New Music Reviews
Album: Kenny G - New StandardsMonday, 29 November 2021
Saxophonist Kenny G knows exactly what buttons he needs to press to upset the jazz faithful. He is quoted as having said of his new album New Standards (Concord): “The jazz community is gonna hate it. And that doesn’t concern me.” Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Box Of Pin-Ups - The British Sounds of 1965, Think I'm Going Weird - Original Artefacts From The British Psychedelic Scene 1966-68Sunday, 28 November 2021
Signs of irrevocable change materialised in December 1965. On Wednesday the 8th, a new band named The 13th Floor Elevators debuted live at The Jade Room in Austin, Texas. Band members prepared for the experience by taking LSD in the run-up to the booking. Read more... |
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, The Mill, Birmingham review – Geordie rockers blow the roof offSaturday, 27 November 2021
When those cold winter nights start closing in, there is really only two choices for facing up to the unpleasantness that this brings. Stay at home, batten down the hatches, whack up the heating and blow the expense. Or go out and immerse yourself in some hot and sweaty rock’n’roll. Read more... |
Album: Nell & The Flaming Lips - Where The Viaduct LoomsWednesday, 24 November 2021
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. Read more... |
Grace Petrie, Summerhall, Edinburgh review - songs of solidarityMonday, 22 November 2021
“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.” Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Lenny Kaye Presents Lightning StrikingSunday, 21 November 2021
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. Read more... |
Soweto Kinch, LSO / 'London Third Stream', London Sinfonietta, EFG London Jazz Festival review - projects from the political to the loop-ySaturday, 20 November 2021
“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. Read more... |
Cécile McLorin Salvant, EFG London Jazz Festival review - strength, vulnerability and humourThursday, 18 November 2021
A fascinating song list that juxtaposed originals with musical theatre, pop songs, Brazilian music and more. Read more... |
OMD/Scritti Politti, Brighton Centre review - an engaging, ebullient good timeThursday, 18 November 2021
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. Read more... |
The Jesus and Mary Chain, Barrowland, Glasgow review - Scottish siblings still the loudest gang in townTuesday, 16 November 2021
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. Read more... |
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