New music
Liz Thomson
It’s more than 10 years since Katie Doherty, a new-minted music grad championed by the Sage-based Folkworks collective, was named Newcomer of the Year and released Bridges, her debut album. And Then is only her second – which is not to suggest she’s been resting on her laurels. In the intervening years she’s worked as a musical director for the RSC among other stage companies and has appeared alongside Ray Davies and the McGarrigles – and, as “Tiny Little Shoes” suggests, she has had a baby. The album comes elegantly packaged, a gatefold with pull-out lyrics and credits, and the CD contained Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The title comes from a slogan used in a 1920s newspaper ad for Weinberg’s, a gramophone, record and sheet music shop in Brick Lane. Readers saw the words in Yiddish though. Brick Lane was central to London’s Jewish East End and those who lived in the area after the escaping the eastern European pogroms of the late 19th century brought their popular culture with them – a popular culture which, like any other arriving here, evolved and enriched Britain.Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World: Yiddisher Jazz in London's East End 1920s–1950s collects British Jewish-themed jazz and dance Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Monzen Nakacho is an old and distinguished part of Tokyo that’s renowned for its nightlife. It’s also the moniker that Worthing musician Gary Short has given himself for his 21st century keyboard wizard persona. Short’s output has been called “giallo synthwave” because it owes a certain something to the music of 1970s Italian horror films, most especially prog band Goblin’s synth-driven soundtracks to the movies of Dario Argento. With his second album, however, he has upped the ante and moved well beyond his influences.Almost entirely instrumental, except for light vocoder vocals layered into Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
It’s hard to see the first album under the Pedro the Lion name in 15 years as anything other than a homecoming. There’s the title, Phoenix, for one thing: a dual-purpose nod to both songwriter David Bazan’s hometown and the mythical bird, reborn from the ashes of what came before. There’s the lyrical time traveling to childhood: favourite toys, fickle friends, a litany of street names, fading out like a prayer, at the end of a long desert highway. There’s even, on the relatively upbeat “Clean Up”, a brazen nod of a lyric to the albums under his own name on which Bazan wrestled, to a more or Read more ...
Barney Harsent
De Facto is the fifth album from Mexican duo Lorelle Meets the Obsolete and the first to be recorded in the home studio of core members Lorelle (Lorena Quintanella) and The Obsolete (Alberto González). The change has certainly served them well, seemingly freeing them up and giving them room to move. Movement is what De Facto is all about, you see. Whether it’s the shifting dynamics of the psychedelic instrumentals or the proud, propulsive wallop of the hypnotic grooves, Lorelle Meets the Obsolete have taken a bold step forward with this release. There is a densely layered structure Read more ...
Guy Oddy
“Hey you, motherfucker / What you looking at? / What a fucking loser / Acting like a twat.” Yes indeed. Venom, the originators of black metal, are back to celebrate 40 years of disregarding taste and decency at every opportunity with their confrontational mash-up of metal, biker rock and punk and they’ve not mellowed one iota.From “Bring Out Your Dead” all the way through to the title track, long-time band leader Cronos and more recent recruits guitarist Rage and drummer Dante (who have both actually been around for 10 years) take things by the scruff of the neck and don’t let go until they’ Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
This 11-tracker begins with 35 seconds of rhythmically bedded instrumental colour which opens the curtain for a lovely, folky slab of art-pop titled “Enough to Notice”. Odd touchstones surface: Skylarking XTC, Stackridge, Dirty Projectors. Yet there’s something else going on. During the album’s second track, it dawns. Field Music. This is who You Tell Me evoke. It’s all here. The clipped approach to melodies and rhythms, the dry production, the suggestions of a reined-in prog rock and the precise string arrangements.Unlike Field Music, the voice most often heard is female and crisply elegiac Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Without the necessary distance, characterising last year through its pop music is a mug’s game. A gulf of 50 years would bring some perspective. Nonetheless, in spite of that interval there are difficulties in creating a fitting soundtrack to 1968 – especially when using its singles as the emblematic markers.The difference between pop and rock had been codified in 1968, and the album was the chosen means of expression for many musicians. Even so, regardless of the emergence of underground or album-format shows and stations, song-centric pop radio was still the means to reach a wider audience Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
“Are you tired of being pissed and confused?” opens the epic title track of Yak’s second album. Later on singer Oli Burslem brokenly croons, “For now I’m in pursuit of momentary happiness; it’s vacuous and a game gonna lose [sic]. Do you remember when we said it’d be easier if nobody felt a thing, no love, no loss, nothing…” The nihilistic lyrics belie an indie strum that blossoms into a sweeping explosion of melodically inclined space rock. Thus it is throughout. The lyrics are often gnarly but the tone triumphant.Three-piece Yak created waves amongst NME-orientated aficionados of guitar Read more ...
Peter Culshaw
The focus of this radio show, one of Peter Culshaw’s occasional updates of global music, is the new sounds coming from Brazil in 2019. The country seems to entering a dark period with new President Bolsanaro having just taken office, but however unsavoury the regime, the beat as always goes on. My guest expert on the subject is the enormously talented Brazilian video and film director Tiago Di Mauro, who has done music videos for the likes of Anglo-Brazilian artist Nina Miranda and Tulipa Ruiz, promos for cachaca, the key ingredient of caipirinha cocktails, and is currently developing his Read more ...
mark.kidel
Genuine authorship in popular music often manifests as eccentricity. Commercially driven musical entertainment thrives on treading familiar paths, tweaking well-established genres, often rooted in the various traditions of African-American styles and their many white imitations. Daniel Knox is a musician with a unique voice: he sings in his own way and tells stories that startle and surprise at every turn. There is much autobiography here, found in “Pack Our Bags” and “The Poisoner” particularly, both songs about partingAfter a number of albums he has established himself as his own man, a one Read more ...
Jo Southerd
It’s been a great year for music: trailblazing and unforgettable EPs from Stella Donnelly and boygenius; the triumphant returns of Robyn, and Janelle Monáe; flawless albums from Kurt Vile and Tunng; stunning re-imaginings from St Vincent and Waxahatchee; and confident debuts from Snail Mail and The Orielles.My home Welsh scene continues to bubble, with much-loved new works from heroes Gruff Rhys and the Manics; national praise for Gwenno’s iconic Le Kov; and sparkling, significant debuts from fresher faces Estrons, Adwaith and Accü. Meanwhile, the stratospheric success of Boy Azooga’s 1,2, Read more ...