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THE CAT EMPIRE
WHERE THE ANGELS FALL
Album
out today via DITTO
Listen to album HERE
+ Share clip for single
‘BOOM BOOM’
Watch HERE
+ East Coast Tour
kicks off this month
Supported by DOUBLE J
Tickets available HERE
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“Epitomising the phrase multiculturalism better than most”
– BBC
“The Cat Empire aren’t so much a band, they’re a live music institution.”
– Double J
“…….the Cat Empire has created a style inimitably its own”
– The Australian
“What it does to a room full of people is so unique and I felt like I wasn’t ready to leave that, and I was also really excited by all of the musical possibilities”.
– Felix Riebl
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The day has finally arrived for fans of Melbourne’s iconic band The Cat Empire, with the release of their ninth studio album & debut release as the new iteration – Where The Angels Fall is out today via Ditto.
Listen to WHERE THE ANGELS FALL HERE
The album is jam-packed full of explosive, diverse sounds and vibrant energy, alongside intimate and sincere moments, that will leave listeners captivated from beginning to end. The band have successfully managed to encapsulate their live show dynamic on the record, with each song you’re transported to another place.
Today they have shared the pulsating visuals to their latest single ‘Boom Boom’, featuring a duet with Felix and Grace.
WATCH THE CLIP FOR ‘BOOM BOOM’ HERE
This track started as a vocal hook by Felix with Ollie coming up with bassline and some of the other musical components that helped bring the track into a more bombastic and audacious setting – a tough electronic/synthetic skeleton. It was then bought to life in the studio by West African percussionists Mohamed Camara and Boubacar Gaye from Ausecuma Beats.
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Felix explains, “The song is about the walking dead coming back to life, a city of music reemerging. It’s about Melbourne in a way. One of the driving factors of embarking on this new era of The Cat Empire, came from an internal will not to disappear in the post-haze of lockdowns. The band has always represented live music, a place where people can get out of their everyday and celebrate. As people come out of their cultural hibernation, as they’re now doing around the World, we wanted The Cat Empire to be there more bombastic than ever. Boom Boom’s our tribute to that.”
Going back to their roots, the band wrote and recorded the album in their hometown at Merri-bek City Band Room in Brunswick and enlisted producer Andy Baldwin, who produced the band’s self-titled debut album back in 2003.
Boasting a line-up of 75 performing artists and with a total of 49 instruments used, Where The Angels Fall has the largest number of performing artists on any Cat Empire album. Across the 14-tracks is a melting pot of international sounds and styles including Afro-Cuban, Flamenco, Brazilian, West African, Reggae, New Orleans Jazz, Mariachi, Polynesian and Reggaeton plus so many more, while paying homage to their hometown of Melbourne.
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The album kicks off with punchy horn-driven, high-octane hit single ‘Thunder Rumbles’, and takes the listener on a sonic journey across the globe, including sounds from the Heidelberg Wind Ensemble on ‘Money Coming My Way’, Latin-inspired ‘Rock’n’Roll’, expansive ‘Owl’, heart-felt yet uplifting ‘Be With You Again’ dedicated to Felix’s late brother Max, and a stadium soccer-chant on ‘Coming Back Again’.
Ollie comments on the release, “Felix and I first formed The Cat Empire more than 20 years ago and a sheer zest for music was floating in the air. We had many conversations about new concepts, like the piano playing the rhythms, the percussion forming the melody, and things were fresh and exciting to say the least. When Felix and I decided to create our most recent recording, Where The Angels Fall, we were determined to recapture the energy of our debut release. Not only were we brilliantly successful, not a day of its making going by without big grins on our faces, we also managed to make one of the most sophisticated albums in The Cat Empire repertoire. I have been listening to this album on repeat and am still in love with it”
Felix shares the sentiment, “I’m so excited to have this album out in the world. I think our fans are going to love it. We put everything we had (and then some) into making it. It was pure music making from the first note to the last. It’s overflowing with dynamics, contrasts, emotion, madness, and deep sense of celebration. It came out of an immense time – the change of line up, the death of my younger brother, the effects of Covid on live music. Coming through all that with songs that are going to light up stages for years to come feels very very special. I’m pinching myself. It’s the start of something magic.”
Illuminating stages across the globe, the band are a magnetic force that have captivated millions of adoring fans with their high energy performances and explosive sound and visuals. Following on from a close to sell-out UK/EU tour at the beginning of the year, the band will be hitting the road across Australia and then heading to North America for a massive 28-date tour.
Their East Coast tour kicks off in September and promises to be a celebration of movement, vibrancy, and playfulness – with a host of new material as well as the crowd-favourites.
Fans can expect surprise special guests, fresh interpretations of Cat Empire classics and a massive show that epitomises the herculean nature of their new album.
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WHERE THE ANGELS FALL
album tour
SUPPORTED BY DOUBLE J
WITH COTERIE (ALL SHOWS), STEPH STRINGS (NOT PLAYING SYD) ROSHANI (SYD ONLY)
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 15 | THE ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 22 | FORTITUDE MUSIC HALL, BRISBANE
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 23 | THE GREEN ROOM, BYRON BAY
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 29 | HINDLEY STREET MUSIC HALL, ADELAIDE
THURSDAY OCTOBER 5 | THE FORUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE – NEW SHOW ADDED
FRIDAY OCTOBER 6 | THE FORUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE – SOLD OUT
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Follow THE CAT EMPIRE
Website – Instagram – Facebook
Youtube – Tiktok – Twitter
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AMNPLIFY – ML
CLICK THE PIC TO VIEW THE NEWS
My nickname is “The Amnplifier”. Why? Because around here my focus is on being a conduit for providing greater outcomes that people come here for. My day to day “work” is living in the moment, and I love helping others concentrate on finding their connection to themselves through their experiences.
Why start a music environment? The truth is I love music, I love writing, and I love life. I work with musicians every day, and I feel certain that I will be until they put me in the ground. I have been managing people in businesses of some sort for over thirty five years so along the way I have developed some “wisdom” from my regular and constant “observations”.
Amnplify your experience. That is what we want you to do here, and if you want to let me know why you do, or don’t, shoot me a message on Facebook.
Hope you enjoy yourself here and find something that hits you somewhere.
