New music
CD: Coldplay – A Head Full of DreamsFriday, 04 December 2015
It must be tough being Coldplay (bank balances aside). To hit a formula so successful that you essentially make all of pop music sound like you is quite a weight to carry. It wasn't just the obvious Keane/Starsailor/Snow Patrol copycat bands of the... Read more... |
Duran Duran, Brighton Centre, 2015Thursday, 03 December 2015
The arrival of Duran Duran is announced by a barrage of strobes, dry ice creeping about the stage, and the thunder-rumble of an approaching storm through the speakers. There is another noise too. It is the sound of female voices letting rip. They’re... Read more... |
CD: Fleur East – Love, Sax and FlashbacksThursday, 03 December 2015
Recently, after listening to the over-polished tryhard that is Justin Bieber’s Purpose, I concluded that it was no Off the Wall. That still stands, but Love Sax and Flashbacks, the debut from Fleur East has a bloody good (horn) stab at providing us... Read more... |
Madonna - Rebel Heart Tour, The O2Wednesday, 02 December 2015
Last night Rebel Heart began to make sense. For over two hours, performing from the album, her back catalogue, and a couple of well-chosen covers, Madonna sustained both a diversity and intensity in her approach to singing about love and sex that... Read more... |
CD: Sunn O))) - KannonMonday, 30 November 2015
Kannon, Sunn O)))’s (pronounced “sun”) first non-collaborative album since 2009’s epic Monoliths and Dimensions, is a doomy triptych that will make long-term fans of the American band very happy indeed. Taking inspiration from the Buddhist Guanyin... Read more... |
CD: NOTS - We Are NOTSMonday, 30 November 2015
You want punk? You got it. The debut album from NOTS explodes into the room and all 11 songs fly by in a rampaging 27 minutes. The all-female quartet from Memphis have been signalling, via singles on their local scuzz-rock label Goner (home to Jay... Read more... |
Sculpture/Alex Smoke & Florence To, Dome Studio Theatre, BrightonSunday, 29 November 2015
It might sound hackneyed but Sculpture can only be described as truly psychedelic. They achieve this via a thoroughly original stage set-up. Dan Hayhurst, in a black tee-shirt and military cap, manipulates sounds on a laptop, with a rack of magnetic... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: John Barry, Mikael TariverdievSunday, 29 November 2015
In 1986, the Russian state honoured Mikael Tariverdiev with the People's Artist of Russia award, a mark of respect given to only the most significant figures in the arts. The Tbilisi-born composer was the head of the Composer’s Guild of the Soviet... Read more... |
CD: Jools & Ruby – Jools Holland and Ruby TurnerSunday, 29 November 2015
Jamaican-born R&B singer Ruby Turner has been part of Jools Holland’s touring band for more than a decade now, her rich and athletic tone a great match for the band’s hectic, muscular rhythms. This is a bumper disc with 22 songs, although... Read more... |
CD: Pope Francis - Wake Up!Saturday, 28 November 2015
“May you live in interesting times,” goes the old curse – and for better or worse there's no question that we do. Among the many, many couldn't-make-it-up elements in play in the global landscape in 2015, we appear to have something of a hippie Pope... Read more... |
CD: The Vamps - Wake UpThursday, 26 November 2015
If you’re between 12 and 15, The Vamps are big news. Ten million singles sales and 225 million YouTube views. That sort of big. They are, allegedly, not a boy band as they weren’t put together by one of Cowell’s televisual juggernauts. They also “... Read more... |
James Morrison, O2 Shepherd's BushWednesday, 25 November 2015
James Morrison has spent several years out of the limelight, with family difficulties to attend to. Would age and experience give the gravelly soul-pop star’s soft-focus romantic ballads sharper edges on his return? The underwhelmed reviews of his... Read more... |
