thu 24/07/2025

New Music Reviews

Reissue CDs Weekly: Keith Relf - All the Falling Angels

Kieron Tyler

“Collector of the Light” is based around what sounds like a treated bass guitar. As the neck is moved up and down, multiple notes are plucked at once. The instrument’s sound is subaquatic, wobbly. Over this, a distant, echoey voice sings of being the “collector of light”, restoring dreams and “silver points of wonder”.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Damily - Madagascar Cassette Archives

Kieron Tyler

Outside his home country Madagascar, Damily was first heard via a couple of tracks on the 2004 French compilation album Tsapiky, Panorama D'une Jeune Musique De Tulear, an overview of the tsapiky dance music of the south-west of the island. He’d moved to France in 2003. His first internationally issued full-length album, Ravinahitsy, followed in 2007.

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theartsdesk on Vinyl 57: Gramme, Terry Edwards, The Orb, The Monochrome Set and much more

Thomas H Green

After C19 delays theartsdesk on Vinyl is back. My initial policy, reckoning that new vinyl would dry up under COVID conditions, was to do regular lockdown mini-editions with the material already set aside here, until it ran out. That didn’t work out. The vinyl, to my surprise, kept on coming. Global crisis be damned! A backlog grew! Thus, theartsdesk on Vinyl 57 is a catch-up on the past couple of months.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs Present The Tears of Technology

Kieron Tyler

“Like mellotrons before them, synthesisers could project a strange and deep emotion – something in the wiring had an inherent melancholy.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: King Size Taylor and the Dominoes

Kieron Tyler

The enduring status of The Beatles shouldn’t distract from them having been one amongst many Liverpool bands while they found their feet.

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Isolation Song Contest review - a fun alternative to Eurovision

Veronica Lee

Of all the disappointments the lockdown has brought, great among them is the cancelled Eurovision Song Contest, which was due to be held in Rotterdam later this month. And while there are bigger concerns at the moment than a light entertainment programme, the Isolation Song Contest reminded us that community, the arts and a sense of humour will help to get us through.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978

Kieron Tyler

Even though nothing on Tape Archive Essence 1973–1978 was released at the time it was recorded, every track evokes material which was issued.

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One World: Together at Home livestream review - all eight hours of it!

Caspar Gomez

What times. They cancelled Glastonbury. Festival season 2020 disappeared. Then certain potions and compounds associated with festivaling ran dry. Well, the latter exist, of course. There’s a fellow over the road who’s still selling talcum powder and stinking chemo-skunk from his porch.

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Album: BC Camplight - Shortly After Takeoff

Kieron Tyler

The out-of-control missile on the cover is emblematic. The actual takeoff in question is the flight Brian Christinzio was forced to board in 2015 following his deportation from the UK.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels - Sockin’ It To You

Kieron Tyler

How Mitch Ryder is seen depends on particular perspectives. The Detroit blue-eyed soul belter racked up a string of US hits on 45 in 1966 and 1967. He made many albums, became an oldies radio staple and a perennial live draw.

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