RATKING exist as New York’s next great band. Like the Beastie Boys and Yeah Yeah Yeahs – local bands that came together as punks before developing into any sound they want – RATKING manage to mix youthful hardcore energy with pure, NY beats and rhymes in a post-hip-hop crew that could only exist in 2012.

Wiki, RATKING’s 18-year old frontman, grew up in Manhattan, playing Germs covers in his school music room (he has their motto NOGOD tattooed across his chest) in a band called the Homo-Thugs.

At 13 he was spotted in the audience by Wu Tang’s GZA and invited to come up onstage and perform, as GZA proclaimed “Wu-Tang is for the babies”. A star was born.

RATKING’s debut EP wiki93 (produced entirely by Sporting Life) will be released 19 October via Hot Charity/XL Recordings/Rhythmethod..

Houndmouth EP is out now via Rough Trade/Rhythmethod

David Byrne & St. Vincent Love This Giant is out 7 September via 4AD/Rhythmethod

On Friday 19 October 2012, Matador and Rhythmethod will release Banks, the second solo album from Interpol vocalist/guitarist Paul Banks.

With Banks (LP/CD/digital), Paul ditches the Julian Plenti alter-ego, and the resulting ten song album is a tour-de-force of exhilarating minor-key intensity.

Banks was recorded in New York and Connecticut with producer Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, Shearwater, Jónsi). The album is personal and epic, catchy and serpentine – much like your favourite Interpol albums – with Paul’s wry humour, bare emotion, and varied influences all in full effect.

Banks’ first solo album found him assuming the alter ego of Julian Plenti, but now he’s jettisoned this for his semi-eponymous album, Banks, credited to Paul Banks. And where 2009’s Julian Plenti Is…Skyscraper was culled largely from songs pre-dating Interpol (as far back as the mid ’90s),Banks – with all new material written in the past few years (with the exception of ‘Summertime Is Coming’) – is a vivid documentation of Banks in the here and now, and his most abjectly personal work to date. “Yeah, I suppose I wanted to simplify things this time around,” he explains. “Julian Plenti was something that I had to do, but once it was done, I didn’t need to hold on to it. I didn’t want the burden of shtick for these songs. If anything, I’m trying to draw attention away from the notion of a persona this time. I’m just making music and hoping to let it speak for itself.”

Banks track-listing:

1. The Base
2. Over My Shoulder
3. Arise, Awake
4. Young Again
5. Lisbon
6. I’ll Sue You
7. Paid For That
8. Another Chance
9. No Mistakes
10. Summertime Is Coming

Paul Banks Banks is out 19 October 2012 via Matador / Rhythmethod

Dyland Leblanc Cast The Same Old Shadow is out now via Rough Trade/Rhythmethod

The Montreal-based artist – real name Claire Boucher – will play Auckland and Wellington in support of her 2012 record Visions.

Grimes was developed amongst the DIY scene in Vancouver in 2006; a scene where both punk ethos and pop music collide, resulting in a distinct sense of community, religiosity and psychedelic revelry. Via bubblegum and K-Pop, hook heavy electronica and wild Eastern melody, the one-woman force has crafted a sound all her own across three self-produced albums – Geidi Primes,Halfaxa and her most recent, the critically acclaimed Visions – recorded entirely from her Montreal bedroom.

Visions, she says, was “conceived in a period of self-imposed cloistering during which time I did not see daylight”. This nine-day isolation allowed her to reach deep into her subconscious to develop an anthology of tracks that navigates the tricky space between meaningful and danceable perfectly.

Released in March this year via 4AD/ Rhythmethod, Visions set the course for sold-out tours of America and Europe and appearances on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon & Later With Jools Holland. Looping and layering her stratospheric falsetto, Boucher’s hypnotic live shows mix contagious electronica and ethereal melody, with The Guardian naming a recent London performance “an explosion of youthful creativity, without rules.”

As she perpetually evolves and surprises, Grimes’ long-awaited NZ debut comes not a moment too soon. Tickets to all shows are on sale now.

GRIMES NZ TOUR – DECEMBER 2012

Thursday 13 December 2012 – San Francisco Bathhouse, Wellington

Friday 14 December 2012 – Kings Arms, Auckland

TICKETS TO ALL SHOWS ON SALE NOW

Coexists is out September 7th on Young Turks/ Rhythmethod

www.thexx.info for more!

Daughter, the London-based trio of Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella, will release new material later in the year, their first since joining 4AD. A brand new song, ‘Smother’, will be released on 7? vinyl on 28 September. It will come backed with a new version of live favourite ‘Run’.

Listen to ‘Smother’ below.

Only their third release in their short career, the single follows in the footsteps of EPs His Young Heart and The Wild Youth. Elena, Igor and Remi are currently writing and recording their debut album; ‘Smother’ and ‘Run’ offers a tantalising glimpse of what’s to come from the young trio.

Check out www.4ad.com/artists/daughter