New music
CD: Paul Heaton Presents... The 8thSunday, 01 July 2012
This is presumably called "Doing a Damon" in the music business these days – when an acclaimed songwriter steps out of their comfort zone to try their hand at something more ambitious. Last year Paul Heaton presented his extended composition The 8th... Read more... |
CD: KonKoma - KonKomaSaturday, 30 June 2012
The strikingly clumsy cover (possibly designed by a 12-year-old boy with a rotring pen, a compass and a setsquare) is so amateurish that it just about tips over into being good, but it gives no indication of what the music therein might be like... Read more... |
Alternative National AnthemsSaturday, 30 June 2012
With Euro 2012 about to end and the Olympics looming, we'll be hearing an awful lot of national anthems over the next couple of months. Don't we all agree that the majority of them are inadequate - often being turgid tunes with no reference to the... Read more... |
Welsh Week: Dinefwr, Adain Avion, Llangollen, BrynFestThursday, 28 June 2012
This Friday afternoon at five o’clock, the National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke will recite a new poem and initiate a seismic week of Welsh cultural exploration. The inaugural Dinefwr Literary Festival will bring writers and musicians from Wales... Read more... |
CD: Mary Chapin Carpenter - Ashes and RosesThursday, 28 June 2012
Twenty years ago Mary Chapin Carpenter used to sing about loving and losing, but also about lusting. Even her ballads went at a bullish lick. The essence of what she had to say was distilled in “He Thinks He'll Keep Her”, which captured the emotions... Read more... |
Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Royal Albert HallWednesday, 27 June 2012
It was the right venue. Frankie Valli is New Jersey royalty. He might not have been crowned, but appearing in The Sopranos is as good as any coronation. As he leaned into the audience, shaking hands, he spread his magic. Even Jimmy Page had come... Read more... |
Sean Paul, Indigo2Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Sean Paul, the accessible face of dancehall, is back. It’s been 10 years since he rose to the big league with his 2002 breakout album Dutty Rock, and he recently released his fifth album Tomahawk Technique. His mix of dancehall rhythms, bhangra... Read more... |
theartsdesk in La Réunion: Safiko FestivalTuesday, 26 June 2012
Some people go on holiday to relax on a beach. Others to trek through a glorious landscape. Or to explore magnificent architecture/extravagant nightclubs. Myself, well, I’m a musical tourist. Which often means I’m in rather blighted states. I’ve... Read more... |
CD: Chris Brown - FortuneTuesday, 26 June 2012
Like most things about the suited, bespectacled image of Chris Brown that stares intensely at something to his right from his new album’s cool blue artwork (currently: the remains of the delicious spicy chicken pizza I had for dinner), the title... Read more... |
The Arts Desk wins Best Specialist Journalism Site of 2012Monday, 25 June 2012
The Arts Desk has been voted Specialist Journalism Site of 2012 at the Online Media Awards. In a celebratory dinner at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium recognising "the best and boldest of online news-based creativity and also the most original", The... Read more... |
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Etihad Stadium, ManchesterMonday, 25 June 2012
When Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, the E Street Band’s charismatic saxophone player, died of stroke-related complications this time last year, there were those among us who wondered if we’d ever see the band together again. His on-stage interplay with... Read more... |
CD: Go-Kart Mozart – On the Hot Dog StreetsMonday, 25 June 2012
Bloopy Seventies synths. Glitter Band drums. The fuzz guitar of Sweet’s “Blockbuster”. Eighties electro-robot-pop. New wave chug. The hot dog streets of West Bromwich. Morning TV. Bailiffs at the door, The secularisation of institutions and the... Read more... |
