Captivating UK buzz band DIAGONAL has completed work on its highly anticipated debut album. The progressive jazz-rock group will release the self-titled Diagonal in North America on January 27, 2009 via Rise Above Records.

A seven piece from Brighton on the UK’s south coast, all in their mid twenties, DIAGONAL is very much at the forefront of a new wave of bands inspired by and exploring the musical stylings of the underground progressive rock bands of the early seventies. Drawing influence from the true origins of the late Sixties / early Seventies Jazz-Rock, Psych and Progressive underground, the band has been called “incredible” and “Progressive prog`s brightest hope.” Out of the gate, DIAGONAL dares to explore the cosmic terrain that most contemporary bands wouldn’t dare and with its impressive debut has created a record that could have sat quite comfortably alongside similar artists from the RCA Neon, Nepentha, Deram and Vertigo-Swirl stables.

Recorded at London’s Toe Rag Studios with Grammy-award winning producer Liam Watson (The White Stripes, Supergrass), Diagonal is an album that fuses the heady experimentation of Krautrock with the extended vamps and exploratory improvisation regularly associated with modal jazz. DIAGONAL’s complex, hypnotic cauldron of sound pools avant-garde space rock with an embattled revolutionary zeal as woozy psychedelia dances around jazz arrangements, which then become engulfed in 70’s hard rock riffing and Hendrix style blues fretwork. Ethereal dark tones and textures dance, while drum solos and organ flourishes negotiate a tapestry of moods.

The complete track listing for Diagonal is as follows:

1.) Semi Permeable Men-brain (10:54)
2.) Child of the Thunder Cloud (8:49)
3.) Deathwatch (7:18)
4.) Cannon Misfire (5:33)
5.) Pact (14:00)

DIAGONAL, who were once “run out of town for playing a 3 song, 90 minute gig” in a pub in Surrey, are now very much an in-demand band. Word has spread about the unit’s incendiary live show which manages to combine the righteous indignation of bands such as the MC5 and The Sex Pistols with the cosmic jams of Gentle Giant and Guru Guru and the experimental noise of groups such as Battles and Lightning Bolt. In the short time since its formation, DIAGONAL has shared the stage with a diverse array of acts including Acid Mother’s Temple, Witchcraft and Circle and this Saturday, December 13, will perform at the Rise Above Records’ 20th Anniversary show at London’s ULU which will feature a one time lineup of the respected label’s featured acts.

“Teaser” snippets for the DIAGONAL tracks “Semi Permeable Men-brain”, “Deathwatch” and “Child of the Thunder Cloud” can be heard now at this location. The album’s surreal cover artwork can be previewed at this location while a photo of the septet itself can be viewed here.

DIAGONAL features David Wileman (electric & acoustic guitars, percussion, synth, vocals), Nicholas Whittaker (alto saxophone, clarinet, flute, recorder, synth, percussion, vocals), Alex Crispin (electric & acoustic pianos, organ, lead vocals, synths, percussion), Daniel Pomlett (electric bass, electric & acoustic guitars, percussion, vocals), Nicholas Richards (electric & acoustic guitars, ebow, synths, percussion, vocals), Ross Hossack (synths, tapes, filters, percussion, vocals) and Luke Foster: drums, synths, string arrangements, vocals).