New music
CD: Morcheeba - Head Up HighThursday, 10 October 2013
Morcheeba are sometimes dismissed as makers of dinner party music, of being the trio who drove the triphop juggernaut started by Massive Attack down an easy-listening dead end. Such a view, however, ignores the quality of their songwriting,... Read more... |
CD: Jonathan Wilson - FanfareWednesday, 09 October 2013
If there’s a problem with Jonathan Wilson’s astonishing second album, it’s the potentially distracting presence of the stunningly heavy list of contributors. Those mucking in to help out include Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Graham Nash who... Read more... |
10 Questions for Lars UlrichTuesday, 08 October 2013
In their new, semi-fantastical concert movie Metallica: Through the Never, the gas-masked marauder who hunts the band’s fictional roadie, Trip, through a nightmare landscape, pictured below, is less cinematically memorable than Metallica themselves... Read more... |
CD: RM Hubbert - Breaks & BoneSunday, 06 October 2013
The debates that come with music awards tend to be more interesting than the institutions themselves, which is why it was so novel to see this year’s SAY Award - the Creative Scotland-backed equivalent of the Mercury Prize - go to a work that was... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Oslo: Pushing folk’s frontiersSunday, 06 October 2013
Four days in Norway’s capital attending Folkelarm, the festival of Nordic folk music, raises the perennial and always knotty question of how far music can move beyond the traditional yet still be labelled as folk? With the charming and reassuringly... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: National Wake, DrugstoreSunday, 06 October 2013
National Wake: A Walk in Africa 1979–81South Africa’s National Wake would be noteworthy enough even if their music wasn’t. The mixed-race group emerged in 1978 in a country where the establishment and institutions were directly opposed to what... Read more... |
Podcast: EFG London Jazz FestivalSaturday, 05 October 2013
In its 21st year, London’s biggest city-wide music festival brings together established stars and emerging talent, reflecting the traditions of jazz and illuminating its breadth and depth. Running from 15-24 November, this year's programme features... Read more... |
CD: Miley Cyrus - BangerzFriday, 04 October 2013
I am increasingly finding it almost impossible to express just how bored I am by Miley Cyrus. I mean, seriously, are we really in such a fix that this guff is a serious talking point? A second-generation celebrity and former child star seems to be... Read more... |
Jacqui Dankworth, 606 ClubFriday, 04 October 2013
Jazz singer Jacqui Dankworth’s fifth album Live to Love is, on the face of it, an unlikely forum for appreciation of quantum physics or the heroic plight of Pakistani campaigner Malala Yousafzai. This new release, launched at the 606 Club, contains... Read more... |
The Wasp Factory, Linbury Studio TheatreThursday, 03 October 2013
A baby's brain is polished off by a throbbing welter of maggots. A field of sheep are on fire. A screaming child whose hands have been tied to a kite is flying out over the North Sea. How do you make an opera out of any of this? The answer of course... Read more... |
CD: The Full EnglishThursday, 03 October 2013
The Full English album and live tour is the stage and studio result of an ambitious project from the EFDSS (English Folk Dance and Song Society), drawing together songs from the early 20th-century collections of songhunters including Lucy Broadwood... Read more... |
CD: Chase & Status - Brand New MachineWednesday, 02 October 2013
“How does drum’n’bass fare when taken out from the underground?” asked Joe Muggs on Monday on theartsdesk, reviewing the new Sub Focus album. He went on to refer to “a fizzy youth-friendly strain of the genre” and “rictus grin euphoria”, making... Read more... |
