New music
Reissue CDs Weekly: Chris Barber - A Trailblazer's LegacySunday, 25 July 2021
The book included with this splendid box set dedicated to British jazz innovator Chris Barber includes a series of quotes paying tribute to his standing. Billy Bragg says "Chris Barber's influence on British popular music, be it through playing jazz... Read more... |
Album: Anne-Marie - TherapySaturday, 24 July 2021
Anne-Marie Nicholson is a hard-working young woman from Essex whose career description is “Global Girl-next-door Pop Star”. She has incrementally worked her way there, attended the marketing meetings. Anyone requiring a CV that exemplifies the... Read more... |
Album: Jackson Browne - Downhill From EverywhereFriday, 23 July 2021
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost 50 years since I splurged a day’s Saturday pay on For Everyman, Jackson Browne’s second album. The title track alone was worth it. A couple of years on and Late for the Sky yielded “Before the Deluge” and “... Read more... |
Album: Leon Bridges - Gold-Diggers SoundThursday, 22 July 2021
The sleeve splices Little Richard and Sam Cooke in an archaic, explosive burst of ecstasy. Neo-soul star Leon Bridges’ third album doesn’t settle in the past, though. Taped far from his Forth Worth, Texas hometown in Hollywood, local clubland sounds... Read more... |
Album: Peyton - PSAWednesday, 21 July 2021
For 25 years now, LA label Stones Throw records has become one of the most reliable brands in music. It began with, and has always been associated with, the leftfield hip hop of founder George “Peanut Butter Wolf” Manak, and regular contributors... Read more... |
Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan review - noir settings for classic numbersMonday, 19 July 2021
What is the Shadow Kingdom and how do you gain access to it? In Bob Dylan’s case, it may be found in the film noir classics of his birth – 1941’s The Maltese Falcon onward – and it’s those noir settings, artfully condensed and reduced to a signature... Read more... |
Album: Darkside - SpiralMonday, 19 July 2021
Darkside is not a particularly original name for a band. In the late '80s and early '90s, it was a tag used by escapees from the infighting between Jason Pierce and Sonic Boom in Spacemen 3, as well as being taken on by at least one drum and bass... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Karen Black - Dreaming Of You (1971-1976)Sunday, 18 July 2021
Karen Black’s connection with music was never hidden. In Robert Altman’s 1975 film Nashville she played a country singer. In 1970’s Five Easy Pieces she was a would-be country singer. In Nashville, two of the songs she sang were self-penned. She... Read more... |
Album: David Crosby - For FreeSaturday, 17 July 2021
David Crosby hit the headlines a few months back, another artist selling his song catalogue in order to secure his house. These days musicians must stay on the road to earn a living and sell records. It’s a punishing life, even for the young and fit... Read more... |
Album: Wavves - HideawayFriday, 16 July 2021
Wavves’ Nathan Williams found you can go home again. Following a deteriorating decade on a major label, and 2017’s raucous retrenchment You’re Welcome (2017), the punk-pop Californians have returned to their first label, Fat Possum. Williams then... Read more... |
Album: Craig Fortnam - ArkThursday, 15 July 2021
Craig Fortnam’s music – solo or in the bands North Sea Radio Orchestra and Arch Garrison – sounds like a lot of things. It sounds like the 70s prog-folk-jazz interface of Kevin Ayres and Robert Wyatt as its influence feeds on into Kate Bush. When he... Read more... |
10 Questions for Harry Grafton of Red Rooster FestivalWednesday, 14 July 2021
Harry Grafton (b. 1978) is the preferred title of Henry Fitzroy, 12th Duke of Grafton, custodian of Euston Hall in Suffolk and the man behind the Red Rooster Festival. The latter, during its six pre-COVID years of existence, built a reputation for... Read more... |
