New music
Guy Oddy
RSO are a duo made up of ex-Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora and Australian guitar-shredder and present member of Alice Cooper’s band, Orianthi Panagaris – a couple who have decided to celebrate their relationship in song with what can only be described as a vanity project. While Radio Free America, a title that implies something more than what’s delivered, may be their debut album, a good chunk of these songs has already seen the light of day on their Rise and Making History EPs and “I Got You Babe"/ "Forever All the Way” single: none of which has managed to set the world on fire. Their Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
In early March 1980, the weekly music paper Sounds dedicated their front cover to “the new face of punk” with a photograph of Stinky Turner, the singer of The Cockney Rejects. What had, in 1977, been widely interpreted as a challenge to musical orthodoxy and as a new broom which was sweeping clean had, in turn, become a default style for new waves of bands. Punk, as The Exploited put it in 1981 for the title of their debut album, was not dead. And punk itself was now the inspiration, rather than the assorted influences which had fed into Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Damned and the Sex Pistols. Read more ...
Barney Harsent
Throughout their career, James Ford and Jas Shaw have proved themselves to be nothing if not versatile. From the subtly swirling psychedelia of Simian, to the various dancefloor shapes they’ve thrown as Simian Mobile Disco.On their last album, 2016’s Welcome to Sideways, the pair presented a collection of tracks that showed talented producers being talented at production. It was an engaging enough listen, but felt, at times, punishingly functional. Of course, in many ways, that’s dance music’s raison d'être – the clue’s in the name and the feet are on the floor. It’s the rhythm, the pulse, Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Perfectly Unhappy’s sixth track makes the album’s case. Until this point, Andy Sheppard’s playing has largely gone with the flow; working through and around the melodies pianist Espen Eriksen has composed for his trio’s first recorded collaboration with the British saxophonist. A minute 20 seconds into “Naked Trees”, the double bass comes to the fore. Then, after another 55 seconds, Sheppard begins playing with a free-flowing sinuousness and spontaneity which wasn’t previously apparent. The next two tracks, “Revisited” and the album closer “Home”, are similarly energised.Sheppard and Norway’s Read more ...
mark.kidel
Jon Hopkins navigates the territory between avant-garde electronic and beat-driven dance music with brilliance. There’s plenty here to make you want to get up and move, but as much to persuade you lie down and let the symphony of textures and timbres open you ears and take you on an inner adventure.Hopkins claims that his 2013 album “Immunity” was an MDMA trip, while this new one evokes the rollercoaster of an out-and-out psychedelic experience. Hardly surprising then that this isn’t a party album, and even less background music. While there are moments of irresistible sweetness and stillness Read more ...
peter.quinn
Hosted by Jazz FM presenters Chris Philips and Jez Nelson on UNESCO’s International Jazz Day, rising stars and international icons were honoured at the fifth Jazz FM Awards on Monday night.A Grammy winner earlier this year for her remarkable 2CD set Dreams and Daggers, watching Cécile McLorin Salvant silence a capacity crowd at Shoreditch Town Hall with her vivdly dramatic reading of “The Peacocks (A Timeless Place)”, accompanied by regular pianist Aaron Diehl, was one of the evening’s standout moments. It followed her acceptance of International Jazz Artist of the Year.Sax player Read more ...
Javi Fedrick
It’s been nearly 30 years since Gaz Coombes’s former band Supergrass released their first brash single “Caught by the Fuzz”, and he hasn’t stopped making great indie music since. His second solo album Matador received a Mercury Prize nomination in 2015, setting the bar high for World’s Strongest Man but, with its emotional complexity, melodic grace, and classically Coombes-ian soundscapes, it easily surpasses these expectations. As always, Coombes manages to cover a lot of ground across the album. “Shit (I’ve Done It Again)” calls to mind Radiohead’s more tragic, dramatic side, whilst “ Read more ...
Bernard Hughes
I’m not sure what exactly this event was – orchestral concert, electronic dance music gig or multimedia extravaganza – but however you define it, I loved every mad minute. Anna Meredith (b 1978) is one of the most successful contemporary classical composers of her generation but revels in crossing genre divides, and this event delighted in smashing boundaries with breathtaking confidence.Meredith, whose starry classical CV includes pieces in the 2008 Last Night of the Proms and the recently announced First Night of the 2018 Proms, has a taste for the unusual or technically challenging, not Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The opening couplet on Plan B’s new album runs thus: “What the hell have I got to be grateful for?/Can’t be the money as I wasn’t trying to make no more.” One appealing aspect of singer-actor-MC Ben Drew is that he’s spiky, emanating a certain rage. It’s good to see that, after six years away, it’s still there. However, Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose, is no Ill Manors, Drew’s 2012 film/album polemic about underclass Britain; instead, steeped in old soul and imaginative production, this is a rip-roaring 21st century pop album, and a very good one.Where Plan B’s last album in this vein, Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
In terms of chart statistics, Julian Cope’s period with Island Records looks pretty good. He issued four albums with the label and all of them charted. Saint Julian (issued in March 1987) peaked at 11, My Nation Underground (October 1988) stalled at 42 but Peggy Suicide (March 1991) and Jehovakill (October 1992) climbed to 23 and 20 respectively. Not bad.Yet Jehovakill became his last album for Island and, in 1994, he signed with the Chrysalis Records subsidiary Echo for whom Autogeddon climbed to a 16 position. The chart statistics tell part of the story.With Island, the release schedule was Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Awaken is the debut album by German heavy rockers Confusion Master, a combo of relative unknowns from Rostow who are straight out of the blocks with an unashamed tribute to early Black Sabbath. Loaded with slow and low grooves that come on like a storm of rolling thunder powered by high-grade herbs, spoken word film samples and slabs of heavy psych, it’s powerful stuff that is more than enough to reanimate the inner 14 year-old metal-head in anyone.Gunnar Arndt’s distorted guitars, largely unintelligible vocals from Stephan Kurth, that are buried deep in the mix and Stephen Gottwald’s slow Read more ...
howard.male
In an impressive pop royalty hat-trick, the title track features Brian Wilson, Pharrell pops up on “I Got the Juice”, and Prince helped source sounds for “Make Me Feel”. So does Kansas City gal Janelle Monae’s third album live up to expectations set by such a high calibre of contributors? Indeed, it does. Although, as impressive as it is, when Ms Monae insists on “Take a Bite” that she’s "not the kind of girl you take home to your mother", you might not be wholly convinced. But what’s a one-time prim tuxedoed girl to do in a pop world full of bouncy Beyoncés? Basically, either find her own Read more ...