New music
Mavis Staples, Union Chapel review - grand gospel dame still doin' it at 79Thursday, 12 July 2018
“We have come here tonight,” announces Mavis Staples, “to bring you some joy, happiness, inspiration - and positive vibrations!” It’s a declaration that the irrepressible Mavis, celebrating her 79th birthday today, routinely makes at her concerts -... Read more... |
CD: Lotic - PowerWednesday, 11 July 2018
An extraordinary musical movement has been bubbling over from the far left field into the public consciousness in the last couple of years. A very loose international alliance of musicians like Elysia Crampton, GAIKA, Ziúr, Arca, Rabit, Yves Tumor,... Read more... |
CD: Rick Astley - Beautiful LifeTuesday, 10 July 2018
Who in their right minds has the time of day for Rick Astley? As a cynical 1980s experiment by ruthlessly commercial production house Stock, Aitken & Waterman his Eighties output was vapid grinning plastic bilge. He was annoying too, really... Read more... |
Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana and Steve Winwood, BST Hyde Park review - the Clapton faithful in their drovesMonday, 09 July 2018
Would we see any of the three guitar-toting rock legends together? Yes, we would. Two of them, if briefly. Carlos Santana came back just before 10pm to join Eric Clapton’s band for the encore of their set, a quick valedictory burn-through of Joe... Read more... |
CD: Dirty Projectors – Lamp Lit ProseMonday, 09 July 2018
Lamp Lit Prose is the ninth Dirty Projectors album since 2003, an incredibly prolific output for any artist. All the more impressive when you consider it’s the project of producer/songwriter David Longstreth, who also finds time to collaborate with... Read more... |
CD: Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - ÉpoquesSunday, 08 July 2018
At its most impactful, Époques is an aural analogue to the occasions in Tarkovsky’s Stalker when the explorers of “The Zone” find their perceptions of what might be reality warped, and when there’s a growing realisation that this may be a place with... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Manfred MannSunday, 08 July 2018
Dress each of the band in the same clothes. Stand them in a line outside the EMI headquarters building on Manchester Square. Get the taller ones with glasses to stand at either end of the row. Put the other taller one in the middle. Have the pair of... Read more... |
CD: Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut WoodFriday, 06 July 2018
So the ambient revival continues apace, getting deeper and wider with each passing year. From the interstices between the classical concert hall, abstract art installations, the backroom of more insalubrious little raves and festivals, the small... Read more... |
CD: Big Narstie - BDL BipolarThursday, 05 July 2018
The Bass Defence League campaigns for mental health. As with everything Big Narstie does, there are serious points in this release wedged next to the broadest comedy, and it’s no coincidence, as we learn from the vivid parody of “BDL Protest” intro... Read more... |
CD: Years & Years - Palo SantoWednesday, 04 July 2018
It’s three years since Years & Years’ debut album Communion, with its monster singles “King” and “Shine”, put them on the map as major pop stars. Their music was smartly (albeit faintly) flavoured with sounds ranging from LA alt-hip hop to Hot... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Essaouira: Festival of Gnawa - 21st-century trance mastersMonday, 02 July 2018
Essaouira, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, is the place of winds. Day or night, hot or cold, year in, year out, the “Alizee” blows, and it blows. In the local folklore it is not from the ocean but a grumbling resident of the medina – perhaps protesting... Read more... |
CD: The Alarm - EqualsMonday, 02 July 2018
Not many bands have a reputation for passion quite like The Alarm. Right from the early Eighties, tracks like "68 Guns" attracted fans who wanted music to believe in – something with a message and a conscience. That ethos came from the band's... Read more... |
