It’s been a fairly good week of releases, and we’ve come to notice a path that artists are choosing: working on new material and new sounds. It’s impressive to watch their careers unfold into a different sound altogether while still holding strong to where their roots are. Even the “bad” releases this week showed us some (but not that impressive) growth, making this week’s list an interesting mix:

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This year’s Southbank Ether Festival in April will feature Squarepusher, Plaid, Mouse on Mars and Tim Exile performing alongside David Byrne, Peaches, John Hassell and Röyksopp. The UK festival will also have a series of “Ether Talks” from Brian Eno and Rob da Bank.

The festival, now in its ninth year, has teamed up with BFI Southbank for a series of Ether-related films, and aims to focus on artists pushing the limits of African music, visual arts installations, technology, and cross-arts experimentation. You can follow the festival’s updates via Twitter at www.twitter.com/etherfestival.

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• Prince prepares for his three albums through a gay bible study group. Interesting. Then again, he is Prince… Always expect the unexpected.
• Röyksopp is in the studio and working away on their upcoming album Junior: “If Melody A.M was a relaxed journey inwards on a Sunday afternoon–and The Understandingwas more uptempo, with more vocals and a hint of melodic catchiness–then the new album is a mix of the two.”
• Check out the artwork for Dan Deacon’s forthcoming LP Bromst. Cool tent.
• My Morning Jacket New Years Eve MP3s. Check out My Morning Jacket cover “Celebration” and “Get Down On It” or check out the video of “Celebration” below…

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