CDs/DVDs
mark.kidel
Rituals of death call for music: to see the spirits of the dead off on their journey to the other side, to express the grief of those left behind or to celebrate the cycle of life and death. Fra Fra are a quartet from the predominantly Muslim northern part of Ghana - a much drier region than more forested areas of the south.They specialise in music that's performed at traditional funeralsAlthough claims are made for the links between the music of this region and the blues, it feels generally less familiar or connected to field hollers and country blues than the music of Mali. Percussion and a Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
One thing with this whole lockdown business is that we’re all trying to be as nice as possible to each other. At the moment, we music writers aim to recommend material people can enjoy while stuck at home. Our knives are staying sheathed. What, then, are we supposed to do when confronted with Twinnie’s debut album? The most positive thing that springs to mind is that the best of it sounds like Taylor Swift just before she went full pop. Which is hardly a glowing endorsement. I’ve one other nice-ish thing to say but will save that until the end of this review, then maybe you’ll forget the Read more ...
Nick Hasted
Fiona Apple simmered in the LA sun for eight years to make this record, mostly holed up at home since her beloved dog died and she stopped drinking. Rather than polish the result to a sleek gleam, this is an album of trailing threads and percussive clatter, layered like unwiped tape. The brightly shining teenage angst queen of the Nineties continues to rub herself raw, rejecting major label norms, and left alone as Neil Young and Kate Bush are. The title is Gillian Anderson’s sex-crime cop’s demand in The Fall, when a room where a girl has been tortured needs breaking open. Cutters fetched, Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Although it followed on from the previous hits Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande found director John Ford suffering from straitened finances. The third of his so-called “Cavalry Trilogy”, Rio Grande was made under a new deal with Republic Pictures, whereby its star John Wayne had to agree to a reduced salary so Ford could make both Rio Grande and his subsequent pet project, The Quiet Man. It was shot in Utah in a brisk 32 days.It tends to be dismissed as a minor Ford work, because of such idiosyncracies as the numerous musical appearances by the cowboy band Read more ...
Guy Oddy
In the press release for Enter Shikari’s new album, lead singer Rou Reynolds is proclaimed as a “visionary”. However, for the work of a visionary, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible is a decidedly pedestrian effort. Filled with bluster and bombast, the lyrics betray a shocking amount of cheesey and cliched teenage angst for the work of a group of thirty-somethings and it's backed by music that steals from all quarters without bringing anything new to the table. It may aim high but it falls spectacularly short.Opening track “The Great Unknown” piles on old school ravey synth sounds, Read more ...
Asya Draganova
When it comes to new releases by Scandi rockers Nightwish, it’s not unusual to hear the well-worn phrase “I like their early stuff…” – usually referring to the mythical times when the band were with their first singer Tarja Turunen. Indeed, listeners might even have given up on Nightwish or at least failed to stay up to date with their line-up changes. However, their new release Human II: Nature deserves close listening. The symphonic metal band have made a massive contribution to Finland’s global metal image and their unmistakable style continues to evolve in exciting directions on this Read more ...
joe.muggs
For underground music producers, there almost always comes a phase in life when they accept they're no longer young guns and embrace either massively complicated synthesisers, floaty new age music, or both. For Bristol-based Jake Martin aka Hodge it's the latter. This, his debut album after a decade releasing a couple of dozen EPs on connoisseurs' favourite labels and DJing around the world, has all the signifiers. Rainfall, tropical bird sounds, breathy synth tones in rising patterns, huge reverbs on tiny sounds... yes, even things that sound like panpipes: it's all there. From the hippie Read more ...
Russ Coffey
Laura Marling has always loved to weave the textures of Seventies Laurel Canyon folk-rock into her music. Never before, though, has she evoked the spirit of David Crosby and Joni Mitchell quite like on her new record. From the opening strummed chords to the last hummed notes Song for our Daughter is full of Californian haze, making for a gorgeously contemplative experience. Of course, Marling hasn't actually lived in LA for some years now, having returned to London in 2014. But her experiences living near the Hollywood Hills – and the life-lessons learned – Read more ...
Liz Thomson
This is the perfect album for these dark and dislocating times, a delicious slice of folk-Americana, 10 beautifully crafted songs (plus a bonus online) that envelop you in the gentle winds and fogs of California’s Monterey peninsula, and the waves on its flotsam-dotted sands.It is in fact the fourth album by Nels Andrews, who now lives in Santa Cruz but who discovered his song-writing talent while in Taos, New Mexico, a landscape that has inspired many. Released in the US last fall, its UK and European appearance was originally timed to coincide with a tour. That must wait, leaving us to Read more ...
Nick Hasted
Their debut’s title was a disillusioned shrug, and for most of the 19 years since Is This It, The Strokes have continued with seeming reluctance, releasing new albums fitfully. But here they are, still riding the afterglow of Manhattan’s decadent energy in the season before 9/11 and Giuliani’s clampdown, and with producer Rick Rubin, career resurrection a speciality, on hand to tease out growth beyond the Television tribute act they once resembled.The New Abnormal is a diverse and mature sixth album, exuding worldly confidence as it dismisses the detractors, rivals and lovers of a time less Read more ...
graham.rickson
These three films come from Buster Keaton’s mid-1920s purple patch, the high spots of which prompted critic Roger Ebert to describe Keaton as “arguably the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies”. High praise indeed. And while I’d rank The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr slightly above the films making up this anthology, each one makes for joyous viewing.1924’s The Navigator was a personal favourite of Keaton, prompted by his chance acquisition of a defunct US Navy passenger liner about to be scrapped. The set-up has Keaton’s foppish Rollo Treadaway and the girl who’s just Read more ...
Guy Oddy
The perfect introduction to Newcastle’s mighty Pigsx7 is undoubtedly to be made in the live arena, for it’s here they seriously let sparks fly with monolithic slabs of sound and an exuberance that is truly infectious. That isn’t to say that their studio output isn’t worth serious attention and Viscerals is a sonic treat with plenty to offer. For while the band’s sound remains firmly rooted in the legacy of Black Sabbath and Hawkwind’s peak moments, their new disc is sharper than both Feed the Rats and King of Cowards, while losing none of the intensity of either.“Reducer” hits the ground Read more ...