PENDULUM release eagerly anticipated new album ‘Immersion’ on May 24th

A COMPLETE AURAL ASSAULT (NME)
PHENOMENAL DOESN’T EVEN COME CLOSE (KERRANG!)
PREPARE FOR TOTAL IMMERSION (MIXMAG)

PENDULUM are back with their most visceral and enthralling work with the album IMMERSION that’s set for release on May 24th. The album’s first single WATERCOLOUR is due for release on May 3rd.

PENDULUM made one of the biggest breakthroughs of recent years with their hit album IN SILICO. Having sold over 1 MILLION records worldwide, the band completed a sell out Academy tour in 2008 and went on to smash the international festival circuit last summer with killer appearances at GLASTONBURY, DOWNLOAD, V and GLOBAL GATHERING to name a few. Both PENDULUM studio albums to date – IN SILICO and the band’s debut HOLD YOUR COLOUR – have gone Platinum.

IMMERSION heralds a glorious evolution in the PENDULUM sound. Following the cinematic orchestration of opening track ‘Genesis’, the album erupts into life with ‘Salt in the Wounds’ which harks back to the band’s underground drum & bass roots. Those roots are echoed through IMMERSION, with the album’s second single ‘Witch Craft’ and ‘Crush’ both bursting with frenetically visceral beats, while the collaboration with The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett on ‘Immunize’ adds an intense industrial undercurrent to its melodic sonic energy.

Despite remaining loyal to their roots, IMMERSION finds Pendulum embracing a greater sense of eclecticism than ever before. The result of joining forces with Swedish metal kings In Flames on ‘Self Vs. Self’ is a groundbreaking fusion between drum & bass and metal that recalls the great cross-genre evolution that Public Enemy and Anthrax developed on ‘Bring The Noise.’ By contrast, ‘The Fountain’, which features Porcupine Tree leader Steven Wilson, embraces both artists’ eagerness to experiment with progressive arrangements and ambient textures.

The single ‘Watercolour’ finds Rob Swire’s vocals alternating between eerie distortion and full-blooded energy amidst flourishes of horns and an atmospheric, tension building breakdown. The track’s progressive structure highlight’s PENDULUM’s growing strength in constructing contrasting dynamics.

“When we finished ‘In Silico’ there were all these electronic acts that we started to find exciting,” explains Swire of the new album’s direction. “The thing with us is that we always tend to react against the last thing we did.”

Already one of the most anticipated albums of 2010, the excitement building around IMMERSION escalated following PENDULUM’S exclusive album preview DJ set at their EAR STORM night at London’s Matter in January. The set was streamed live to an audience of 200,000, with a total of 350,000 people interacting with the content on the day.

The next stage in PENDULUM’S fiery return comes when they take their brand new headline show bursting with new material around the UK and IRELAND this summer. The tour includes a landmark show at LONDON’s WEMBLEY ARENA and introduces the band’s newest member, the world renowned electronic drummer KJ SAWKA. In addition to the headline tour, Pendulum are also confirmed to stun the festival circuit with appearances at READING, LEEDS, SONISPHERE and ROCKNESS  and will also be special guests at THE PRODIGY’S gargantuan MILTON KEYNES BOWL show.

WWW.PENDULUM.COM

Here's a clip of Ralf Gustke playing our new Byzance cymbal models:

14 Byzance Sand Hat
16 Byzance Flat China
18 Byzance Flat China
20 Byzance Raw Bell Ride
10 Byzance Extra Dry Splash
18 Byzance Extra Dry China
20 Byzance Extra Dry Thin Crash

Meinl Cymbal artist Tommy Clufetos has been super busy recording and rehearsing with metal legend Ozzy Osbourne for the upcoming album Scream and the tour in support of it to follow.

Check out the video for more info.

The results are in for the 2010 Modern Drummer Readers Poll. Congratulations to the following Meinl artists who were voted for!...

ROCK
#2 Barry Kerch (Shinedown)
#5 Ryan Yerdon (Puddle of Mudd)

METAL
#5 Chris Adler (Lamb of God)

EDUCATIONAL PACKAGE
#3 The Language Of Drumming (DVD) by Benny Greb

RECORDED PERFORMANCE
#4 Barry Kerch The Sight Of Madness (DVD) (Shinedown)

It’s been a few weeks since May 7^th and 8^th found Meinl Cymbals at Memphis Drum Shop in Memphis, TN for the store’s first ever Cymbal Summit. We’ve all been travelling since then with a nary a moment to give a solid update of what was simply an outstanding event. But we couldn’t let it pass by without sharing with all of you just how great MDS’ Cymbal Summit actually was.

The Cymbal Summit was the first/only international conference dedicated to the cymbal. Memphis Drum Shop was the perfect host for this event, as the store has one of the most comprehensive selections of cymbals in the world, not to mention one of the most knowledgeable staffs in the world. Select cymbal companies were invited to give a presentation to a select group of summit attendees. Each presentation was designed to educate the attendees on each company.

Meinl employee Gabriel Harris and Meinl Cymbal artist Thomas Lang gave a presentation to attendees on what makes Meinl cymbals different/unique, with Thomas demonstrating each professional series of cymbals in context on a kit. Thomas gave attendees great insight on choosing cymbals and showed how you can really think outside the box when it comes to the application of a cymbal. Thomas also performed with the house band during one of the jam sessions that took place each night. 

In addition to hosting a presentation, Meinl had a booth in the store where visitors could stop by, tap on some cymbals and speak to Meinl employees Brice Foster and/or Gabriel and learn more about the company and its instruments. The Meinl booth was buzzing with excitement all weekend as attendees were checking out the vast spectrum of sounds Meinl has to offer!  The staff at mycymbal.com (Memphis Drum Shops’ AWESOME cymbal website) captured videos of Thomas playing cymbals at the booth as well as some of the attendees that bought Meinl cymbals during the event. 

