British electronic duo Death in Vegas will release Scorpio Rising, their third studio album, April 18th on Sanctuary Records. The follow-up to 1999's The Contino Sessions, Rising features guest vocals from Paul Weller (on Gene Clark's "So You Say You've Lost Your Baby"), former Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval, Nicola Kuperas of the Detroit duo Adult and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.

Gallagher's contribution to the title track left Death in Vegas' Tim Holmes raving. "He's got a set of tonsils on him," Holmes says. "He's probably the loudest singer I've ever recorded, and his vocal delivery was brilliant. He came down and, as he said, 'roared it like a lion' for about three hours."

Holmes and partner Richard Fearless spent fourteen months writing and recording the album, including a December 2001 trip to India for a string session with arranger Dr. Subramaniam. While they were abroad, the duo, big fans of filmmakers like Kenneth Anger (Scorpio Rising takes its name from his cult film), started shooting footage of their own that may appear on a DVD by year's end. "There's already a lot of footage," Holmes says. "We've also documented pretty much everything we've done so far -- recording the strings in India, the designing of the cover."

The pair would also like to include a series of adventurous shorts inspired by the music on the DVD package. "We've got a list of filmmakers," Holmes says. "We're in the process of asking them to make not so much videos but free-reign short films."

Death in Vegas will tour the U.S. later this year.

JOLIE LASH
(March 25, 2003)