New music
Kieron Tyler
In the lyrics of 1989’s “Doin’ Our Own Dang”, Jungle Brothers’ Mike D noted his combo were “Breaking the beat others wished they broke.” Going further, he acknowledged “Cause you’re trying to feel what’s on my reel to reel.” Jungle Brothers recognised they were not on their own. During the same year, the like-minded De La Soul released their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising.Both outfits had links with hip hop collective Native Tongues which, directly or indirectly, also related to or spawned A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, Monie Love, Black Sheep and Chi-Ali, and influenced Digital Read more ...
Guy Oddy
The Darkness have become something of an institution in British rock music since exploding onto the scene with their 2003 debut album, Permission to Land and its breakthrough single “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”. Over-the-top stage costumes and Justin Hawkins’ falsetto vocals may have been their trademarks for almost 20 years, but their humorous take on hard rock continues to raise smiles everywhere. Easter is Cancelled, needless to say, does little to change their somewhat individual take on a genre that is not usually renowned for having a sense of humour.Hawkins’ dramatic singing Read more ...
Katie Colombus
There comes a time for reflection in everyone’s lives – perhaps for Canadian indie-pop duo Tegan & Sara this is it. Harking back to the 1990s, they have found and re-worked tracks written in their teenage years, taking grains of truth from their own once lost lyrics and melodies, trussing them up with fancy production values and a new wave retro-pop sound.The album is launching just after the twins’ memoir, “High School” – a coming of age story of growing up in Calgary. Hey, I’m Just Like You feels like the musical accompaniment that should have been tucked into its sleeve.Created with an Read more ...
joe.muggs
Since the mid-2000s, Anders Trentemøller has been a major part of the European live circuit. A long time indie rock musician in his native Copenhagen, he had actually come to prominence as a fairly commercial electro-house remixer, but it was his 2006 album The Last Resort that cemented his position. Blending a subtler version of his dance production tricks with British shoegaze guitars and a bleak and eerie widescreen sweep, it was the perfect encapsulation of a particular kind of Nordic noir aesthetic: hints of dark doings in bleak forests and the cold sublime of unpopulated Read more ...
Russ Coffey
"The reason why it's so special to be here," says Ezra halfway through the show, "is because this is where I saw so many of my heroes". Tonight is the 26-year-old's debut at the Royal Albert Hall and the look on Ezra's face says he can't quite believe where he's standing. He holds his hands up with a shrug, stares out at the crowd, and smiles a Cheshire Cat grin.This has been a huge year for the unassuming young man from Hertfordshire. It's seen the end of a journey from unlikely pop star (the comedian Jack Whitehall once called him the "Milky Bar Kid all grown up") to bonafide Read more ...
mark.kidel
65daysofstatic, the instrumentals-only post-rock experimental band from Sheffield, have suffered from the obsessive need to brand every supposed sub-genre of music when, in their case, they are much more than a math rock or glitch band. They are instead just courageous and adventurous, searching for new ways to put sounds together. Their strength and originality lies in the fact they escape categorisation and, as the good artists they are, re-invent themselves at every turn.With their latest album, the band have come a long way from their first outing The Fall of Math (2004), which rather Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
While bands such as The Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees and, especially, Bauhaus had a hand in inventing goth music at the start of the Eighties, it was The Sisters of Mercy who defined it. Their combination of black clad cowboy shtick, mirror shades and dry ice worked a treat. In recent years, there have been rumours that the band’s live shows are less than impressive, mentions of a tendency to focus on unreleased material while dressed in leisurewear. Happily, this was certainly not the case tonight.The Sisters’ output, especially their early records, has dated well; gritty, Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Charles Hazlewood (b. 1966) has worked across the gamut of orchestral music, his career showcasing the multitude of ways it can be perceived and enjoyed. Recently he has reengaged with his longstanding love of minimalist music, first via his two BBC documentaries Tones, Drones and Arpeggios: The Magic of Minimalism, and now with forthcoming concerts which follow in their wake. These ares the latest chapter in a creatively restless career.In 1995 Hazelwood won the European Broadcasting Union’s conducting competition and has since performed with orchestras including the Swedish Radio Symphony, Read more ...
Nick Hasted
New Pornographer-in-chief AC Newman grew up enraptured by how much and how little pop could be: from David Bowie shucking skins to the rush of the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”, to Pixies' boiling down of a song to three chords and a scream. Eight albums in, and Newman’s Vancouver art-power pop veterans retain the capacity of a tightly edited musical thesaurus, spinning out compacted melodies and metaphors and challenging the listener to keep up, ideally with a code-book.The New Pornographers’ sometimes contentious personnel equation, always amorphous in their typically Canadian rock commune, Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Among the issues integral to the final album The Beatles recorded two, though usually low profile, are worth bearing mind. Abbey Road was their first album to be released in stereo only. There was no mono edition. Also, in late 1968, an EMI TG12345 console had been installed in Studio 2 of their label’s Abbey Road studios. Unlike its predecessor, the REDD.51, it was a solid-state piece of equipment. Transistors had replaced valves.The album was recorded in a new world, one where the old – mono and valves – was being ushered out. And likewise, The Beatles were in the studio as they ushered Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Hatari’s 10th placing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest hasn’t done them any harm. Neither did ruffling the feathers of the European Broadcasting Union and host nation Israel with their stance on Palestine. Based on their performance in Hamburg at 2019’s Reeperbahn Festival, Iceland’s favourite BDSM-leaning popsters haven’t smoothed-off their rough edges.The more gruff of their two singers, Matthías Haraldsson, sounds like a Dalek were one of the wheeled monstrosities angrier than usual, and even more stentorian. Team this with co-frontman Klemens Hannigan’s somewhat sweeter tones and Read more ...
Nick Hasted
Keane grew up six miles away in Battle, making this night in balmy Bexhill-on-Sea as close as they can practically get to a hometown gig. Prior to their first headline tour in six years, they’re playing new album Cause and Effect in full in an “in-store appearance”, hosted by the Music’s Not Dead record shop within the town’s art deco De La Warr Pavilion, but played in the main auditorium.This intimate localism from one of Britain’s biggest bands is somewhat undercut by the gig being live-streamed. But it’s a welcome opportunity to focus on new songs shaped by what singer Tom Chaplin coyly Read more ...