Major Lazer - 'Lazer Strikes Back Vol. 1'

The bad news: Major Lazer have delayed the release of their new album, ‘Free The Universe’, for a second time. The good news: Major Lazer have shared a free EP to compensate.

The new album from Diplo & Friends was first scheduled for release in November 2012, and would’ve been a follow up to 2009’s ‘Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do’. It was then delayed, and had its release date rescheduled for February 19th. When this day came and went, no album appeared. Thankfully, a post on the official Major Lazer Facebook page clears this all up (slightly):

The upcoming album, “FREE THE UNIVERSE,” has been been kidnapped by General Rubbish and we all must embark on an epic journey to upset his evil plan so we can free the universe as planned with the album.

Our fans are the most important part of what makes Major Lazer what it is. It is with that consideration that “FREE THE UNIVERSE” will not be released this month as previously scheduled. We never want to disappoint our supporters but circumstances out of our control have made us unable to keep the intended date. For anyone disappointed, we are truly apologetic and we promise that this hiccup has only made what we have planned for the album stronger. We tried extremely hard to keep the date but it was ultimately decided that rushing the album would have been unfair to you and everyone who worked so hard on it. An iTunes exclusive pre-order in the US will launch next Tuesday, 2/26 which will feature an instant grat download of “Watch Out for This (Bumaye).”

They included a link to the new EP, which will be the first of three free releases that fans can grab to tide them over until the eventual release date of the new album. We’re happy to wait if it keeps the quality up: Get Free was absolutely brilliant. In the meantime, you can check out our old interview with Diplo talking about the genesis of the Major Lazer project.

Download the EP, ‘Lazer Strikes Back Vol. 1’, here.

LAZER STRIKES BACK Vol. 1
1. Major Lazer & Flux Pavilion – Jah No Partial (Jack Beats Remix)
2. Major Lazer – Get Free feat. Amber of Dirty Projectors (Yellow Claw Get Free Money Remix)
3. Major Lazer – Original Don feat. The Partysquad (DGRC Remix)
4. Hot Chip – Look At Where We Are (Major Lazer Extended Remix)