fri 04/04/2025

New Music Reviews

theartsdesk at Wilderness Festival

Katie Colombus

Entering Wilderness is like stepping into the brain of Baz Luhrmann. It is a kaleidoscope of colours, swirling with noise and feathers, surreal in its array of vintage-bohemian-steampunk spectacle, and magical in its collaboration of the arts and nature.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Front Line – Sounds of Reality

Kieron Tyler

 

Front Line – Sounds of RealityVarious Artists: Front Line – Sounds of Reality

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Hadda Brooks

Kieron Tyler

 

Hadda Brooks Queen of the Boogie and moreHadda Brooks: Queen of the Boogie and More

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WOMAD 2014, Charlton Park

Peter Culshaw

If I had to pick the highlight of this sun-drenched WOMAD it would have to be the fresh, emotionally charged set of Ukrainian band Dakha Brakha. I can’t recall seeing such a unanimously positive response for a relatively unknown band at the Festival. It wasn’t as if the music was obviously crowd-friendly, and parts were quite challenging, mixing soulfully sung Ukrainian folk tunes with other influences – Nigerian drumming, Bulgarian singing and Japanese koto.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Troubadours - Folk and the Roots of American Music

Kieron Tyler


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Reissue CDs Weekly: Ruthann Friedman

Kieron Tyler

 

Ruthann Friedman The Complete Constant Companion SessionsRuthann Friedman: The Complete Constant Companion Sessions

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Lewis

Kieron Tyler

 

Lewis L'AmourLewis: L'Amour

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Kieron Tyler

 

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young CSNY 1974Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: CSNY 1974

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Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Barbican

Matthew Wright

If, like Wynton Marsalis, you’re a gatekeeper of the jazz tradition, there’s little you’ll defend more staunchly than the Blue Note back catalogue. With the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, in London on a short tour, he presented a glossy and intriguing selection of Blue Note repertoire before an ecstatic audience in last night’s Barbican concert. Technically, this was a tour de force.

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theartsdesk at Glastonbury Festival 2014

Caspar Gomez

Prologue

On Thursday 26 June I arrive at a cloudy but warm Glastonbury Festival, set up camp, eat sausages, chase after DJ Richie Hawtin for an interview that never happens, then acclimatise, settle, let this hedonist Mecca do its work on me…

Friday 27 June

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