New music
Thomas H. Green
Fetty Wap is the biggest new name in hip hop. His song “Trap Queen” has been on the UK charts for nearly six months and sold two-and-a-half million downloads in the US alone. The singles released since have established him as an artist capable of commercially holding his own with the very biggest, as stars such as Kanye West and Jay-Z have keenly acknowledged. Born William Maxwell II 24 years ago, he hails from Paterson, New Jersey, an area he refers to in songs as “the Zoo” (he has the nickname “Zoovier” tattooed on his face). He lost an eye to glaucoma as a child, giving him an appearance Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence, who are Disclosure, have always made clear they’ve no especial passion for club music. They are, they say, first and foremost musicians and their affinity with dance culture stops there. Despite this they’ve become the biggest act to appear from the deep house boom, and the best of their 2013 debut album Settle harked back to the slick, soulful energy of original Chicago house. They were a breath of fresh air as EDM blossomed crassly around them. Now, however, they reveal their true colours. Caracal is one wet lettuce.Apart from a single track – the likeable Read more ...
theartsdesk
It's Monday morning, some way between the start of school term and the recall of students to college or university. This moment when the routine of study is reimposed creates some of our strongest memories. As the original voice of teenage rebellion, it’s perhaps not surprising that rock ‘n roll voices the pain of education more than the joy.More interesting, though, is the sheer variety of attitudes expressed, and the engrossing drama of each song. From the gentle, sentimental isolation of Sam Cooke to the grossness of The Stranglers, via much outrage, to some candly floss from Britney and a Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Kevin Martin is a busy man. Last year, there was The Bug’s floor-shaking Angels and Devils album and “Boa”/”Cold” collaboration with Dylan Carlson of drone titans Earth. In 2015, after a spectacular headline performance at the Supersonic Festival, he’s back with the King Midas Sound collective and more collaboration: with Austrian ambient wizard Fennesz.King Midas Sound’s 2009 debut album, Waiting For You was a laidback digi-dub masterpiece that often suggested the spirit of Tricky’s finest moments, with it’s mash-up of electronic reggae sounds and creeping industrial textures, underlying the Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Pere Ubu: Elitism for the People 1975–1978Pere Ubu’s early records still sound great. The ethos of the Cleveland, Ohio band had nothing to do with prevailing trends when they formed in 1975, and had nothing to with the punk, new wave or what was later termed post-punk which opened many doors for and ears to them shortly afterwards. The timelessness stems from being singular, an aspect of which resulted in them issuing four singles on their own label between December 1975 and August 1978. Yet Pere Ubu were not isolated: their precursor band Rocket From the Tombs was co-billed with Read more ...
Tim Cumming
Not many concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall culminate in a string of beautiful African women sashaying down the aisles to the stage to press fivers and tenners upon the still-crooning singer. After taking their hands in turn, as if in benediction, Kassy Made Diabate turned and dropped the fistful of notes at the feet of his ngoni player. Then, after the encore, the final bows, the raising of the house lights, the ngoni player got up with his instrument and left the money there behind him. Enough for a very good night out. Perhaps the roadies were going to get lucky.Kasse Mady Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
Complaining about pop music sounding manufactured is something that, in these postmodern monoculture days, “serious” music fans are all supposed to be past by now. Certainly, since its US release last month, those who are paid to know better have been practically frothing at the mouth over the long-awaited third album by a third-placed 2007 Canadian Pop Idol contestant whose irresistible “Call Me Maybe” was the soundtrack to your summer a few years back. But while E•MO•TION crackles and fizzes in places with moments of pure pop joy, there are big chunks of this record that sound as though Read more ...
Peter Culshaw
Listen to the latest edition of Peter Culshaw’s peripatetic round-up of some recent hot global music releases, including some re-releases of old classics and yet-to-be unleashed tracks including a fair chunk from South America. For your listening pleasure, there are some delicious Afro-Colombian grooves, psychedelic cumbia, new Peruvian sounds and up-and-coming Brazilian artists plus the odd side trip with some Arabic Rock, Welsh-Indian fusion and South Asian violin virtuosity.. Listen to the show here Tracklisting:Temple Of Light “The Rose and the Fire are One”Amara Touré Read more ...
Tim Cumming
Africa Utopia at the Southbank Centre is back for its third year with a raft of concerts and events, and for Friday night Senegal's Orchestra Baobab returned to the UK for the first time in three years, one of the great names of the post-independence African renaissance. They were joined by a young French-Cameroonian artist, Blick Bassy (pictured below), who was coming to London for the first time with his debut album Ako.He was here with his trio of cellist Clement Petit and trombonist Fidel Fourneyron, both superb, malleable players, and Bassy on banjo, singing songs inspired by Skip James Read more ...
Barney Harsent
Growing up is a pain in the arse. Actually that’s not true, my arse has remained relatively unaffected by advancing years. In the last few months, however, I’ve managed to put my back out getting up off the sofa and inexplicably hurt my knee while trying to stand after retying a shoelace. I’ve also developed an acute fear of cholesterol, without really understanding what it is.On the basis of the two tracks I’d already heard on Rattle That Lock, I’d assumed that David Gilmour had managed to avoid such bodily rebellion and was dancing his way through the days. Both the title track and single “ Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The oft-used phrase “Hackney drum & bass band Rudimental” is misleading. It sets the listener off on the wrong foot. Anyone up for a “Hackney drum and bass band” would likely want something with serious bite - big, bad and boomin’. I know I would. This is not what Rudimental are, as anyone who’s heard their chart-topping hits and debut album will attest. Their second album journeys even further away from such a description.In Autumn 2011 a shrewd trio of young Hackney DJ-musicians approached the successful producer Amir Amor, a man who already owned a Hoxton production house and had Read more ...
Tim Cumming
I was prepared to be fondly underwhelmed by Keith Richards' first album in 23 years: 15 loose-limbed tracks laid down with drummer Steve Jordan from 2011 on, with studio guests and old Xpensive Wino friends casually sitting in on keys, brass, strings, vocals. There's Bobby Keys with his last recorded blows of brass on “Blues in the Morning” and “Amnesia”; Norah Jones breathing sweetly over “Illusion”; Larry Campbell on fiddle and pedal steel on "Just a Gift" and "Robbed Blind".But mainly it's Keith, handling all the guitars and a fair amount of piano, carrying lovelorn ballads and songs of Read more ...