fri 05/04/2019

New Music reviews, news & interviews

CD: Circa Waves - What It's Like Over There

Mark Kidel

Circa Waves, the guitar-band from Liverpool, go over a storm at festivals and large venues. With simplicity, tightness and concentrated energy, they know how to play with the tension that can build between soft and hard, the yin and the yang of rock forms that continue to sound fresh because they're delivered with a sense of fun and the joy of making party music with catchy lyrics.

theartsdesk in Lisbon: Aga Khan Music Awards

Mark Kidel

The inaugural Aga Khan Music Awards, a three-day event held last weekend in Lisbon, celebrated nearly 20 years of wide-ranging work dedicated to the preservation of ancient and threatened cultures, an impressive programme of educational initiatives, and the encouragement of musical exchange and experiment in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

theartsdesk on Vinyl 48: Curtis Mayfield,...

Thomas H Green

Every month we start theartsdesk on Vinyl with the Vinyl of the Month, however, the truth is that, depending on your taste, many of the records...

CD: Ruby Rushton - Ironside

Joe Muggs

It's kind of vertiginous to realise that the revivalism of acid jazz was way closer to its 1960s and '70s source material than we are to it now. But...

Drake, O2 Arena review - stadium hip-hop has a...

Chris Harvey

Drake walked on water at times in his opening show at the O2 Arena. Sadly this was solely down to the impressive video projection that filled the...

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Hare and Hounds, Birmingham review – Matt Baty’s crew make ears ring like church bells

Guy Oddy

Geordie noisemongers unleash psychedelic tsunami

CD: The Drums - Brutalism

Thomas H Green

Fifth album from US alt-pop act is lyrically strong but musically less so

Tallinn Music Week 2019 review: 'We All Value Being European'

Kieron Tyler

A much-needed reminder that creativity thrives without barriers

Reissue CDs Weekly: Three Day Week - When the Lights Went Out 1972-1975

Kieron Tyler

Agenda-setting Saint Etienne-compiled overview of a Britain laid low by inflation, shortages and strikes

CD: Thee Telepaths – The Velvet Night

Barney Harsent

The psych-rock four piece's debut is a carefully crafted recipe for success

CD: Billie Eilish - When We All Go To Sleep Where Do We Go?

Joe Muggs

A young star enters the hallucinatory cabaret tradition

CD: WH Lung - Incidental Music

Kieron Tyler

Sky-scraping Manchester trio’s debut is a prime candidate for album of the year lists

Melzer, Albion Quartet, Birmingham Town Hall review - songs without words

Richard Bratby

A quartet recital for a new century, if only we knew what it said

CD: UNKLE – The Road: Part II (Lost Highway)

Asya Draganova

Two thirds through a trip to home, wherever that might be

World Metal Congress, Rich Mix, London review - celebration and critique of a global phenomenon

Asya Draganova

International metalheads and academics get together in Shoreditch to flash the devil’s horns

My Baby, Castle & Falcon, Birmingham review – the Dutch/Kiwi band start up the festival vibe early for 2019

Guy Oddy

Spring has sprung with a riotous night of funk, rock and rave

CD: Steve Earle & The Dukes - Guy

Liz Thomson

Troubadour and his band head to Nashville for a tribute to the late Guy Clark

Reissue CDs Weekly: Rema-Rema - Fond Reflections

Kieron Tyler

Belated confirmation that Marco Pirroni’s pre-Ants outfit was more than a post-punk footnote

CD: The Underground Youth – Montage Images of Lust and Fear

Guy Oddy

Craig Dyer’s Berlin exiles ramp up the gothic blues

CD: Edwyn Collins - Badbea

Thomas H Green

The Orange Juice frontman ebulliently and effectively mines the sounds of his past

CD: Sleeper - The Modern Age

Guy Oddy

The song remains much the same for the reformed Britpoppers

CD: Shy FX - Raggamuffin SoundTape

Joe Muggs

Staggeringly assured survey of decades of soundsystem culture in a tidy package

CD: Lucy Rose - No Words Left

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Stark and intimate songs, but there's light at the end of this tunnel

Reissue CDs Weekly: Where The Girls Are Volume Ten

Kieron Tyler

The template-setting series of female-centric Sixties pop compilations bows out

Yxng Bane, Brixton Academy review - all the fam on stage

Katherine Waters

Lit gig from star on the rise

CD: The Brian Jonestown Massacre - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Russ Coffey

Anton Newcombe is a changed man. Fortunately his music remains the same

Loreena McKennitt, Royal Albert Hall review - making Celtic connections

Liz Thomson

A magical musical mystery tour

CD: Stephen Malkmus - Groove Denied

Kieron Tyler

Wayward solo set hits the shops two years after its creator wanted it issued

CD: UB40 - For the Many

Barney Harsent

The British reggae band release a new Labour of Love

Footnote: a brief history of new music in Britain

New music has swung fruitfully between US and UK influences for half a century. The British charts began in 1952, initially populated by crooners and light jazz. American rock'n'roll livened things up, followed by British imitators such as Lonnie Donegan and Cliff Richard. However, it wasn't until The Beatles combined rock'n'roll's energy with folk melodies and Motown sweetness that British pop found a modern identity outside light entertainment. The Rolling Stones, amping up US blues, weren't far behind, with The Who and The Kinks also adding a unique Englishness. In the mid-Sixties the drugs hit - LSD sent pop looking for meaning. Pastoral psychedelia bloomed. Such utopianism couldn't last and prog rock alongside Led Zeppelin's steroid riffing defined the early Seventies. Those who wanted it less blokey turned to glam, from T Rex to androgynous alien David Bowie.

sex_pistolsA sea change arrived with punk and its totemic band, The Sex Pistols, a reaction to pop's blandness and much else. Punk encouraged inventiveness and imagination on the cheap but, while reggae made inroads, the most notable beneficiary was synth pop, The Human League et al. This, when combined with glam styling, produced the New Romantic scene and bands such as Duran Duran sold multi-millions and conquered the US.

By the mid-Eighties, despite U2's rise, the British charts were sterile until acid house/ rave culture kicked the doors down for electronica, launching acts such as the Chemical Brothers. The media, however, latched onto indie bands with big tunes and bigger mouths, notably Oasis and Blur – Britpop was born.

By the millennium, both scenes had fizzled, replaced by level-headed pop-rockers who abhorred ostentation in favour of homogenous emotionality. Coldplay were the biggest. Big news, however, lurked in underground UK hip hop where artists adapted styles such as grime, dubstep and drum & bass into new pop forms, creating breakout stars Dizzee Rascal and, more recently, Tinie Tempah. The Arts Desk's wide-ranging new music critics bring you overnight reviews of every kind of music, from pop to unusual world sounds, daily reviews of new releases and downloads, and unique in-depth interviews with celebrated musicians and DJs, plus the quickest ticket booking links. Our writers include Peter Culshaw, Joe Muggs, Howard Male, Thomas H Green, Graeme Thomson, Kieron Tyler, Russ Coffey, Bruce Dessau, David Cheal & Peter Quinn

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