New music
CD: The Breeders - All NerveWednesday, 28 February 2018
For some a lack of development is failure; not for Kim Deal. Her songwriting and voice have influenced hordes of indie bands from the Eighties until now – indeed the “angular” clang and arch drawl of bands indebted to Pixies, and The Breeders, her... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 37: Cocteau Twins, Stranger Things OST, Watain, Ryuichi Sakamoto and moreTuesday, 27 February 2018
Without further ado, let’s cut straight to it. Below theartsdesk on Vinyl offers over 30 records reviewed, running the gamut from Adult Orientated Rock to steel-hard techno via the sweetest, liveliest pop. Dive in!VINYL OF THE MONTH 1Zoë Mc Pherson... Read more... |
CD: Stephen Stills and Judy Collins - Everybody KnowsMonday, 26 February 2018
“Chestnut-brown canary, ruby-throated sparrow” sang Stephen Stills in his “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, a song from CSNY’s 1969 debut album to Judy Collins, with whom he was ending a two-year affair. Collins’s big baby-blue eyes haven’t faded with time.... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Voyager Golden RecordSunday, 25 February 2018
What is music? When pondering archive releases, compilations and reissues the question doesn’t come up. Knowledge of context and history means there’s never a need to muse on this fundamental issue. A package, say, dedicated to Northern Soul says... Read more... |
CD: Niklas Paschburg - OceanicSunday, 25 February 2018
Of all the wave of neoclassical or postclassical music of the past half decade or so, some of the most popular is a new breed of rippling, repetitive solo piano piece. And, really, I mean staggeringly popular: Spotify's Peaceful Piano playlist,... Read more... |
CD: Joan Baez - Whistle Down the WindSaturday, 24 February 2018
Sixty years after her debut at Club 47, Harvard Square, Joan Baez this year bows out of formal touring and recording with an album every bit as remarkable as her 1960 debut, preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry.... Read more... |
Tony Banks: ‘You either do it by diplomacy or you do it by violence’ - interviewFriday, 23 February 2018
In a career that began in 1967 and may yet have further life in it, Genesis have sold 150 million albums (and possibly more), and in their original incarnation with Peter Gabriel as vocalist were an influential force in the development of... Read more... |
CD: Moby - Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing HurtThursday, 22 February 2018
After two albums of battle anthems for Trump-addled times, raging against the machine with his “Void Pacific Choir”, Moby’s fifteenth long-player is ostensibly a return to his millennial purple patch, when Play conquered the world and was bought by... Read more... |
CD: Femi Kuti - One People One WorldTuesday, 20 February 2018
A superstar elsewhere in the world, particularly in West Africa, Femi Kuti still lives somewhat unfairly in his dad, Fela Kuti’s shadow in the West. While this might be somewhat inevitable to those with a limited taste for afrobeat grooves, One... Read more... |
CD: Snowpoet - Thought You KnewMonday, 19 February 2018
While some albums cram in more fillers than a Christmas stocking, Thought You Knew, the second recording from the London-based group led by the 2016 Jazz FM Vocalist of the Year Lauren Kinsella and multi-instrumentalist Chris Hyson, is all about... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The ChoirSunday, 18 February 2018
During the British Invasion years, a Cleveland, Ohio band called The Choir ploughed a Brit-focussed furrow from late 1964. Initially and tellingly, they were named The Mods. Their prime mover, Dann Klawon, was a subscriber the switched-on UK monthly... Read more... |
CD: Jonny Nash and Lindsay Todd - Fauna MappingSunday, 18 February 2018
A little over two years ago, The Arts Desk reviewed Hipnotik Tradisi, Black Merlin’s extraordinary first offering for Island of the Gods’ Island Explorer series. The idea is simple. Take an artist, invite them to Bali, let them soak up (and,... Read more... |
