Producer and CMU favourite Wrongtom has, as the above headline goes some way to indicating, joined the Tru Thoughts roster for a series of ‘vintage dancehall collaborations’, the first of which will be a partnership with fellow Tru Thoughts signing Deemas J.

‘Wrongtom Meets Deemas J’, as the album is so aptly titled, will mark the second in a series of ‘Wrongtom Meets’ LPs, the first having been 2010′s Big Dada released ‘Wrongtom Meets Roots Manuva’.

Says Wrongtom of the new deal and project: “When I think of Tru Thoughts, I think of a grass roots business, which is what makes them the perfect label for this project. It’s an honour for us to join the TT gang”.

He adds: “This is a very special project for me as Deemas and I have been playing together since our teens, so an album is well overdue. We’ve covered a multitude of styles, taking in my love of dusty old dancehall and dub, and linking it with Deemas’ experience in the jungle arenas and his lineage in London’s soundsystem scene”.

Canadian singer-songwriter Cold Specks, real name Al Spx, has signed to Mute. The company will release her debut album ‘I Predict A Graceful Expulsion’ on 21 May, preceded by single ‘Blank Maps’ a week earlier. The album deal follows Spx’s move to London to work with producer and now manager Jim Anderson.

Says Anderson of discovering Spx: “My little brother, who was spending his summers with our mother in Toronto, had always told me of this girl he was friends with that had this amazing voice. As a producer I’d heard that so often that I didn’t take too much notice. Then I came in one night to find him and a few friends drinking in the flat and playing a CD of her demos. I was completely transfixed and just kept pressing repeat. I knew I had to work with her. I eventually persuaded her to come over. At that point she had never played with another musician and was completely self-taught with her own unique tuning and timings, which we had to decipher”.

Spx herself adds: “Jim convinced me to fly out and work on the record for a few months. That was a year and a half ago. I guess I’m permanently based here now. I didn’t know anyone when I moved here. We needed musicians and Jim knew a bunch. Rob Ellis [PJ Harvey's regular collaborator] has been helping out with some arrangements and percussion, and Jim’s old friends Pete Roberts [guitar], Thomas Greene [piano] and Tom Havelock [cello] also play on the record”.

If you’re curious and can’t wait until May, Cold Specks will undertake a UK tour later this month, dates as follows, and for the very impatient, a video of previous single release ‘Holland’ is below.

23 Feb: King Tut’s, Glasgow
24 Feb: Leaf, Liverpool
25 Feb: Deaf Institute, Manchester
27 Feb: Jericho Tavern, Oxford
28 Feb: Bush Hall, London
29 Feb: Louisiana, Bristol

Sunday Best Recordings has announced the signing of Skinny Lister, the up and coming band who, as previously reported, topped the PRS’s recent poll for number of festivals played in 2011, gracing the stages of no less than 30 festivals, including Sunday Best’s Bestival.

Confirming the signing, Sunday Best chief Rob da Bank told CMU: “Skinny Lister are a hot new band with a growing fanbase. I’m really excited about them becoming part of the Sunday Best family. They are destined for big things”.

Meanwhile Skinny Lister manager Paul Carey added: “Skinny Lister we’re rightly heralded as ‘the hardest working band in Britain’ by the London Evening Standard and crowned the busiest band of 2011 earning the PRS for Music’s Most Festival Appearances accolade. With Sunday Best’s backing and the release of their debut album in the summer, this is going to be the year of Skinny Lister”.

Detroit-based electro type Jimmy Edgar has announced that he has signed to producer Scuba’s Hotflush Recordings label for the release of his third album.

His debut, ‘Color strip’, was released through Warp, while the follow-up, ‘XXX’, came out through !K7 in 2010.

His first release for his new label will be a single called ‘This One’s For The Children’ on 17 Mar, followed by the as-yet-untitled album later in the year.

Universal Music Publishing’s Nashville office yesterday announced it had signed an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with Grammy winning songwriter and producer Nathan Chapman, who is probably best known for his production work with Taylor Swift.

Also noting recent executive appointments at the company’s Nashville division, says Universal exec Evan Lamberg: “We are incredibly excited to have such a special songwriting talent as Nathan join our Universal Music Publishing family. With Kent Earls now leading UMPG Nashville and great creative executives such as Ron Stuve signing Nathan, we look forward to partnering with him in all of his creative and songwriter endeavours”.

