Tom Aspaul welcomes you to the Black Country Discotheque EP

Friday 30th April 2021

Release date: Out now Label: 1609

Black Country Discothèque, released 16 April, is the extra queer-tastic reimagining of Tom Aspaul’s “utterly luscious” (GQ) “disco album of the year” (Gay Times) Black Country Disco. Featuring 17 queer and queer-friendly collaborators, and clocking in at almost 3x as long as the original record, this spangled epilogue to the Black Country Disco era is certain to soundtrack your post-pandemic summer shenanigans. Tom will treat fans to one final taste of the album before its release in full on 16 April, enlisting Grammy and BRIT Award nominated singer/songwriter/producer MNEK for a rework of ‘Traces’ which will arrive on streaming services on 13 April.

The stunning line-up of talent (representing four UK #1 singles, one Billboard chart-topper, and 26 UK top 10s) that has contributed to the album includes Elton John favourite Bright Light Bright Light, retro remixer extraordinaire Initial Talk (Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue), ARIA Award-nominee Brendan Maclean and BRIT Award-winner Kim Wilde, the most-charted British female solo act of the 80s. In addition to the remixed material, three brand new tracks - lead single ‘The Program’ (released January 2021) and cover versions of Robin Thicke’s ‘Wanna Love You Girl’ and The Tubes - ‘Prime Time’, produced by Tom himself - complete the track-listing. There will be a limited vinyl run of the record released via Tom’s online merch store.

Tom’s words: “"I am incredibly excited to unleash this project on the world! We all need a good dance right about now and hopefully, this album provides the soundtrack! It's been months in the making, 17 collaborators, spread across four continents and several timezones - we've rewritten lyrics, re-sang vocals and totally given Black Country Disco a new lease on life. Working almost exclusively with LGBT+ collaborators was incredibly important to me - it's a real eclectic mix of not only massive, bonafide stars, but up-and-coming exciting young artists too - and everyone has given their track their own unique spin. I'm thrilled with every single song. I'm also super excited by the two new cover versions, producing them myself has been an amazing experience, less worried about the songwriting and just having fun and pushing the limit of what I can do as a producer. Brendan and Michael really elevate the tracks with their vocals!”

The album release will be supported by a full live show on 16 April streamed from Dome Tufnell Park and hosted by legendary gay icon, Princess Julia. Tom has also shot a music video for the ‘BCD Megamix’, starring five of Birmingham’s superstar queens which will premiere in May. ‘The Revenge Body Tour’, supported by Black Country Discothèque collaborator Foxgluvv, hits LGBTQ venues across the UK - including London, Birmingham and Manchester - in late July, with full details to be announced on 19 April. Tom can also be found featuring on Kim Wilde’s latest Greatest Hits record, slated for this summer.

Tom kicked off the ‘Black Country Discothèque’ era in January with brand new track ‘The Program’ ft. Funk LeBlanc & Madeleine Wood. To date it sits on 100k streams and received positive attention from titles such as Gay Times, The Guardian and Billboard. It was also playlisted to Spotify’s Out Now and New Music Daily, Strike A Pose and New In Pop on Apple music. The video for ‘The Program’, directed by Dan Hett and It’s A Sin star Omari Douglas can be viewed on Tom’s YouTube channel.

‘Black Country Disco’, released in September 2020, and praised in outlets such as GQ and The Guardian, has accumulated 3 million streams to date, while demand for vinyl, CD and cassette formats has far outstripped supply - selling out in a day. The recent pink vinyl repress sold out in seven minutes. The album landed on End Of Year lists for The Guardian, Gay Times, Uproxx and Albumism, and was described by GQ as “a deliciously swift, utterly luscious dance-friendly chamber opera”. A story of life after love, the album is also a celebration of Tom’s Wolverhampton roots and an homage to the West Midlands. He rounded out the era with a livestreamed performance at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall as part of SHOUT Festival of Queer Arts & Culture. Tom’s success with this record, as a wholly independent artist delivering a completely realised project, slickly produced with a stunning visual identity earned him a grant from the PPL Momentum Fund (previous recipients include: Years & Years, Tom Misch and Sam Fender) which will finance his second studio album campaign.

Tom Aspaul has been writing and releasing music since 2013. His self-penned first single ‘Indiana’, was produced by Grammy-nominated superstar MNEK and ultimately covered by Australian popGoddess, Kylie Minogue (who, in a full-circle moment, featured Tom’s single ‘W.M.’ on her own carefully curated ‘Infinite Disco’ playlist’). Collaborative singles ‘Better By Your Side’, with Aeble (produced by Starsmith) has amassed over 13 million streams on Spotify and ‘Do It Well’ with XYConstant was nominated for the Popjustice £20 Music Prize in 2016. Tom has also written hits for AlunaGeorge, Snakehips, Becky Hill, Jones and BRIT Awards Rising Star winner Celeste.

And thanks to Tom, we are super excited to deliver you just a sample of this amazing album including The Program ft Madeleine Wood, Traces ft MNEK and the magical WM ft Kim Wilde remixes by Initial Talk.

Ok guys we LOVE Tom and cannot get enough of this so please help us push this HUGE EP to the max

Craig & Scott 

Posted by Craig Jones