New releases on CD & DVD
Album: Maria Somerville - Luster
Saturday, 19 April 2025
Luster’s fifth track “Halo” has the lyric “mystical creatures… of Éirne,” referencing the Irish river and lough of the same name – both of which are associated with a mother goddess. Earlier, the album’s opener is a short, ambient-styled, scene-setting instrumental titled “Réalt,” where birds, wordless vocals and a harp are heard. Réalt translates from Irish Gaelic as “star.”
Album: Ronny Graupe's Szelest - Newfoundland Tristesse
Friday, 18 April 2025
In this new album, three top-flight musicians based in Berlin, guitarist Ronny Graupe, Lucia Cadotsch (voice) and Kit Downes (piano) work collaboratively, superbly, as a real team. The music, some well-known tunes which Cadotsch sings hauntingly, and some original tunes by Graupe – it’s hard to tell them apart – just flows superbly.
Album: Gigspanner Big Band - Turnstone
Thursday, 17 April 2025
For lovers of British folk from the 1970s on, Peter Knight is a potent force – renowned for his years with Steeleye Span, in their 1970s heyday and...
Album: Mark Morton - Without the Pain
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Mark Morton is best known as a guitarist with US metallers Lamb of God. They’ve been going for three decades, established and successful, at the more...
DVD/Blu-ray: In a Year of 13 Moons
Tuesday, 15 April 2025
A longshot of transgender Elvira (Volker Spengler) circled by gay men, assignation turning to assault as dawn mist rises from Frankfurt’s Main river...
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Album: Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson - What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow
Finger-picking good |
Album: Joe Lovano - Homage
Free-flowing spontaneity |
Album: Bon Iver - SABLE ƒABLE
An album of exquisite wonder |
Album: Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong
A left turn that trades chaos for charm, with mixed results |
Album: Sofia Härdig - Lighthouse of Glass
Swedish singer-songwriter takes control of her music |
Blu-ray: Yojimbo / Sanjuro
A pair of Kurosawa classics, beautifully restored |
Album: The Waterboys - Life, Death and Dennis Hopper
An alternately involving then naff tribute to a countercultural film figurehead |
Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla
Debut set from Lush singer-songwriter’s new trio |
Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Death Hilarious
Geordie rockers’ pulverising psych metal is guaranteed to rattle windows |
Album: Elton John and Brandi Carlile - Who Believes in Angels?
Elton John & Brandi Carlile step out in style |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Substance
French director Coralie Fargeat on the making of her award-winning body-horror movie |
Album: Erlend Apneseth - Song Over Støv
Norwegian musical impressionist’s journey into the centre of a vortex |
Album: Bryan Ferry and Amelia Barratt - Loose Talk
A match made in urban nightlife and the mysteries of everyday living |
Album: Will Smith - Based on a True Story
Big Willie’s back - but maybe he should’ve stayed home |
Album: Perfume Genius - Glory
Album seven from an artist carving out his own space in the most modernist of ways |
Album: Alison Krauss & Union Station - Arcadia
Their first album in 14 years looks hard at the past, and its role in the present |
Blu-ray: Lifeforce
Tobe Hooper's frenzied, far out space sex vampire epic |
Album: Toria Wooff - Toria Wooff
Assured but too measured debut album from Americana-inclined singer-songwriter |
Album: Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco - I Said I Love You First
An album by a pair of loved-up Hollywood celebs that is, whisper it, rather good |
Album: The Horrors - Night Life
A new line-up proves no hindrance to a band bringing electro-rock zip to the darkness |
Album: Billy Hart Quartet - Just
The drum legend's group in perfect balance |
Album: Greentea Peng - Tell Dem It's Sunny
South Londoner’s smoky sophomore album is loaded with dope tunes |
Album: The Loft - Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same
Belated debut album from the early Creation Records mainstays |
Album: Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow
Small stories, big talent from the Alabaman storyteller extraordinaire |
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