New music
mark.kidel
Leonard Cohen, who has died at 82, was one of those artists born with a wisdom and maturity that cut deep into the baby-boomer youth culture of his times. He provided the perfect antidote to the innocent optimism of the 1960s, a vision shot through with world-weariness, melancholy and humour. Those who dismissed him as a purveyor of bed-sit self pity missed the point, hooked as they were on hedonism, and blind to the ever-present horrors and recurring tragedy of the world.Cohen wrote for post-Holocaust times, bravely countering Theodore Adorno’s notion that there could be no poetry Read more ...
Tim Cumming
The last time Genesis Breyer P Orridge was in the UK, it was to touch down and talk about life, art, magic and strange encounters as part of COUM, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and PTV3 at the October Gallery's William Burroughs centenary show back in 2015.Since then, there has been a return to music – earlier this year, the entire catalogue of Psychic TV and PTV3 was reissued on Dias Records, much of it for the first time in digital format. Given that there was a campaign to release 23 live albums on the 23rd of each month (a Guinness World record), there's quite a lot of archive to Read more ...
Katie Colombus
When the world seems to be so politically off-kilter, fracturing before our eyes into a typhoon of misogyny and racism, Alicia Keys is singing out with a defiant voice, with positive songs about society and, in particular, women.Keys’ music is interspersed with powerful spoken word poetry that demands a connection with her audience: “I'm the dramatic static before the song begins, I'm the erratic energy that gets in your skin, And if you don't let me in, I'm the shot in the air when the party ends.” It’s inspiring and compelling, and leads you in to be “here”, in her moment.There is strength Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Regular subscribers to the Arts Desk may have noticed a certain view from some of our number that the Glastonbury Festival is the annual musical and social high point of the year in the UK. On this subject, I would beg to differ and instead claim Birmingham’s wilfully uncommercial celebration of the weird and the wonderful, the Supersonic Festival, to be my most eagerly awaited annual sonic celebration.So, it was with some disappointment that it became apparent that 2016 was to be a fallow year in the West Midlands and that we were to be denied this year’s sonic medicine and strangely mind- Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
To anybody who was able to resist the girl gang siren call that was Honeyblood’s 2014 debut album, the Glasgow duo is upping their offer. Babes Never Die is both a motto and a call to arms, the words – apparently – tattooed on the ribcage of singer/guitarist Stina Tweeddale and echoing, mantra-like, through the hypnotic chug of the album’s 45-second “Intro” track.Sure, tacking a mostly instrumental fade onto either end of an album is the calling card of the self-important prog rocker, but, as with most things Honeyblood, it’s done with a knowing smirk and a tongue firmly in cheek (never more Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Man & Myth, released in September 2013, was Roy Harper’s best album in two decades. The live shows which came on its back were stunning. Amongst this activity – instead of building on the momentum – he was arrested and charged with historic sexual abuse. Police had contacted him about allegations in February 2013. Following an innocent verdict, all other charges were dropped in November 2015.Of the ordeal, Harper said “I have now been acquitted on all the charges that were brought. This case should never have gone as far as this, or taken so long to resolve. I lost my livelihood and I Read more ...
Liz Thomson
It’s 58 years since “Britain’s answer to Elvis Presley” had his first top 10 hit and now he’s back, and back to his roots, with a new CD, Just… Fabulous Rock ‘n’ Roll, released by Sony with whom, at the grand old age of 76, he has signed a lucrative new contract. And don’t mock. It’s a terrific album: 15 classic songs including a “duet” with Elvis Presley, without whom.Recorded at the Blackbird Studio in Nashville, where the likes of Dolly Parton, Sheryl Crow, Hank Williams Jr, Taylor Swift and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers have worked, it’s produced by Steve Mandile of country quintet. Sixwire Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Marc Almond (b 1956) grew up in Southport, on the Lancashire coast. He first achieved fame when Soft Cell, his Leeds Polytechnic art school electronic project with Dave Ball, much to both their surprise, had a huge global hit in 1981 with their electronic cover of an old soul song, the 1965 Gloria Jones B-side, “Tainted Love”. In its wake the band were leading lights of early Eighties synth pop, releasing three albums and a string of successful singles, including “Say Hello Wave Goodbye” and “Torch”, before splitting in 1984.Almond went onto become a cult star throughout the 1980s, initially Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
At 15 seconds in, it becomes obvious Ruins means business. A brief snatch of acoustic guitar lays the table for a hard-edged, groove-driven slab of melodic guitar psych immediately bringing to mind the heavier moments of Sun Dial’s classic 1990 album Other Way Out. Dungen (and their flute) are in there too. As are Kak’s “Trieulogy” and a hefty dose of vintage Swedish progg.These touchstones make it overwhelmingly clear that the Bedfordshire-formed Wolf People are aiming high on their third album proper. Where its predecessors were a little ragged, unfocused and seemingly born from jamming, Read more ...
Barney Harsent
“My main talent is for turning trauma into something showbizzy,” said Robbie Williams in an interview to plug this, his 11th studio album. While a point immediately apparent to anyone with a passing knowledge of his work, it also speaks volumes about why, with The Heavy Entertainment Show, he has produced an album that never tries to turn his feelings into something universal, opting instead to give us a guided tour of his emotions using musical emojis.While John Grant (who contributes one of the album’s best moments in “I Don’t Want to Hurt You”) is prepared to open wounds down to the bone Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Whatever you think of their music, it’s hard not to admire a band who wilfully make music as oppressive, uncommercial and solemn as British south-coast trio Esben and the Witch. They’ve been ploughing their unfashionable, gothic furrow for eight whole years. Funereal gloom, however, has limited appeal and they faltered somewhat circa 2014’s Wash The Sins Not Only The Face. Happily, with help from producer Steve Albini, 2014’s A New Nature saw them discover that lamentation can be balanced with dissonant, invigorating noisiness. Older Terrors continues to explore this idea.For their fourth Read more ...
Matthew Wright
New Orleans icon Dr John (Mac Rebennack) epitomises that city’s diversely blended musical traditions. This release was recorded live in May 2014 at a New Orleans Jazz Festival celebration of his career, which began in the 1950s on the Los Angeles studio scene. The generous double CD (even this double release is only half the original gig) allows enough time to sample the full range of his output. The live event programmed alternating local and guest performers. Inevitably, the recording has favoured the names from elsewhere, though there are still plenty of New Orleans veterans, such as Big Read more ...