New music
Guy Oddy
To experience a performance by Seattle’s ambient metal kings, Sunn O))) is not like attending a conventional rock’n’roll gig, by any means. For a start, there are no drums, no bass and these days, no vocals. All the music comes from just two guitars, wielded by Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, and an awful lot of amplifiers, speakers and sustain pedals.It isn’t just in their instrumentation that Sunn O))) defy standard rock’n’roll lore either. Dressed in monks’ habits, they move slowly around the stage, as if in choreographed half-speed, for a show that might be characterised as being part Read more ...
Peter Culshaw
The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music has been peerless over the years in presenting world/global music acts in one magical place. Only WOMAD is a serious rival as a long-established global music fest.Fez is also special in another way, the city has miles of car-free winding alleys in the medina that make you feel like you are in a time machine spun back several centuries. It’s slightly easier not to get totally lost since GPS arrived but I still managed it several times.It has a reputation as one of the Islamic world’s great spiritual cities, you feel the energy of the Sufi saints in the Read more ...
Mark Kidel
Ever since he crashed into the world with that eerie masterpiece, Maxinquaye (1995) – an album that has never aged – Bristol-born Tricky, once a maverick member of Massive Attack, has mined a vein of suffering and pain, extracting, disc after disc, the essence of his troubled shadow and ancestry. The new solo venture, hot on the heels of a rich diversity of collaborations, is no different. This is the music of a haunted man, whose wounds have nourished streams of musical consciousness that speak to all of us, and never feels like maudlin navel-gazing or confessional self-indulgence. Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Mould are a post-punk sounding trio from Bristol. The press release says that their debut album is “13 tracks that explore the horrors of the outside world and the internal minefield of the brain”. A nice description, and very post-COVID in aspect. Also correct. The lyrics are the best thing about Hoping as a Coping Mechanism, born of prosaic nihilism and boredom, with a seasoning of desperation.Musically, Mould’s angular energy makes up for what they lack in musical originality, and the whole thing is done in about 35 minutes so they don’t outstay their welcome. They veer from harsh Idles- Read more ...
Guy Oddy
This week saw something of a landmark gig for Birmingham’s ever-exuberant folkies, Bonfire Radicals. New album, Spaghetti Junction was revealed to a home crowd; long-time violinist Sarah Farmer played her last show with the band; her replacement, Emily Dawe was introduced to a welcoming crowd; and at least one tune was performed for the last time and finally exorcised from their live set.Gigs in rooms above pubs aren’t necessarily a joyful experience when there’s a blistering heatwave going on. However, the Hare and Hounds had the presence of mind to install air conditioning some years ago Read more ...
Joe Muggs
Pyschedelic music has always encouraged intergenerational influence. Thus West Midlander Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember, in his 1980s Spacemen 3 days – with Jason Pierce of Spiritualized – channelled Krautrock, The Velvet Underground, The Silver Apples and The Stooges into his relentlessly narcotic jams, then moved sideways into representing the spirit of very early synthesiser experimenters. And Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox, solo and with peculiar Baltimore grouping Animal Collective, since 1999 has collided all kinds of freak folk, psyche-pop, and above all Smile-era Beach Boys. Together they brought Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The most up-front factor defining the 10 tracks of Sweet Thief’s 26 minutes is Zoë Randell’s voice. Figuratively, she does not – vocally, that is – break a sweat or get agitated. On “Wanna Get Free,” she sings “put down your weapon.” Yet there is no sense of experiencing imminent danger. The lyrics of “A Better Truth.” which musically evokes Leonard Cohen's "Susanne”, tell of “troubled men… anger, shame, building to cycles of misery and strife.” Again, there’s that distance, a cool, the sense that Randell is a detached though acutely aware observer.Luluc are the duo of Zoë Randell and Steve Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Amelia Baker is a troubadour and storyteller of dark but enchanting tales. In the guise of Cinder Well, she brings these stories to life with woozy and intoxicating melodies that are somewhat reminiscent of Sixties underground folkie Karen Dalton but which have very much their own elegant sound.Her latest record, A Blooming Body is a beautifully atmospheric album but also one that is suitably lush and poetic, leaning into North American folk traditions with something of a Gothic vibe. Her shimmering sound suggests cinematic soundtrack music, exploring haunting vignettes that give tangential Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“Rimbaud, I guess. W.C. Fields. The family, you know, the trapeze family in the circus. Smokey Robinson. Allen Ginsberg. Charlie Rich, he's a good poet.”It’s 3 December 1965. Bob Dylan is in San Francisco to play the city’s Masonic Auditorium before setting off on other dates around California. He’s sitting down in front of journalists and TV cameras for a press conference. The response above was prompted by being asked “What poets do you dig?”
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What he’s just said is not followed up. Instead, the next question is about the nature of Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
“Hull Suite” is an important work in the canon of British-Bengali pianist Zoe Rahman, because it evokes themes – voyage, migration and family – which resonate strongly with her. The composition was commissioned at short notice by the Hull Jazz Festival (as a work for solo piano) for World Piano Day in 2024.Rahman drew inspiration from two statues overlooking the water in Hull. “The Crossing” is a bronze statue depicting a migrating family, and honours over 2 million people from Northern and Eastern Europe who passed through the port on their way to America between 1836 and 1914. The Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Confessions II arrives amid a welter of promotional spectacle and global corporate partnerships. At heart, though, it’s Madonna retreating from projects stuck in development hell, and working through bereavement, via the salve of making music in a low-key London situation with Stuart Price. He produced 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, to which this is a sequel. The preceding singles did not bode well but Confessions II contains surprises and shows a superstar holding her own.Returning to the arena of clubland bangers, and presented as a continuous mix, it’s hampered by the fact that house Read more ...
Joe Muggs
If, like me, you’re not a dedicated jazz listener, sometimes when you dip back in even the most straightforward playing can take your breath away. Go to a small jazz club in any city in any given week, and chances are you can find some unassuming musicians, from music students to over-70s who’ve been doing it their entire lives long, doing superhuman things. They might not be breaking any boundaries or going stir crazy, but however familiar or simple the material they’re jamming on might be, the feats of memory, dexterity and borderline telepathic interlocking with one another can be as far Read more ...