New music
Alfresco Festival 2016, Royal Tunbridge WellsSaturday, 04 June 2016
I looked around at the grime-flecked warehouse and surveyed the brick parquet floor. Even the dappled sunlight and birdsong couldn’t soften the realisation – or the ground, for that matter. “We’re going to struggle to get a tent peg in this,” I... Read more... |
CD: Tom Odell - Wrong CrowdSaturday, 04 June 2016
This record passes the Rainy Day Greasy Spoon Test with flying colours. It's a vital one for any music that tends to the middle of the road: picture yourself in a cafe, mid-morning, mid-week, perhaps with a hangover, perhaps trying to avoid thinking... Read more... |
CD: Elza Soares – The Woman at the End of the WorldThursday, 02 June 2016
When producer Guilherme Kastrup asked this 78-year-old Brazilian icon what she wanted this album to be about she replied, “Sex and blackness.” Listening to the end result makes one wonder if she was referring to blackness as the colour of her skin... Read more... |
CD: The Kills - Ash and IceWednesday, 01 June 2016
It may be half a decade since The Kills graced us with their Blood Pressures album and its more produced take on their original grubby punk blues sound. The wait for something new has been largely due to Jamie Hince undergoing several operations on... Read more... |
Common People Festival 2016, SouthamptonTuesday, 31 May 2016
Rob da Bank’s Faustian pact with the weather gods continues apace with the second year of Common People, which takes place simultaneously in Southampton and Oxford. The forecast for days beforehand had predicted a cold front bearing relentless... Read more... |
CD: Tegan and Sara - Love You to DeathMonday, 30 May 2016
Just over three years ago, I was swooning for this very site over Tegan and Sara’s masterful shift from indie rock to full-bodied, floor-filling, retro-inspired electropop. But as catchy and cathartic as that album, Heartthrob, was, ultimately it... Read more... |
Brighton Festival: Beth Orton, Attenborough Centre for Creative ArtsSunday, 29 May 2016
Beth Orton’s sparsely ethereal new collection Kidsticks has been well received for marking an interesting change of direction. Last night’s Brighton Festival gig gave audiences the best of both, beginning with most of the new songs, then climaxing... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Death and VanillaSunday, 29 May 2016
Last May, Malmö trio Death and Vanilla issued the To Where the Wild Things are album and it seemed they had arrived as a fully formed post-Broadcast proposition, harmoniously fusing vintage influences like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Italian... Read more... |
CD: Dexys - Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish And Country SoulSunday, 29 May 2016
Kevin Rowland, throughout his career, has been a man who doesn’t brook compromise, whatever the consequences. He seems to have mellowed slightly with age but he still appears to do precisely what he wants, however bizarre, unexpected and possibly... Read more... |
Paul Simon Introduces 'Stranger to Stranger'Saturday, 28 May 2016
Perhaps as a hopeful harbinger for Paul Simon's new album Stranger to Stranger, Disturbed recently topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs chart with their flabbergasting version of Simon's 1965 song "The Sound of Silence". However, while... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl: Volume 17 - Paul McCartney, Moby, Grace Jones and moreSaturday, 28 May 2016
News just in that the vinyl soundtrack to Star Wars: The Force Awakens will feature holograms that can seen as the record is played, if a light is shone upon it. It seems that every month there’s a similarly bizarre development in the many ways that... Read more... |
CD: Bugzy Malone - Facing TimeFriday, 27 May 2016
In 2016, grime is facing a new test of its ability to operate on its own terms. At the start of this decade the genre was flirting with major label crossover that resulted in a few great pop records, but all too often diluted its musical impact or... Read more... |
