Pop's eternal outsider Patrick Wolf has announced that he will release his forthcoming return to the charts via Bloody Chamber Music and Bandstocks. Set for a Spring release, Battle is due to see the 25-year-old South Londoner return to an edgier sound after veering off into a pop territory with the release of The Magic Position in 2007.
Wolf spoke about his decision to use the Bandstocks model as a means of releasing the record in a way that was in-keeping with his vision and a move back to independence after the release of The Magic Position through Polydor. For him, this recalls similarities to self-releasing his debut EP which would provide the bulk of a downpayment to go into the studio to record his groundbreaking 2003 album, Lycanthropy.
"My roots in the music industry have always been firmly placed in independent music. As a teenager I was inspired by visionary labels such as Digital Hardcore, Fierce Panda, Planet Mu, and Tigerbeat 6. As an 18 year old, I was given full creative space by the small label Faith and Industry to grow and to make the records and sounds I had to. After two independent releases I decided to experiment to see what would happen when a major label and my third album collided. It was very beneficial and a great learning curve for me, but I am very happy to be back in the creative, free world of independent music; on my own label, Bloody Chamber Music (A bloody chamber being a heart, a tribute to the book "The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter), started earlier this year.
"So, here I am. Album four with my own record label. With the old world recording industry a rapidly sinking ship; recording studios closing weekly, free downloads daily, more musicians hitting the long road than ever before to feed themselves, I am happy to have come across a new intimate system of audience and artist participation called Bandstocks. This will be funding Bloody Chamber Music, and the international physical and digital release of my fourth album, Battle, and its collective singles.
"When I pressed my first EP we made one thousand vinyl copies. We sold these at friends' shops across the UK, and with the money made we funded the mix of Lycanthropy. The music industry needn't be so complicated or Wizard of Oz. It's time to drop the curtain and stop relying on a stale patriarchy. I'm excited, I hope you are too. Welcome to the future!"
Written alongside former Atari Teenage Riot supremo Alec Empire, five of the songs from Battle were recorded in Berlin and inspired by a spell of depression Wolf suffered from a few years back. The record is due to be a two-disc release, one featuring songs of "pure nihilistic battle" and one that captures "pure love".
Speaking to NME.com, Wolf said the following:
"I was having to play songs about a past relationship, I'd been through three management changes, I was breaking up, going insane."
He continues: "I revelled in my depression and began attacking politics and the people around me. It's an aggressive noise punk record."
Click HERE to invest in the project and in the process obtain up-front, exclusive special editions of the record and, as Patrick puts it, an opportunity to "conquer the world together and show that independence and self-sufficiency are the two ways forward and out of the mess the industry is in".
Check back to the site in the coming weeks for more on Wolf's decision to use his fans to help back the record and glimpses of what the new record's going to sound like.
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