With 18 Top 40 hits, Ash are one of the most successful ‘singles bands’ of recent times, consistently bothering our charts and airwaves with their distinctive, lovable and inventive pop.
In 2007 Ash released the album Twilight Of The Innocents, bequeathed another brace of hit singles You Can’t Have It All and Polaris, before promptly announcing they would no longer release albums in a traditional way. Heralding a new approach to record releases, the ultimate singles band will now deliver the ultimate singles collection – a year long series of fortnightly single releases, with limited edition collectors vinyl.
For the past year they have been holed up in their New York HQ, Atomic Heart Studios, writing and recording a series of songs that will form the “A-Z series”. From September, each fortnight for the next twelve months, Ash will release a single on limited 7” vinyl and digital download... Commencing with ‘A’ and running through the alphabet, all 26 songs will be released on Ash’s own Atomic Heart Records and will be available through shops and by subscription through the band’s website www.ash-official.com.
To kick off this series, Ash will be releasing a Mark Hamilton penned song RETURN OF WHITE RABBIT. Fans will be able to download this song free of charge from the Ash website www.ash-official.com from May 18, and 1000 limited 7” will be made available to buy through mail order and selected independent record shops from June 8.
New single RETURN OF WHITE RABBIT sees the band throwing angular guitars over electro hooks and growling bass, in a febrile departure from their recent output. Created with resident engineer Claudius Mittendorfer, this is an urgent and liberating take on classic heart-tugging Ash, indicative of the darker electronic influence across the forthcoming A-Z songs.
The exclusive promo CD’s RETURN OF WHITE RABBIT have been artworked personally by members of the band: Rick’s pack of playing cards, Tim’s apocalyptic bunny rabbits and Mark’s day-glo stencils.
Ash will be playing two nights at the Bloomsbury Ballroom on June 6 and 7 and a number of festivals over the summer in the lead up to the launch of the A-Z series in September 2009.