dance music
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia TraoréWednesday, 13 February 2019![]() The striking cover for the Brighton Festival 2019 programme shouts out loud who this year’s Guest Director is. Silhouetted in flowers, in stunning artwork by Simon Prades, is the unmistakeable profile of Malian musician Rokia Traoré. Taking place... Read more... |
CD: LCD Soundsystem – Electric Lady SessionsSaturday, 09 February 2019![]() Jimmy Hendix’s Greenwich Village studios are the venue for LCD Soundsystem’s third live album, which features the most recent touring line-up playing a set heavy with songs from 2017’s American Dream album along with a smattering of covers. ... Read more... |
CD: Leyla McCalla - The Capitalist BluesThursday, 07 February 2019![]() Who doesn’t like the rolling swagger of a bunch of seasoned Louisiana musicians? And that’s what New Yorker McCalla has assembled here to create a wider sound pallet for her third album. But we don’t just get a dozen generic New Orleans jazz tunes... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2018: Helena Hauff - QualmSaturday, 22 December 2018![]() The cliché of hard times making for good culture is a distinctly dodgy, even dangerous, one. But there's no doubting at all that the era of Trump, Brexit and all the rest has added an urgency particularly to underground culture, which is leading... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2018: Black Merlin - KosuaSunday, 16 December 2018![]() Kosua was released only last month, but its journey began two years ago when George Thompson, aka Black Merlin, released Hipnotik Tradisi, a beautiful and captivating document of his travels through Indonesia, seamlessly blending field recordings,... Read more... |
10 Questions for DJ / producer Rob Smith of Smith & MightySaturday, 24 November 2018![]() Rob Smith & Ray Mighty are truly the unsung heroes of British bass music. Coming out of the same cultural melting pot in Bristol that gave us Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead and mega-producer Nellee Hooper, they looked to be among the city's... Read more... |
CD: The Prodigy - No TouristsWednesday, 31 October 2018![]() One of the major abiding musical memories of the late 1990s for many wasn’t so much five Mancunians ripping off Beatles’ songs, but Keith Flint of The Prodigy, growling “I’m a Firestarter/Twisted Firestarter” while all kinds of electronic battery... Read more... |
Best Albums of 2018Wednesday, 31 October 2018![]() Disc of the Day reviews new albums, week in, week out, all year. Below are the albums to which our writers awarded five stars. Click on any one of them to find out why. Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crécy and Delilah Holliday - B.E.D. ★★★★★ A small... Read more... |
CD: Robyn - HoneyThursday, 25 October 2018![]() Eight long years, Robyn fans have been waiting. Crazed tweets screamed #releasehoneydammit into the ether for weeks as the Swedish songwriter teased her new music.Comeback single and certified summer earworm “Missing You” was the first song Robyn... Read more... |
Sŵn Festival 2018 – a welcome return to formWednesday, 24 October 2018![]() It’s been a tough few years for Sŵn Festival. Once a genuine rival to fellow urban festivals Great Escape and Sound City, recent events have fluctuated between one-dayers and a string of ticketed gigs. 2018 marked the biggest change yet, but also a... Read more... |
CD: Ariana Grande - SweetenerSaturday, 18 August 2018![]() This may be tempting fate, and minutes after publication of this she'll probably be arrested for stabbing a dog or something, but Ariana Grande seems like an abnormally benevolent presence in the superstar stratosphere. Even leaving aside her... Read more... |
CD: Lotic - PowerWednesday, 11 July 2018![]() An extraordinary musical movement has been bubbling over from the far left field into the public consciousness in the last couple of years. A very loose international alliance of musicians like Elysia Crampton, GAIKA, Ziúr, Arca, Rabit, Yves Tumor,... Read more... |
