There has never been any doubt of Jamie xx’s skill as a producer. Since he first appeared with the spectral, soundscaped atmospherics of The xx, he has remixed artists such as Adele and Eliza Doolittle but his work on Radiohead and Four Tet, as well as his Gil Scott-Heron remix album, seemed to show more clearly where his heart was at. While this music had polish and beauty, even an occasionally ethereal flavour, there was something shy and cerebral about it. It was only his contained, tension-building club and festival DJs sets that let audiences know this was a man who loved the dance Read more ...

Perhaps it was after Bestival 2008 that its organizer, Rob da Bank, made his pact with the ancient gods. That year the Robin Hill Country Park site was reduced to a cold, sleet-raked, tornado-blown mire. The event truly lived up to every overuse of the word “mud” the British media hurls about eagerly each festival season. It was then, presumably, that da Bank, together with his acolytes in necromancy, turned to the pagan arts to facilitate positive weather conditions for future events. It was a piece of epic sorcery that’s mostly held fast since.The Bestival organizers forfeited their souls Read more ...

When producers Diplo and Switch released their collaboration Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers do under the guise of Major Lazer in 2009, it gave the electronic dance scene a much needed kick up the backside. Dance grooves, ragga beats and lively MCs collided to create a frantic Dancehall fusion that attracted plenty of attention. Six years later and with Switch long gone, Peace is the Mission comes as a huge disappointment characterised by middle of the road EDM sounds and even a track featuring the awful Ellie Goulding.Opening tune “Be Together” is a pleasant enough introduction. Featuring Read more ...

The mysterious figure of Man Power has been making waves for a while now. A series of mixes and remixes and frankly jaw-dropping EPs have seen his star rise, though his actual profile has remained obscured – largely by his hand in a series of promo shots. His true identity remains a secret. So, who is Man Power and why should you care?The first of those questions will remain unanswered. The second is, in any case the more important. You should care because this is clever music aimed at the head, heart and feet, made by an artist capable of wringing emotion out of machines in a way that, if I’ Read more ...

Carleen Anderson’s range of vocal scales and styles is matchless in contemporary pop. Where she aims those enviable resources is the only issue anyone could have with her, a matter of taste she’ll eventually make irrelevant tonight with a flood of gospel-jazz exhilaration.Anderson’s impeccable lineage – Bobby Byrd’s step-daughter, James Brown’s god-daughter – and period of Acid Jazz stardom after moving from Texas to Britain in the Nineties is less relevant than her ongoing studies in the vocal arts. It means that, at 58, she’s ready to tackle this Brighton Festival show’s subject, Sarah Read more ...

At gigs by Irish blues-rockers The Strypes or Dutch swing fanatic Cara Emerald, what’s shocking is how old and staid their audience often is. Mums and dads – even grannies and granddads – turn out to hear younger voices express dynamic rehashes of their own generation’s music.Pokey LaFarge is, arguably, even more retro yet he draws a wider audience, establishing a youthful fanbase for his folk-Americana revivalism. Supported along the way by that doyen of rockin’ roots music, Jack White, LaFarge has been around for a decade but his seventh album is a real showcase of his Midwestern roots. Read more ...

 The Damned: Go! 45At the end of 1979, Britain’s first three 1976-born punk bands were in very different situations. The Sex Pistols had imploded in early 1978 and John Lydon, their front man, was back with Public Image Ltd’s challenging dub- and Krautrock-influenced multi-disc collection Metal Box. The Clash had released the epic, cross-genre double album London Calling. The Damned’s crisp Machine Gun Etiquette was in the shops on the back of that year’s hit singles “Love Song” and “Smash it up”, both of which featured on the album. No one, not even the band itself, could have predicted Read more ...

For many, Mark Knopfler will forever evoke a golden age of Eighties' soft rock. His headband might have been easy to mock but his blistering, finger-picking was undeniably thrilling. Latterly, though, Knopfler has travelled a less commercial path. Still, while his folk tendencies may not be everybody’s cup of tea, there's certainly more to Knopfler than just melancholy ballads. For much of last night he treated the O2 to tantalising glimpses of his former, more rocking, self.Knopfler came on looking lean and casual in a floral shirt and jeans. His hair was close cut (he still looks Read more ...

Pokey LaFarge (b. 1983) is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and American history enthusiast. Based in St Louis, Missouri, but frequently on the road, he self-released his first album Marmalade in 2006, a well-received foray into American roots music, and consolidated his reputation playing mandolin for rowdy folk-revivalists the Hackensaw Boys. Recording for Jack White’s Third Man Records along the way, he has also developed a hardcore following, at home and abroad, for live shows that offer a heady mix of charisma, trumpets and ragtime blues, his grass-roots music a backdrop for Read more ...

Been a while since you checked out the best and latest world music releases? theartsdesk’s global music expert Peter Culshaw's selects the best music released in the last month or so.His peripatetic wanderings take in hot New Orleans brass, Indian psychedelia, Ethiopian fuzz-tone guitar, Brazilian reggae, English folk, underground Congolese music, a bunch of Italian eccentrics, Senegalese funk and numerous stops in between, including a side project from everyone’s favourite south London rockers Fat White Family. Albums of the moment include those by Blick Bassy, Sacre Delone Cuore, Flavia Read more ...

Having come of age with their second LP, The Vaccines had developed a sound that, though borrowed, they wore with confidence. This, their third album, sees them wilfully discard it, which is, if nothing else, quite the surprise.If you’re a fan, "Handsome", "20/20" and "Radio Bikini" are the tracks that will be going on the playlist, as they’re the only ones that sound remotely like the Vaccines of old. Even then, there’s something distinctly (and newly) infantile about them. “Handsome” is McBusted playing the hits of The Jesus and Mary Chain, with the Reid brothers’ shiftless ennui replaced Read more ...

Benjamin Clementine’s idea of repartee with the audience is producing a clementine orange and smiling shyly. Clad in his trademark greatcoat-over-naked chest, with bare feet and outrageous pompadour hair, he sits at a spotlit grand piano and manoeuvres the fruit gently about before setting it down. It’s hardly even a gag but, given his between-song demeanour the rest of the time, this is the Clementine equivalent of prat-falling on a banana skin while making farting noises. His audience, however, are onside and audibly respond with affectionate laughter. He has created a consensus bubble of Read more ...