New music
CD: Placebo - Loud Like LoveSaturday, 14 September 2013
Back when Placebo were the androgynous face of late period Brit-pop, back when singer Brian Molko’s every sneered utterance was snapped up by a lapdog music media desperate to fuel their retro-guitar addiction, they were supremely annoying. They... Read more... |
Cutty Cargo presents Jessie Ware, Ely's YardFriday, 13 September 2013
It was a bittersweet kind of evening. Walking down Brick Lane, it was striking how Caucasian, tanned and healthy most people we passed were, and we couldn't help wondering if the Bangladeshi locals were starting to get priced out of their own... Read more... |
CD: Mark Lanegan - ImitationsThursday, 12 September 2013
Mark Lanegan is a forbidding figure, which makes him appealing. In interviews he’s often taciturn and not very likeable, as if he cannot be bothered with the presentation of his art to the media. Good on him. There are now a billion bum-suckers out... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Katowice: On tour at Tauron Nowa Muzyka FestivalWednesday, 11 September 2013
Day 1During the Soviet era, Katowice was the industrial hub of Upper Silesia, a poisoned region of multiple coalmines and rivers running yellow with chemicals. It now prides itself on 20 years of ecological clean-up and being one of the less... Read more... |
CD: MGMT - MGMTWednesday, 11 September 2013
MGMT’s last album, 2010’s Congratulations, defined a modern psychedelia of the highest order. Bold of sweep, full of ambition and tinged with the airs of defeat and desperation, it set Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Van Wyngarden up as ones to watch: a... Read more... |
CD: Elvis Costello & The Roots – Wise Up GhostTuesday, 10 September 2013
Alex Turner says he wants to sound like 50 Cent. Adele has recently been recording with Wiz Khalifa. There really are very few musical barriers to be demolished these days. But 59-year-old Elvis Costello goes hip hop? Now that's a turn up for the... Read more... |
CD: Ed Askew - For the WorldMonday, 09 September 2013
Ed Askew’s singing voice is made for melancholy. When not carrying a melody, his reedy vibrato becomes conversational, telling of a turtle laying her eggs, a baby crying in a cradle, a boy arguing with his girlfriend. The graceful, harpsichord-like... Read more... |
Eels, Shepherd's Bush EmpireSunday, 08 September 2013
The last time Mr E toured these shores he looked as if he might be heralding the end of the world. Dressed all in white with a Moses beard and gangsta bandana, his songs were about inner struggle and personal redemption. Between songs he remained... Read more... |
CD: Goldfrapp - Tales of UsSunday, 08 September 2013
The glam pop duo’s new album heralds a striking change of direction away from their trademark stadium disco towards a more intimate, cinematic sound. A seductive collection of character studies inspired by film noir, books and song lyrics, this 10-... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Roky EricksonSunday, 08 September 2013
Roky Erickson & the Aliens: The Evil One Roky Erickson: Don’t Slander Me, Gremlins Have PicturesRoky Erickson is usually depicted as America’s Syd Barrett: the leader of a pioneering psychedelic-era band who took too many drugs, had mental... Read more... |
Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Queen Elizabeth HallSaturday, 07 September 2013
It’s hard to imagine much upstaging Martyn Jacques, the indomitable falsetto frontman of the Tiger Lillies. The gaping mouth of an enormous mythical fish that seems to have swum straight from the canvases of Hieronymus Bosch, projected right across... Read more... |
CD: Arctic Monkeys - AMSaturday, 07 September 2013
There’s something about the Arctic Monkeys that calls to mind the Rolling Stones. Not now, obviously - it might feel like it’s been forever since four messy hairdos and northern accents burst out of Sheffield, though in truth it’s only been about a... Read more... |
