New music
The Passion of Joan of Arc, Wells CathedralSunday, 09 October 2016
Wells Cathedral, masterpiece of Gothic architecture, is distinguished by relatively intimate scale: a perfect place to present Carl Dreyer’s 1928 classic and visually arresting account of the trial and burning of Joan of Arc. The screen was hung in... Read more... |
CD: Dr John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell - This Time It's PersonalSunday, 09 October 2016
You get two singular punk-era artists – a poet and a songwriter – together in a room for a few nights, with a rack of guitars, a rack of songs from their sweet youth, and a few musical friends to help out on keyboards, trumpet, flute and sax. Then... Read more... |
CD: Green Day - Revolution RadioSaturday, 08 October 2016
Revolution Radio is a title that can only bring to mind The Clash. To be more specific, it feels like a confabulation of “This Is Radio Clash” and “Revolution Rock”. The spiritual great-grandfather of this album, however, would be The Ramones, punk’... Read more... |
Jean-Michel Jarre, Brighton CentreFriday, 07 October 2016
If this review had a subtitle, it would be “Rave in the Mausoleum”. Jean-Michel Jarre threw everything he had at the crowd – state of the art lightshow, earthquake-level bass, eardrum-shattering decibels, remixed greatest hits, thumping kick-drums,... Read more... |
CD: Barry Gibb - In The NowThursday, 06 October 2016
“If tears were diamonds, I’d be a rich man now.” Barry Gibb, that famous falsetto still pitch-perfect, isn’t mincing his words on the solo album that, at the age of 70, he never expected to be left to make. Whether writing with the Bee Gees or his... Read more... |
Songlines Music Awards, BarbicanWednesday, 05 October 2016
Four headliners, one bill – Sam Lee, Debashish Bhattacharya, Songhoy Blues and Mariza: it was an impressive line-up at the Barbican for a Monday as the world and folk music magazine Songlines hosts its annual awards bash. Now, these are readers’... Read more... |
CD: Norah Jones - Day BreaksWednesday, 05 October 2016
The human voice is as individual as a fingerprint: the emotional, melancholic pull of Billie Holiday; the slightly nasal, always ironic quality of Donald Fagen; the overheated melismas of Mariah Carey; and Michael Bolton, the aural equivalent of the... Read more... |
First Person: Nico Muhly on music for two pianosTuesday, 04 October 2016
Writing for two pianos is something that – until last year – I had not attempted. I was contacted by Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen, two pianists who have performed as a duo for many years, asking me to compose a duet for them to perform at the... Read more... |
CD: Kaiser Chiefs - Stay TogetherTuesday, 04 October 2016
Kaiser Chiefs have been knocking out chart-aimed New Wave-ish guitar pop since 2004, and while they might have generally given the impression of leaning a bit more towards musical theatre than anything truly heartfelt, it hasn’t stopped them... Read more... |
Oasis in Their Own Words, BBC iPlayerMonday, 03 October 2016
Trying to pip the release of Mat Whitecross’s documentary Supersonic to the post, this brief hack through the BBC’s archive throws together a galloping overview of Oasis’s rise and fall, narrated by their own interviews and quotes. Arguably Oasis... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Les PantiesSunday, 02 October 2016
What should a band called Les Panties sound like? Melodic, Ramones-like pop-punk? Dirty garage rock a la early White Stripes? From the name, either surmise seems reasonable. In the event, what reverberates through this incongruously named Brussels... Read more... |
CD: Regina Spektor - Remember Us To LifeSunday, 02 October 2016
Regina Spector’s eclectic seventh album Remember Us To Life shows the Russian-born singer-songwriter’s brilliant knack for storytelling. Her style is stream of consciousness, melodic musings in poetic form which avoid extreme emotion in favour of... Read more... |
