New music
Yasmine Hamdan, Scala review - sultry, epic and doom-ladenFriday, 19 May 2017
Yasmine Hamdan has gone from being an indie star in Beirut a decade ago with her adventurous band Soapkills to being a bona fide solo star with a couple of sophisticated albums behind her, the latest Al Jamilat recently released.She sings... Read more... |
CD: Miles Mosley - UprisingThursday, 18 May 2017
From a residency at a low-key Hollywood piano bar, jazz fusion collective The West Coast Get Down has seemingly launched a global takeover of jazz. First, saxophonist Kamasi Washington went stellar; currently four other members of the group are... Read more... |
CD: Lisa Knapp - Till April Is Dead: A Garland of MayWednesday, 17 May 2017
I’ve long cherished south London folk singer Lisa Knapp’s Hunt the Hare - A Branch of May EP, released in a limited edition in 2012, so to have Till April Is Dead: A Garland of May come in the full bloom of May is a charm indeed. It is her third... Read more... |
CD: Oumou Sangaré - MogoyaMonday, 15 May 2017
Contemporary music from Mali hovers delicately (and creatively) between purist tradition and more or less successful attempts at making things more attractive to a younger and worldwide audience. Oumou Sangaré’s first five albums for the British... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The CreationSunday, 14 May 2017
“Electronic music, feedback, imaginative identification with colours and art and unique sounds is our art-from. We feel we are contributing to the new ‘total sound culture.’ This culture will take its place in the world just as the Renaissance... Read more... |
CD: Jane Weaver - Modern KosmologySunday, 14 May 2017
As if listening in on the heart of a robot, it begins with a throb over which a disembodied voice sings as a classic motorik rhythm kicks in. The song, “H>A>K”, perpetually builds and then abruptly ceases. It ends with “I Wish”, where a folky... Read more... |
High Focus Records showcase, Brighton Festival review - smart hip hop, dodgy soundSaturday, 13 May 2017
The two main commands coming from the stage at this evening's Brighton Festival event are “Everybody jump, jump” and “Put your hands in the air and go side-to-side”. The crowd are mostly under 30 and emanate dancing energy from the moment the doors... Read more... |
CD: Harry Styles - Harry StylesSaturday, 13 May 2017
“Harry's new album is F*CKING INSANE!” tweeted Father John Misty recently, setting the expectation bar very high for a collection that, sources close to the former One Direction member had indicated, would be “deeply personal” (or, at least, as... Read more... |
CD: Pumarosa - The WitchThursday, 11 May 2017
That Pumarosa’s single “Cecile”, a Breeders-channelling monster, is not on their debut album says everything about their confidence. The 10 songs on The Witch have the heft of rock music, but also a more-ish femininity, both in the vocal department... Read more... |
Bob Dylan, Wembley Arena review - mannered vocals, poor sound, upsettingWednesday, 10 May 2017
I’ll never forget the first time: Saturday 17 June, 1978, Earls Court. The concert lives on in my mind’s ear still – those not fortunate enough to be there should listen to Live at Budokan (on which, that autumn, in Liverpool’s Probe Records, I... Read more... |
Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, V&A review – from innocence to experience and beyondWednesday, 10 May 2017
The title of this exhibition is typical of Pink Floyd’s mordant view of the world, not to mention their sepulchral sense of humour. Needless to say, the band that took stage and studio perfectionism to unprecedented lengths have pushed the boat out... Read more... |
CD: Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind - Super NaturalWednesday, 10 May 2017
To call Jim Jones a punk-blues dynamo is something of an understatement. Having already fronted three epic bands since the mid-Eighties in Thee Hypnotics, Black Moses and the Jim Jones Revue, he’s now ready to unleash the debut album by his latest... Read more... |
