Due for release on August 29 and available to pre-order here, the release will feature the entire of the album – including popular tracks such as ‘The Hunter’ and ‘Sockets’ – along with some added gems for fans to dig their teeth into. 

The original album was released by the powerful duo of Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent back in 2015, when they were still known as their previous name of ‘Slaves’. It secured a position in the Top 10 as well as a Mercury Prize nomination.

A selection of b-sides and demos will be included in the reissue, including their cover of Skepta’s ‘Shutdown’ – which they emphatically performed in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge – and multiple tracks from their ‘Sugar Coated Bitter Truth’ EP.

Speaking about the reissue, Vincent said: “10 years since we released our debut album. ‘Are You Satisfied?’ took us places we never dreamed were reachable and it was the foundation our career was built upon. It only feels right to reissue it with our new improved name.”

The new release will feature updated cover art featuring their new Soft Play name as well as a selection of archive photography. It will mark the first ever physical release of the album.

The album shot Slaves, as they were then known, straight into the minds of indie and punk fans. NME gave their debut a four-star review, describing the duo as “Larger-than-life.”

The review gave high praise to the newcomers, saying: “They’ve used their major-label debut to rally the troops rather than just jeer at them from the sidelines. Every song here is a call to arms or an affirmative flip of the table.”

Slaves followed up their debut with two more Top 10 albums – 2016’s ‘Take Control’ and 2018’s ‘Acts of Fear and Love’. After taking a break due to unfortunate events in their personal lives, the duo returned in 2022 with the new name of Soft Play, releasing ‘Heavy Jelly‘ in 2024.

They revealed during an interview with NME that a conversation with Bob Vylan led to their decision to retire the Slaves moniker: “He basically said we were one of his favourite bands but he wouldn’t wear our merch. If he felt uncomfortable about liking us, there must be other who feel the same way.”

Soft Play will be on the road for the remainder of 2025, playing numerous European festivals before heading out on a North American tour. They will also be playing support slots for the likes of IDLES, The Libertines and Slipknot. Visit here for ticket information.

The 10th anniversary reissue of ‘Are You Satisfied?’ will hit the shelves on August 29, with it available to pre-order now from here.

The festival posted on their official Instagram page, “Beyond stoked to announced @Softplayband (formerly known as Slaves) are headlining the Thursday at 2000trees! New name, same songs, same incredible live show!!!”

The band first headlined 2000trees festival in 2017, between releases of their second and third album in 2016 and 2018. Their first album, Are You Satisfied?, reached the top ten of the UK music charts and was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Music Prize. They have performed and have song writing credits with other big UK artists, including Chase and Status, Gorillaz, and Slowthai. They last released music and performed together in 2019, before going on an indefinite hiatus.

The festival will be the rock duo’s first show since reforming as Soft Play. To commemorate the event, the band even said on Instagram: “First gig back headlining @2000trees_festival wtffff. We wanna know what tracks you’d like us to play on the night. Our set is in your hands.”

Playing alongside Soft Play on the Thursday includes big names in rock music such as Skindred, Eagles of Death Metal, American punk rock group The Bronx, and more.

Scheduled to play a plethora of festivals this summer, Hastings band Kid Kapichi are playing a set at 2000trees after completing their 2023 Here’s What You Could Have Won European tour. They last played in 2022, and have moved to the main stage after a successful year and the release of their first album Here’s What You Could Have Won. They said on Instagram: “Happy to be returning to 2000trees festival this year, this time on the main stage. What a festival. What a line up.”

One fan, @ziolipo56, commented on their post, calling them the “best band on the line-up“.

The Friday line-up features Rival Schools, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro’s metal side project Empire State Bastard, Prima Queen, and Motherhood alongside headliners Bullet For My Valentine. Kelsey Karter & the Heroines are a highlight, playing the festival after finishing supporting Billy Idol on his American tour. Playing on Saturday under Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes are Deaf Havana, Black Honey, Electric Six, and American Football.

The other new acts announced include Dinosaur Pile-Up, Hell Is For Heroes, B-Sydes, Bilk, Beach Riot, CARSICK, Congratulations, Clarence, NOISY, Gaffa Tape Sandy, Haggard Cat, and Love Is Noise.

The full line-up is available on the website.

2000trees festival began in 2007, and is one of the UK’s most loved alternative music festivals. The organisers say it is a festival for a community rooted in music. Their manifesto says: “Trees is more than an event. It’s a family gathering based on positive community values. A sense of community, common culture, kinship and collective wellbeing. Music is the foundation for these positive values. Music brings this extended family together, giving everyone a powerful and vivid shared experience. This experience lingers long after the festival is over.”

