thu 14/08/2025

New Music Reviews

Medicine Festival review - sound and music healing in the depths of Berkshire

Peter Culshaw

I had been softened up for the Medicine Festival by a recent visit to the global music extravaganza WOMAD – a trio of us met a guy called Paul aka SpriITman – an ex-IT expert who after a health crisis realised he was a healer. Bear with me on this.

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Stowaway Festival, Buckinghamshire review - old ravers and their kids get on one

Guy Oddy

The UK festival scene has been going through a bit of a difficult time in the last couple of years, with a number of events closing down due to financial problems. This has obviously hit the “boutique” end of the marketing hardest, with several smaller capacity, specialist weekends going to the wall. Stowaway Festival seems to be bucking this trend, however, and opened for its third year of business last weekend.

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Music Reissues Weekly: Having a Rave-Up! - The British R&B Sounds of 1964

Kieron Tyler

“The Rollin' Stones are probably destined to be the biggest group in the R&B scene if it continues to flourish. They aren't the jazzmen who were doing trad 18 months back and who have converted their act to keep up with the times. They are genuine R&B fanatics.”

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Album: Pom Poko - Champion

Kieron Tyler

The musical equivalent of a firework display, the third album from Norwegian art-poppers Pom Poko is bright, energised and unstoppable. It is also considered; clearly the culmination of a careful creative process. Fusing the spontaneous and the structured can be tricky, but this is what the nimble Champion accomplishes.

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Music Reissues Weekly: White Noise - An Electric Storm

Kieron Tyler

An Electric Storm opens with “Love Without Sound.” Once heard, it’s unforgettable. A disembodied voice which could be either female or male sings about making love without sound. There are female-sounding squawks and yelps. Revolving percussion sounds like drain pipes being hit by toffee hammers. The other instrumentation is clearly electronically generated. And, it has a tune.

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theartsdesk on Vinyl 85: Julian Cope, Art Brut, Heaven 17, The Mysterines, Sleaford Mods, The Wombles and more

Thomas H Green

VINYL OF THE MONTH

Mike Lindsay Supershapes: Volume 1 (Moshi Moshi)

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Brighton Pride 2024 review - the UK's most fabulous festival

Katie Colombus

Brighton’s Preston Park came alive this weekend in the most magnificently colourful, sparkling and diverse celebration of love in all its forms for the UK's most famous LGBTQ+ community fundraiser.

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Album: Mari Kvien Brunvoll & Stein Urheim with Moskus - Barefoot in Bryophyte

Kieron Tyler

Barefoot in Bryophyte is a collaboration between musicians embedded in Norway’s jazz and experimental music scenes. Some of it, though, sounds nothing like what might be expected. Take the fourth track, “Paper Fox.” Figuratively, it lies at the centre of a Venn Diagram bringing together Mazzy Star, 4AD’s 1984 This Mortal Coil album It'll End in Tears and the more minimal aspects of Baltimore’s Beach House. It’s quite something.

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Music Reissues Weekly: Sex Pistols - Looking For a Kiss in Kristinehamn

Kieron Tyler

After Sex Pistols have played “New York,” the fourth song in their set, someone from the audience shouts “Anarchy in the U.K.” "We've already played it, you fucking idiot" responds Sid Vicious. They have. It was the first song they did at Kristinehamn’s Club Zebra.

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Future Islands, Summer Nights at the Bandstand, Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow review - soulful and synth-driven sounds

Miranda Heggie

Attending an outdoor event anywhere in the UK – especially given the summer we’ve not been having this year – is always a bit of a gamble.

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