sat 14/06/2025

New Music Reviews

Reissue CDs Weekly: Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs Present The Tears of Technology

Kieron Tyler

“Like mellotrons before them, synthesisers could project a strange and deep emotion – something in the wiring had an inherent melancholy.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: King Size Taylor and the Dominoes

Kieron Tyler

The enduring status of The Beatles shouldn’t distract from them having been one amongst many Liverpool bands while they found their feet.

Read more...

Isolation Song Contest review - a fun alternative to Eurovision

Veronica Lee

Of all the disappointments the lockdown has brought, great among them is the cancelled Eurovision Song Contest, which was due to be held in Rotterdam later this month. And while there are bigger concerns at the moment than a light entertainment programme, the Isolation Song Contest reminded us that community, the arts and a sense of humour will help to get us through.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Tape Archive Essence 1973-1978

Kieron Tyler

Even though nothing on Tape Archive Essence 1973–1978 was released at the time it was recorded, every track evokes material which was issued.

Read more...

One World: Together at Home livestream review - all eight hours of it!

Caspar Gomez

What times. They cancelled Glastonbury. Festival season 2020 disappeared. Then certain potions and compounds associated with festivaling ran dry. Well, the latter exist, of course. There’s a fellow over the road who’s still selling talcum powder and stinking chemo-skunk from his porch.

Read more...

Album: BC Camplight - Shortly After Takeoff

Kieron Tyler

The out-of-control missile on the cover is emblematic. The actual takeoff in question is the flight Brian Christinzio was forced to board in 2015 following his deportation from the UK.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels - Sockin’ It To You

Kieron Tyler

How Mitch Ryder is seen depends on particular perspectives. The Detroit blue-eyed soul belter racked up a string of US hits on 45 in 1966 and 1967. He made many albums, became an oldies radio staple and a perennial live draw.

Read more...

The Rise and Fall of The Clash, Now TV review - London falling

Kieron Tyler

Open-mouthed incredulity is a reasonable reaction to this 2012 documentary on one of the UK’s prime punk-spawned bands, available on catch-up via streaming service Now TV’s tie-in with Sky Arts. There’s not much “rise” but there’s an awful lot of “fall” in The Rise and Fall of The Clash.

Read more...

Reissue CDs Weekly: The Monochrome Set

Kieron Tyler

 “An exercise in bizarre mixtures, combining the bleak acid hangover of half-hearted Velvet Underground impersonators with muted razzmatazz: a long and rather stylish joke.”

Read more...

Clarence Clemons: Who Do I Think I Am? review - documentary about Springsteen's saxophonist

Veronica Lee

I must confess the sum total of my knowledge of Clarence Clemons before watching this documentary was that he was, for many years before his death in 2011 at the age of 69, the mighty saxophone player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. And what a sax player...

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

Help to give theartsdesk a future!

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.

It followed some...

Tornado review - samurai swordswoman takes Scotland by storm

The opening images of Tornado are striking. A wild-haired young woman in Japanese peasant garb runs for her life through a barren forest...

Hamlet Hail to the Thief, RSC, Stratford review - Radiohead...

The safe transfer of power in post-war Western democracies was once a given. The homely Pickfords Removals van outside Number Ten...

Lollipop review - a family torn apart

On leaving prison, Lollipop’s thirtyish single mum Molly discovers that reclaiming her kids from social care is akin to doing lengths in...

Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons, Dulwich Picture Gallery review...

I first came across Rachel Jones in 2021 at the Hayward Gallery’s painting show Mixing it Up: Painting Today. I was blown away by the...

Album: The Young Gods - Appear Disappear

Swiss electro-rockers, Young Gods have been around for 40 years, but this in no way should suggest that they’ve gone soft in their old age. These...

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life review - persuading us that the...

Do the French do irony? Well, was Astérix a Gaul? Obviously they do, and do it pretty well to judge by many of their movies down the...

The King of Pangea, King's Head Theatre review - grief...

There’s an old theatre joke. “The electric chair is too good for a monster like that. They should send him out of town with a new...

Album: Sam Binga - Sam Binga Presents Club Orthodontics

When I was writing the introduction to my book, Bass, Mids, Tops: An Oral History of Soundsystem Culture, I came up with a phrase, which...

Yoshitomo Nara, Hayward Gallery review - sickeningly cute ki...

It’s been a long time since an exhibition made me feel physically sick. The Hayward Gallery is currently hosting a retrospective of the...