New music
theartsdesk in The Faroe Islands: G! FestivalSunday, 29 July 2012
Iceland’s kings of heavy metal Momentum are launching into an assault called “The Creator of Malignign Metaphors”. It’s broad daylight and they’re playing about 10 meters from the kitchen window of a suburban-looking house. The stage is sited on an... Read more... |
CD: Conor Maynard - ContrastSunday, 29 July 2012
They're calling it "Conormania". One website says that unless you don’t “like things that are awesome” you should be developing a healthy obsession with him. He is Conor Maynard and his debut album is Contrast. Over the last three years, Maynard has... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Rodriguez, Benny Spellman, Rupert's PeopleSunday, 29 July 2012
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Nocturama, Abattoir Blues, The Lyre of Orpheus, DIG!!! LAZARUS, DIG!!!Howard MaleThere’s something just not right about having to reassess a bunch of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds albums in August, just as the sun is... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Porretta Soul Music FestivalSaturday, 28 July 2012
Way up in the mountains of northern Italy sits a small spa town called Porretta Terme. For many visitors it is the resort’s healing waters that brings them here. Yet for others it is the healing music – once a year the Porretta Soul Music Festival... Read more... |
CD: The Flaming Lips: The Flaming Lips and Heady FwendsSaturday, 28 July 2012
If there was ever an album that could be reviewed on the basis of its track titles it is this one. "Helping the Retarded to Know God", "I'm Working at NASA on Acid" and "That Ain't My Trip" sound like they have been automatically generated via some... Read more... |
Swing Symphony, BarbicanThursday, 26 July 2012
The UK premiere of Wynton Marsalis's Swing Symphony (Symphony No 3) last night was extraordinary on several counts. We heard, first and foremost, a real dialogue between jazz band and orchestra. Not one of those fist-bitingly cornball jazz... Read more... |
CD: Idjut Boys - Cellar DoorThursday, 26 July 2012
The Idjut Boys are a London DJ/production duo who, like peers such as Optimo, Ashley Beedle, Tom Middleton or DJ Harvey, are not corralled by the electronic pulse that rules dance music. Like many good DJs of their generation, they veer towards the... Read more... |
CD: Oberman Knocks - Beatcroff SlabsWednesday, 25 July 2012
Sometimes a record tells you whether you're going to like it before you've even hit play. With electronica this goes double: track titles like "Scanlon's Leaping Gore Pull", "Pneuquonsis on Return" and "Fewton Tension Chords" are either going to... Read more... |
Q&A: DJ and Festival Promoter Rob Da BankTuesday, 24 July 2012
The 21st-century British summer would be a very different thing were it not for Rob Da Bank. With the Bestival brand, Rob – originally Robert Gorham – and his wife Josie have, over the past decade, redefined the weekend music festival, setting the... Read more... |
Scissor Sisters and Carlinhos Brown, Tower of LondonMonday, 23 July 2012
“It’s the oldest building in England,” Ana Matronic said breathlessly. “We’re probably going to behead someone.” The Tower of London is an unlikely venue for the fizzy pop monster that is Scissor Sisters, who dedicated one song to Anne Boleyn. In... Read more... |
CD: Joss Stone - The Soul Sessions Volume 2Monday, 23 July 2012
On her sixth album Joss Stone does what she does very well so the only question is whether it’s worth doing. When she first appeared with volume one of The Soul Sessions, tackling songs such as Aretha Franklin’s “All the King’s Horses” and Carla... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Jimmy CliffSunday, 22 July 2012
Jimmy Cliff (b 1948) is one of Jamaican music’s biggest names. Raised in the countryside, he went to Kingston in his teens and persuaded record shop owner Leslie Kong to record him. The resulting song, “Hurricane Hattie”, was the first of a string... Read more... |
