sat 15/02/2025

New Music Reviews

The Unthanks in Winter, Cadogan Hall review

Tim Cumming

A suitable place to find yourself out for the winter solstice, buttoning up for the longest night of the year, was at the Cadogan Hall off Sloane Square, a former place of worship marking its 20th year as a concert hall.

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Music Reissues Weekly: Hawkwind - X In Search Of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido

Kieron Tyler

One of last year’s major joys was the box set version of Hawkwind's Space Ritual, an 11-disc extravaganza which made the great live album, originally issued in May 1973, even more great. Now the two studio albums which preceded it – X In Search Of Space and Doremi Fasol Latido – have become similarly packaged, though less colossal, box sets.

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Albums of the Year 2024: Mercury Rev - Born Horses

Kieron Tyler

Born Horses remains as inscrutable as it was when it was issued in the summer. While it is about the search for enlightenment through journeying into inner space, much of what’s described – the album’s words are largely spoken – is allegorical, coming across as beatnik-style reportage documenting a form of psychedelic experience.

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Albums of the Year 2024: Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso - Baño María

Katie Colombus

My Spotify Wrapped this year is somewhat at odds with my Album of 2024. A ‘Van Life Folie Americana’ phase of Spring (presumably due to the actual VW trip to the Costa Brava at Easter) followed by the ‘Cinnamon Softcore Art Deco’ moment in early Summer – which I largely owe to Lana del Rey live at Reading Festival prep, has been trumped by an underdog that should Spotify have picked up on, would have read something like ‘Eclectic, Unhinged, Buenos Aires Basement Rave’ chapter.

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Albums of the Year 2024: Kenny Barron - Beyond This Place

Sebastian Scotney

Kenny Barron’s Beyond This Place is glorious. Whereas I’ve found some of the more talked-about albums of 2024 either been uneven or unfocused – as if attracting debate is more important than just setting out to make a great album – everything just works so well here.

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Music Reissues Weekly: Vanilla Fudge - Where Is My Mind The ATCO Recordings 1967-1969

Kieron Tyler

Vanilla Fudge could provoke a strong reaction. Writing about them in 1982, Tom Hibbert – then best-known for his contributions to Smash Hits – said of their February 1968 second album, The Beat Goes On, that “on one side of the bombastic concept LP, Vanilla Fudge summed up the history of music from Mozart, through Cole Porter and Elvis, to The Beatles concluding that it was all worthless.”

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Jesus & Mary Chain, O2 Institute, Birmingham - Reid Brothers refuse to join the heritage industry

Guy Oddy

The Jesus and Mary Chain may have been around for some 40 years (albeit on and off), but the Reid brothers clearly have no intention of setting up camp in the heritage music industry just yet. This was emphatically stressed this week, as they hit the stage of Birmingham’s O2 Institute and ploughed straight into a fierce “JAMCOD”, the lead single off their recent Glasgow Eyes album – and proclaiming “the monkey’s organ grinder isn’t grinding anymore”.

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Album: Ajukaja & Mart Avi - Death of Music

Kieron Tyler

Death of Music was created in Estonia. Despite the English lyrics, directness is absent. Take the title track. “Drop the music” exhorts Mart Avi over its pulsing five minutes. “Fight the music” he declares. The word “execution” crops up. There is reference to a “rope ladder.” The specific meaning of this torrent of imagery is unclear. Nonetheless, it is certain the untrammelled outpouring confirms Avi’s total surrender to the music.

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Vampire Weekend, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - a mixture of brilliance and self-indulgence

Jonathan Geddes

When Vampire Weekend arrived onstage they numbered only three and were bunched together at the front with a large curtain draped behind them, obscuring their backdrop. By the time this marathon set ended two and a half hours later, they’d more than doubled in number and had made full use of their surroundings, a shift which summed up a constantly changing, often contradictory show.

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Julia Holter, Islington Assembly Hall review - shelter from the storm in experimental delight

India Lewis

On a wet, dreary, winter evening in north London, at Islington Assembly Hall, a crowd gathered for an ethereal although not always engaging set by Julia Holter.

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