dance music
Reissue CDs Weekly: Ian Dury, Tom Moulton, José Feliciano, Archie SheppSunday, 02 June 2013![]() Ian Dury: Lord Upminster / Ian Dury & the Music Students: 4,000 Weeks HolidayAs a single, "Spasticus Autisticus" was never going to be an easy sell. Ian Dury's reaction to the United Nation’s declaration of 1981 as the International Year... Read more... |
Major Lazer, RoundhouseSunday, 05 May 2013![]() It was a carnival-like atmosphere and a packed house for the transatlantic trendsetters Major Lazer in Camden. Recent show reports suggested a more maximal and bombastic vibe from Diplo and his current sidekicks Jillionaire and Walshy Fire, but... Read more... |
Monteverdi Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Gardiner, Barbican HallFriday, 26 April 2013![]() Backed up by reasonably adventurous orchestral programming, lucky conductors can forge a strong Stravinsky evening by picking and mixing from his five ancient Greek rituals. Sir John Eliot Gardiner, unintentionally homaging the late Sir Colin Davis... Read more... |
CD: Morris Cowan - Six DegreesMonday, 15 April 2013![]() Some 20 years ago, a series of albums called Artificial Intelligence on WARP Records aimed to promote techno as home-listening music. They made up a frequently sublime collection, but unfortunately the word “intelligence” in their title was picked... 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... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Producer/DJ Coki (from Digital Mystikz)Saturday, 23 February 2013![]() Croydon-born Coki – Dean Harris – is without question one of the most important musicians of modern times, but unless you are a close follower of underground club scenes it is unlikely you would have heard of him. He has never been interviewed at... Read more... |
CD: Tegan and Sara - HeartthrobSunday, 10 February 2013![]() To hear them tell it, Tegan and Sara have always been pop stars. It was harder to see a decade ago, sure, when they were spitting out spiky guitar anthems in matching pixie haircuts, but the roots were always there. That the twins’ seventh record... Read more... |
CD: Fimber Bravo - Con-FusionThursday, 07 February 2013![]() If you listened to the last archived Arts Desk Radio Show you'll have heard me play a couple of tracks from this, and it was all I could do not to play more. As so often I'd gone into the studio with the previous couple of days' post pile and... Read more... |
Reissue CDs: The Best of 2012Sunday, 30 December 2012![]() Can’s The Lost Tapes towers over any of the other reissues theartsdesk has covered this year. Although not strictly a reissue – it collected unheard recordings from tapes which had lain in the band’s archive – it rewrote the story of the seminal... Read more... |
CD of the Year: Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet ComesThursday, 20 December 2012![]() End of year lists are, of course, wildly arbitrary – based on what raddled writers can scrape from their memory-barrels come deadline day, with half an eye on what we think our colleagues are going to pick so our choices will end up in aggregated... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Prodigy, Man Chest Hair, Jackie Ross, Del ShannonSunday, 16 December 2012![]() The Prodigy: The Fat of the Land 15th Anniversary Expanded EditionThomas H GreenAlmost a decade after acid house changed the landscape of British music, it seemed rave culture was finally about to take over pop. The Chemical Brothers hit the top of... Read more... |
Noisettes, Oran Mor, GlasgowFriday, 16 November 2012![]() There is something so otherworldly about Shingai Shoniwa, the vocal powerhouse who fronts Noisettes, that it is unsurprising to see the band play on it. Shoniwa arrived onstage in a blaze of light, in a spinning gold-hooped skirt that seemed to... Read more... |
