When: 7.30pm on Tuesday 28 April 2015
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re delighted to be welcoming back Rozi Plain – and Babe!

Lost Map Records is proud to announce Rozi Plain’s exquisite third album Friend, which will be released on 4 May 2015. A spellbinding reaffirmation of the London-based, Winchester-born singer-songwriter as one of the most unique and original voices in UK alt-folk, Friend features contributions from Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor and members of Franc?ois & The Atlas Mountains among many others. It’s preceded by the single Actually, which won the Rebel Playlist on BBC 6 Music by 76% of the vote, and has been described by DIY Mag as ‘about the most gorgeous, all-encompassing introduction imaginable for this London-based songwriter’. Rozi Plain will prepare for the release of Friend with a UK and European tour, including shows together with This Is The Kit (whom Rozi will both open for and perform as a member of), ahead of summer festival appearances.

Following the release of Jogalong in October 2014 as a split 7” on Lost Map together with Rachael Dadd – a song hailed by Jo Whiley’s as her Favourite Thing of the Week on Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show – Actually is the second track to be released from Friend and the album’s opener. Over a spare, snaking groove, Rozi reflects on ‘a difficult year, a tumultuous year’ in a fascinatingly elliptical lyric delivered as a kind of dialogue with the exotic birdsong melody of a vintage synthesiser. It’s a suitably intoxicating yet heavy-hearted introduction to Friend, which was engineered by Kristian Robinson (Capitol K), and features contributions from Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Gerard Black and Amaury Ranger (Babe / Franc?ois & The Atlas Mountains), Kate Stables and Jamie Coles (This Is The Kit), and singer-harpist Serafina Steer.

Rozi Plain has been making music since her brother taught her a few chords on the guitar aged 13. Raised in Winchester, she spent a few years studying art and painting boats in Bristol, where she began collaborating with long-term collaborators Kate Stables and Rachael Dadd among many others on a thriving local scene. It was there that she made her first two albums, 2008’s Inside Over Here and 2012’s Joined Sometimes Unjoined, each works of deliciously sad and beautiful pop full of heart-wrenching harmonies dotted with unexpected instrumental flourishes. Both records are presently available via Lost Map Records.

Rozi recently moved to London, but she doesn’t see her flat all that often because she tours a great deal year round. She has taken her joyous live show on the road around Europe, the UK and the USA, in partnership with alt-folk luminaries from Devendra Banhart to James Yorkston and Lost Map’s own The Pictish Trail. She has appeared at festivals including Glastonbury, End of the Road and Green Man. As a member of This Is The Kit, Rozi has also toured widely, including several dates around Europe last year opening for The National.

‘Brilliant – a big favourite of the show’ – Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music

Tour support comes from Babe. Formed in the summer of 2010 by ex-Findo Gask members Gerard Black (currently with Francois & The Atlas Mountains) and Michael Marshall, along with Thomas Ogden and Amaury Ranger, Babe have been making music across the channel from their native homes in Glasgow and Bordeaux. Their debut album Volery Flighty – conceived and produced entirely by Gerard and the band, and featuring friends from Glasgow’s indomitable music scene (including Chvches‘ Lauren Mayberry on backing vocals and Ricky Egan from Tangles) – couples the group’s international outlook through Gerard’s chamber pop sensibilities to foster something at times pensive and oblique, at others direct, fun and buoyant.

Book tickets now. Tickets are available from Common (no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Seetickets.com, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

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