New music
theartsdesk at Glastonbury Festival 2017Thursday, 29 June 2017
It’s a Tweet-age Glastonbury aftermath. It’s monsooning grey outside. The real world’s back, consensus reality fast encroaching. Everything’s moved on, spun to the next thing as we A.D.D. onto Wimbledon, Hard Brexit or whatever. Even my 14-year-old... Read more... |
CD: Public Service Broadcasting - Every ValleyThursday, 29 June 2017
Every Valley is Public Service Broadcasting’s second studio album since 2013’s Inform - Educate - Entertain, and like its predecessors, it’s a nostalgic trip to the not-too-recent past with an electronica-heavy backing and a bag full of samples... Read more... |
CD: Broken Social Scene - Hug of ThunderWednesday, 28 June 2017
Hug of Thunder makes its case with “Victim Lover”, its ninth track. For the first time on Broken Social Scene’s follow-up to 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record, the album takes a breath to focus on the song rather than its architecture. “Victim Lover”... Read more... |
CD: Lory D - Strange DaysMonday, 26 June 2017
Imagine that The Ramones were not only still playing into the mid 2000s, but were still writing new songs as good as “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” and still sending young audiences completely delirious to boot. That might seem fanciful, but it's a... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Shelleyan OrphanSunday, 25 June 2017
Considering Shelleyan Orphan, Melody Maker said “someone’s been smearing themselves in art…were they artists or did they just wallow in shit?” While the late Eighties’ British music press often made assertions to seek attention, slagging off a band... Read more... |
CD: Moon Diagrams - Lifetime of LoveSunday, 25 June 2017
Those coming to Lifetime of Love expecting something – anything – approaching Moses Archuleta’s day job in Deerhunter will find those expectations confounded. With his Moon Diagrams solo project, Archuleta has presented us with a sonic sketchbook of... Read more... |
CD: Denys Baptiste - The Late TraneSaturday, 24 June 2017
Denys Baptiste's deep dive into the mid-1960s work of jazz icon, sax player and composer John Coltrane also serves to mark 50 years since Coltrane's shockingly early death at the age of 40. The saxist's core quartet features two... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 29: The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Sikth, ESG, Alice Coltrane and moreThursday, 22 June 2017
Reviewed this month with the windows open, in weather hot enough to warp records, this month theartsdesk on Vinyl casts two ears over 34 releases, starting with a striking foray into elegant songwriting and ending with Now That’s What I Call Classic... Read more... |
CD: Beth Ditto - Fake SugarThursday, 22 June 2017
Gossip – the trio fronted by Beth Ditto from 1999 until last year – always felt a bit overshadowed by their 2006 breakthrough hit “Standing in the Way of Control”. It's understandable: it still stands up now as a bona fide banger, in original form... Read more... |
CD: Django Bates - Saluting Sgt. PepperWednesday, 21 June 2017
Sgt. Pepper is a popular choice for a tribute but also a dangerous one. How to say anything meaningful about a work widely agreed to be the most influential in rock history? How to approach a work that is already a multi-layered pastiche, in places... Read more... |
Supersonic Festival 2017, BirminghamTuesday, 20 June 2017
The Supersonic Festival is Birmingham’s annual gathering of the sonically weird and wonderful pitched at “curious audiences” happy to lend their ears to sounds that would ordinarily be difficult to discover without a lot of effort. An urban event,... Read more... |
CD: Steve Earle & The Dukes - So You Wanna Be An OutlawMonday, 19 June 2017
“So you wanna be an outlaw, better take it from me/ Living on the highway, ain't everything it's supposed to be” sings Steve Earle on the opening track of his latest album, with a little help from Willie Nelson. Recorded in Texas, where Earle did... Read more... |