Final weekend and day tickets are available on the offical website here.

It takes place:

05/07/23 – Upcote Farm – Cheltenham

06/07 – Upcote Farm – Cheltenham

07/07 – Upcote Farm – Cheltenham

08/07 – Upcote Farm – Cheltenham

The charity gig held on 10th August 2021 supported and thanked the nation’s NHS workers who have worked hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the middle of the concert, ticket-holders were treated to live redemptions of the three new collaborative songs. The ‘Clint Eastwood’ performers teamed up with rapper and singer Jelani Blackman on track ‘Meanwhile’, Alicia Harley on the song ‘De Ja Vu’ and finally the British hitmakers joined forces with multi-talented British artist AJ Tracy on brand new track ‘Jimmy Jimmy’

The group took to their Instagram to post photos of the event and their collaborative performances.

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A post shared by Gorillaz (@gorillaz)

The triumphant event boasted an impressive setlist of 32 songs, the band also shared the stage with various other special guests. Some of music’s most respected and popular artists joined the band to entertain and thank the audience of NHS staff and their families. The Cure’s frontman and pop culture figure Robert Smith joined the group to perform a version of ‘Strange Timez’, a track which Smith featured on from the group’s seventh studio album ‘Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez’, the single was released on 9th September 2020.

Other artists who joined Gorillaz on The O2 stage included rapper Posdunos member of legendary hip-hop group De La Soul, Popcaan, Leee John, actress and singer Fatoumata Diawara, Happy Monday’s members Shaun Ryder and Rowetta, EARTHGANG, Little Simz, singer and DJ Sweetie Irie, Slowthai and Slaves who previously worked together with Gorillaz on track ‘Momentary Bliss’. The group were also joined by a member of another iconic and pioneering group within the dance and electro music genre, Peter Hook from New Order paired with the band in celebrating the healthcare key workers.

The charitable event marked the victorious return for Gorillaz, the group had not helmed a live performance since October 2018. The band have been a staple of the countries’ radio play since their first hit ‘Clint Eastwood‘ released on 5th March 2001. The single reached number four within the UK Singles charts and propelled the virtual band into popularity. The group was formed by Blur frontman Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the musician and artist who created the individualistic group which features a mix of animated and non-animated band members.

Damon has spoken to NME regarding the group’s new music, within the interview the musician also hinted that he has been discussing reuniting iconic Brit-pop band Blur, in which he started his musical career. In the interview Albarn revealed the virtual band’s new album’s sound, the singer also teased that the group’s new material will be a throwback to Gorillaz’s debut album ‘Gorillaz’ released in 2001. “Since then I’ve been working on carnival-themed music with Gorillaz with a lot of people from west London, We’re really going back to the spirit of the first record.”

Albarn continued to discuss the new album, whilst comparing the musical process to that taken whilst recording his second solo album ‘The Nearer The Fountain, the More Pure the stream Flows’. “It’s really exciting and we’ve been really enjoying it. It’s a nice kind of counter-balance to ‘The Nearer The Fountain…’, really. I’ve definitely needed a dose of something else after I finished that record. Steel pan drums and Casio MT-40s were always going to be a good cure.”

Although the group has completed both of their London O2 performances, Gorillaz has one more UK appearance this month at the Cornwall festival, Boardmasters, on 14th August 2021.  After their last UK appearance, the group is set to hit the road on their European tour which starts on 29th August 2021 in the Netherlands. UK fans may have missed the band’s August UK dates, but fans can get excited about the new tracks’ possible release with new material being performed live.

Larry Pink The Human announced it’s formation in April, 2020 and consists of guitarist Laurie Vincent of the punk band Slaves and the renowned producer Joylon Thomas. Thomas is best known for his work producing with the famous Irish band U2 and more recently his work with famed rapper Kendrick Lamar.

After the announcement of their formation, Thomas and Vincent released their debut single Love You, Bye and was followed shortly by their second track Might Delete Later. Both singles received critical acclaim for their soft and nostalgic beats and both were followed with official music videos on YouTube. It is unclear if the duo plans to release a full-length album, or any form of music collection, in the coming year.

On this new track release, WASTED DAYS [INBETWEEN], Larry Pink The Human collaborates with Talbot, currently of the rock band IDLES. IDLES recently released their third studio album Ultra Mono on September 25th, 2020. The indie punk-rock band was met with critical praise after the release of their newest music, for the continuation of their politically-charged and menaingful British sound.

While Larry Pink The Human has yet to schedule live-shows in 2020 or 2021 for their new music, IDLES has announced a UK Tour kicking of in April, 2021. Moreover, Vincent’s band Slaves has not scheduled tour dates for the upcoming year yet either.

