New music
CD: Owiny Sigoma Band - NyanzaThursday, 27 August 2015
Nyanza is the province of western Kenya where this intriguing Anglo-Kenyan, inter-generational five-piece recorded their third album, exploring the region in which the Luo people created their music. The Kenyan contingent, nyatiti (a plucked lyre)... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Green Man 2015Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Sunday. Brecon Beacons. Very early in the morning. I am woken, as I have been every 20 minutes or so since falling asleep, by water dripping on my head. So far, I’ve been able to ignore it, the pain of sitting upright outweighing the inconvenience... Read more... |
CD: Hills - FridTuesday, 25 August 2015
In a way that is reminiscent of fellow Swedes and label mates Goat, Hills play a primal psychedelia that draws from a far broader spectrum of sounds than the usual garage rock and motorik grooves of their British and American fellow travellers. On... Read more... |
CD: Beach House – Depression CherryMonday, 24 August 2015
Though beautiful, Depression Cherry is hard to love. The fifth album from Beach House – Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally – has the fragile exquisiteness of fine lace but is, as ever with the duo, so hazy it proves impossible to surrender to its... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Julian CopeSunday, 23 August 2015
Julian Cope: World Shut Your Mouth, FriedIt’s a fair assumption Julian Cope’s record label Phonogram was committed to the idea that he could be a solo commercial and critical success. Teardrop Explodes, the band he had fronted, had charted and his... Read more... |
CD: Trappist Afterland – AfterlanderSunday, 23 August 2015
Now, I don’t know about you, but if someone holding some tiny cymbals invited me into a room on the promise of hearing some devotional chanting to an oud-led raga accompanied by tablas, I’d probably also expect to find shaved heads, free dahl, and... Read more... |
CD: Motörhead – Bad MagicFriday, 21 August 2015
When Lemmy famously declared himself unimpressed with the “live fast, die young” philosophy, preferring to “live fast, keep going”, he was clearly talking as much about his music as anything else, because 22 albums into a 40-year career, Bad Magic... Read more... |
CD: Loose Tubes - ArrivingWednesday, 19 August 2015
Playing that exudes a real joie de vivre, compositions that unfailingly get the synapses firing, fearless soloing, and a textural density and rhythmic punch that deliver a powerful emotional jolt. It's rare to hear music-making of this calibre,... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 14Monday, 17 August 2015
Don’t be fooled by the header picture. Despite the relaxed poses, Iceland’s Pink Street Boys are amongst the angriest, loudest, most unhinged bands on the planet right now. Hits #1, their debut vinyl album – which follows distorted-sounding, lower-... Read more... |
CD: Natalie Imbruglia - MaleMonday, 17 August 2015
Is it really 18 years since Natalie Imbruglia had her mega-hit “Torn”? Since then her musical career has been pretty low-key. This week, however, she returns with Male, an album of covers all originally sung by men. More significant, though, is... Read more... |
theartsdesk in New York: Folk CitySunday, 16 August 2015
If you liked the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis, with its Dave Van Ronk-esque hero in Greenwich Village in 1961, you'll enjoy the new exhibition Folk City: New York and the Folk Music Revival, a celebration of NYC as the centre of folk music... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Stax Soul SensationsSunday, 16 August 2015
Various Artists: Ian Levine’s Stax Soul SensationsTaking 41 years to follow up a successful compilation is perhaps not sound in commercial terms. No matter. Ian Levine’s Stax Soul Sensations is not about marketability, but instead about... Read more... |
