New Music Reviews
Album: Pom Poko - ChampionWednesday, 14 August 2024
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. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: White Noise - An Electric StormSunday, 11 August 2024
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. Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 85: Julian Cope, Art Brut, Heaven 17, The Mysterines, Sleaford Mods, The Wombles and moreSaturday, 10 August 2024
VINYL OF THE MONTH Mike Lindsay Supershapes: Volume 1 (Moshi Moshi) Read more... |
Brighton Pride 2024 review - the UK's most fabulous festivalWednesday, 07 August 2024
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. Read more... |
Album: Mari Kvien Brunvoll & Stein Urheim with Moskus - Barefoot in BryophyteMonday, 05 August 2024
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. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Sex Pistols - Looking For a Kiss in KristinehamnSunday, 04 August 2024
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. Read more... |
Future Islands, Summer Nights at the Bandstand, Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow review - soulful and synth-driven soundsFriday, 02 August 2024
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. Read more... |
WOMAD Festival 2024 review - exuberant global roots sounds, hippies young and old, and blissful weatherWednesday, 31 July 2024
The weather is perfect. Rare at a festival in this country. The sun shines. Occasional clouds pass. There’s a light breeze. Flamingods are on the Charlie Gillett stage. They are a London-based unit of primarily Bahraini origin who make psychedelic-electronic rock tinged with exotica and Middle Eastern flavour. Very WOMAD, in other words. Read more... |
Camp Bestival, Dorset 2024 - magical memories from an enchanting festivalTuesday, 30 July 2024
I sometimes think I’ve done the festival thing the wrong way round. When my babies were at their littlest, we did the big ‘uns – Latitude, Wilderness, Blue Dot, and the like – all family "friendly", but with slightly wilder, bigger, more adulty vibes. I figured if I was going to be up all night with babes in arms I may as well be in a field, on the fringes of some great music and colourful experiences. Read more... |
Album: Personal Trainer - Still WillingMonday, 29 July 2024
Still Willing opens with “Upper Ferntree Gully,” a seven and three-quarter minute workout twice as long as most of the other nine tracks on Personal Trainer’s second album. A portmanteau piece, its most direct sections have the chug of vintage Pavement, some stabbing early Tame Impala guitar and chunks of Sonic Youth-like squall. Yo La Tengo also aren’t far. Read more... |
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