Larry Pink The Human has however performed livestream and virtual gigs throughout 2020. The new duo has not performed in person as of yet due to safety concerns surrounding the Covid-19 global pandemic. So, where fans cannot see Slaves, they can catch Vincent on the livestream or order tickets to see Talbot on their 2021 tour.

The new track released today, WASTED DAYS [INBETWEEN], has followed suit with the tracks that came before it, in that it has a soft beat and a meaningful message to remember the ‘magic’ as you live in it.

Larry Pink The Human is Vincent and Thomas’ creative project and among the critical claim Jack Saunders of Radio1 Indie Show said that the new duo has struck something really special with this sound, I mean the melodies are those kind of catchy britpop choruses that made that genre so big in the 90s, but the production just time-travels it through to 2020 to put it out there in its own league.

No current show dates for Larry Pink The Human or Slaves.

IDLES UK and Ireland 2021 Tour Dates

07/05/2021 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow
08/05  – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow
09/05 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow
10/05  – 2 City Hall – Newcastle
12/05 – Motorpoint Arena Cardiff – Cardiff
13/05 –  O2 Academy – Birmingham
14/05 –  O2 Academy – Sheffield
16/05 – Vicar Street – Dublin
17/05 – Vicar Street – Dublin
18/05 – Vicar Street – Dublin
20/05 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
21/05 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
22/05 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester

The band, if you could loosely term them as such, their digital personals are at least band shaped, have been gradually letting out singles from the project throughout the year. Albarn, who is famous for the all star collaborators on all of the Gorillaz albums, has focused his attentions closer to home after the America-loving ‘Humanz,’ project. Artists which feature on this album are some big names even for the Gorillaz standards and, refreshingly, include some top tier British names.

Among the British names featured on the album include Sir Elton John, Robert Smith, Leee John, Peter Hook, Georgia, Octavian, Kano, Slowthai and Slaves. The album also features a good variety of American talents and voices from as far afield as Mali, Fatoumata Diawara features on  the track ‘Desole,’ which is sung in a mixture of French and English. The album is surely one of the most musically ambitions of the Gorillaz yet, taking on a broad variety of domestic influences and benefiting greatly from  input taken from outside the Anglosphere.

According to The Fader, the project began as ‘a series of new one-off singles and music videos,’ which kicked off earlier this year with ‘Momentary Bliss,’ which featured British rapper Slowthai and rock band Slaves. The Fader continue that ‘Gorillaz will enter the livestreaming world with Song Machine Live,‘ which is due to stream on the 12th and 13th of December across multiple time zones and will feature ‘a mixture of live and animated visuals.’ There are obvious advantages to being a band which already has a complex and detailed digital persona and digital visual aspect to performance in the current situation and Song Machine Live is likely to be one of the most effective livestream performances of the year.

As well as releasing the album, according to NME, ‘Gorillaz will launch their own Apple Music show,’ called Song Machine Radio. Each episode will be hosted by one of the fictional characters which make up the Gorillaz persona, the first episode premiered today at 8pm and was hosted by 2D the would be lead vocalist and keyboard player who’s singing parts are voiced by Damon Albarn himself. The following episodes of the podcast will be released throughout November, on the 6th and the 23rd, and conclude on the 10th of December.

Oxfordshire’s Truck Festival has revealed that, Mercury Prize award-winners, Wolf Alice, Foals, Two Door Cinema Club, and Slaves will be playing at this years festival. It will be the Foals’ first homecoming show in over five years, and marks 12 years since the Oxford band’s triumphant set at the festival’s Barn Stage.

Among the other names announced today, and joining the headline acts, will be Nothing But Thieves, You Me At Six, Don Droco, IDLES, Kate Nash, Shame, and Lewis Capaldi. Meanwhile, elsewhere there will also be performances, at the Truck festival, from the likes of The Futureheads, Palace, Sea Girls, Ten Tonnes, Fontaines D.C, Spector, Clean Cut Kid, She Drew The Gun, Easy Life Cassia, WhenYoung, Sports team, Milk teeth, Puppy, and Only The Poets. The full line-up can be seen below.

Speaking about the festival line-up, festival organiser, Matt Harrap, said: “We’re extremely excited to announce our first wave of artists for this year’s show. Returning hometown heroes Foals is the icing on the cake; we’re over the moon to have them for their first Oxfordshire show in five years and their first at Truck since pre Antidotes.”

Mr Harrap continued: “Having artists of the calibre of Two Door Cinema Club and Wolf Alice also coming to headline the event after many years of asking is truly humbling and their sets will no doubt live long in the memory.”

Check out the itinerary of their tour below: