New music
Wolf Alice, Shepherd's Bush EmpireSaturday, 04 April 2015
They’ve yet to release an album, but the London-based, alt-rock four-piece Wolf Alice have already been called everything from shoegrunge to Brit-country, via indie-dance and riot-grrrl. Last night they gave another compelling display of... Read more... |
CD: Brian Wilson – No Pier PressureSaturday, 04 April 2015
There are certain things that you approach a Brian Wilson album expecting. Melody and harmony of course, but also a certain kind of approach: a fearlessness to experiment. When he finally completed the famously unfinished Smile in 2004, it was a... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 13Thursday, 02 April 2015
Very often, the greatest impact comes without shouting. Subtlety can have a power lingering longer than the two-minute thrill of a yell. So it is with Bridges, the eighth album by Eivør. In the past, the Faroese singer-songwriter has collaborated... Read more... |
CD: Morton Valence - Another CountryWednesday, 01 April 2015
Morton Valence popped up six years ago and have released nothing but beautifully realised, lyrical, melancholic indie-Americana ever since. That's four albums of it, including this one. Strictly speaking, much of their oeuvre isn’t “indie-Americana... Read more... |
Future Islands, RoundhouseWednesday, 01 April 2015
It’s been just over a year since Future Islands’ Samuel T Herring famously gyrated, and chest-thumped his way through the band's latest single on American TV. The show was Letterman and the singer looked like a stevedore undergoing primal... Read more... |
DVD: Rude BoyTuesday, 31 March 2015
Rude Boy is a rotten film. Nonetheless it exerts an inexorable draw as it includes live footage of The Clash which is amongst the best of any rock group on stage. The performance of “Safe European Home”, caught on camera in July 1978, is white hot.... Read more... |
CD: Pombagira – Flesh Throne PressSunday, 29 March 2015
Flesh Throne Press is the sixth album from heavy doom-rock duo Pombagira. Guitarist and singer Pete and drummer Carolyn Hamilton-Giles’s massive sound is characterised by portentous riffing soaked in reverb, vocals that could easily be mistaken for... Read more... |
CD: Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & LowellSunday, 29 March 2015
Let’s get one thing straight: Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell is not a folk album. Folk, in this case, is a word used as a comfort blanket in an attempt to summarise the Michigan songwriter’s return to simple, acoustic music after the... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The SpecialsSunday, 29 March 2015
The Specials: Specials, More Specials; The Special AKA: In the StudioAfter hearing the three albums credited to The Specials during their formative period with 2 Tone Records it becomes hard to think of them as a single band. Their clanky... Read more... |
CD: The Prodigy - The Day Is My EnemyFriday, 27 March 2015
How many UK Number One albums have there been since the millennium that emanate truly vicious, caustic energy? How many have a furiousness which sets them completely apart? Royal Blood gave it a good whirl last year and Plan B’s Ill Manors in 2012... Read more... |
CD: Polar Bear – Same As YouWednesday, 25 March 2015
Polar Bear have been re-shaping the musical landscape (the experimental jazz end of it, at least), since 2004, and after a few years’ hibernation after 2010, the creature is back in rude health, this year’s album hot on the heels of last year’s... Read more... |
CD: Hanoi Masters - War Is a Wound, Peace Is a ScarWednesday, 25 March 2015
The music of melancholia takes on varied forms on different continents: the religious spirit and anger of the blues contrasts with the edgy rebelliousness of Greek rembetika, and the spiritual longing and melismatic vocal whirling of the Turkish... Read more... |
