Woodward and Jed Skinner – lies a powerfully hedonistic strain that does much to loop a thread through the party lineage of their adopted hometown of Leeds. Coupled with the first impressions of what the pair loosely term their “pre-digital dance music”, you might not raise an eyebrow to find out that their cues are taken in-part from classic disco and house labels such as Sleeping Bag or Chicago’s TRAX, nor that their early EPs found homes across the Atlantic on the similarly-minded Dither Down in Brooklyn, and Atlanta’s Rotating Souls Records.
However, it’s the beating pulse of Northern England club life, married with the thriving independence of much of the region’s best venues and spaces that forces its way through on the duo’s debut LP Let The Rhythm In. Recorded at Leeds Ghost Town studio with Ross Halden, the eight tracks come steeped in the Yorkshire city’s less-trumpeted but enduring house heritage – with inspiration drawn from the all-day parties of the late 70s and early 80s, the disco that emerged from the fading Northern Soul movement of the early 80s and the resonant acid house era that boomed across both sides of the Pennines.
Previous 12”’s Galaxians and Personal Disco Component captured much of the lo-fi scuzziness that Galaxians have long-surrounded themselves with – as likely to pop up playing more punk-associated DIY spots like their hometown’s Wharf Chambers as they are in front of the heads at Beat-Herder or late-night with the likes of Horse Meat Disco and Auntie Flo. That raw playfulness in their sound still bubbles beneath the surface, but there’s a whole new fluidity to proceedings, a seamless flow between the rattle and strut of their analogue funk.
If Skinner and Woodward have deftly refined things however, then what’s altered the soundscape unequivocally is the addition of long-time friend and vocalist Emma Mason. Though not a constant, her presence is felt immediately on the opening track Street Level, a powerful, soulful vocal that commands the track in a way that resonates far beyond the relatively brief time she actually appears. On Subway Dancers, meanwhile, the heat and hustle of its bassy propulsion melts beneath the shimmer and sway of the melody.
19.10 LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
20.10 BRISTOL Crofters Rights
21.10 AMSTERDAM Doka (ADE)
22.10 JEUMONT Jardin de l’espérance
24.10 COLOGNE Buhmann & Sohn
25.10 BRUSSELS Bonnefooi
26.10 LILLE Gare Saint Sauveur
28.10 LONDON Total Refreshment Centre
G_P
The artist formerly known as Game_Program, aka multi-instrumentalist and member of Hookworms, Cowtown, and Nope, Jon Nash.
Recent performances have shown a tasteful refining of ideas incorporating lo-fi, lo-slung house grooves, arpeggiated synth lines designed to hypnotise, and classic drum machine sounds. Altogether it’s a sound not dissimilar to artists such as Warp’s Clark and Argentinian DJ / producer Leonel Castillo, though it’s an arguably more soulful listening experience.
VIDE0
Back to basics pop duo VIDE0 comprises song writing partners Alex Brown and Emily Garner, previously of bands Bathymetry and Prowles. Operating in Salford, the pair’s direct, uptempo, fun pop music may come as a surprise given the more whimsical guitar-focused sound of their previous band. However, in reality it’s a logical progression to a more immediate, fully formed sound, expressed for the most part through sparkling synths and riff-heavy bass, accompanied by machine programmed beats and dual vocal melodies. Comparisons to New Order may appear lazy, but there’s a definite link here to the city’s lineage of bass-driven synth pop and post-punk.
We’re extremely excited to be able to announce our involvement in Bluedot festival which takes place at Jodrell Bank Observatory in July.
We’re thrilled to be included on a line up that features some of our favourite current acts such as Stealing Sheep, Lonelady, Floating Points, and Cowtown.
Galaxians have been included in the first wave of acts announced for Dimensions festival, which takes place in a Roman amphitheater in the centre of Pula in Croatia between the 24th and 28th of August 2016.
