New music
Eska/Spiro, The Foundling MuseumSunday, 12 May 2013
There have been memorable nights at the Foundling Museum recently, with Alasdair Roberts delivering a superb solo show in April, while on Friday the Nest Collective hosted a double bill of Zimbabwean-born singer Eska and Bristol’s masters of English... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Sun RecordsSunday, 12 May 2013
Various Artists: The Sun Rock Box - Rock ‘n’ Roll Recorded by Sam Phillips 1954-1959It’s no exaggeration to say that Sam Phillips transformed society. With his associate Ike Turner, he brought Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88” to the world in 1951... Read more... |
Extract: Mariachi, Machetes, Meths - Manu Chao in MexicoSunday, 12 May 2013
Lake Chapalá begins just south of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. In case there’s any doubt we’re in Mexico, a mariachi band are propositioning the families who stroll along the waterfront and doing good business in their silver tunics and red... Read more... |
CD: Agnetha Fältskog – ASunday, 12 May 2013
Anything said about A won’t affect its sales. Guaranteed to sell millions, it’s the first album from ABBA’s former singer since 2004’s all-covers set, My Colouring Book. It’s also the first to contain original material since the one which preceded... Read more... |
CD: Primal Scream - More LightSaturday, 11 May 2013
Post-Screamadelica, there's a general consensus that Bobby Gillespie’s acid rockers have been gently sliding downhill (their nadir being the dad-rock of "Country Girl"). Those who believe this may feel better disposed towards More Light. It's not... Read more... |
SPOT Festival 2013, Aarhus, DenmarkFriday, 10 May 2013
“Are you thirsty? I’ve got water and beer.” The car’s trunk is opened to reveal a picnic-style plastic cooler. But this is a taxi, so in goes the case. “If you’re hungry, I’ve got liquorice.” It’s unusual hospitality, not what’s expected from a taxi... Read more... |
CD: Savages - Silence YourselfFriday, 10 May 2013
There’s a slight unease I feel about Savages which only grows with every listen to the band’s heavily-hyped debut album. Perhaps I’m too old to experience my music as just one facet of a conceptual art project, where it comes as part of a package... Read more... |
Sinéad O’Connor, The Dome, BrightonThursday, 09 May 2013
“Uncensored” is the word that best describes Sinéad O’Connor onstage. Even when she’s singing a less-than-great number she remains fascinating. Where most perform, she just is, in the most naked and mesmeric fashion. There’s stage-craft involved, of... Read more... |
The Knife, RoundhouseThursday, 09 May 2013
Nine people are on stage. Male and female. None is singing. All are dancing. No instruments are being played. For a 20-minute, three-song segment of Swedish art-dance electro-tricksters The Knife’s London show the sound was of a live concert, but... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Cheltenham Jazz FestivalWednesday, 08 May 2013
Cheltenham is the Dubai of the Cotswolds: a modestly populated town of 100,000 with sufficient wealth and influence to attract disproportionately lavish art and sport to its genteel Georgian streets every summer. Its jazz festival, in its 18th year... Read more... |
CD: Pat Metheny - Tap: The Book of Angels, Vol 20Wednesday, 08 May 2013
Born just a year apart in the 1950s and having both clocked up almost 40 years' work in their respective scenes, it's surprising that it's taken quite so long for fellow trailblazers Pat Metheny and John Zorn to work together. It's certainly been... Read more... |
The Big Reunion, Metro Radio Arena, NewcastleTuesday, 07 May 2013
With a full-on commercial break in the middle of the programme and teary clips from the television show interspersed throughout, The Big Reunion live show really does play out like an extended episode of ITV2’s unlikely reality hit. Thankfully this... Read more... |
