Rihanna has confirmed she will headline the Super Bowl 2023 halftime show next February, marking her first time headlining the event.

In addition to a statement released by Halftime Show executive producers Roc Nation, Rihanna herself confirmed the news in a post to her Instagram earlier today (Sunday September 25), sharing a photo of an NFL-branded football.

Roc Nation founder Jay-Z called Rihanna “a generational talent”. “[She is] A woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn,” the rapper said. “A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment.”

NFL Head of Music Seth Dudowsky said they were “thrilled” to welcome Rihanna as the Halftime Show’s headliner. “Rihanna is a once-in-a-generation artist who has been a cultural force throughout her career,” Dudowsky said. “We look forward to collaborating with Rihanna, Roc Nation and Apple Music to bring fans another historic Halftime Show performance.”

The Super Bowl LVII takes place on February 12, 2023, at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It will be the first year that Apple Music will serve as a sponsor for the halftime show, replacing the NFL’s long-time partner, Pepsi.

Announced by the NFL last week at midnight (via Variety), the new partnership prompted speculation that Taylor Swift – whose forthcoming album is called ‘Midnight’ – was being considered as a potential headliner.

Those rumours were later reported to be false, Swift said to have turned down the offer because she “didn’t want to perform until she finished re-recording all of her first six albums”.

In 2018, Rihanna was offered the chance to headline the 2019 Halftime Show. She turned the offer down in a bid to show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who was the first NFL player to take a knee in protest against police brutality in 2016.

Notably, Rihanna hasn’t released an album since 2016, when she dropped her eighth studio album ‘Anti’. The artist hasn’t performed live since her appearance at the 2018 Grammy Awards.

Last year’s Super Bowl was headlined by Dr. Dre with special guest performers Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige.

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Smashing Pumpkins brought their new single to the TV this weekend (September 23) – watch them perform ‘Beguiled’ on Fallon below.

READ MORE: Smashing Pumpkins release new single ‘Beguiled’ and tell us about their three-part “rock opera”, ‘ATUM’

‘Beguiled’ was released last week as the first taster of the band’s new three-part “rock opera” album, ‘ATUM’. Following on from 2020’s ‘CYR’, the forthcoming 33-song album serves as a sequel to the band’s classic double records ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ (1995) and ‘Machina/The Machines Of God’ (2000).

Another new song from the album, ‘Empires’, was debuted live at the band’s recent intimate gig in Chicago.

Speaking to NME this month, Billy Corgan explained how ‘Beguiled’ had emerged from around “80 ideas” that eventually turned into “a bunch of different demos; a riff here, a chord change, a little vocal melody”.

“And then you’d go through and say, ‘OK, these are the ones that are gonna work and seem to fit together’,” he recalled.

“I do love the song; we’ve been practising it in rehearsal ’cause we’re about to do a show in a couple of days. It rocks. It’s nice to hear it against all the other classic songs ’cause it holds up really well.”

Watch them perform it on Fallon below.

Discussing the new album at large in the new NME interview, Corgan said: “When you decide to do a three-act, 33-song rock musical in 2022… [Laughs] you’re definitely stepping in it! Because there’s a lot of people who believe less is more these days. I’m on the opposite side – I actually think more is more!”

While ‘Beguiled’ feels like a bold statement of intent, Corgan admitted that there were “probably about seven other songs” that could’ve been used to introduce fans to the ambitious ‘ATUM’ era.

“With 33 songs, I was sort of Switzerland on the whole thing,” he told NME. “I really didn’t get too caught up in what everybody would want. And what was nice was that everybody seemed to want the same track. So if that represents the record for them, then great. But there’s so much music.”

The new album will be previewed on the band’s forthcoming North American tour with Jane’s Addiction.

Smashing Pumpkins will officially kick their tour off at the American Airline Center in Dallas, Texas on October 2. From there, they’ll make their way across the United States and Canada, wrapping up on November 19 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. They’ll be joined by Jane’s Addiction for the whole run, as well as Poppy and Meg Myers on select dates. Tickets are available here.

