Killing Joke have just announced the release of a new best-of album and a world tour next year to celebrate their 35th anniversary.
The band have also confirmed that they will be releasing a new studio album in 2013, which will be the follow-up to this year’s MMXII, which came in at number 59 in our end of year list.
Says Jaz Coleman of the band’s upcoming year: "Considering it’s supposed to be the end of the world in a short time, it gives me great pleasure to announce a new singles album with some real rarities on it, shortly followed by a new studio recording. The book Letters From Cythera is coming out, and yes, gigs are starting in March. Have a great 2012 and fuck the Mayans! After all, their calendar didn’t predict their own demise…”
The Singles Collection 1979-2012 (artwork above) will be out on April 15 via Spinefarm/Universal, on download and a pair of initial special edition CD formats. The Super Deluxe version will come in a hand-numbered ‘cigar box’ package containing the 33 singles with b-sides on CD packaged in individual card wallets, a rarities disc featuring previously unreleased tracks, a book containing photos and notes, a silk-printed poster designed and signed by long-time collaborator Mike Coles and, incredibly, an "aluminium screw-top branded cigar tube containing original wrappers of cigars smoked by Jaz Coleman & Paul Raven during the recording of the Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell album".
The Limited Edition, meanwhile, will feature the singles on two CDs along with the rarities disc. Both of these are on a strictly limited run, after which the regular two-disc album will be available. To get hold of the Deluxe Edition, head to the band’s PledgeMusic site, while the Limited Edition is available here.
In support of the album, the band will be heading out on a world tour, beginning with a pair of UK dates:
MARCH
Fri 15 – Hammerfest, Pwllheli, Wales
Sat 16 – Forum, London
As Coleman says, Letters From Cythera his biography, will also be published next year, which traces his life from birth to 2008, shortly after the death of his former bandmate Paul Raven, as well as being what Coleman describes as a "detailed account of my hidden history and involvement with Hermetics, Earth Sciences and the Rosicrucian tradition noting the various Kabalistic innovations that have evolved over the last 33 years". The book has been supported by a PledgeMusic campaign, which has now exceeded its target, and will come in a box set featuring a recording of Coleman’s second symphony, ‘The Island’. For more details, head here, and watch a video of Coleman introducing the book below:
