New Music Reviews
Anaïs Mitchell, Bonny Light Horseman, Roundhouse review - heart-warming folk blissMonday, 03 February 2020
Anaïs Mitchell should be a star: she sings like a dream, oozes presence and charisma, and writes songs of classic simplicity, poetry and depth. Her other outstanding quality is a natural modesty and a delight in just being herself on stage, and sharing the joys of music-making with her fellow-musicians and the audience. Read more...
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Reissue CDs Weekly: Tea & Symphony - The English Baroque Sound 1968-1974Sunday, 02 February 2020
When it was issued in May 1968, “Fading Yellow” attracted no attention. It couldn’t have as it was the B-side of “Mr. Poem”, Mike Batt’s poor-selling debut single. The top side was good, very 1968 and along the lines of whimsical 45s like Donovan’s “Jenifer Juniper” or Marty Wilde’s “Abergavenny” but wasn’t a hit. Read more... |
Madonna, London Palladium review - a fiesta of the surreal and the fiercely fabulousFriday, 31 January 2020
The first time I heard Madonna, I was 8 years old at a school disco. Read more... |
Fatoumata Diawara, Roundhouse review - Malian magic on showFriday, 31 January 2020
Fatoumata Diawara knows how to please: with a winning and innocent smile, she wins the audience over in a matter of seconds. She has a vocal style all of her own: in her first song, “Don Do”, a quiet and meditative prelude to the boisterous show that follows, she seduces with sensual textures and a slight rasp unique among West African women singers, and which owes as much to jazz and gospel as to the traditions of her musically-rich country. Read more... |
John Grant, Roundhouse review - simplicity, with a bit of space operaThursday, 30 January 2020
John Grant’s entry onto the stage was unobtrusive, appropriate for a set-up that consisted of just a grand piano and an electronic keyboard (with accompanying keyboardist). He began with similarly unadorned songs, the ballads that peppered the start and the end of his set. Read more... |
Slipknot, Arena Birmingham review – Iowa metal-heads tear the roof offSunday, 26 January 2020
Given Slipknot’s studied image as arch misanthropes, with their horror show costumes, aggressive posturing and frightening masks designed to put the wind up Middle America and everyone else for that matter, their imposing singer Corey Taylor spent an unexpected amount of time between songs on the Arena Birmingham’s stage this weekend preaching a gospel of sticking together in these trying times and of encouraging the band’s fans, the Maggots, to watch each other’s backs. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Game Theory - Across The Barrier Of SoundSunday, 26 January 2020
Since this column last caught up with the totemic California art-popsters Game Theory, band mainstay Gil Ray passed away. He died in January 2017. He had joined Game Theory as their drummer and backing vocalist in 1985. The new collection Across The Barrier Of Sound: Postscript tracks the Game Theory of 1990 and 1991: a period when Ray was playing guitar and keyboards in the band. Read more... |
Bombay Bicycle Club, Cardiff University Students Union review - guitar pop, perfectedSunday, 26 January 2020
When a band claims a crowd is the loudest of the tour, you can usually guarantee they've said it on every other date too. But for one sweaty night in Cardiff, you had to believe them. Bombay Bicycle Club returned after a six-year absence and were greeted in the Welsh capital like long-awaited saviours. Read more... |
Robert Henke CBM 8032, Barbican - a vision of possibilities from 40 years agoSaturday, 25 January 2020
Robert Henke is to techno fans as Leo Fender and Les Paul are to rock lovers. The Ableton Live software which he co-created is every bit as influential as any guitar they built, and probably more used. However, of course, being just a piece of code, it could never be iconic like a guitar. Read more... |
Album: Ruby Turner – Love Was HereWednesday, 22 January 2020
One can only marvel at the versatility of Ruby Turner. As a vocalist, she spans the whole blues/soul/ R&B spectrum, and has been a major presence on the British scene since the late Seventies. Read more... |
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