With demos already in hand, the Echo & The Bunnymen braintrust — frontman Ian McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant — will begin recording their 12th studio album within the next six weeks with Killing Joke bassist Youth likely sitting in as producer, the band announced today.

New Order will mark its highly successful reunion with the release this summer of a new 13-track live album recorded at the U.K.’s Bestival last September, according to the NME. Live at Bestival 2012 will be released July 8 in the U.K. via CD and download, with all profits going to the Isle of Wight Youth Trust.

Grant Hart returns this summer with his long-in-the-works The Argument, a double album based on John Milton’s epic “Paradise Lost,” on which Domino Record Co. says Hart “distills its essence into pop and rock concoctions that nimbly flit through the history of 20th century music.”

Last fall, Kitchens of Distinction’s Patrick Fitzgerald and Julian Swales reunited for the first time since the dream-pop act folded in 1996, but they weren’t sure what to call the project. But now it’s official: With Dan Goodwin back on board, too, Kitchens of Distinction have just finished their first new album in 19 years.

Pet Shop Boys today announced full details of their forthcoming album Electric — the second release from Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant in less than a year — and revealed the itinerary for a month-long, 19-date tour that will bring the duo back to North America for the first time in four years this September and October.

The Pet Shop Boys today revealed that the final mix of their new Stuart Price-produced album Electric is due to be finished by week’s end and that full details of the record, including the final tracklist and release date, are scheduled to be announced next Tuesday — along with the duo’s full North American tour itinerary.