thu 28/03/2024

New Music Buzz

Rinse and repeat

joe Muggs The cover of Rinse FM's first compilation CD featuring station founder Geeneus

Today Rinse FM, London's leading pirate radio station, announced it has been granted a legal broadcast licence after 16 years of illicit transmissions. It's almost impossible to overstate how potentially momentous this event is for the UK's most vibrant and promising music scenes, and what opportunities it presents for artists, personalities and record labels ranging from the deep and experimental to the most...

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Diary of a Strumpette, Part One: Three ukes on the road to Glasto

Miss Kitty Kowalski

theartsdesk has an insider at Glastonbury this year - one of our writers is performing in the festival. Here we present the diary of Miss Kitty Kowalski, ukulele diva, and her cohorts in The Strumpettes.

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The Klaxons are back

Thomas H Green

The arrival on the scene of The Klaxons a few years back gave indie, pop and rock a much-needed kick in the pants. Sure, they were a band born of self-consciously over-trendy east London, causing the NME to froth about "nu rave" for ten minutes, but they were also a sudden flash of raucous beatnik psych-pop in a landscape dominated by mundane Luddites such as The Fratellis, The Kooks, et al.

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Headline acts announced for 2010 London Jazz Festival

peter Quinn

An unprecedented second consecutive year for saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins, celebrating his 80th birthday, is one of the many highlights of the 2010 London Jazz Festival announced yesterday. One question immediately springs to mind: which Noël Coward classic will he dust down this year?

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Tate Modern celebrates independents

Fisun Güner There'll be art, film, music and performance in a weekend of organised mayhem

Since its millennium opening, Tate Modern has managed to transform the landscape for the contemporary visual arts in Britain. This week it celebrates its 10th anniversary by inviting 70 of the world’s most innovative, independent art spaces to take over the Turbine Hall. No Soul for Sale – a Festival of Independents will see an eclectic mix of art, performance, music and film throughout the weekend. Organised in collaboration with Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan (most...

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Nigel Kennedy greets theartsdesk

Adam Sweeting

Despite his "interesting" haircut and fondness for the undeleted expletive, violinist Nigel Kennedy is a man of exceptional taste and discernment. While recording his new jazz album Shhh! at Rockfield studios, he took time out to hail theartsdesk and greet the 'desk's Adam Sweeting.

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Birthdays on the Tube: 28 March-2 April

Peter Culshaw Serge Gainsbourg: Poet, musician, love machine would have been 82 this week

This week's musicians birthdays include the genius/lecherous mediocrity (according to taste) Serge Gainsbourg, singing a duet with Brigitte Bardot, classic early 60s footage of Marvin Gaye, vibraphone maestro Red Norvo, Herb Alpert in a rodeo video doing “Casino Royale”, and Astrud Gilberto from Ipanema. Composer birthdays of the week are Franz Joseph Haydn and William Walton....

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Tinie Tempah and the rise and rise of black British pop

joe Muggs

A little revolution is taking place at the top of the pop charts. UK artist Tinie Tempah's rap track “Pass Out” has had two weeks at number one, and at the time of writing looks very much like it may successfully fight off Lady Gaga & Beyonce's spectacularly-hyped “Telephone Thing” to make it a third week on top.

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New World theme for Edinburgh International Festival 2010

Ismene Brown

Jonathan Mills has announced the programme for Edinburgh International Festival 2010, on a theme of modern culture in the New Worlds of the Americas and Australasia.

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Birthdays on the Tube: 14-20 March

Peter Culshaw Sly: reclusive funk genius

This week's birthdays include the impeccably funky Sly Stone and Wilson Pickett, manic Chopin played by the great pianist Sviatoslav Richter, lush orientalism from Rimsky-Korsakov, classic jazz from Bix Beiderbecke, and annoying pop from Clare Grogan.

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