Wow, totally out of the blue, Bloc Party have announced their new album, Intimacy, is to be released this Thursday, August 21st. The news of a sudden shock release came from a webchat with fans on the official BlocParty.com website.

It was thought until today that the album wouldn’t be released until very late 2008 or even early 2009, but the band have seemingly brought it forward by months.

This follows similar strategies by Radiohead and The Raconteurs.

You can pre-order the album from the official site now. For £5, fans can get an mp3 bundle which will be delivered on August 21st, or for £8, they can get a CD which will be delivered on October 27th. £10 buys you both, which means you’ll have the digital copy to listen to from Thursday and then the physical release in two months time.

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John Lydon of the Sex Pistols has allegedly been involved in a racial attack on Bloc Party front man Kele Okereke at the Summercase festival in Spain. Reports first emerged of a scuffle between Foals front man Yannis Philippakis, but the details have since been filled in by the lead singer of British indie rockers Bloc Party.

The incident apparently happened as Lydon socialised with a bunch of British acts backstage at the festival. Kele then claims to have approached Lydon to ask him if there was any chance of him reforming Public Image Ltd., one of his favourite bands.

Bloc Party then claim, in an official statement, that Lydon “became intimidating and aggressive while his entourage responded with a racist tirade including the statement ‘Your problem is your black attitude’.” Okereke then had a scuffle with Lydon’s associates, until Philippakis, and Kaiser Chiefs front man Ricky Wilson, stepped in to calm everything down.

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Wow, this is huge. Bloc Party have revealed heir new single, and it is completely different than anything they have released before, and I’m not too sure whether I like the direction the band are going in.

It all started with a countdown timer on the official Bloc Party website, which suddenly appeared, and pointed towards something big happening on Monday.

The timer then expired, and in its place were instructions to listen to Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show.

At 7.30pm, Zane played Mercury for the first time ever, and well, it doesn’t really sound like the Bloc Party I know and love.

Lead singer and front man Kele Okereke spoke to Zane about the new song, and impending third album, saying:

“It’s a song we finished a little while ago that we’re really proud of so we thought we’d let everyone hear it. I’m still somewhat in awe.”

“I think we’re making the record I always wanted us to make. We’re kind of just in the middle of it, we’re still writing songs and mixing stuff.”

I’ve reviewed the song and video in full over on Killed By The Video Star today, but here it is for you to make your own mind up (after the fold)…

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Some of the bloggers here on the b5 music channel decided to record our Soundtrack For A Day yesterday. This could take different forms, be it all the songs you listened to on that day, a selection from certain moments, or a particular album.

I decided to stick my media player on random and note down the first 50 songs it played, and here is the result.

As a full time blogger who works from home, music is very important to me as it can change the mood of my day. Pressing the random button is therefore a bit of a gamble but this time it didn’t let me down.

Notice the amount of British songs in the collection! That’s not engineered in any way, just proof that that is where my big love in music lies. There are also some brilliant American and Irish bands in there too, and of course, Abba…

Stereophonics - Mr Writer
The Feeling - Join With Us
Foo Fighters - Times Like These
Art Brut - Stand Down
The Killers - On Top
Coldplay - Spies
The Kooks - Got No Love
Radiohead - Videotape
The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray
Maximo Park - By The Monument
The Jam - All Around The World
Girls Aloud - Long Hot Summer
Snow Patrol - Gleaming Auction
Jimi Hendrix - House Burning Down
Therapy? - Knives
Tricky - Ponderosa
Lily Allen - Everything’s Just Wonderful
The Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Woman
Linkin Park - Nobody’s Listening
Rage Against The Machine - People Of The Sun
Nina Simone - Feeling Good
REM - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
The Young Knives - Another Hollow Line
Paul Simon - The Boy In The Bubble
The Specials - Too Much Too Young

See the second half of my 50 song list after the cut…

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Bloc Party are one of my favourite bands in the world, so whenever I hear they have a new single coming out, I get as excited as a kitten with a ball of wool, just not quite as cute looking.

This song, called Flux, is being released on November 12th and will be on the new digital download only re-release of current album A Weekend In The City.

The band did a similar thing with Two More Years on Silent Alarm, making fans go out and buy the newer, more complete version of the album. This can either be seen as a great marketing coup or a chance to rip fans off, I reserve judgement.

Here’s the official video of the song, and be warned, if you are a Bloc Party fan watching or hearing this for the first time, prepare yourself for a definite change of musical direction…

Ooh, dancey. It’s a weird change of pace for the band, although they’ve always been on the dancier side of Indie. This song is definitely heading mroe down the pure electronica road, which does work surprisingly well for Kele’s voice, and the style of the band as a whole.

Talking of Kele’s voice, what the hell have they done to it? Well, I actually know the answer, they’ve used a vocoder to give it an electronic, almost robotic sound, at least on the radio edit.

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I’ve been writing this blog for over 3 months now, and hopefully some of you are reading and enjoying Brit Music Scene. I’ve strived to bring you all the latest news, reviews, gossip and low-down on everything to do with the British Music Scene, and I think I’ve done a good job.

So in a further effort to educate my readers and bring some good music to your ears, here are 10 British music artists you should discover.

Now some of you will know all of the groups I talk about, especially if you happen to be in the UK, but some of you may not have heard of any of them.

Seeing as most of my readers are from the USA, I’d say that’s a pretty safe bet. So in my opinion here are 10 bands or singers who you should discover, listen to for a bit and maybe even grow to love as much as I do.

For your pleasure, I’ve made a play list with my favourite tune from each artist, and you can listen to it while the read the rest of the post below, you lucky so and so’s.

They are all British, they are all absolutely brilliant, and you need to hear about them right now. Enjoy…

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This is Bloc Party, with their fantastically good new single ‘Hunting for Witches’ which came out on July 9th. The band have seemingly been everywhere in the past 2 weeks, with both Glastonbury and Live Earth performances under their belts. I think this song comes across really well both live and on record, and it’s my favourite song off 2nd album ‘A Weekend in the City’.

The song is highly political, with lead singer Kele Okereke making references to September 11, the London terror attacks, and The Daily Mail, a right wing British newspaper. Kele spoke about the song in an interview and said…

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