New music
CD: Ride - Weather DiariesSaturday, 10 June 2017
In 1990, Ride were in the first wave of the Shoegazing scene to get out of the blocks and into the studio to record their iconic debut EP. Four albums and a sack load of EPs and singles later, however, they called it a day and the four lads from... Read more... |
CD: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - The Anarchy AriasWednesday, 07 June 2017
This Anarchy Arias consists of 13 operatic covers of British punk rock classics from the late Seventies and early Eighties, and it’s almost all skin-crawlingly horrific. Clearly, then, this review is going to be a predictable reaction, from a writer... Read more... |
Vindauga (Wind Eye) featuring Sam Lee, Kings PlaceMonday, 05 June 2017
It’s the seventh Songlines Encounters festival, with musical meetings ranging from Portugal (Thursday’s Ricardo Ribeiro) to India (Friday’s Bollywood Brass Band with South Indian violinist Jyotsna Srikanth). Its closing Saturday night saw English... Read more... |
CD: London Grammar - Truth Is A Beautiful ThingMonday, 05 June 2017
It’s now four years since the release of London Grammar’s debut album If You Wait, with its sublime and sophisticated chill-out tunes, and so their sophomore effort has been a source of some anticipation for a while. Unfortunately, the wait has born... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The DoorsSunday, 04 June 2017
Fat cigar at hand, Jim Morrison is pondering the future of music. “Maybe it might rely heavily on electronics, tapes,” he says. “I can envision maybe one person with a lot of machines, tapes and electronic set ups, singing or speaking and using... Read more... |
CD: Chuck Berry - ChuckSunday, 04 June 2017
There has been a rush of valedictory ‘last albums’, apparently made in the knowledge that the artist in question’s life was coming to an end: Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, and now Chuck Berry, who left us on 18 March of this year.While the first two... Read more... |
CD: Alt-J - RelaxerSaturday, 03 June 2017
Some say Alt-J represent a paradox, blending, as they do, consummate artsiness with some absurdly catchy tunes. It's precisely this combination of ambition and accessibility that's helped them become one of Britain's most universally acclaimed bands... Read more... |
CD: Roger Waters – Is This the Life We Really Want?Thursday, 01 June 2017
Roger Waters described The Final Cut, the last Pink Floyd album he appeared on, as “a requiem for the post-war dream”. Funnily enough, he could say much the same for Is This the Life We Really Want?, his fourth solo album. (The answer the title... Read more... |
CD: Saint Etienne - Home CountiesWednesday, 31 May 2017
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life,” said Samuel Johnson. It’s utter balls, of course. When someone’s tired of London, they’re probably just knackered and wouldn’t mind living somewhere with more trees, fewer people and in a house... Read more... |
CD: Tubular Brass - Tubular BellsMonday, 29 May 2017
The best music is always ripe for reinvention, though for every disc of Kraftwerk songs performed in mambo style there's a collection of Beatles hits massacred on pan pipes. Happily, Sandy Smith’s superb brass band version of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Hoyt AxtonSunday, 28 May 2017
Hoyt Axton’s songs were heard most widely when recorded by others. Steppenwolf recorded his “The Pusher” in 1967. It featured on their early 1968 debut album but was most pervasive in summer 1969 after it was included on the soundtrack of Easy Rider... Read more... |
CD: Binker and Moses - Journey to the Mountain of ForeverSunday, 28 May 2017
Two of the most impressive young musicians on London’s jazz scene, tenor saxist Binker Golding and drummer Moses Boyd hoovered up every award in sight following the release of their debut album Dem Ones, including a brace of gongs at the Jazz FM... Read more... |
