tue 24/12/2024

New Music Reviews

Album: Nell & The Flaming Lips - Where The Viaduct Looms

Kieron Tyler

Initially, it’s about the voice. Thirteen seconds into the first track, it arrives: close-to disembodied, delivering lyrics as if they were a psalm, yet still melodic. Just over a minute in, there’s a shift into an ascending-descending chorus. The instrumentation is a gauzy wash, adroitly balancing the impressionistic with an understated rhythmic bed.

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Grace Petrie, Summerhall, Edinburgh review - songs of solidarity

Lisa-Marie Ferla

“How to explain Theresa May?” Grace Petrie muses from the Summerhall stage as she introduces decade-old opener “Farewell To Welfare”. “Well, in 2010, she was as bad as we thought it was going to get.”

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Music Reissues Weekly: Lenny Kaye Presents Lightning Striking

Kieron Tyler

The premise driving Lenny Kaye Presents Lightning Striking is the idea that, as it’s put here, “transformative moments in rock ’n’ roll” not only happen at a particular time but in particular places too. Somewhere struck by that lightning at a certain point becomes pivotal, influential and a node from which influences ripple outward – impacting on the next such strike.

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Soweto Kinch, LSO / 'London Third Stream', London Sinfonietta, EFG London Jazz Festival review - projects from the political to the loop-y

Sebastian Scotney

“Take Jazz Seriously,” wrote Maurice Ravel after his American trip in 1928. This past week of the 2021 EFG London Jazz Festival has seen that advice itself being taken seriously, with a bunching of projects and premieres. Jazz musicians have been welcomed in to work with London orchestras. The fruition of months of preparatory work has been on show.

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Cécile McLorin Salvant, EFG London Jazz Festival review - strength, vulnerability and humour

peter Quinn

A fascinating song list that juxtaposed originals with musical theatre, pop songs, Brazilian music and more.

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OMD/Scritti Politti, Brighton Centre review - an engaging, ebullient good time

Thomas H Green

A persistent moan of this writer in recent years, about gigs attended by those his own age (54) and up, is that, however good the band is, the audience are stationary, staring, semi-catatonic. They don’t twitch or move, facing stage-wards earnestly, silent, as if watching Chekov at the theatre. Their joy, if it exists, is internalised, unreleased. Dancing something forgotten long ago.

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The Jesus and Mary Chain, Barrowland, Glasgow review - Scottish siblings still the loudest gang in town

Jonathan Geddes

There is unquestionably a more mellow side to the Jesus and Mary Chain these days, even when reviving their most ferocious glories from the past. Prior to launching this two-halved set, comprising their 1987 classic Darklands to begin with and a mixture of singles, B-sides and obscurities for after, vocalist Jim Reid took time out to politely explain the format.

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Jazz Voice, EFG London Jazz Festival review - from intimate delicacy to stunning virtuosity

peter Quinn

A celebration of that most extraordinary instrument, the human voice, this year’s edition of Jazz Voice – which gladly welcomed back a live audience and a full-strength EFG London Jazz Festival Orchestra – ranged from music of intimate delicacy to stunning virtuosity.

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Music Reissues Weekly: Essiebons Special 1973-1984 Ghana Music Power House

Kieron Tyler

One of the most interesting tracks on Essiebons Special 1973–1984 Ghana Music Power House is Joe Meah’s mysterious "Dee Mmaa Pe". It’s not mentioned in the compilation’s accompanying booklet, and Joe Meah doesn’t figure in any of the standard discographies littering the world-wide web.

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Black Pumas, O2 Institute, Birmingham review - bluesy grooves with high octane energy

Miranda Heggie

Having been founded only in 2017 by singer/songwriter Eric Burton and guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada, Black Pumas have been rapidly rising to fame, with a Grammy award nomination in 2020 and the majority of their current European tour dates sold out.

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