Music publishing firm Kobalt yesterday announced a new deal with Gotye, which will see the Kobalt team represent the Aussie multi-instrumentalist outside his home country.

The deal, via Kobalt’s Sydney office, is part of Gotye’s plan to expand his profile outside Australia and New Zealand. His co-manager, Danny Rogers, recently told The Music Network: “We’re now fixing our attention on America and UK and the rest of Europe. It’s really connecting in so many markets. The feeling around the UK is really strong”.

CMU approved pop type Foxes, aka Louisa Rose Allen, yesterday signed a record deal with Simon Fuller’s Sony imprint Sign Of The Times.

As previously reported, Fuller’s XIX Entertainment and Sony Music UK formed the company, which is led by former Universal Music Publishing A&R Dougie Bruce, in November last year. Foxes joins the company’s first signing The Milk.

Allen tweeted yesterday: “Literally all I’ve wanted since I was a little girl to have this as my official job… it now is! Just signed my record deal with Sony!”

Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth have signed a deal with Roadrunner Records for their collaborative project Storm Corrosion.

Says Wilson; “If you’d asked me three months ago about the music, I would have said, ‘Expect the last thing you would expect’. But actually, now that [Opeth's] ‘Heritage’ and [Porcupine Tree's] ‘Grace Of Drowning’ have come out, I don’t think it’s going to be that much of a shock to people, because it’s almost like a third part of the trilogy, in a way. If anything, it’s even more orchestral, even more stripped down, even more dark, twisted and melancholic… but it certainly feels like it comes from the same place as ‘Heritage’ and ‘Grace For Drowning’, which indeed it does because it was written during the same period”.

Åkerfeldt adds: “Some of the music on this record I think is the most beautiful music I have participated on ever. There’s some magical sections on there. Musically I think we’ve created something earthy, a bit frightening, exhausting, profound and rather intense. All at the same time. I can safely say I don’t know any other band or artist that sounds anything like Storm Corrosion. I guess that was also one of our goals, so to speak”.

Roadrunner’s Senior VP of A&R, Monte Conner also had this to say: “I am honoured to have the Roadrunner logo on the Storm Corrosion album. Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt have demonstrated time and time again that they are two of the truest and most important artists working today, and it is not often that I get to work with musicians of this calibre. This album is a beautiful piece of work that will appeal to fans of Steven and Mikael’s past records, while at the same time exploring new avenues for both artists”.

The eponymous album will be released on 23 Apr.

Sony’s catalogue division Legacy Recordings announced an interesting new deal with country legend Willie Nelson earlier this week which will see both new albums and archive packages being released.

Nelson previously worked with both RCA and Columbia, both now within the Sony Music empire, before his most recent label partnership with Universal’s Lost Highway. The new deal will see Nelson release brand new albums as well as curating re-release packages.

Says Nelson of the new deal: “I’m really happy to be back home with Sony Music. We have been partners for many years; all the way back to ‘Pamper’ and ‘Tree Music’. We share a great history, and I’m looking forward to many more years together”.

Legacy Recordings GM Adam Block added: “We couldn’t be more excited to have the opportunity to work with Willie on this landmark partnership. There’s a natural and organic relationship between new recording projects and catalogue activity that promises to ensure the lasting importance of Willie and his music”.

Independent label Cooking Vinyl yesterday announced not one but three new deals, with Reverend & The Makers and The Proclaimers signing label service deals with the company, and Counting Crows a royalty-based licensing deal. All three artists have new albums due out this year.

Here’s some quotes from key people, just in case you don’t believe me…

The Proclaimers: “We are very excited to be joining with such a progressive and successful label and we look forward to the promotion and touring of the new album immensely”.

Reverend & The Makers’ Jon McClure: “I’m made up to be on a label that is growing seemingly by the minute and that contains on its roster at least three of my favourite bands”.

Cooking Vinyl Director Rob Collins: “We are proud to add more quality artists to the label. 2012 is already shaping up to be great year”.

Music publisher Spirit Music yesterday announced it had acquired Pete Townshend’s personal interest in his song catalogue, with plans to work in partnership with the guitarist to promote and exploit his song collection, which includes the likes of ‘Pinball Wizard’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’ and rock operas ‘Tommy’ and ‘Quadrophenia’.

