New music
The Subways, Institute, BirminghamTuesday, 24 March 2015
Not unreasonably, anyone might imagine that a band might lose a bit of their usual vigour if they found themselves four albums into their career playing in a room not much bigger than a church hall, miles from home on a cold Monday evening. Not so... Read more... |
CD: Motorama – PovertyMonday, 23 March 2015
The two-and-a-quarter years between the release of Motorama’s last album Calendar and Poverty hitting the shops have done nothing to dim the Russian band’s aural resemblance to the roster of early-Eighties Factory Records. At this remove, it’s hard... Read more... |
Ian McCulloch, St Pauls Arts Centre, WorthingSunday, 22 March 2015
Things do not start well. Ian McCulloch, in trademark shades, apparently not aged a jot since Echo & the Bunnymen’s 1980s glory days, hits the stage in an offensive strop. He is performing a solo acoustic set from a chair. Beside him on a table... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Odyssey - A Northern Soul Time CapsuleSunday, 22 March 2015
Various Artists: The Odyssey - A Northern Soul Time CapsuleIt begins with “Open the Door to Your Heart” by Darrell Banks. Over a mid-tempo rhythm, Banks sings in an affecting voice obviously schooled in gospel. Choppy Motown-style guitar is... Read more... |
CD: Seasick Steve – Sonic Soul SurferSaturday, 21 March 2015
As thoughts begin to turn to this summer’s music festivals, it only seems appropriate that along comes Sonic Soul Surfer, the latest album from festie-perennial Seasick Steve. In fact, it’s hard to believe, given what seems to be his ubiquity among... Read more... |
Sam Lee & Friends: Temples TourSaturday, 21 March 2015
Sam Lee launched his second album this week, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to his Mercury-nominated debut, A Ground of it Own. The Fade In Time has been garnering five-star reviews like poesies in May, and for good reason – Lee is a distinctly... Read more... |
CD: Laura Marling - Short MovieSaturday, 21 March 2015
The best singer-songwriters, you might say, survey life's experiences with a forensic eye. That’s certainly true of Laura Marling. Her new album Short Movie chronicles the singer's recent stint in LA where she'd relocated for a couple of... Read more... |
Cheikh Lô: Dreadlocked Islamic FunkThursday, 19 March 2015
Cheikh Lô , the much loved Senegalese singer, is back with new recordings for the first time in five years with a three track EP trailing a new album in June, and theartsdesk has an early look at his new video for the lead track “Degg Gui” (see... Read more... |
CD: Benjamin Clementine - At Least for NowThursday, 19 March 2015
You couldn’t make this guy up. A pianist from age 11, he grew up in a strict Ghanaian Christian household in deepest north London, had his teenage world turned upside down when he saw New York indie-alternative torch act Antony & the Johnsons in... Read more... |
The Pursuit of Now, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 18 March 2015
Even for a dancer of Akram Khan’s sublime gifts, “Now” is an evasive concept to convey. During last night’s Sadler’s Wells extravaganza of Azerbaijani jazz and contemporary dance, “The Pursuit of Now”, Khan and his co-performer, the German-Korean... Read more... |
CD: Blancmange – Semi DetachedWednesday, 18 March 2015
After waiting a quarter of a century for Blancmange’s last album, 2011’s Blanc Burn, this new offering, effectively a Neil Arthur solo project, almost feels like a rush release. There’s a much changed visual aesthetic – gone is the stylised, Fifties... Read more... |
Dr John & The NiteTrippers, Ronnie Scott'sTuesday, 17 March 2015
Blues is an old man’s game. To do it properly you really have to have lived, and to have the scars and the criminal record to show for it. How do I know? Because Mac “Dr John” Rebennack is living proof. As he shuffled on at Ronnie Scott’s... Read more... |
