London
Hahn, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Wigmore Hall review - Americana old and newWednesday, 21 June 2023
Artist-in-Residence at the Wigmore Hall Hilary Hahn brought her residency to an end with a collaboration with the exciting Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, a notably youthful and ethnically diverse group, who brought with them a notably more... Read more... |
Life is More Important than Art, Whitechapel Gallery review - themes of arrival, belonging and departure unite fascinating mixed showWednesday, 21 June 2023
Standing just inside the door of the Whitechapel’s downstairs gallery is a luggage trolley laden with parcels (pictured below, right). This forlorn object looks as if it’s waiting to be collected, but the owner seems to have gone AWOL.The packages... Read more... |
Blu-ray: I Am WeekenderTuesday, 20 June 2023
Pinned eyes stare from a frozen husk of a face as a clubber comes down, cradled high over London on a window-cleaner’s perch. Director WIZ’s 18-minute video for Flowered Up’s rave epic “Weekender” (1992) takes you on the E’d up odyssey of Little Joe... Read more... |
Pretty Red Dress review - not so sparkly British black filmFriday, 16 June 2023
Pretty Red Dress opens with a classic Motown-esque girl group belting out a show tune before cutting to Travis (Natey Jones) as he leaves prison. Waiting for him outside is Candice (Alexandra Burke); she’s sitting in her Audi, singing along to the... Read more... |
42nd Street, Sadler's Wells review - musical extravaganza will knock your socks offThursday, 15 June 2023
There are better musicals in town, but can you find me a more spectacular show in a more comfortable theatre? I doubt it. Not that Jonathan Church's new production at Sadler's Wells is flawless. It's a 90-year-old blockbuster so, for all its... Read more... |
Caleb Azumah Nelson: Small Worlds review - Ghana and London dance togetherWednesday, 14 June 2023
Small Worlds, the second novel from Caleb Azumah Nelson, is a delight: a book with a real feeling for sound and dance, and a sense of place from London to Ghana and back again. It’s a story of a first romance, the intricacies of family life, the... Read more... |
First Person: composer Kate Whitley on a new work for the Borletti-Buitoni Trust’s 20th anniversaryThursday, 08 June 2023
We at the Multi-Story Orchestra have been writing a new piece of music about social media. In one of the writing sessions I remember one of our musicians spending every second she wasn't playing on her phone, checking likes and comments as she'd... Read more... |
Album: Dream Wife - Social LubricationFriday, 02 June 2023
Five years ago, breaking dry January a few days early, I joined a throng of folks amongst the merch boxes and strip lights of Rough Trade East to see Dream Wife. The London-based trio has come a long way since those small-scale shows in the backroom... Read more... |
Invisible, Bush Studio review - engaging monologue about Brown cultural identityTuesday, 30 May 2023
The Bond film theme plays and the lights go up at the Bush’s Studio space to reveal, not a tuxedoed superspy, but a slim figure in casual clothes sitting on a raised platform. He starts his first speech, then stops, makes asides to the audience,... Read more... |
Gretchen Peters, Cadogan Hall review - writer and performer of exquisite gemsSaturday, 27 May 2023
It’s 27 years since Gretchen Peters released her debut album, The Secret of Life, championed by Bob Harris and the late Terry Wogan, whose morning-tide enthusiasms also helped propel Eva Cassidy and Beth Neilsen Chapman to success - the term “... Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's Globe review - busy production overflowing with new ideasThursday, 25 May 2023
Two years on from Sean Holmes’ production and seven on from Emma Rice’s (both of which featured diverse casts), Elle While takes a turn with the old warhorse’s lovers and fairies, its sparring couples and its Morecambe and Wise-like shambles of a... Read more... |
Album: Steel Banglez - The PlaylistMonday, 22 May 2023
There is a truly fascinating story to be written about the hidden Punjabi influence on UK bass music. Maybe it’s natural for kids growing up with the huge booming sounds of dhol and tabla drums to gravitate to big bass speakers, but some of the most... Read more... |
