New Music Reviews
Reissue CDs Weekly: Kreaturen Der NachtSunday, 25 November 2018![]()
The famous names on Kreaturen Der Nacht: Deutsche Post-Punk Subkultur 1980–1984 are Christiane F., Die Haut, Malaria! and Mania D. Committed collectors of German post-punk and those who there at the time might be familiar with Ausserhalb, ExKurs or Leben Und Arbeiten. Read more... |
Jazzmeia Horn, EFG London Jazz Festival 2018 review - searching for the unexpectedFriday, 23 November 2018![]()
Aside from her incredible time feel, exceptional range and consistently beautiful timbre, what was most impressive about Jazzmeia Horn’s bravura performance at a sold-out Ronnie Scott’s was the sense of joyousness and vitality that coursed through her music-making. Read more... |
Brent Cowles, Thousand Island review – cornering the market in heartbreak and harmonyFriday, 23 November 2018![]()
It’s a freezing cold, wet night in north London and Denver-based musician Brent Cowles is braving the grimness to play his first ever UK gig, at Highbury’s tiny, mirrorball-stuffed Thousand Island (the latest incarnation of The Garage’s upstairs venue). Read more... |
Orphy Robinson’s Astral Weeks, London Jazz Festival 2018 review - reimagining a masterpieceWednesday, 21 November 2018![]()
After failing to make the charts on its release 50 years ago this month, Astral Weeks has long since passed into pop mythology, its unique amalgam of jazz, folk and soul influences inspiring musicians, writers and filmmakers... Read more... |
Kyungso Park, Near East Quartet, Purcell Room review - hot Korean contemporaryWednesday, 21 November 2018![]()
The penultimate concert in the eclectic and impressive K-Music Festival of contemporary Korean music on Monday at the Purcell Room featured some of the most exquisite and affecting performances of the season, with the traditional Gayageum stringed instrument paired with an effects-laden, ambient-cum-exploratory jazz quartet featuring one of the most distinctive and arresting drummers... Read more... |
Gary Numan, Royal Albert Hall review - the best night of his lifeTuesday, 20 November 2018![]()
There was barely a black-clothed, white-faced Numanoid in sight in the packed auditorium of the Royal Albert Hall as Gary Numan made his first ever appearance at the Victorian concert hall. Read more... |
EFG London Jazz Festival, first weekend review - Jeff Goldblum a jazz musician?Monday, 19 November 2018![]()
The choice of what to go and hear in the London Jazz Festival can be bewildering: this first weekend of its 10-day run presented over 120 events. Read more... |
Florence + The Machine, Genting Arena, Birmingham review - flying the flag for a hopeful futureMonday, 19 November 2018![]()
Many established artists, when out on tour, can get all a bit bashful about their new material. In fact, it’s not unusual for bands to hide a couple of new tunes in the middle of their live set with embarrassed mumbling about “you don’t really want to hear the new stuff anyway” before launching into a note-perfect rendition of a tune that was a hit several years previously. Read more... |
The Ballads of Child Migration, St James's Church, Clerkenwell review - into the heart of darknessWednesday, 14 November 2018![]()
What adjectives best describe a performance of The Ballads of Child Migration? None of those you’d normally expect to see applied to an evening of superlative music-making, for the song cycle chronicles the deprivations suffered by child migrants sent from Britain over the course of one hundred years. Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 44: Thom Yorke, Primal Scream, Elvis, Noisferatu, R.E.M., Bauhaus, Mo'Wax and moreTuesday, 13 November 2018![]()
Enough hyping! This month, without further ado, let’s head straight to the reviews… VINYL OF THE MONTH LOR Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (Lo Records) Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today

It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...

In 1964, the Norwegian division of Philips Records began issuing singles labelled “Bergen Beat.” The picture sleeves of 45s by Davy Dean and the...

Longlegs’ trapdoor ending snapped tight on its clammy Lynchian mood, reconfiguring its Silence of the Lambs serial-killer yarn...

Screen stardom is generally anointed at the box office so it's a very real delight to find the fast-rising Jonathan Bailey taking time out from...

The theatre director Anna Mackmin has...

Donald Rodney’s most moving work is a photograph titled In the House of My Father, 1997 (main picture). Nestling in the...

With her 13th studio album, Heather Nova delivers what you might expect from one of the 90s' most distinctive alternative voices – though longtime...

If not quite his last will and testament, the work now known as Bach’s Mass in B Minor represents a definitive show-reel or sample-book...
“Cry sorrow, sorrow, but let the good prevail”. The refrain of Aeschylus’s chorus near the start of the Oresteia is alive and honoured in...