thu 28/08/2025

New Music Reviews

Sacred Imaginations, Kings Place

Peter Culshaw

This was one of the most crazily ambitious music projects of the year so far. Co-curators Sam Mills and Susheela Raman, with generous sponsorship, assembled their favourite musicians in different styles from Greece, Lebanon, Ethiopia and Russia under the title of Sacred Imaginations: New and Ancient Music From the Near East.

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theartsdesk on Vinyl: Volume 6 - Miles Davis, Giant Sand and more

Thomas H Green

It's becoming clear that the appeal of vinyl is two-fold. On the one hand there are older buyers who are returning to it as a validation of their own life journey though music and, on the other, there are young enthusiasts whose honeymoon with virtual music has tailed off and who enjoy vinyl's physicality. And then there's the whole dance music DJ subculture too.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Peter Zinovieff

Kieron Tyler

 

Peter Zinovieff: Electronic Calendar – The EMS TapesPeter Zinovieff: Electronic Calendar – The EMS Tapes

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Seb Rochford and Co, Brilliant Corners

Thomas Rees

If you still haven’t been to Played Twice, a monthly jazz night held at Brilliant Corners in Dalston, I suggest you do something about it. The concept is simple. First there’s a playthrough of a landmark album on the venue’s top of the range analogue soundsystem – an anorak’s dream, all glistening valves and sleek silver turntables – and then a band reinterpret that recording live in the venue.

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Supersonic Festival, Birmingham

Guy Oddy

The Supersonic Festival of the weird and the wonderful may now be in its 12th year but it is still more than living up to its long-running tag-line, “For curious audiences”. This year, an eager audience was treated to sets by both the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble and post-metalists Liturgy, as well as most points in between.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Lesley Gore

Kieron Tyler

 

Lesley Gore California NightsLesley Gore: California Nights

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Perfume Genius / Jenny Hval, RFH

Matthew Wright

Neither the name, the look, nor the recorded sound of Perfume Genius (*****) seems like the thing to set about a packed Royal Festival Hall with shock and awe, though there was plenty of both in last night’s show. The Seattle singer, known to his mum as Mike Hadreas, has developed a cult following for his ability to combine fragility and scorching power in lyrics of intelligence and versatility. Live, he displayed extraordinary vistas of emotional and techncial breadth.

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The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead

Thomas H Green

What Wes Orshoski’s new documentary points out, above everything, is how much pop success relies on an ordered narrative and an easily understood package. First-wave British punk band The Damned, on the other hand, wrote as many great songs as their peers, but their career has been a mess of random creativity, changing line-ups and dreadful business decisions....

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Reissue CDs Weekly: The Mothmen

Kieron Tyler


The Mothmen Pay Attention!The Mothmen: Pay Attention!

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Songlines Encounters, Kings Place

Tim Cumming

The fifth Songlines Encounters Festival at Kings Place brought together artists from around the world, offerering a powerful cultural kick-back against all manner of extremist positions. The opening Thursday featured young Portuguese Fado singer Gisela João, with Cypriot trio Monsieur Doumani, and the closing Saturday paired the Shikor Bangladesh All Stars with the Anglo-Bangladeshi Afrobeat Latin grooves of Lokkhi Terra.

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