New Music Reviews
Astral Social Club at Catch, ShoreditchSunday, 17 January 2010
Neil Campbell is a one-man subculture. In 30 years of music-making in various configurations of improvised rock, psychedelia and electronics, he has released hundreds of hours of recordings, mainly in micro-editions of home-produced cassette, CD or mp3, and collaborated endlessly with a global network of musicians that have fallen through the cracks of genre or stylistic allegiance. Since separating from Leeds-based guitar drone group Vibracathedral Orchestra in 2006, he has mainly concentrated... Read more... |
A Celebration of British Jazz, Ronnie Scott'sTuesday, 05 January 2010
If times are hard for pop and classical music, for jazz – magazines going to the wall, broadsheet column inches telescoped to the point of near-oblivion, major labels ditching their jazz division – things were just that little bit harder. But a new year, a new decade, and all such introspective thoughts had to be temporarily put on hold for this one-night-only mini-festival of British jazz at Ronnie Scott's. Read more... |
Nowhere BoyThursday, 24 December 2009
It’s been a very good year for Beatlemania, with all the albums re-repackaged and the group going virtual in Rock Band. The BBC lobbed in their own Beatles season-ette, and one of the more striking images from their riot of documentary footage was of John Lennon escorting his Aunt Mimi up the steps onto the plane taking them to America, with her handbag and Sunday-best hat. Read more... |
Lucumi Choir, St John's Church, WaterlooWednesday, 23 December 2009
As we gathered in St John’s Church in Waterloo last Thursday to hear The London Lucumi Choir perform, on the same day people in their thousands were making the pilgrimage to the Church of San Lazaro in Cuba. In that church, just outside Havana, pilgrims walk or sometime crawl the few miles to the Church, often bearing gifts of rum and cigars as penitence. It is a sign of the times that songs to the orishas – the deities that populate the Yoruba religious pantheon, who all have their... Read more... |
Ray Davies, Hammersmith ApolloSunday, 20 December 2009
Ray Davies, that old curmudgeon, has said he’s not keen on touring alone since the demise of The Kinks. But he’s sorted that out for the moment by choosing to play alongside 45 new people – the members of the Crouch End Festival Chorus, with whom Davies has decided to reinterpret his hits. You’d think this could be undiluted lift-music hell: the Mike Sammes Singers trample everything... Read more... |
Them Crooked Vultures, Corn Exchange, EdinburghWednesday, 16 December 2009
From the moment the roadies began assembling Dave Grohl’s drum-kit in a manner that resembled the construction of the Queen Mary on Clydeside, it was clear that power was going to be the watchword of last night’s Edinburgh appearance by Them Crooked Vultures, the supergroup that’s threatening to give the term a good name. Read more... |
J Mascis, The GarageThursday, 10 December 2009
J Mascis can almost only sound like J Mascis. Comparing the original material of J Mascis and the Fog and the Dinosaur Jr songs he played last night at the Garage in Islington, there's not a huge amount of difference between the bands. His laid-back, almost comatose delivery and very particular song structures stamp his personality onto every song. Read more... |
Spiro, Passing Clouds, DalstonWednesday, 09 December 2009
A self-styled “string quartet comprising a guitar, fiddle, mandolin and accordion” - welcome to the topsy–turvy world of Spiro. A world where nothing is quite what it seems. A world where up is down, black is white, and folk is, well, kind of avant-garde. Read more... |
Battles at Warp Records 20th Birthday, CoronetMonday, 07 December 2009
Everybody needs a daddy and the paternal focus of Battles is their drummer - nothing seems to be done without the say of John Stanier. This is no bad thing, a lynch pin is needed in every rag-tag mob. With Battles, last night, they seemed extremely comfortable in airing new material and, for the first time, fucking with their tried and true older material. Every other time they've played they've played by rote; as on the album as is on stage. Read more... |
LAU, Queen’s Hall, EdinburghSunday, 06 December 2009
While we’re busy falling over ourselves in the rush to laud the latest beard-and-guitar export from Wisconsin tundra or Williamsburg tenement, it’s easier than ever to undervalue home-grown talent. Lau formed in 2006, a coming together of three British traditional musicians with outstanding individual pedigrees but little in the way of mystique. Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today
theartsdesk Q&A: Eddie Marsan and the American Revolutio...
He’s not the kind of actor who has paparazzi following him...
DVD/Blu-ray: Billy Connolly - Big Banana Feet
The most striking things about the 1976 documentary (restored and re-released by the BFI) is just how polite Billy Connolly comes across as. Not...
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - 12 hours o...
If the weather’s good TGE Beach is a grand start to a day. As it sounds, it’s a purpose-built seafront space to the west of central...
Rebus, BBC One review - revival of Ian Rankin's Scottis...
The previous incarnation of Ian Rankin’s Scottish detective on ITV starred, in their contrasting styles, John Hannah and Ken Stott. For this ...
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Sousa, St Martin-in...
Better (much better, indeed) late than never. The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique should have given their cycle of Beethoven symphonies at...
Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne review - cornucopia of visual...
Five years after it first clattered onto the ...
Hough, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a...
It’s probably a bit early to be getting misty-eyed about the approaching end of Sir Mark Elder’s time as music director of the Hallé, but the...
Clinton Baptiste, Touring review - spoof clairvoyant on grea...
Clinton Baptiste – clairvoyant, medium and psychic – first appeared briefly as a character in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights on Channel 4....
Music Reissues Weekly: Andwella - To Dream
Original pressings of Love And Poetry sell for up to £2,800. Copies of the August 1969 debut album by Andwellas Dream can sometimes also...
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Ma...
There’s a sense of cheerful abandon about Manchester Camerata’s ...