New music
Deolinda, Jazz CaféWednesday, 09 March 2011
Sometimes it’s worth remembering that what is world music to one music lover is pop music to another. Portuguese four-piece Deolinda’s first album, Canção ao lado, spent nearly two years at the top of the charts at home, so there are an awful... Read more... |
CD: Rainbow Arabia - Boys and DiamondsTuesday, 08 March 2011
Cologne label Kompakt has been home to a plethora of very fine electronic dance music over the last decade. They also occasionally develop acts, as in proper bands rather than professorial Teutonic sorts standing behind laptops with intense,... Read more... |
CD: Noah and the Whale - Last Night on EarthMonday, 07 March 2011
Poor Charlie Fink. First losing Laura Marling to Marcus Mumford, and then, last month, suffering the indignity of having to watch Mumford & Sons win Album of the Year at the Brits. Still, on recent evidence he’s the one with the real talent,... Read more... |
CD: Kurt Elling - The GateSunday, 06 March 2011
Kurt Elling’s new one has the potential to push him out of the hermetic world of jazz insiderdom where he has been a big figure now for over a decade. It's produced with the right mixture of restraint and pizzazz by Don Was. Elling has sometimes... Read more... |
Opinion: Noise annoys – will venues ever sort out their sound?Sunday, 06 March 2011
Last month I thought I'd gone deaf. After decades of standing too close to the loudspeakers I'd finally got my comeuppance and my ears had given up the ghost. I was at Joan As Police Woman's gig at the Barbican and the music sounded like a muffled... Read more... |
CD: R.E.M. - Collapse Into NowSunday, 06 March 2011
Some say that R.E.M. haven't made a great album since original drummer Bill Berry left in 1997. Others don't care whether they have or not. But regardless of whether Collapse Into Now is "great", it's an excellent R.E.M. disc which erases the memory... Read more... |
The Streets, O2 AcademySaturday, 05 March 2011
Grown men with bulging muscles and tattoos were crying in Brixton last night. And not just the man at the front who got unexpectedly kicked when Mike Skinner decided to go crowd-surfing. It was Skinner's very last gig before he pursues film-making,... Read more... |
CD: Courtney Pine – EuropaFriday, 04 March 2011
A jazz concept album exploring the historical origins of Europe. No, not the synopsis of a new Christopher Guest film – although how I'd love to see Fred Willard in that - but an ambitious, far-reaching new recording from sax maestro Courtney Pine.... Read more... |
Robyn, The RoundhouseThursday, 03 March 2011
Halfway through last night’s show, as songs segued and smooshed into each other, it became clear that Robyn has perfected a high-concept pop that’s impossible to place geographically. She might be Swedish, but bloopy Chicago house, Euro electro and... Read more... |
CD: Jessie J - Who You AreWednesday, 02 March 2011
On paper Jessie J is an amazing pop star. Great looking but not willing to play the eager-to-please dollybird, full of cheeky Essex girl vim and verve, clearly musically multitalented, thoroughly immersed in soul and funk, and with a healthy pair of... Read more... |
Janelle Monáe, The RoundhouseTuesday, 01 March 2011
I have thus far been a bit wary of the Janelle Monáe hype. It's only natural: when an attractive young performer is taken under the wing of megastars like Outkast and P Diddy, and drenched with media acclaim that pronounces them an artist on the... Read more... |
Download: Radiohead - The King of LimbsTuesday, 01 March 2011
What's weird about the reams of commentaries that have already sprouted around The King of Limbs is the way they try to tell you what it resembles, but not what it actually is. Apparently it's like Miles Davis, Foals, Autechre, dubstep, Talk Talk... Read more... |