It was a spectacular weekend to be a part of with a community of drummers that had a special appreciation for cymbals. A BIG thanks to Jim and Nancy Pettit, the owners of Memphis Drum Shop as well as the all of the staff at the store for hosting such a wonderful event. It was truly a world class tribute to that most personal of instruments – the cymbal.

Modern Drummer Festival weekend just passed and it was a great time. Meinl Cymbal artists Chris Coleman (Prince) and Benny Greb were two of the festival's highlights.

Here's just a few pictures from what will be many more to come.

Meinl Cymbal artist and Jason Mraz Drummer never lets up. Here's an update from Mike, letting us all in on what's going on in his life.

Michael Bram Update –

My last update was @ the end of 2009. I had recently returned home to New York from the South American portion of the 2008/2009 world tour as drummer and musical director for Jason Mraz.  After a week break, I spent a week in California w/ Jason and producer Martin Terrefe recording tracks that will hopefully be included on the next Jason Mraz album on Atlantic.

In February, I had the pleasure of going to Austin, TX to hang and record w/ Willie Nelson (release date TBA) for Atlantic records. A great way to start 2010!

 Shortly after that, I was honored to be a part of two recordings in tribute to Sean Costello, a great young blues talent who has passed away too soon.  These recordings were produced by Jon Justice and Dave Gross, two incredibly talented blues musicians. To make the songs even more special, one recording featured multiple Blues Award winner and worldly sage, Watermelon Slim. The other track featured 'Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin (Muddy Waters' right hand man in the 70's and 80's).  Look for the release of the Sean Costello tribute album on VizzTone records.

Another exciting project is a full album’s worth of drum tracks recently recorded in Austin,TX for upcoming singer/songwriter, Shawn Pander. Shawn recently won an ASCAP award and was the John Lennon Songwriting Contest grand prize winner. GREAT SONGS!!! Look for Shawn's upcoming release soon.

 I AM VERY PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF MY NEW WEBSITE!!!! www.mikebram.com  Please go check it out!!!

I was also recently interviewed for American Blues News. Check that out also! http://www.ameriblues.com/2010/05/mike-bram-man-of-many-talents-by-j.html

Now home in New York, I am doing many gigs w/ my blues band, Michael Bram and the Alternators (we recently played @ BB KING's in Time Square), as well as gigs w/ Hudson Valley Reggae Sensation, Paul Roach and the Young Lions. I have also continued playing drums for Dave Gross, Dennis Gruenling, and most recently The Chris O'Leary Band. Chris has recently returned home from a six year stretch as singer and harp player for LEVON HELM and The BARNBURNERS!!! I will also hopefully be returning to California to record some more tracks for Jason Mraz.

All in all it's been an exciting year so far and I am looking forward to what I am sure will be a fantastic summer. 

Here is what Sonic Syndicate Drummer John Bengtsson says about the bands new video and single Revolution, Baby:

For our new record we made alot big changes, also in how to record the album. And one of the changes was that i had a complete diffrent cymbal setup for almost every song. to get every song on the record to sound diffrent. So that means, MORE MEINL THEN EVER = BETTER THEN EVER!
Hope you like our first single Revolution, Baby
John B. - Sonic Syndicate.

Meinl Cymbal artist Benny Greb just completed his second clinic tour of the US. The tour was a complete success and a lot of fun.

A BIG thank you to all of the stores that worked very hard to make the clinics a positive experience for everyone involved.

Here's what Benny had to say about the tour - 

"lots of fun..but not much sleep 

it was a tight schedule and there were some weird things going on with volcanoes and flights beeing moved and cancelled...but hey..

when you you have a job where you are able to see a new place everyday and have the chance to play the drums for great people ...it´s all soo worth it.

i really feel privileged that you came out to see me play and listen to what i have to say.

like always it was also a learning experience for me.

i got so many great questions.

i wanna thank again all the companies for making things like that possible: sonor, pro mark, remo, hudson music, and especially meinl who did a great job in putting the tour together and taking good care of me during the tour.

also the stores who really do a great job , giving their customers events like that

thank you thank you thank you 

and i wanna come back soon

all the best

benny"

Meinl Cymbal artist Kevin Figueiredo has a new video online at meinl cymbals.com. Kevin has been posting awesome videos of him laying down drum tracks to remixes of current hit songs. On his most recent video, Kevin takes the viewer inside his world where he shows where and how it all happens. Check it out!

Meinl cymbals is pleased to announce their participation at the 2010 London Music Show which will take place on October 8-10 2010 at the ExCel Centre in London England. The company will be exhibiting their latest cymbal news at booth no. R522. Meinl artist participations are currently planned and will be announced soon.

Here's a message from Meinl Artist David Piribauer of U.S. Band Revis:

Revis is recording a second Album. Robert the guitar player and I are producing the record in Los Angeles. Many fans of the band around the world are very excited and so are we. We've been making a few video blogs to let our fan base know that there will be a new album. It would b great if you could help me spread the news a bit by also letting the Meinl news community know?

myspace.com/revisreunion

Meinl Cymbals is extremely pleased to welcome Josi Coppola of Gentleman to its family of cymbal artists. Reggae artist Gentleman's new album "Diversity" has entered the German album charts on #1. The band will be touring all over Europe for the rest of 2010.

Josi is using Meinl Byzance brilliant and Generation X series cymbals exclusively. For more information check out his profile page.

Meinl Cymbals is pleased to welcome Daniel Liljekvist of Sweden's Katatonia to its family of cymbal artists. Daniel's cymbal set-up consists of Byzance brilliant and traditional series.

Check out Daniel's artist profile and Kataonia's website.