New music
Madness and Squeeze, Brighton Centre review - enjoyable annual December nostalgia rompWednesday, 08 December 2021
Madness frontman Suggs is asking the capacity crowd at the Brighton Centre if any of them are in school-age education. Quite a few are. There are actual young people here! Some are with parents (even, possibly, grandparents), but gaggles of... Read more... |
Album: Neil Young and Crazy Horse – BarnWednesday, 08 December 2021
Neil Young’s ornery spontaneity has resulted in a remarkable number of mediocre songs. His sketchy 21st century has conjured audacious sonic conceits – the jazzy sparseness of Peace Trail, or the plastic-sounding live album Earth, both 2016 –... Read more... |
Album: Neil Young and Crazy Horse – BarnWednesday, 08 December 2021
Neil Young’s ornery spontaneity has resulted in a remarkable number of mediocre songs. His sketchy 21st century has conjured audacious sonic conceits – the jazzy sparseness of Peace Trail, or the plastic-sounding live album Earth, both 2016 –... Read more... |
Album: Various Artists - A Damaged Christmas Gift For YouTuesday, 07 December 2021
Christmas albums can traditionally be slippery beasts with a whole host of quality control issues. This is not unlike the compilation albums that also make an appearance at this time of year, with one or maybe two previously unreleased tracks, which... Read more... |
Album: SJS - The Unlikely EventMonday, 06 December 2021
Just as love's downward spiral can deconstruct a lover's sense of self, so SJS's plangent post-modern prog deconstructs itself as it ebbs and flows toward gorgeous but muted crescendos.On the band's second album The Unlikely Event, lovely ... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Once Upon A Time In The West Midlands - The Bostin’ Sounds of Brumrock 1966-1974Sunday, 05 December 2021
The picture seen above doesn’t have quite the same resonance as Art Kane’s 1958 shot A Great Day in Harlem which brought 57 American jazz musicians in front of his lens, but it is nonetheless significant. Here, in 1971, is an evocative, unique... Read more... |
Album: Madmess - RebirthSaturday, 04 December 2021
Madmess are a Portuguese power trio who are based in London. Muscular and (mostly) instrumental stoner rock is their thing, which may not be particularly original but with the volume turned up appropriately, their schtick is pretty transcendental... Read more... |
10 Questions for musician and DJ Pete TongFriday, 03 December 2021
Perhaps appropriately, when I called Pete Tong for his 10 questions I was hungover, on the phone in a park after a night at a very good party. It’s a sign of the times that things are appearing to return to a relative normal, despite the threat of... Read more... |
Album: Paul Weller - An Orchestrated SongbookThursday, 02 December 2021
It’s a far cry from his beginnings in a tight, no-frills power-pop-post-punk three piece, that’s for sure. Last May, Paul Weller took to the stage with guitarist Steve Craddock, a smattering of guest vocalists and the BBC Symphony Orchestra to... Read more... |
Hedvig Mollestad, National Jazz Scene, Oslo review - watch out, there’s a storm aboutThursday, 02 December 2021
The opening moments don’t suggest what’s coming. A solo flute is followed by a few spoken phrases from a treated voice. What’s being said? It’s impossible to work it out. Is it a warning? An electric guitar’s strings are stroked with a cello bow.... Read more... |
Blue Rose Code, Kitchen Garden Cafe, Birmingham review - stand out folk in a cosy, quirky venueThursday, 02 December 2021
After a two year hiatus (imposed for obvious reasons) Edinburgh-born Liverpool-based singer-songwriter Ross Wilson - AKA Blue Rose Code - is back touring with his full band and a new album, with a string of UK gigs this winter. Playing in Birmingham... Read more... |
Album: DJ Harrison - Tales From the Old DominionThursday, 02 December 2021
The Californian label Stones Throw has long specialised in inseparably folding together the most profound and most wilfully foolish Black American music. And that is truer than ever on these 17 tracks from Virginian singer / songwriter / producer /... Read more... |
