Australian hip hop group Bliss N Eso have once again proven them to be not only heavyweights in their field but one of the country’s strongest selling acts.
The band’s new album Circus In The Sky has duplicated the chart-busting success of its predecessor, 2010’s Running On Air, landing Bliss N Eso their second #1 ARIA Album Chart debut, with excess of 20,000 in album sales.
Circus In The Sky claimed pole position against strong contenders in this week’s albums chart, including new releases from The Voice contestant Harrison Craig, Hillsong Live, and Dream On Dreamer’s Loveless.
The #1 debut marks the hip hop trio as the highest selling domestic artist debut for 2013 as well as the second highest selling album debut of all releases in Australia for the year, coming in second place only to the world-storming Random Access Memories, the latest from Daft Punk.
It also puts them in an exclusive club alongside the Parisian robots as one of the fastest selling albums of the year, beating out major names like Justin Timberlake, Birds Of Tokyo, Queens Of The Stone Age, and Bernard Fanning with their first week sales, which are in excess of 20,000 units according to Illusive, the band’s label. “We consider this #1 chart position as a win for independent music, not just for hip-hop.” – Bliss N Eso
It’s a massive result for the Mushroom Group imprint as well as Bliss N Eso. The success of Circus In The Sky spells another blockbuster for Illusive, replicating Running On Air‘s #1 debut and Flying Colours peak #10 position back in May 2008.
“The response from our fans has been incredible,” says MC Bliss of the chart news in a press release issued by Mushroom today. “We consider this #1 chart position as a win for independent music, not just for hip-hop and Bliss n Eso. We want to thank all of our fans who have gone out and bought the album, this chart position is all because of you guys.”
Circus In The Sky has also dazzled music critics upon its release, with our Tone Deaf reviewer awarding an 8/10 and noting “diversity is the key to Circus In The Sky… an amalgamation of quality songs that make use of the talents of other artists and genres while retaining a distinct Bliss n Eso sound.”
With a collaboration with hip hop legend Nas and creative sampling of Sarah Blasko and Bluejuice, Circus In The Sky makes good on MC Bliss’ prediction that “this is going to be our best record to date,” in an interview with Tone Deaf ahead of the cancelled Movement Festival.
Bliss N Eso’s album sales were helped no doubt in part to their latest House of Dreams Tour, kicking off last week with two shows back-to-back in their native Sydney and a huge headline show at Melbourne’s Festival Hall over the weekend and continues with dates in Perth, a sold out show in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Darwin.
The fastest selling albums of 2013 so far are:
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories 49,175
Michael Buble – To Be Loved 15,487
Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience 14,613
Harrison Craig – More Than A Dream 13,167
Birds of Tokyo – March Fires 13,013
Queens of the Stone Age – Like Clockwork 12,291
Bernard Fanning – Departures 11,339
Bon Jovi – What About Now 9,910
Paramore – Paramore 9,821
Bring Me The Horizon – Sempiternal 9,352
