New music
Album: Death Valley Girls - Islands in the SkyWednesday, 22 February 2023
“What are the odds that we live in a simulated world where nothing is real?” ask the Death Valley Girls on their new album, Islands in the Sky. It’s a question that a fair few other people are probably asking themselves these days – and, with the... Read more... |
Dry Cleaning, Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow review - post-punk outfit say all the right wordsMonday, 20 February 2023
There is an endearing awkwardness with Dry Cleaning, despite steady success over the past three years. “Does anyone else want a wave?” asked their frontwoman Florence Shaw at one point, almost shyly, before proceeding to do just that in various... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 75: The Beach Boys, The Residents, Danny Goffey, Jean-Michel Jarre, black metal and Sixties psychMonday, 20 February 2023
Welcome to the first theartsdesk on Vinyl of 2023 and it’s another whopper, over 8000 words and a range of musical styles that defies genre or categorization, from the most cutting edge sounds to boxsets of golden vintage pop. Dive in!VINYL OF THE... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Dave Brubeck Quartet - Debut In The Netherlands 1958Sunday, 19 February 2023
For Dave Brubeck, his Quartet’s first concert in the Netherlands was memorable. Getting to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw for the 26 February 1958 booking was difficult, possibly unfeasible. The band were travelling from Berlin, and arrived at the show a... Read more... |
Jockstrap, Heaven review - ecstasy in underground bassFriday, 17 February 2023
Jockstrap’s crowd, in the vaults of Heaven, was always going to be beautiful and effortlessly cool. Ushered in by a ticket-check clerk sporting love bites, the dreamy sounds of the warm-up act, Pablo, filled the underground space. The audience,... Read more... |
Album: Skrillex - Quest for FireFriday, 17 February 2023
Ageing boppers may bristle at the idea of a dance album where the average track length is three minutes. Yet this, Sonny “Skrillex” Moore’s first solo album since his debut nine years ago, is the most groove-based thing he’s done. It’s certainly a... Read more... |
Marina Allen, Cafe Oto Review - east London substitutes for 1970s Los AngelesThursday, 16 February 2023
When Marina Allen’s second album Centrifics came out last autumn, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter said her voice was the only instrument on the record. She writes on guitar and piano but beyond what she sang, everything else was played by... Read more... |
Carly Rae Jepsen, Brighton Dome review - iridescent disco hooks to get you dancingThursday, 16 February 2023
If I’m honest, venturing out into a misty Brighton night with my Tweens for their first proper gig (we won’t count Olly Murs – they were children then) felt somewhat trepidatious.I was buoyed by seeing other parents in the same situash, and... Read more... |
Album: Orbital - Optical DelusionWednesday, 15 February 2023
Orbital, one of the great electronic dance acts, had a run of albums during the 1990s that encapsulate that decade in the UK (at least, for those willing to ignore the historical revisionism around tired, retro-tastic Britpop by the same media "... Read more... |
Transatlantic Sessions, Southbank Centre - an evening of stellar music-makingMonday, 13 February 2023
It all ended in great style, the 20th edition of The Transatlantic Sessions which closed out its tour at London’s Southbank Centre on Saturday. The line-up of musicians is, of course, an embarras de richesse: a house band led by Aly Bain, master... Read more... |
Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of SleeperMonday, 13 February 2023
During the Dark Ages, it wasn’t unusual for people throughout England to raise the prayer “From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord!”. Over a thousand years later, with the release of Geordie rockers Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs’ new... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Modern Eon - Fiction TalesSunday, 12 February 2023
The most commercially and consistently successful band on DinDisc was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Martha and the Muffins also made a mark. Label mates The Monochrome Set were cool, distinctive but not so chart friendly. The Revillos were less... Read more... |
