New Music Features

Jazz FM Awards 2016

peter Quinn Thursday, 28 April 2016

A diverse mix of musicians from the worlds of jazz, blues, soul and beyond were honoured at the third Jazz FM Awards on Tuesday night, which took place in the 1920s art-deco setting of London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom.

theartsdesk at the Savannah Music Festival, Georgia

Martin Longley Tuesday, 26 April 2016

The name of the Savannah Music Festival might sound somewhat vague in these days of specialist events, but this is an (almost) three-week sonic orgy which treats all styles equally, blending classical beside bluegrass, jazz next to African, and country side-by-side with the blues. Multiple venues are used, some more than others. All of them are within easy walking distance, around the centre of this historically-attuned southern States city.

Prince, 1958-2016

joe Muggs Friday, 22 April 2016

Prince Rogers Nelson was the most gloriously disruptive presence in popular culture from the very start to the very end. Everything about him was off kilter and wrong: it's not for nothing that the first major biography of him was called The Imp of the Perverse. His songs were full of deranged filth, skewed social comment with a conspiratarian edge, had a very individualist take on Jehovah's Witness spirituality and mysticism, and all manner of personal cyphers and in-jokes....

theartsdesk in Estonia: Tallinn Music Week 2016

Kieron Tyler Sunday, 10 April 2016

“If we want to keep this free and democratic Europe of ours free and democratic, we must enlist ourselves, our skills and our commitment to liberty and justice. The problems we face are too great to simply say let the politicians do it.

Comment

theartsdesk at WOMADelaide

Martin Longley Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Since its UK debut in 1982, the WOMAD festival (World Of Music, Arts & Dance) followed its uncertain first steps and early threat of bankruptcy with a swift consolidation and expansion. By the time its first decade had passed, WOMAD was busy spreading around the globe, spawning alternative manifestations in Spain, Italy, New Zealand and the UAE.

theartsdesk at Tectonics Festival, Adelaide

Martin Longley Tuesday, 22 March 2016

The Tectonics festival concept began in Iceland, 2012, created by the Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov. Although, loosely speaking, it’s concerned with a modern classical programme, there’s a peculiar aspect to Volkov’s orientation that lends a special quality.

10 Questions for Musician Tad Doyle

Guy Oddy Monday, 21 March 2016

Tad Doyle was the mainman in grunge first-wavers Tad, who helped to put Seattle firmly on the rock’n’roll map in the late ‘80s with such fine discs as God’s Balls, Salt Lick and 8-Way Santa.

James Burns – Let’s Go To Hell: Scattered Memories of the Butthole Surfers

Guy Oddy Monday, 14 March 2016

During the ‘80s there was no US rock band that hoisted its freak flag higher than the Butthole Surfers, and certainly none that put out albums of the stature of Locust Abortion Technician and Hairway to Steven in such quick succession.

Brighton Festival 2016 Launches with Guest Director Laurie Anderson

Thomas H Green Wednesday, 17 February 2016

The Brighton Festival 2016, which explodes into life again this year on Saturday May 7, has revealed its programme.

theartsdesk in Groningen: Uniting Europe with Music

Kieron Tyler Sunday, 24 January 2016

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.

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