sat 23/08/2025

New Music Reviews

Reissue CDs Weekly: Dip - Ḣ-Camp Meets Lo-Fi

Kieron Tyler

The temptation with the 20th anniversary reissue of Ḣ-Camp Meets Lo-Fi (Explosion Picture Score) is to look for traces of what came earlier and pointers towards what would come in Iceland’s music. The album was credited to Dip, a collaboration between former Sugarcubes drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson and the on-the-up Jóhann Jóhannsson.

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PP Arnold, Islington Assembly Hall review - joy in a consummate musical setting

Kieron Tyler

“I had my first inter-racial relationship.” Moments after walking on stage and before the first song, PP Arnold is reminiscing about when she first arrived in Britain in 1966.

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Black Flag, The Mill, Birmingham review – hardcore punk originators come up trumps

Guy Oddy

Prior to this week, it had been 35 years since hardcore punk firestarters Black Flag had set foot in the UK. That said, it was not without some trepidation that I made my way to one of Birmingham’s more compact venues to see a band who had once been genre-defining, get on stage and do their stuff.

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Alice Cooper, The Stranglers, MC50, Brighton Centre review - a triple-headed blast of vintage rock

Thomas H Green

The Ol’ Black Eyes is Back Tour celebrates Alice Cooper’s 50 years using his stage name. He’d been around under other names before 1969 but Alice Cooper – originally the title of the band rather than the man – achieved success as the Seventies began by combining trash-glam drag with stompin’ riffy music.

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Kano, Brighton Dome review - simply joyous

Nick Hasted

Kano’s lyrics often sound like a wake, mixing mournfulness and anger as they raise a toast to fallen friends on abandoned estates, casualties of crushing pressures alien to the authorities who pronounce on them in the tabloids and parliament.

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Two Door Cinema Club, O2 Academy, Glasgow - lively but risk averse party songs for the weekend

Jonathan Geddes

The onstage arrival of Two Door Cinema Club was heralded by a tongue-in-cheek video countdown that reached zero and then flashed up an error message, before asking the crowd to “try again”. In truth, the band’s own performance was never likely to hit any hitches, being the sort of well-honed and slick display that you would expect from a group who have been touring steadily for the past several months.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: The Hollywood Stars - Sound City

Kieron Tyler

The Hollywood Stars were not shy.

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Rodrigo y Gabriela, Eventim Apollo Hammersmith review - fiery flamenco rock

Katie Colombus

Rodrigo y Gabriela are no longer the youthful metalheads that once spawned an organic fan movement from the muso grapevine, via rigorous gig schedules and world tours.

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Jambinai, Purcell Room - launching K-Music Festival with a wall of sound

Tim Cumming

K-Music has become one of the highlights of the autumn cultural calender since it launched in 2014, bringing an eclectic range of Korean artists and bands, from pop and rock to jazz and folk, and all the gradations between.

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Richard Thompson 70th Birthday Celebration, Royal Albert Hall review - not just a family affair

Tim Cumming

So it’s your birthday. Not just another one but your 70th. So who’s on the guest list?

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