d e a d   r a t   o r c h e s t r a

Matadero - 10” Vinyl Released on Champion Version

Recorded a few years back after a one week residency at Matadero, Madrid (an ex-abattoir adapted into a glorious arts venue), this is a really special, and limited edition release. The record label are already anticipating that they will sell all copies relatively quickly, but we have managed to get our hands on a few extras. We will be making them available through deadratorchestra.bandcamp.com at some point in the next 2 months (we’ll let you know before anyone else, we promise).  UPDATE: All copies now gone!

Suoni Per Il Popolo - Montreal


After a lovely set of shows with Godspeed You black Emperor in December, we are excited to be taking our adventures further.  We have been invited to Canada in June to play at Suoni Per Il Popolo, a festival in Montreal, and to hook up with our friend and collaborator, Eric Chenaux for some other performances there and further afield.  More information will follow - but for now 20th JUNE - Casa del Popolo with Eric Chenaux and O Paon!

Fanfares...                                          www.deadratorchestra.com

LIVE TRACK...

We’ve had a lot of queries about a possible release for the Guga Hunters of Ness soundtrack - we’re working on it!

But in the meantime below is an expanded version of the End Theme, recorded live at the Anson Rooms in Bristol at the first of the Godspeed shows, 12th December 2010.






 

UP THE LINE

A series of performances in Remembrance of Conflict and Loss, a walk through St John’s Cemetery, Margate on 10th November encountering Poetry, Dance, Music and Installation.  The event makes no attempt to educate, lead or comment on the rights or wrongs of war, the intention is only to create consideration and discussion amongst its audience. 

“With a spirit of revelry and excitement Dead Rat Orchestra (DRO) warm the hearts of the waiting crowd, marking the rhythm of the line with musical fragments that echo the sentiments of young men heading off to the adventure of war.  Upon exit, visitors will once again encounter DRO as they reflect upon the return home and the wake of war.”

We participated in last year’s event held at Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery, South London, organised by the effervescent John McKiernan of Platform 7.





    

DRO & BABY DEE

The folks of Tin Angel Records have paired us up with the Amazing Baby Dee for a series of collaborations.  First up, Colchester Arts Centre on 2nd November, playing one of our own sets followed up by the first fruits of our labours with Dee during her set.  Then on to Cafe OTO for Baby Dee’s Two Day residency, where we will be accompanying her on 5th November - also joined by Marc Almond for a couple of songs.



A HINT - MUSIC FOR GAUGUIN’S LETTERS

CD RELEASE ON CRITICAL HEIGHTS

Click here for more information on this lovely little release from the superb Critical Heights label, comprising the music we contributed to a short film accompanying Tate Modern’s Paul Gauguin Retrospective in 2010.  You can see the original film featured on the Guardian website here.

We also had a great time playing a show to launch this with the CH guys at Cafe OTO - thanks to all who came, it was a real pleasure and one of our best!



NO RAIN

We had the absolute pleasure of participating in this one day festival of (mostly) East Anglian bands, some of them our friends and favourites at the amazing Barn at the Turk’s Head, Hasketon.  Dan made a short Standard 8 film experiment of the event:





PAST PRESENT FUTURE SPACE TIME...

SATURDAY 10th SEPTEMBER 2011 - ‘EXPLORING THE LEGACY OF PSYCHEDELIA’ in WYSING ARTS CENTRE’s annual music festival.  Find a whole host of information about the event HERE. 


     

                                              There’s a short video interview with Dan & Robin made on the day HERE, scroll down to find it.


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ADVENTURES IN CANADA!

So... We had a great time in Canada - thanks to everyone who made it possible and everyone who came to see us play!  The trip comprised three solid days of recording at the Hotel2Tango with the fantastic Thierry Amar, the results of which we have returned with and are *ahem* feverishly working on...  We then performed at Casa del Popolo for the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival - recorded and broadcast recently on The Signal on CBC Radio 2, joining our good friend Mr Eric Chenaux for portions of his set the same evening. 

We capped it all off with further shows with Eric in Quebec City and Toronto - Good Times!


 

FORTHCOMING!

‘THE GUGA HUNTERS OF NESS’ will be released on 9th JULY by the good people of CRITICAL HEIGHTS (offshoot of Fire Records), on VINYL, CD & DOWNLOAD!  We are very excited and will post more information as it becomes available!

We will be touring in support of this across the month of JULY, performing the score live to the film at some of the shows, and hope to see some of you along the way...




BBC SUFFOLK INTRODUCING...

To kick of the Guga proceedings we’ll be joining Graeme Mac and Richard Haugh at BBC SUFFOLK for a special ‘Introducing’ session of smalltalk and live versions of some of the pieces from the record...

11th MAY - 7pm - 9pm - 99.5FM, 104.6FM (& Streaming Online).


QUIET TIMES?

Seems like the Dead Rats have been quiet of late... but not so!  We’ve spent the early part of 2012 finalising the Guga record, as well as feverishly mixing and mastering the album we recorded at H2T... the results of which should all be on show soon!

There is also likely to be a wealth of shows popping up as the months progress, so keep checking back to see what’s happening...  add into this a few rather interesting ‘special projects’ and this year could be shaping up rather nicely!




A SHOW...



GOOD TIMES WITH BABY DEE...

There’s a new video up in our ‘watch’ section featuring our collaboration with Baby Dee at Cafe OTO - go check it out!




As with many of the great photos on this site, these images by our friends ATHERTON-CHIELLINO.

 

DRO Fife & Drum Band...

Two great London shows on the 6th May - second of which was aboard a barge on the Thames... check out the video below!


 

BBC SUFFOLK...



We had a great time at BBC Suffolk playing an ‘Introducing’ session for Richard Haugh and Anna Dobbie.  There’s a podcast available HERE until 10th June, including renditions of GEORGIE BUCK, GUGA END THEME and OH RUE THE DAY.

 

JULY 9TH!

‘THE GUGA HUNTERS OF NESS’ will be released on CD, Vinyl and for Download on 9th July - lots of information on this can be found HERE!  In the meantime, it will look like this:




We will be touring to support the record, so keep checking back into our ‘shows’ page to see where we’ll be!