New music
mark.kidel
Sidestepper have been ploughing the rich ground of "electro-cumbia" for some years now. Their appealing contribution to the world dance scene is the fruit of a collaboration between Richard Blair, with his taste for drum‘n’bass and dub, and a number of Colombian talents who’ve grown up with a heady mix of Afro-Caribbean polyrhythms and traditional tribal melodies.Made in the laid-back barrios of Bogota, the new album juxtaposes tracks rooted in the irresistible and intricate local beats, driven by delicately played hand drums and other percussion, with slightly more mainstream pop and rock Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Of all the idiosyncratic artists coming through the door opened by punk, Adrian Sherwood remains one of the most singular. Reggae had been given a new platform and Sherwood, though he has never done anything remotely musically akin to punk rock, comfortably found a place alongside boundary-crossing post-punk individualists like The Pop Group and Public Image Ltd. The former’s Mark Stewart and the latter’s Jah Wobble went on to record with Sherwood’s On-U Sound label.Although Sherwood would deconstruct and then reassemble hip-hop with Tackhead and similarly explore various forms of electronic Read more ...
Matthew Wright
Penguins tend to be associated with slow and ungainly progress, slithering about in the snow. Yet there’s nothing cumbersome or awkward about the progress Manchester trio GoGo Penguin has made since emerging on the local jazz scene based around Matt and Phred’s club and their friend Matt Hallsall’s label Gondwana Records, which released their first two albums. In the past year they have broken through with North American audiences, and this, their third album, is not on Gondwana, but – applause – Blue Note. Much more GoGo than Penguin.The work is well titled. Man Made Object sums up Read more ...
Barney Harsent
The Cult, functionally Ian Astbury, Billy Duffy and whoever else is joining them at any given time, have, like a peculiarly showy chameleon, constantly changed their colours without ever blending in. From goth pirates banging out breakthrough, incense-smoked anthems, they've progresssed through hoary heroics of cock-rock cliché, to dark, occasionally industrial and deeply confessional folly.Refusing to rest on their extravagant laurels, The Cult have largely avoided the heritage shades of many of their peers. Yes, there were a couple of tours to celebrate the albums Love and Electric, but Read more ...
joe.muggs
It's hard to imagine what the weight of public anticipation must feel like for 27-year-old Rihanna and her team. A pop star for ten years, and one of the planet's biggest since the all-conquering success of “Umbrella” two years into that career, she maintained a Stakhanovite work ethic and has the startling record being equalled only by The Beatles and Elvis Presley for having US number one hit singles in seven consecutive years. But it's now over three years since her last full album, Unapologetic, with only a scattering of singles and soundtrack contributions to fill that gap, and repeated Read more ...
peter.quinn
There's a moment in album-opener “Another Weirdo”, just after the one-and-a-half-minute mark, that powerfully captures the dramatic heft and textural surprise of this outstanding big band album. A subdued call and response in the brass snakes its way over an unchanging cadential figure in the bass. And then, from nowhere, a sudden shift up a semitone and the full might of the big band comes crashing in, a blaze of colour over which its composer takes flight.Groove Travels, a celebration of the rhythms that Gerard Presencer has absorbed on his various travels, has been incubating since 2010, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Lion Babe’s lion babe, Jillian Hervey, does, indeed, have a mane to match the title. The daughter of the actor, soul-pop star and dethroned Miss America 1984, Vanessa Williams, she also has a voice that lives up to the moniker, running from the feline to full leonine soul. Lion Babe is not just Hervey, though. Her production partner Lucas Goodman is also on hand to provide the necessary beats, basslines and electronic backing. The New York pairing, who made an appearance on Disclosure's last album, have been much touted as faces for 2016. Their debut album, while not exactly busting open new Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
We're packed into the basement of Madrid's Costello Nite Club, a kind of narrow brick-lined tunnel off the Calle Gran Via. It's the kind of place where you could imagine finding groups of earnest jazzniks nodding along to atonal pandemonium in 11/7 time.Not tonight though. Onstage, we find a stocky, bearded gentleman in a burgundy-coloured jacket and fedora hat. He's leading his all-American band through a selection of country-rock, bluegrass, hoedowns and swamp blues, played with a downhome country twang and a topping of scorching country fiddle by Erin Slaver. From the look of him, you Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
If you haven’t fallen for Emma Pollock by the end of the first two songs on In Search of Harperfield – you know, on the off chance that you have somehow been immune to the first lady of Scottish indie over the past 20 years – then there’s probably no help for you. In just two songs, Pollock perfectly showcases her dynamic talent: there’s the dreamy, ghostly “Cannot Keep a Secret”, as immersive a song ever written to fit Pollock’s husky, beguiling voice; and “Don’t Make Me Wait”, a catchy rocker that’s as insistent as its name.Five and a half years since 2010’s The Law of Large Numbers and Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The nature of Europe, its administration, institutions and its porousness are hot topics. Sectors of Britain’s media and political class hyperventilate over trumped-up concerns while real issues which are just about impossible to address remain unresolved. In this climate, the European Border Breakers Awards are ripe for misinterpretation. Instead of being for those devising the shrewdest ways to slip in and out of countries, they are an annual European Union-sponsored award presented to pop musicians achieving success beyond their own borders.There are rules in this contest, one which no one Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
While Harpers Bizarre’s US Top 20 version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)” will always be their single turned to by American oldies radio, its follow-up “Come to the Sunshine” defines their sound and musical attitude. Written and previously recorded by Van Dyke Parks, it captures an irresistibly effervescent Californian harmony pop which painted a sonic picture of the West Coast in 1967 as balmy, beautiful and seductive. In the same way as The Beach Boys’ early surfing songs, it was as much invitation as postcard, one which said: bring yourself into an Read more ...
Russ Coffey
There's something comforting about Turin Brakes and their psychedelic take on Seventies folk-rock. Partly it's their melodies. But there's also an inherent honesty in the duo's tight harmonies and dreamy rhythms. Indeed, once upon a time Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian seemed the future of British acoustic rock. Instead we got the likes of James Morrison and Mumford and Sons. Still, Turin Brakes never went away, and Lost Property, their seventh studio album, is their best for quite a while.The record kicks off with "96" and "Keep Me Around", both of which are marked by an infectiousness Read more ...