OCTOBER 2022
2 – American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
3 – Toyota Center, Houston, TX
5 – Moody Center, Austin, TX
7 – Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL
8 – Hard Rock Casino, Hollywood, FL
10 – Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN
11 – State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA
13 – Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT
14 – UBS Arena, Belmont Park, NY
16 – TD Garden, Boston, MA
18 – Capital One Arena, Washington, DC
19 – Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
21 – Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
22 – PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, PA
24 – Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, ON
26 – Bell Centre, Montreal, QC
27 – Centre Videotron, Quebec City, QC
29 – Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Cleveland, OH
30 – Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, WI

NOVEMBER 2022
1 – Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO
2 – Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI
4 – Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
5 – United Center, Chicago, IL
7 – Ball Arena, Denver, CO
9 – Spokane Arena, Spokane, WA
11 – Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
12 – Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA
13 – Moda Center, Portland, OR
15 – Chase Center, San Francisco, CA
16 – Honda Center, Anaheim, CA
18 – Footprint Center, Phoenix, AZ
19 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

The post Watch Smashing Pumpkins bring ‘Beguiled’ to ‘Fallon’ appeared first on NME.

Taylor Swift has reportedly turned down the chance to perform the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show.

The high-profile slot – which was taken in 2022 by an all-star cast of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar – will take place in Arizona on February 12 next year, and recent reports hinted that Swift was set to perform.

However, new reports in TMZ and People suggest that the singer was asked to perform at the show, but has declined the offer in order to continue re-recording her back catalogue.

In 2019, Swift confirmed her plans to re-record songs from her first six records in a bid to take control over her music once again after music manager Scooter Braun and his media holding company, Ithaca Holdings LLC, acquired Swift’s old label, Big Machine Label Group, back in June 2019.

So far, she has released ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ and ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ with a host of outtakes and unreleased songs, while also sharing a re-recorded version of ‘1989’ track ‘Wildest’s Dreams’ as part of a trailer for DreamWorks film Spirit Untamed.

Taylor Swift performs onstage during NSAI 2022 Nashville Songwriter Awards. Credit: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images

Alongside the continuation of the re-recording project, Swift will also release 10th studio album ‘Midnights’ on October 21, which was announced during a surprise appearance from the singer at the MTV VMAs last month.

Swift detailed ‘Midnights’ in the early hours of August 29, after making a surprise announcement at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards less than an hour earlier. While accepting the second of three awards she bagged on the night – Video of the Year for ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)’ – Swift revealed: “My brand new album comes out October 21. I will tell you more at midnight.”

On what to expect from its themes, she wrote: “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching – hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve… we’ll meet ourselves.”

Apart from its thematic concept, few other details are currently known about the singer-songwriter’s 10th album, but she recently revealed that frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff worked on the record.

In the run-up to the album’s release, she has been teasing certain details about the record, including two track titles so far – ‘Vigilante Shit’ and ‘Mastermind’.

Swift also revealed to fans that the back covers for different vinyl versions of ‘Midnights’ come together to make a clockface. Over the past month, Swift has been detailing a host of different editions of the LP version of the album. First came the ‘Jade Green’, ‘Blood Moon’ and ‘Mahogany’ editions of ‘Midnights’, all of which sport exclusive colour schemes, artwork and imagery.

She then revealed a ‘Lavender’ version of the album as part of an ongoing collaboration with Target, then taking to Instagram to reveal that all four collectible editions of the album come with specific back covers that, when placed together, make an entire clockface.

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Gorillaz and Beck debuted a new collaboration at the former’s Los Angeles show this weekend (September 23) – watch them perform ‘Possession Island’ below.

READ MORE: ‘Gorillaz’ at 20: how Damon Albarn’s virtual band shaped music history

Gorillaz will release new album ‘Cracker Island’ on February 24, 2023 via Parlophone (pre-order here) and announced the record recently by sharing latest single ‘New Gold’, featuring Tame Impala and Bootie Brown.

The new Beck collaboration will feature on the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Song Machine, Season One – Strange Timez’, and they performed it for the first time at the gig at Los Angeles’ Forum on Friday night, alongside their first collaboration, ‘Strange Timez’ track ‘The Valley Of The Pagans’.

Elsewhere at the show, Gorillaz performed ‘New Gold’ with Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, and debuted ‘Song Machine’ track ‘Pac-Man’ with ScHoolboy Q.

They also performed the title track from ‘Cracker Island’ with Thundercat and gave a second performance of ‘Rock The House’ with Del the Funky Homosapien, a song that was given its live debut at an earlier show this week, 21 years after its release.

Watch the live debut of ‘Possession Island’ and the other collaborations below.

The virtual band has a host of collaborators on ‘Cracker Island’, their eighth studio album including Stevie Nicks, Bad Bunny, Adeleye Omotayond and more, as well as the aforementioned Beck, Tame Impala and Bootie Brown.

It’s produced by eight-time Grammy Award-winning producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Greg Kurstin along with Gorillaz and Remi Kabaka Jr.

