New music
10 Questions for Musician Maria SchneiderMonday, 09 November 2015
Maria Schneider is one of the luminaries of contemporary jazz. The composer, arranger and bandleader, together with her 18-piece orchestra, first came to prominence in 1994 with the release of their debut recording, Evanescence. Blazing... Read more... |
CD: CeeLo Green - Heart BlancheMonday, 09 November 2015
CeeLo Green is a real character, a personality in an age when pop is dominated by a homogenous mush of “sexy”, gym-bodied, media-trained nothingness. Hits such as "Crazy", with Gnarls Barkley, and his own “Fuck You” propelled him from a quirky... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: SladeSunday, 08 November 2015
It’s one of the greatest rock songs of the Seventies. The production is dense and the churning guitars are thick with tension. Beginning with a minor-key riff suggesting a familiarity with The Stooges’ “No Fun”, the whole band lock into a... Read more... |
CD: The Necks - VertigoSunday, 08 November 2015
It seems perverse and self-defeating to record Australian piano trio The Necks. Acquiring over 25 years a reputation as the ultimate long-form improvisers, their single-take performances unfold with intricate, mesmerising drama, each one differing... Read more... |
The 11 Best Gigs on Film (after Stop Making Sense)Saturday, 07 November 2015
In the arts there is never a best of anything. There is good, great and glorious. But best? There is, however, Stop Making Sense. Talking Heads invited the director Jonathan Demme to film them in performance over three nights in December 1983 at... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 11Saturday, 07 November 2015
Peter Culshaw’s latest global round-up of new music and reissues features the usual spendidly earbending eclectic selection. There’s 1960s Indian lounge, 1970s Senegalese music unearthed by the ever-adventurous Analog Africa label, Arabic Jazz and a... Read more... |
CD: Jeff Lynne's ELO - Alone in the UniverseSaturday, 07 November 2015
There's something reassuringly resistant to modernity about Jeff Lynne. In much the same way that his cast iron Brummie accent and demeanour have remained unchanged despite decades in Los Angeles, so his music remains in a late 20th century... Read more... |
Songhoy Blues, KOKOThursday, 05 November 2015
When it comes world music there are few countries bigger than Mali in terms of impact and popularity. (Cuba probably ranks a close second.) It’s from Mali that Songhoy Blues hail, one of the few major new successes in world music to emerge in the... Read more... |
'We want you guys to do the video in the nude'Thursday, 05 November 2015
We had an awesome producer, Jerry Finn, who was just a few years older than us. Jerry was usually wearing a Replacements T-shirt and Vans sneakers. He had worked with Green Day, Jawbreaker, and a bunch of bands on Epitaph Records, including... Read more... |
CD: Free School - Dancing on the DarkThursday, 05 November 2015
For those missing the glory days of pop-dance crossover acts such as Faithless and Basement Jaxx, Free School just might be the answer. Their second album bubbles over with euphoria and catchy tunes, shaded with a multiplicity of well-chosen... Read more... |
Funke and the Two Tone Baby, The Blues KitchenWednesday, 04 November 2015
The idea of being a one-man band usually has a double edge to it, the pluckiness of independence undercut by intimations of ramshackle loneliness. Dan Turnbull, performing as Kent nu-blues musician Funke and the Two Tone Baby, touring his second... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Paris: Peregrinations on the PigalleWednesday, 04 November 2015
Sometimes appearances can be deceptive. The frontman on stage looks as generic it gets. His scruffy beard, retro specs, baseball hat, shapeless jeans and the bulging outline of a mobile phone stuffed in his trouser pocket don’t add up to suggest... Read more... |
