New music
Robert Glasper: 'When hip hop took over the world'Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Pianist and producer Robert Glasper is one of the most versatile and innovative musicians on the scene, working within jazz, R&B, hip hop and related genres. He has won two Grammys, one each for his two Black Radio albums, 2012 and 2015,... Read more... |
Freedom: The Art of Improvisation Festival, The Vortex, DalstonTuesday, 30 June 2015
Freedom Festival, a new event curated by vibes player and electronicist Orphy Robinson and vocalist Cleveland Watkiss, is all about bringing improvised music out of the shadows and into the limelight. All the same, it felt strange going to the... Read more... |
CD: Trembling Bells – The Sovereign SelfMonday, 29 June 2015
Trembling Bells appear to be resolutely stuck in 1969 – a time when hippiedom’s tastes turned from groovy Paisley Pattern to dreary brown corduroy. However, it would seem to be a 1969 with no Vietnam war, no civil rights struggle in the USA and no... Read more... |
Taylor Swift, Hyde ParkSunday, 28 June 2015
While most contemporary entertainers rely on a little of the old smoke and mirrors, no pop culture phenomenon requires the same suspension of disbelief as the 21st-century pop concert. When you pay your money, it is with the understanding that,... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dust on the NettlesSunday, 28 June 2015
Various Artists: Dust on the Nettles – A Journey Through the British Underground Folk Scene 1967–72It’s one of the most significant musical rediscoveries of recent years and, on its own, makes Dust on the Nettles indispensible. “The Seagulls... Read more... |
Sacred Imaginations, Kings PlaceSunday, 28 June 2015
This was one of the most crazily ambitious music projects of the year so far. Co-curators Sam Mills and Susheela Raman, with generous sponsorship, assembled their favourite musicians in different styles from Greece, Lebanon, Ethiopia and Russia... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Orkney: St Magnus FestivalSunday, 28 June 2015
Ebb of Winter felt about right. It’s one of Peter Maxwell Davies’s most recent works, a yearning for the brightness and warmth of spring at the end of an Orcadian winter, written in 2013 for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s 40th anniversary. And it... Read more... |
CD: Satoshi Tomiie - New DaySunday, 28 June 2015
Here's a funny one: used as an adjective, “lifestyle” has lately become a popular pejorative term for music (see, most recently, the kerfuffle over Jamie xx's debut solo album). It's taken the place of “coffee table”, which was the Nineties phrase... Read more... |
CD: Robert Glasper – CoveredSaturday, 27 June 2015
Robert Glasper has recently been making a name, and winning Grammys with his electronic fusion outfit, the Robert Glasper Experiment. After years of Casey Benjamin’s croaking vocoder on the Black Radio albums, the pealing acoustic notes of Glasper’s... Read more... |
CD: Rickie Lee Jones - The Other Side of DesireThursday, 25 June 2015
Since her gorgeous self-titled debut album in 1979, Rickie Lee Jones has been all round the houses. Her music has plotted a sinuous path through jazz, blues, pop, soul and straight up-and-down rock. Her fortunes have soared and dipped, and the... Read more... |
CD: Richard Thompson - StillWednesday, 24 June 2015
The songs of Richard Thompson have always been tinged with a hint of bitterness and anger, passions that are tempered by guitar paying of near-miraculous fluency. His new album, produced with brilliance and tact by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, is no... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl: Volume 6 - Miles Davis, Giant Sand and moreMonday, 22 June 2015
It's becoming clear that the appeal of vinyl is two-fold. On the one hand there are older buyers who are returning to it as a validation of their own life journey though music and, on the other, there are young enthusiasts whose honeymoon with... Read more... |
