sat 17/05/2025

New Music Reviews

Live_Transmission: Joy Division Reworked, Royal Festival Hall

Kieron Tyler

From no visible source, the instantly recognisable voice of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis croons the words of “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. But the lyrics aren’t in their familiar setting. Alone, he’s stripped from the band, naked and vulnerable. He’s been dead for 33 years, but this was as close as he could possibly be.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Nirvana

Kieron Tyler

 

nirvana in utero deluxeNirvana: In Utero

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Kings Place Festival

Matthew Wright

Hungarian composer Bela Bartók’s analytical rigour and folk-inspired voice have established his position as one of the most original voices of the twentieth century, but he still represented a bold choice for the opening event of the 2013 Kings Place Festival.

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John Etheridge and the Soft Machine Legacy with Keith Tippett, Pizza Express

Matthew Wright

Some people have all the luck. Listening to John Etheridge’s self-deprecating description of how his career has progressed (in interviews such as Radio 3‘s Jazz Library, or at a gig, when he is a disarmingly open host), you would think he had stumbled upon Stephane Grapelli and Nigel Kennedy (to name merely the most famous of his many stellar collaborators) while out for a pint of milk.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Classroom Projects, Good Vibrations Records, Darrow Fletcher

Kieron Tyler

 

Classroom ProjectsVarious Artists: Classroom Projects

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Cutty Cargo presents Jessie Ware, Ely's Yard

joe Muggs

It was a bittersweet kind of evening. Walking down Brick Lane, it was striking how Caucasian, tanned and healthy most people we passed were, and we couldn't help wondering if the Bangladeshi locals were starting to get priced out of their own neighbourhood, while the artists and party-weirdos who ironically made the place such a tourist destination are fading away, sloping off to Dalston and Peckham to continue the gentrification process all over again.

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theartsdesk in Katowice: On tour at Tauron Nowa Muzyka Festival

Caspar Gomez

Day 1

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Eels, Shepherd's Bush Empire

Russ Coffey

The last time Mr E toured these shores he looked as if he might be heralding the end of the world. Dressed all in white with a Moses beard and gangsta bandana, his songs were about inner struggle and personal redemption. Between songs he remained mute and mysterious. How things have changed. This year the band is touring the much fuzzier Wonderful, Glorious and last night Mark Everett hardly shut up.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Roky Erickson

Kieron Tyler

 

Roky Erickson The Evil OneRoky Erickson & the Aliens: The Evil One

Roky Erickson: Don’t Slander Me, Gremlins Have Pictures

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Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Tom Birchenough

It’s hard to imagine much upstaging Martyn Jacques, the indomitable falsetto frontman of the Tiger Lillies. The gaping mouth of an enormous mythical fish that seems to have swum straight from the canvases of Hieronymus Bosch, projected right across the stage in their new show Rime of the the Ancient Mariner, comes close.

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