The deal follows a year of negotiations between Spirit CEO Mark Fried, Townsend himself, and his management, label and original publisher. The partnership will also see Spirit work with Townsend for at least a year on wider projects, including possible brand partnerships, and will also see the publisher represent the Who man’s future works, including his in-development musical project ‘Floss’.

Says Fried: “The songs of Pete Townshend are the soundtrack of our lives. They’ve been a mirror to decades of cultural growth and change, challenging our sensibilities, inspiring engagement and forever redefining rock and roll song craft and musicianship. We’re thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity to work closely with Pete in the caretaking and promotion of his life’s work, and to help inspire his future successes”.

Says Townshend: “I am very excited about my new relationship with Mark Fried and his team at Spirit. I feel that my song catalogue is at last consolidated with one guiding company, and I’m optimistic that Spirit will keep my music in the public mind. Further, the deal provides me with the resources to start all over again in my creative career – most songwriters don’t get this kind of opportunity, a chance of creative renaissance. I am passionately committed to new projects for rock and for music theatre and I can’t imagine a better company with which to be building a new creative life for myself”.

Much-courted ’212′ rapper Azealia Banks has confirmed that she has signed a recording contract with Universal Music. The label will oversee the release of her debut album, slated by the MC for a tentative May/June release.

The Universal deal may mark Banks’ first brush with a major, but it isn’t her first ever label experience. The 20 year old MC signed a development deal with XL Recordings in 2009, but then abruptly broke off from the London-based independent, seemingly over creative differences with its owner, producer Richard Russell.

Speaking in this interview with Self-Titled magazine, she claims: “Richard was cool, but as soon as I didn’t want to use his beats, it got real sour. He wound up calling me ‘amateur’ and shit, and the XL interns started talking shit about me. I was like: ‘I didn’t come here for a date. I came here to cut some fucking records’. I got turned off on the music industry and disappeared for a bit. I went into a bit of a depression”.

She recently told the BBC: “I was like, this is not what I worked so hard my entire life to do – to be rejected by some English guy in West Bumblefrickin nowhere London, telling me I’m amateur or something like that. So I just said: ‘Screw you!’”

So there you go. You may as well, now that you’re here, have a listen to Banks’ latest track ‘Bambi’, which was debuted at Paris Fashion Week.

Brit pop bloke Example has signed a US record deal with Universal/Mercury, it has been announced. The rapper, who is signed to Ministry Of Sound in the UK, will release his fourth album later this year.

Example told CMU: “I’m pleased to have signed to a major label like Universal/Mercury in the US. It was important to me to sign with someone who understands not only my ambitions but also the way I work. I want to do it on my own terms, I enjoy a good challenge and can’t wait to get started”.

Mercury’s US president David Massey added: “Everyone here is very excited to be working with Example, a world class songwriter and performer who is now a leading force in the live arena. A true modern day rock star who is at the forefront of the new wave of exciting electronic music exploding here in the US”.

Ministry Of Sound MD David Dollimore said: “It’s important for us to see commitment and passion from labels we partner with, David Massey and his team certainly showed that. The US market is primed for an electronic artist like Example, he is the real deal, a rockstar making hit songs and exciting, cutting edge dance music. He is the only artist making dance tunes with huge choruses, think a hybrid between Skrillex and Coldplay”.

Yuk. UK fans can catch Example live in April when he heads out on a ten date arena tour.

British ‘X-Factor’ pop person Cher Lloyd has signed a US album deal with Sony’s Epic Records, having impressed the label’s CEO and resident ‘X-Factor USA’ judge LA Reid, by seeming “fresh” and outspoken.

The ‘Swagger Jagger’ singer, whose debut album ‘Sticks And Stones’ had its UK release last month via Simon Cowell’s Sony imprint Syco, told BBC Breakfast about her American breakthrough-to-be: “I’m not going to run before I can walk. It’s quite a big thing to try and achieve, but you never know what’s going to happen”.

Recalling her meeting with Reid, she said: “He finds me quite funny. He said that I am very outgoing, and I say what I want, and sometimes it comes out before I get to think about what’s going to come out of my mouth, and he likes that. He just said that I’m really fresh and he’s very excited”.

