New music
CD: Caitlin Rose - The Stand InSaturday, 02 March 2013
She has yet to hit the second half of her twenties, but Caitlin Rose already has a voice to melt the heart of the most casual listener. While her pedigree - Nashville-born daughter of a Grammy-winning songwriter - screams country starlet, Rose’s... Read more... |
Four Tet & Fiium Shaark, HeavenFriday, 01 March 2013
Walking into the auditorium of a packed Heaven last night, we were instantly treated to the sensation of having our bodies invaded by thousands of infinitely complex machine insects. It's rare that a band can have such an instant and disquieting... Read more... |
Manchester International Festival 2013 PreviewFriday, 01 March 2013
Yesterday Kenneth Branagh was thanking Manchester – saying that he felt he had “come of age” the previous time he had performed Shakespeare in the city 25 years ago, the audience being so “generous, quick-witted and lively". He also thanked the city... Read more... |
Richard Thompson, Usher Hall, EdinburghFriday, 01 March 2013
There is a problem with every single Richard Thompson concert and it is one of omission. With a songbook to rival the best in the business, every triumphant rendition of one song comes tinged with the knowledge that some other gem has been elbowed... Read more... |
The Dark Side of the Moon: Clare Torry's Great Gig in the SkyFriday, 01 March 2013
The Dark Side of the Moon and Frankie Howerd’s Roman-era television farce Up Pompeii! aren’t as unlikely bedfellows as it first seems. The link comes from Clare Torry, whose voice opened the show each week. She also provided the unrestrained vocal... Read more... |
The Dark Side of the Moon: From a Classical PerspectiveThursday, 28 February 2013
I’m embarrassed to admit that I’d never listened to The Dark Side of the Moon until a few weeks ago. I’ve heard loads of other esoteric vintage pop, most of it terminally unfashionable and deeply obscure. Growing up in the Seventies and... Read more... |
CD: Boz Scaggs - MemphisThursday, 28 February 2013
Boz Scaggs is one of the greatest white soul men. Endowed with a distinctive silk-lined voice, he has navigated the waters of blues, country, jazz and quality disco with ineffable cool and a pretty consistent hit rate. Memphis, his first album in... Read more... |
David Bowie: The Next Day reviewedWednesday, 27 February 2013
“Stars are never sleeping, dead ones and the living” sings David Bowie on the “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)”, The Next Day’s third track. He could have been singing about himself. Having apparently hibernated for a decade after heart surgery, his... Read more... |
The Dark Side of the Moon: The Dark Side of the RainbowWednesday, 27 February 2013
Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour once commented that whoever had the idea of synchronizing the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz (with the sound turned down) to his own band’s The Dark Side of the Moon was “some guy with too much time on his hands... Read more... |
CD: Saxon - SacrificeWednesday, 27 February 2013
Back in the early Eighties, Saxon made the heavy metal equivalent of home-cooked roast beef and Yorkshire pud. Axe-grinding albums like Denim and Leather and a work-ethic straight from the Barnsley pits made Biff Byford and the lads a loveable bunch... Read more... |
The Dark Side of the Moon: Dub Side of the MoonTuesday, 26 February 2013
There's a lot about stoner culture that smacks of earnestness, and The Dark Side of the Moon has been at the heart of a good deal of that. The number of long, dreary, late-night conversations that must have taken place over “doobs” and “munchies”... Read more... |
The Dark Side of the Moon: the Amazon Surf versionTuesday, 26 February 2013
There are numerous tribute versions of The Dark Side of the Moon, by everybody from jazzers to electronica merchants, but the Amazon Surf version must be the most esoteric. Amazon Surf music is one of the more curious music phenomenona I've... Read more... |
