New music
Peter Culshaw
The latest in Peter Culshaw’s peripatetic radio shows is a conversation with Joe Boyd whose recent tome, published by Faber, is a magisterial sweep through global and popular music called And the Roots of Rhythm Remain. TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW https://www.mixcloud.com/MusicBoxRadioUK/the-arts-desk-with-joe-boyd-thursday-9th-january-2025/Boyd bridled when called a Zelig because “Zelig was just there and didn’t do anything” whereas he, au contraire, was definitely an active participant. He was at the sound desk when Bob Dylan shocked all by going electric at the Newport Festival in 1965 Read more ...
joe.muggs
Is there such a thing as a boundary between pop and alternative any more? The presence of strange characters like Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish and Lola Young in the mega mainstream suggests not – and so does trajectory of Jessica Smyth aka Biig Piig.The Irish-born, Spanish-raised adopted Londoner came up through distinctly out-there artistic routes: as part of Lava La Rue’s NiNE8 collective, a diverse set of artists working across different media and touching on dance, rap, neo-soul and more, but held together by the very old school factor of physical proximity in shared studios. But the Read more ...
Tom Carr
You could be easily forgiven for thinking that the young indie rockers, Inhaler, would stick to the formula that has already served them so well for album number three. The Dublin lads had soared to success with their first two albums, seeing them reach the top of the UK and Ireland album charts with their 2021 debut It Won’t Always Be Like This, followed by number two on the charts with their sophomore album Cuts & Bruises in 2023.But there has been no sign of any laurel-resting, and the group return with their third album with a clear sign of willingness to both refine and expand their Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
After co-fronting Vinegar Joe with Robert Palmer, Elkie Brooks first charted as a solo artist in 1977 with “Pearl’s a Singer.” Yet there was more to her musical past than the 1971 to 1974 spell in the blues-rock outfit. Her contributions to You Got Me Hooked! - More Marylebone Beat Girls are “He's Gotta Love me” and “Stop the Music” – both released a decade before “Pearl’s a Singer.”“He's Gotta Love me” was the June 1965 A-side of her fourth single. “Stop the Music” was the B-side of her February 1966 sixth single. Each is a top-drawer uptown soul-pop nugget with a strong tune, driving rhythm Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
Tireless rockers Guided By Voices confidently play with sound throughout Universe Room, their eighteenth album in 10 years. Experimental in nature, it consists of 17 short tracks that take you through a non-cohesive sonic journey. It’s fun to listen to but it has obvious highlights.Opening track “Driving Time” introduces the concept of Universe Room with a chaotic mix of instruments and unidentified sounds against descriptive lyrics. The varied approach continues throughout and includes instrumental tracks, Beatles-esque Pop moments, spacey, progressive Rock, and an overarching commitment to Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The Weeknd is a global megastar, one of the biggest music sensations of the age. Last year, his compilation, The Highlights, was the second best-selling album in the world, and he has 27 songs with over a billion streams on Spotify, which is a record. His latest album is the third part of a trilogy which started, back in 2020 with After Hours. Unfortunately, where that, and its sequel, Dawn FM, were vibrant, contagious, catchy electronic pop, Hurry Up Tomorrow, is morose, lacking tunes and, boy, does it go on and on.There’s a fair bit worth listening to but, at almost an hour-and-a-half long Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
As Stoke-on-Trent’s Formal Sppeedwear immerse themselves in what turns out to be their penultimate song, they become lost in the music. What they are playing takes over. Revolving guitar motifs spray forth like light reflected from a glitter ball. An elastic bass guitar bubbles, the frill-free drumming is hard, precise and about forward motion.They are playing “Bunto,” the lead track from their May 2024 EP, a four-track 12-incher. The live experience confirms that Formal Sppeedwear are fully formed, a band knowing exactly what it’s doing. Everything meshes, forming a seamless whole. Add in Read more ...
joe.muggs
When you’ve achieved the truly sublime, trying to recapture it can be bittersweet. Cymande, for the mere three years they existed in the early 1970s, were one of the very best bands on the planet: a unique mixture of Rasta spirituality and African-inspired percussion with Curtis Mayfield conscious funk plus a particularly British melancholy and melodic hooks for days. It got them a brief flush of fame in the US, but nothing at home and they broke up disillusioned, before being gradually revivified by getting sampled by the biggest names in hip hop.Since the 1990s, they have reformed in Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Somewhat astoundingly, The Purple Bird is Will Oldham’s album number 21 using his Bonnie “Prince” Billy alias. A fine set of alt country tunes, recorded in Nashville and largely co-written with producer David Ferguson, it also happily suggests that he’s nowhere near the end of his creative journey.Despite many of these tunes being previewed during his headline set at last summer’s Supersonic Festival, this album is not one that has much in common with the likes of Melt Banana, Gazelle Twin or many of the other noise terrorists and experimentalists that normally show their faces there. But Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
VINYL OF THE MONTHBuñuel Mansuetude (Skin Graft/Overdrive)This is a balls-out punk rock’n’roll mess, grunge that’s eaten the hash-cake then swigged a pint of Bourbon at high speed. Buñuel is Eugene S Robinson of San Francisco noiseniks Oxbow, accompanied by a trio of Italian musicians. Across this two-record set, which comes on gatefold double on vinyl that looks like a neon green alien has thrown up breakfast, the quartet are having a ball. Robinson leads the charge, his shrieking vocals whirlpooling around a caterwauling riff assault that’s psychedelicized in the manner of bands such as Read more ...
Kathryn Reilly
If I’d listened to this blind, I would have absolutely no idea who it was by. This isn’t the voice I remember on those Spandau backing tracks. In fact, it’s a sound straight from mid-80s soft rock. If that makes you feel queasy, step away now.Apparently Gary, like the rest of us, has been having a bit of a rough time. The pandemic, doomscrolling the news, the sudden realisation he hadn’t properly mourned his parents – all of this built up to an episode of anxiety and self-doubt. You’d expect the man that written some of the most popular pop songs of all time (selling more than 25 million Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“A band you’re gonna like, whether you like it or not.” The proclamation in the press ads for the New York Dolls’ debut album acknowledged they were a hard sell.At this point, in July 1973, the band was a New York phenomenon. There had been an anti-climactic brush with the UK in October and November 1972, some Boston shows and one-off dates in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but otherwise they had played only to audiences in the city and the nearby boroughs in which they had formed.If wider audiences were “gonna like” proto-punk glam outfit the New York Dolls, it needed more than what they had done so Read more ...