Meanwhile, tune into the below video to see Cher and guest MCs Mic Righteous, Dot Rotten and Ghetts performing her penultimate ‘Sticks And Stones’ number ‘Dub On The Track’. Apparently she’s the kind of girl to do just that.

Madonna yesterday confirmed her previously reported new record deal with Universal’s Interscope imprint. The label will manage the singer’s recordings as part of her 360 degree deal with Live Nation.

Her manager Guy Oseary said in a statement: “We anticipate a very bright future at our new home”.

Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine added: “Very rarely does an opportunity like this come around”.

The first release under the new deal will be ‘Gimme All Your Luvin’, the first single from Madonna’s as-yet-untitled new album, in January.

The Enemy have become the latest band to sign to Cooking Vinyl, following Marilyn Manson, Roll Deep, The Cult, and the Cranberries, who all started working with the London indie this year. The band previously released two albums via Warner Music, and will release their first album for their new label in May.

It’s not clear whether the band enjoyed working with their previous major label partner or not, see what you think as frontman Tom Clark tells CMU: “My experience of record labels is as follows: the big ones have got big lawyers who want to pull your pants down and fuck you for fun while telling you they’re doing you a favour. And they are all about one thing – money. The smaller ones are about two things – people and music. Success is possible because, when a small team of enthusiastic people care, they are capable of creating something that no big label or their lawyers can buy, passion. You can’t take 25% of net passion”.

Meanwhile the band’s manager, David Bianchi, added: “The Enemy have always been an independently minded band with ambition and I think Cooking Vinyl mirror this as a label. Watching Martin’s [Goldchmidt] success over the last few years with the label, it seemed obvious that when the band’s deal with WEA was completed, this should be our next move. Cooking Vinyl are allowing us to put together our own bespoke marketing and A&R team which was exactly how we started on the band’s first album. John Dawkins, who A&Red ‘We’ll Live And Die In These Towns’, has been brought back in for album three”.

Madonna has reportedly signed a new record deal with Universal division Interscope, the first release under the deal being her in-production new album

Madonna, of course, has an existing multi-layered partnership with Live Nation which includes her recording activity now that she is out of her previous recording contract with Warner Music. Though original plans by the live music conglom when it entered into so called 360 degree arrangements with four A-list artists back in 2007, to have a specific division handling that side of things never really got off the ground, so it’s seemed likely for a while any future Madonna album releases would be in partnership with a major.

It’s thought the deal with Interscope will be for three albums, the first of which will be released in January around about the singer’s appearance at the Super Bowl. Universal and Live Nation, which are already collaborating elsewhere on a new artist partnerships business, will announce the Madonna deal later today.

The recently reformed Stone Roses have signed a new record deal for the new material they have been working on since reforming earlier this year. The band have signed a UK deal with Universal Music and a US deal with Sony’s Columbia Records.

A statement reads: “The Stone Roses are pleased to announce that they have signed a record contract with Universal Music in London and with Columbia Records in New York”.

As previously reported, Ian Brown et al will reform for three reunion shows in Manchester next June, followed by a string of festival appearances around the world.

Universal’s Interscope definitely has room to squeeze Van Halen into its camp, given that the company has just parted ways with Limp Bizkit, seemingly because of good old “creative differences”. Some are reporting that the band have been dropped, though the band’s frontman and one-time Senior Vice President of Interscope Records Fred Durst insists he is happy with the turn of events.

He told the Poolside With Dean Delray podcast: “One of the things with [new record] ‘Gold Cobra’ was that it was a record for us to do for ourselves, for the core fans, for some of the people that we know in the industry. It wasn’t our step forward to make a big pop, smash radio record; we just didn’t want to make that record at that time. We have been working for a while now to re-navigate where we are going to take Limp Bizkit and finally we have been able to get off our label and become independent”.

Rap type Drake has dropped the services of agents ICM, and will now be represented globally by William Morris Endeavor. However, this does not affect his management relationship, with Drake’s career still being managed by Hip Hop Since 1978, the management agency that also looks after Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj.

A New York Post report on Drake extending his relationship with WME claimed the deal also saw the star parting company with Hip Hop Since 1978, but Billboard have confirmed that is not true via a WME spokesman. Drake actually confirmed he was working with the William Morris agency last month, but the original plan seemed to be that ICM would continue to handle his bookings in North America, but that is no longer the case.