New music
CD: Bullet For My Valentine - VenomSaturday, 08 August 2015
Bullet For My Valentine retain their fury. Last time round, on 2013’s aptly named Temper Temper, frontman Matt Tuck was snarling about substance abuse affecting his band. This time, on their fifth studio album, he claims his enraged microphone... Read more... |
CD: Ruf Dug – IslandThursday, 06 August 2015
Producer Ruf Dug has released a slew of singles and remixes, both on his own label, Ruf Kutz, and other independent imprints, including Porn Wax and Banoffee Pies, that have made the UK such an exciting prospect for new music for the past few years... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Camp Bestival 2015Wednesday, 05 August 2015
Camp Bestival 2015 was bathed in four days of glorious sun, a rare window of idyllic weather in this most cantankerous of summers. It took place, as it has since it began in 2008, amid the hilly, verdant and well-kept grounds of Lulworth Castle in... Read more... |
10 Questions for Eno Williams of Ibibio Sound MachineWednesday, 05 August 2015
Eno Williams is lead singer and composer of the band Ibibio Sound Machine, an eclectic fusion in which contemporary dance and synth are laid over classic Nigerian highlife rhythm and vocals. The full line-up consists of eight musicians working with... Read more... |
CD: Four Tet - Morning/EveningWednesday, 05 August 2015
There used to be a time when albums would regularly come in at around the 45-minute mark. It was pretty much the perfect length for fitting on to one side of a C90 (disclaimer: Home Taping Is Killing Music) and made the most of the vinyl format’s... Read more... |
Cilla Black, 1943-2015Monday, 03 August 2015
The term "beloved entertainer" might have been coined with Cilla Black in mind. Her career trajectory, from a working-class Irish Catholic background in Liverpool's Scotland Road through pop stardom under the auspices of Beatles manager Brian... Read more... |
CD: Frank Turner – Positive Songs for Negative PeopleMonday, 03 August 2015
Sad singers never write truly happy albums, but Positive Songs for Negative People – and was there ever a title that so perfectly summed up the work of Frank Turner? – is probably as close as this one gets to putting a brave face on it. Turner’... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Tuscany: Musical landscapesSunday, 02 August 2015
“Treeless and shrubless but for some tufts of broom, these corrugated ridges formed a lunar landscape, pale and inhuman.” Lushly green and densely planted, today the view out over Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia is unrecognisable as the blasted landscape... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Cocteau TwinsSunday, 02 August 2015
Cocteau Twins: The Pink Opaque, Tiny Dynamine/Echoes in a Shallow BayThe current fad for all things vinyl is of course, in general, a good thing. It has also meant that a column with CD in its header has, inevitably, broadened its scope. There... Read more... |
CD: Jill Scott - WomanSunday, 02 August 2015
Jill Scott albums should, in theory, be a bit of a chore. Everything about them, this one included, is like listening to a life coach: positive affirmations, exhortations to self-care, expressions of gratitude to the universe, homely snippets of... Read more... |
CD: Julio Bashmore - Knockin' BootsSaturday, 01 August 2015
“Julio Bashmore” is actually the nom-de-dancefloor of Bristolian DJ-producer Matt Walker who’s been slowly building a rep over the last five years. Outside clubland, music-lovers may have heard of him via his production on Jessie Ware’s early... Read more... |
Prom 16: Late Night with Radio 1, Pete TongThursday, 30 July 2015
After years of pussyfooting around pop, hoping the Pet Shop Boys will write something in a passable classical idiom, the Proms has embraced the most euphoric popular genre of all - dance - to its bosom. Pete Tong, long-standing Radio 1 presenter and... Read more... |
