New music
Marc Almond, John Harle, The Tyburn Tree, BarbicanMonday, 03 March 2014
On paper this sounded promising: a gothicky song-cycle of historical London and the dark, seamy side of the city, performed a stone’s throw from where they do Jack the Ripper tours. Lead performers were Marc Almond, whose distinctive voice we have... Read more... |
CD: Imed Alibi - SafarSunday, 02 March 2014
Fusion – so ubiquitous in the music of our time - can be contrived or blessed. Imed Alibi’s debut album, a rich tapestry of North African, Turkish, Brazilian, Balkan and rock sensibilities, works a treat because nothing feels forced: the... Read more... |
Beyoncé, O2 ArenaSaturday, 01 March 2014
Beyoncé is a fascinating tangle of mixed messages. She stirs people up and, most especially, she confuses men. On the train back from the first concert of her six-night stand at the O2 a group of blokes who heard we’d been to see her rabidly... Read more... |
CD: Drive-By Truckers - English OceansSaturday, 01 March 2014
If English Oceans is the Drive-By Truckers finest album since 2004’s The Dirty South - and I’d argue that it is - I doubt it was intentional. A little time away; more of a partnership of equals between founder members and songwriters Patterson Hood... Read more... |
Ralph Towner and Egberto Gismonti, BarbicanFriday, 28 February 2014
The Barbican brought two of the great originals of contemporary music together last night. Ralph Towner and Egberto Gismonti are temperamentally very different, but complement one another wonderfully, in an inspired piece of... Read more... |
CD: Mike Oldfield - Man on the RocksThursday, 27 February 2014
After years of similar-sounding instrumental albums many Oldfield fans may have been expecting Tubular Bells 4. But his return to the Virgin label starts with a more intriguing proposition: Oldfield has teamed up with vocalist and Freddie Mercury... Read more... |
CD: A/T/O/S - A/T/O/SWednesday, 26 February 2014
Trip-hop is much maligned as a genre, and understandably so. One of the worst names for a style this side of “folktronica”, it rapidly came to mean anything downtempo that wasn't a standard indie rock format – including plenty of the blandest music... Read more... |
10 Questions for Drive-By Truckers' Mike CooleyMonday, 24 February 2014
For almost 20 years, Drive-By Truckers have been one of Americana's most consistent and enduring voices – and, since 2001’s breakthrough double album Southern Rock Opera, probably the quintessential southern roots rockers too. Formed in Athens... Read more... |
CD: Wild Beasts - Present TenseMonday, 24 February 2014
In a fairly dry climate for original new music Wild Beasts have for the past six years been an oasis of fascination. With this, the Kendal schoolmates’ fourth album, their impeccable indie credentials, including an eclectic musical palette,... Read more... |
CD: Neneh Cherry - Blank ProjectSunday, 23 February 2014
“Good things come to those who wait” sings Neneh Cherry on “Everything”, from her new album, and the 17 years since her last solo album certainly has been a long wait. She’s right though - Blank Project has good things in abundance.RocketNumberNine... Read more... |
CD: Howie B - Down with the DawnSaturday, 22 February 2014
Howie B’s new album, Down with the Dawn, is his first solo record since 2010’s Good Morning Scalene but it sounds as if it could have been put out by him at any time since the release of his debut album, Music for Babies, in 1996. This is primarily... Read more... |
The Arts Desk Radio Show ReturnsSaturday, 22 February 2014
And so after a long hiatus, The Arts Desk Radio Show is back on a new platform, the fabulous MEATTransMISSION radio station out of Hoxton, and a new regular monthly slot, but the same blend of wildly internationalist music and musings from Peter... Read more... |
