Bombay Bicycle Club have announced their long awaited headlining North American tour. Kicking off in San Diego on February 14th, the cross country run will wrap on March 10th in Philadelphia and includes a stop in Winnipeg at the West End Cultural Centre on February 25th, 2012. These are the first North American dates since the band’s short tour with Two Door Cinema Club this September. Tickets for all dates are on sale now. This is a hot ticket for fans who’ve had only rare opportunities to experience the band’s live set that has wowed audiences throughout Europe. Bombay Bicycle Club’s new album, A Different Kind of Fix, is set for physical release in the U.S. on January 17th, 2012 via A&M/Octone. A Different Kind of Fix has just finished in Q magazine’s and NME magazine’s top 20 albums of 2011.
There are few things in music more exhilarating than the sound of a young band in a hurry. Velocity, hunger, surprise: these are the qualities that keep a band interesting. Bombay Bicycle Club’s third album in as many years reminds you there was a time when new bands put out a record every year or so, each one expanding their territory and making listeners reassess their assumptions. As its title promises, A Different Kind of Fix is not at all what you’d expect. It is the sound of a band throwing the doors wide open and confounding all preconceptions.
The band members have never wasted much time. Frontman Jack Steadman, guitarist Jamie MacColl (grandson of folk legend Ewan), bassist Ed Nash and drummer Suren de Saram formed the band at school in north London in 2006. They won a competition to play at that year’s V festival, released two EPs the next year and wrote their debut album, I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose, while still at school. It came out in 2009 and went gold.
Most bands would take a year or so to regroup and plot their next move. Instead, Bombay Bicycle Club took a left turn and released 2010’s Flaws, an acoustic second album which grazed the top 10 and was nominated for an Ivor Novello award.
Bombay Bicycle Club’s third album in as many years bears the influence of J Dilla’s instrumental hip hop and Flying Lotus’s fidgety electronic. In a dramatic sound departure from Flaws, the band reconnected with producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian) and Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley, M.I.A) and had the album mixed by Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Portishead, The Horrors). The first single Shuffle compresses hip hop breakbeats, highlife guitars, chopped-up piano samples and the campfire psychedelia of Animal Collective.
“Bands these days get so pigeonholed by their first album, which 40 years ago was not the case, but we’re constantly trying to find the kind of music we want to make,” says Jamie. “And I’m not sure we’ve discovered that yet.” A Different Kind of Fix is a watershed for the band: not just their best record yet, but a promise of still better to come.
"One of Britain's greatest bands, BBC keep getting better"
- The Sunday Times
