I just noticed Arab Strap is once again a Matador alumnus

[Paul]

Is this because Chemikal Underground now has US distro or what?

Actually, the only reason I noticed is because I was going to ask why Matador wasn't releasing Malcolm Middleton's new album... but now that point seems moot.

[Gerard]

We didn't release Malcom's first solo album, either.

re : Arab Strap. I don't think it does anyone any good for us to go into the gory biz detals as to why we're not going to be releasing the next Arab Strap album. I will say, however, that our reasons aren't musical and we have no gripe whatsoever about Aidan & Malcom as individuals, nor have Chemikal Underground been anything other than terrific people to work with.

We have to be pretty careful of how many projects we can take on at any given time, and with a handful of exceptions, we'll be concentrating on artists that we work with worldwide.

Arab Strap have made some great records without being associated with Matador before, and I'm confident they will continue to do so.

[Squall91]

A new Arab Strap album would be fucking wicked.