New music
Sebastian Scotney
Everyone has their "what-if" moments. But the “Sliding Doors” inflection points in the life of Guadeloupe-born, Montreal-based Malika Tirolien, after which everything that happened afterwards could been very different, are truly extraordinary.What if the songwriter/composer /singer/pianist/bandleader had chosen to do her university music studies in France (like her close school class-mate, the brilliant drummer Arnaud Dolmen) rather than being quite so determined to be closer to the music that inspired her – hiphop, jazz and soul – in North America? Or…what if she had taken up the job offer Read more ...
joe.muggs
Ever since she broke through in her teens, Leicestershire singer Mahalia Burkmar’s music has often been referred to as retro or revivalist R&B. But that framing is a fundamental misunderstanding of the way the genre operates for young 21st century music lovers. For fans and artists of Mahalia’s generation – she’s 25 – the Nineties and early Noughties classics of Mariah, TLC, Destinys Child and co aren’t really retro in the way that Seventies and Eighties music were back then.Firstly, those records have weathered the cycles of fashion particularly well – they’ve never been “out” so there’s Read more ...
Anya Ryan
“One night I had a vision of this,” says a visibly emotional Damon Albarn as he looks out to the mass of the crowd at Wembley. Despite closing the London Olympics in 2012, selling millions of albums and headlining Glastonbury, there is the sense that even in their prime, performing two nights at the 90,000 Stadium was one step out of reach.So, the unadulterated elation – shock even that Blur feels to be here now pumps this reunion. All these years later they’ve done it, and you bet that they’re going to enjoy it.But it is the band’s quiet, unpretentious delight that makes this show so heart- Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
The response to this album will depend almost entirely on whether the listener regards Norwegian electronic musician Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s Seventies-synth-wizard-goes-disco thing as tasty noodle or just noodle.He’s tried on many hats over the years since the righteous hype around Oslo’s “cosmic disco” scene thrust him into the limelight a few years into this century, but Everyone Else is a Stranger sees him return to core territory.One gets the sense that Lindstrøm simply pootles along in his country retreat studio, tinkering, the vagaries of musical fashion an irrelevance, as he indulges in Read more ...
Tony Staveacre
On December 8th 1957 there was a heavy snowstorm in New York. Ten elderly jazz musicians struggled to make their way through the drifts to a television studio on 10th Avenue. One of them – the bass player – collapsed in the street, and died in hospital three weeks later. But the others got through because they needed to be there, they wanted to be there to support Billie Holiday, who’d been their close friend and inspiration for more than 30 years.These legendary players had been assembled by producer Nat Hentoff, to create The Sound of Jazz for CBS Television: Ben Webster, Lester Young, Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
The Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM), the largest in the world, is genuinely on a roll. The head of programming of the huge event, which takes place all around the Quartier des Spectacles in the centre of the city, says in this year's wrap-up press release that “a new wind is blowing through our beloved jazz world, and we can be proud today to see the public rallying around. A booming new scene with legends leading the way: Vive le jazz!”This thought, as he told me in an interview, is more than just a hunch. Statistics issued for last year’s 42nd edition showed that 52% of Read more ...
Jonathan Geddes
The farewell for KISS has lasted so long that this Glasgow show, their final ever UK gig, came four years after the End of the Road tour first stopped off in the city. Admittedly that is partly down to the coronavirus scuppering touring plans for a couple of years, but even without that there is a suspicion a group who have monetised themselves so effectively over the years might have found a reason for another trip back here.After all, this tour also featured the chance for afternoon VIP meet and greets for a few thousand quid, while a “golden circle” was in operation down the front, a sight Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
First things first. The support acts at events like this usually get completely overlooked, but it would be frankly criminal not to give a mention to a superb set by the Chicks. They dropped the “Dixie” from their original name because of its now “problematic” political connotations, and their critical comments about Dubya Bush provoked a career-changing backlash, but they’ve bounced back feistier than ever.Armed with an arsenal of instruments sure to bring joy to country music fans – dobro, pedal steel, fiddle, banjo, mandolin – they surged through a set of old favourites, including “Cowboy Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
One of the most striking scenes in Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 outer-space allegory Solaris is psychologist Kris Kelvin’s first encounter with a being which seems to be his wife, who had died a decade earlier. The unsettling incident’s inherent tension is heightened by its sonic backdrop: rumbling, a peculiarly musical pink noise, lightning-like bolts of sound. This was created on the ANS synthesiser (AHC in Russian script), a device invented in Soviet-era Russia.The inspirational figure for the ANS was Boris Yankovsky, who was working with creating synthetic sound from the early 1930s. In 1932, Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Forty years ago, the songs of New Jersey’s Kool and the Gang formed an essential soundtrack to many a suburban lothario’s weekend. “Celebration”, “Ladies’ Night” and “Get Down on It” were undisputed chart classics of the time – laying down slick grooves that focused wholly on having a good time and not having a care in the world.James “JT” Taylor, lead singer during the band’s commercial peak, may be long gone but bassist, Robert “Kool” Bell and keyboard player, George “Funky” Brown (all the original band members seem to be obliged to have a one-word nickname) are still very much on board for Read more ...
mark.kidel
As an authentic artist, PJ Harvey manages to remain true to her essence as well as constantly shifting her creative stance. Each of her albums has been a leap forward, and yet anchored in a sound and style that are immediately recognisable as hers.This new album, the first in seven years, is in character – sensual, mysterious, a mixture of introverted softness and extrovert violence. It's very good, full of surprises, slow to reveal itself, like a really well-accomplished piece of poetry.Her previous release, The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016) was a collection of demos, Read more ...
Cheri Amour
You could say the catalyst behind it all was Rocketman himself. During his Apple Music Show, celebrated CBE Elton John named Gabriels’ self-released EP, Love and Hate in a Different Time, one of the most seminal releases in the last ten years. At that time, little was known about the US-UK trio. When they eventually signed a major record deal a few months later, there wasn’t a single photograph of the three of them in the same room.Despite the inconspicuous start, the band has already racked up a performance at The Royal Albert Hall (for Letters Live). They supported Harry Styles in Texas and Read more ...