New music
Sebastian Scotney
2018. Another year when strong presences who have shaped and defined the music for decades, and whom one had fondly imagined might be around for ever, are gone from our midst. Unique vocalists Aretha Franklin and Nancy Wilson have passed away. And trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Tomasz Stańko. And a true original of the piano, Cecil Taylor. In France, the jazz scene was shocked to its core in February by a death which came completely from the blue. One of the greats of jazz violin, an energetic and pivotal figure in French jazz, Didier Lockwood, was suddenly gone at the age of Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
It’s about to begin. The final performance on the final night – and only UK date – of the European Apocalypse package tour featuring four extreme metal bands. The 1,700 capacity Roundhouse is sold out. Touts outside are scrabbling for tickets. A curtain covers the stagefront. A procession of images flicker across it; ancient art, demons, gods and hellish conflict. Then the screen goes black. In large white gothic letters, words in sequence: LONDON. PREPARE. TO. GET. DESTROYED. The curtain drops. The white-light silhouetted forms of German thrash juggernaut Kreator pounce in at a velocity Read more ...
Guy Oddy
2018 has been a quietly encouraging year for fans of music that doesn’t kowtow to mainstream norms. There were fine debut albums from feminist art punks Dream Wife and dancehall queen Miss Red, as well as King of Cowards, a cracking sophomore set from Newcastle’s energetic stoner rockers Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. Old hands like Cat Power’s haunting ballads on Wanderer and Dylan Carlson’s Conquistador with its minimalist dessert blues, however, were evidence that there were also plenty of established artists with something interesting to help revitalise the soul. The album that Read more ...
Matthew Wright
Matthew Bourne has been a significant experimental and collaborative presence on the scene since 2001, when he won the Perrier Jazz Award. This project with musician-producing duo Nightports (Adam Martin and Mark Slater) is the first of a series planned by Leaf Label, all following a simple rule that only sounds produced by the featured musician, in this case Bourne, can be included. To give himself the widest available palette, pianist Bourne assembled a selection of instruments from honkytonk to hoity-toity, which offer a fascinating range of textures. Balance is sometimes presented Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
In April 1973, John Peel wrote that “For my money, Tangerine Dream are the best of the Kosmische Music bands. Whenever any of their extended works are played on the radio there is a heavy mail from listeners. Most of the letter-writers are for it, those that are against it are very against it indeed. A Tangerine Dream track, heard superficially, is little more than a repetitive drone. Closer listening reveals a constantly shifting and evolving pattern – something like Terry Riley’s In C.”Peel began playing Tangerine Dream on his radio show in Autumn 1972 and went on to choose their fourth Read more ...
Barney Harsent
Kosua was released only last month, but its journey began two years ago when George Thompson, aka Black Merlin, released Hipnotik Tradisi, a beautiful and captivating document of his travels through Indonesia, seamlessly blending field recordings, found sounds and studio experimentalism.Around the same time, he was preparing for a trip to Papua New Guinea, which was to result in profound relationship with both the place and the people that inhabit it – most notably the remote Kosua tribe, whose name graces this album, available on vinyl and download, via Bandcamp. The bond that Thompson Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
It’s been an odd year for albums. The one I’ve listened to most is Stop Lying, a mini-album by Raf Rundel, an artist best known as one half of DJ-producer outfit 2 Bears. It’s a genially cynical album, laced with love, dipping into all manner of styles, from electro-pop to hip hop, but essentially pop. It’s easy and likeable but also short, and didn’t seem to have the required epochal aspects for an Album of the Year.Two albums that do are Kali Uchis’ Isolation and Your Queen is a Reptile by Sons of Kemet. The first one, despite tacky cover art that looks like a Victoria’s Secret catalogue, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The time of giving is here and what better presents than great slabs of lovely vinyl; sounds that bring joy to all. Our last theartsdesk on Vinyl of the year is packed with boxsets and reissues as well as a couple of seasonal bits. From a Shrek picture-disc to Kate Bush's entire back catalogue to Los Angeles’ latest alt-tronica, there are more music flavours here than even Santa can claim (having been to his crib, we can assure Santa’s vinyl collection is pretty limited, with the exception of a wall of Doom Metal). So, theartsdesk on Vinyl wishes you a top 2019 and every good thing for the Read more ...
howard.male
The problem with being an increasingly senile but still rabidly enthusiastic music fan is that you find yourself declaring that an autumn release is Album of the Year only to realise – after glancing back through old Facebook posts – that you repeatedly made the same claim for another record back in the spring. So which one does the glass slipper actually fit? It’s tricky to decide because they couldn’t be more different.My spring Album of 2018, Let’s Make Love by Brazilian Girls, brims over with arch and cool songs that put this band up among the very best of what might be labelled Read more ...
Katie Colombus
I’ve noticed a stark shift in transition of the kind of music I want to spend my time listening to over 2018. I’ve slowed down. I’ve started listening to Radio 6. I’m a little bit in love with Mary Anne Hobbs. And I bought a record player.Constructed playlists of relentless bangers have been replaced by a mellow experience of sound – tactile and intimate. The mere nature of placing needle on vinyl makes me sit nearby, take time to stop what I’m doing, and just listen. I'm tired of the relentless buzz and noise of being always on, the addiction to 'results' whether of Spotify most Read more ...
joe.muggs
Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III – Aloe Blacc – is one shrewd dude. He's extremely adept at reaching out beyond the confines of his natural beat of funk and soul, whether that's credible (covering The Velvet Underground's “Femme Fatale”) on his breakthrough 2010 Good Thingsalbum or commercial (co-writing and singing the late Swedish EDM gigastar Aviicii's “Wake Me Up” can't have done his bank balance any harm, what with going to number one in 22 countries). And of course nobody ever went bankrupt releasing a Christmas album... And yet, extraordinarily, he has always avoided having any Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
It’s the season of giving so theartsdesk on Vinyl feels compelled to draw your attention to Unicef’s Blue Vinyl campaign. This sees 17 celebrated albums auctioned off in special editions on givergy.com with all proceeds going to Unicef’s Children's Emergency Relief Fund. Albums include classics by David Bowie, Kate Bush, Alicia Keys, Ozzie Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix and… The Spice Girls. Go and have a look. Meanwhile, watch out next week for the boxset-jammed Christmas theartsdesk on Vinyl special, but right now, here’s the first of our two December editions. What’s new and juicy and plastic? Read more ...