New music
theartsdesk in Zanzibar - behind the veilSaturday, 09 March 2019
Damn exotica. It has a habit of marshalling your gaze away from shabby Soviet-style apartment blocks and training it on white-washed palaces with ornate doors and latticed balconies; away from traffic jams of fume-spouting 4x4s and on to the old... Read more... |
CD: Karen O and Danger Mouse - Lux PrimaSaturday, 09 March 2019
As collaborations go, it’s a doozy. Karen O’s signature vocals over Danger Mouse’s production – it was always going to pique interest. And Lux Prima does much to meet expectations, gorgeous cinematic soundscapes that flit between haunting and... Read more... |
Jason Mraz, Royal Albert Hall review - a rare UK visit from the Grammy-winning organic farmerFriday, 08 March 2019
Jason Mraz… How can someone so big slip under so many radars. Mine, the muso with whom I trek to all sorts of gigs, and that of a wide range of friends, most of whom are pretty au courant with the scene.Then you hear it. Of course, the big hit –... Read more... |
CD: Sigrid - Sucker PunchThursday, 07 March 2019
You’d be forgiven for thinking, in the age of streaming, that the promotional single was a dying art. And yet there’s already something familiar about Sigrid’s long-awaited debut album. It’s almost two years since “Don’t Kill My Vibe” was the song... Read more... |
Kamasi Washington, Brixton Academy review - reaching transcendenceWednesday, 06 March 2019
There’s jazz, and there’s transcendent jazz. Kamasi Washington and his band are the latter. His group — who hail from Los Angeles and have played together since childhood, made waves in 2015 when they released The Epic, a three-hour concept album,... Read more... |
CD: Snapped Ankles - Stunning LuxuryWednesday, 06 March 2019
Was that "A waltz is a beat not a march" being hollered through what sounds like a megaphone on “Three Steps to a Development”? Sometimes it’s tricky to make out what vocalist Austin is on about, as he strains to be heard above the dazzling... Read more... |
Keith Flint, 1969-2019Tuesday, 05 March 2019
It is hard to absorb the news that Keith Flint of The Prodigy has been found dead at his home in Essex. Keith Flint! The guy with the double Mohican and panda eye-liner who terrified Middle America in the video for “Firestarter”. He was ever an... Read more... |
Massive Attack, Steel Yard Bristol review - propaganda and pompMonday, 04 March 2019
Massive Attack have travelled a long way from the Dugout, the Bristol bar where the collective first tried their hand at spinning discs for a crowd whose cultural mix reflected the constant ferment of one of Britain’s most vibrant cities. The city... Read more... |
Laura Gibson, Hug and Pint, Glasgow review - fable songs and unpretentious intimaciesMonday, 04 March 2019
Laura Gibson’s songwriting was always that of a storyteller but her newest album, Goners, ups the ante still further. Her first album to be made after completing an MFA in creative writing, the album explores weighty themes like grief and the... Read more... |
CD: Stella Donnelly - Beware of the DogsMonday, 04 March 2019
Stella Donnelly does not suffer fools gladly. On her debut LP, she calls out all manner of bad behaviours, from crappy bosses to creepy guys, annoying family members to disappointing boyfriends. Donnelly’s very much a part of the new guard of... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: SparksSunday, 03 March 2019
Although American, Sparks’ initial commercial breakthrough was in the UK where their rococo art-rock chimed with ears attuned to, say, Roxy Music. Their sensibility has always been more European than American. In 2009 they issued an album titled The... Read more... |
Joan Baez, London Palladium review - fare-thee-well generositySaturday, 02 March 2019
“If you look at music, you see theme, variation, you see symmetry, asymmetry, you see structure,” observed Dave van Ronk, the late folk musician known as “the Mayor of MacDougal Street” in Greenwich Village.He was doubtless talking about composition... Read more... |