Press material about Gorillaz’s new album states: “Originally based at Kong Studios in West London, the group of musical misfits – Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D – have relocated to Silverlake, California as they recruit new members to join The Last Cult in search of the one truth to fix the world. Reports from the Golden State indicate that Murdoc is in love with the lady next door. Russel is glued to the TV. Noodle is compiling a handbook of wisdom and knowledge. And 2D is busy being 2D.”

Guitarist Noodle said of the their new record: “’Cracker Island’ is the sound of change and the chorus of the collective.” Drummer Russel added: “When the reckoning comes, gotta be ready to step through the gateway. Cracker Island’s got the entry codes…”.

See the ‘Cracker Island’ tracklist below.

1. ‘Cracker Island’ feat. Thundercat
2. ‘Oil’ feat. Stevie Nicks
3. ‘The Tired Influencer’
4. ‘Tarantula’
5. ‘Silent Running’ ft. Adeleye Omotayo
6. ‘New Gold’ feat. Tame Impala & Bootie Brown
7. ‘Baby Queen’
8. ‘Tormenta’ feat. Bad Bunny
9. ‘Skinny Ape’
10. ‘Possession Island’ (feat. Beck)

The post Watch Gorillaz and Beck debut new collaboration ‘Possession Island’ live appeared first on NME.

Aphex Twin has launched a new sample matching app called ‘Samplebrain’ – find all the details and check it out for yourself below.

In a post on his blog, Aphex – aka Richard James – revealed that the software, created by himself and Dave Griffiths, had been in development for two decades, and originally inspired by the emergence of Shazam.

Samplebrain is described as “a custom sample mashing app” that “chops samples up into a ‘brain’ of interconnected small sections called blocks, which are connected into a network by similarity.

“It processes a target sample, chopping it up into blocks in the same way, and tries to match each block with one in its brain to play in realtime.

“This allows you to interpret a sound with a different one. As we worked on it (during 2015 and 2016) we gradually added more and more tweakable parameters until it became slightly out of control.”

Try ‘Samplebrain’ yourself here.

Dave Griffiths and @AphexTwin launch ‘Samplebrain’ – free sound design software, available now.

→ https://t.co/7QKKLKSFHv pic.twitter.com/biGP9sz5G4

— Warp Records (@WarpRecords) September 24, 2022

Explaining the origins of the idea, Aphex wrote: “This idea came about a long time ago, not sure exactly when, 2002 ish but when mp3’s started to become a thing, when for the first time there were a ton of them sitting on my hard drive and the brilliant Shazam had recently launched.
“Started thinking hmm all this music sitting there, maybe it can be used for something else other than just playing or dj’ing [hi Atomixmp3 & rudimentary max/msp patches]I had originally contacted the founders of Shazam to discuss further creative uses of their genius idea but they were busy making an automatic dj program, I still think Shazam could be re-purposed for something incredible but in the meantime we have Samplebrain.”
The questions he asked himself included: “What if you could reconstruct source audio from a selection of other mp3’s/audio on your computer?

“What if you could build a 303 riff from only a cappella’s or bubbling mud sounds?

“What if you could sing a silly tune and rebuild it from classical music files?

“You can do this with Samplebrain.”

The explainer went on: “We soon realised after Dave had started to get things going that with a few cheaty sliders you could actually re-make anything from just one source file, so the options are all there to play with. Since funding this project I seemed to have found very little time to explore it properly and the time has now come to let you lot have a
fiddle with it to.”

Aphex Twin performs live at Field Day Festival 2017. CREDIT: © DavidJensen

Last year, a host of items including old NME magazine covers featuring Aphex Twin were released to mark the producer’s 50th birthday.

The ‘AFX50’ merch line sold by retailer Unified Goods was launched in August 2021 to celebrate the producer’s landmark birthday.

Among the items are old show tickets, original record pressings and promo posters. There is also a series of hats, joining other accessories from the 2018 ‘Windowlicker’ merch collection of beach towels and umbrellas.

2021 also saw Aphex Twin announce that he’s teaming up with the British tech company ODDSound to deliver a pioneering new synth plugin.

The producer is working under his birth name Richard D. James for the MTS-ESP plugin, which is capable of becoming the master tuning device for synth set-ups.

The device has been lauded for its international capabilities, as programming equipment is traditionally centred around the Western tuning system – commonly known as the 12 Tones of Equal Temperament (12 TET).

However, it is said that the MTS-ESP allows the programming to become more flexible for the first time – allowing other international musicians to take advantage of the tools.

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