New Music Reviews
Reissue CDs Weekly: Marylebone Beat Girls, Milk of the TreeSunday, 30 July 2017
Between them, Marylebone Beat Girls and Milk of the Tree cover the years 1964 to 1973. Each collects tracks recorded by female singers: whether credited as solo acts, fronting a band or singer-songwriters performing self-penned material. Read more...
|
theartsdesk at Førdefestivalen - fado, tango and desert blues among the Norwegian fjordsSaturday, 29 July 2017
This year’s Førdefestivalen was gabled by an opening Nordic Sound Folk Orchestra showcase and a spectacular closing gala, live-streamed and broadcast Europe-wide. It featured a dizzyingly eclectic range of world and Nordic folk bands, as well as the speediest stage turn-arounds I’ve ever seen. Read more... |
12 Stone Toddler, Green Door Store, Brighton review – experimentalism can still be popMonday, 24 July 2017
Ten years ago Brighton band 12 Stone Toddler burst onto the scene with two off-the-wall albums of madly inventive pop-rock. They then vamoosed back out of existence. Now they’re back, preparing a third album for the Freshly Squeezed label, and playing a packed home town gig. The second song they do is a new one, “Piranha”... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: RamonesSunday, 23 July 2017
Production gloss and deliberation are not notions immediately springing to mind while pondering the 1976-era Ramones. Even so, this new edition of their second album, the ever-wonderful Leave Home, reveals that careful consideration was given to how they presented themselves on record. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Anne BriggsSunday, 16 July 2017
The Time Has Come was issued in late 1971. Anne Briggs’ second album and her second to reach shops that year, it followed an eponymous set released that April. That was on the folk label Topic and produced by the pivotal A. L. Lloyd, who had been key to propagating Britain’s traditional music since the late 1930s. Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 30: Moby, The Beach Boys, Napalm Death, John Coltrane and moreThursday, 13 July 2017
If there’s a downside to the resurgence of vinyl, it’s that all that’s left in most charity shops these days is James Galway and his cursed flute and Max Bygraves medley albums. Then again, there’s always new stuff coming in so it’s down to everybody to get in there quick, before the local record shops hoover up all the gems. And there it is. Many small towns now have local record shops again. That’s surely something to celebrate. Read more... |
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hyde Park review - electrifying American classicsTuesday, 11 July 2017
Tough security checks mean I make it to British Summer Time’s main stage just moments before the opening chords of the early evening set from The Lumineers. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Silhouettes & Statues - A Gothic RevolutionSunday, 09 July 2017
In February 1983, New Musical Express ran a cover feature categorising what it termed “positive punk”. Bands co-opted into this ostensibly new trend were Blood & Roses, Brigandage, Danse Society, Rubella Ballet, Sex Gang Children, Southern Death Cult, The Specimen, UK Decay and The Virgin Prunes. Read more... |
BambinO / Last And First Men, Manchester International FestivalFriday, 07 July 2017
The Manchester International Festival – a biennale of new creative work – this year has a new artistic director in John McGrath, and there’s no large-scale new opera or prominent "classical" work, it would seem, other than Raymond Yiu’s song cycle, The World Was Once All Miracle, performed on Tuesday by Roderick Williams with the BBC Philharmonic. |
Steve Winwood, Eventim Apollo review - multi-talented performer redesigns his back catalogueThursday, 06 July 2017
The precocious Steve Winwood joined the Spencer Davis Group when he was 14, when the Sixties themselves were still young, and hasn’t really stopped ever since. 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
A Face in the Crowd, Young Vic review - lame rehash of a 195...
It’s hard to work out why Kwame-Kwei Armah chose to end his tenure at the...
Elisabeth Leonskaja, Wigmore Hall review - a universe of so...
Wonders never ceased in Elisabeth Leonskaja’s return to the Wigmore Hall. Not only did she play Schubert’s last three sonatas with all repeats and...
Megalopolis review - magic from cinema's dawn
“What happens if you’ve overstepped your mandate?” aristocrat-architect Cesar Catalin (Adam Driver) is asked. “I’ll apologise,” he smirks. Francis...
The Snowmaiden, English Touring Opera review - a rich harves...
Just as the first autumn chills began to grip, English Touring Opera rolled into Hackney Empire with a reminder that the sun – “god of love and...
Andsnes, London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Gardner, R...
If there was ever a time for the inevitable "Rach Three” (piano concerto, not symphony) in the composer’s 150th anniversary year...
Music Reissues Weekly: Why Don’t You Smile Now - Lou Reed at...
The Velvet Underground first played before an audience on 11 December 1965. A year earlier, their two founder members Lou Reed and John Cale were...
The Teacher review - tense West Bank drama
It’s hard not to review the Israeli occupation of Palestine when writing about The Teacher. The political context of this first feature...
Suor Angelica, English National Opera review - isolated one-...
Puccini elevated the operatic tearjerker to tragic status in three masterpieces: La bohème, Madama Butterfly and...
Joe Rogan, Netflix Special review - US podcaster leaves the...
Before Joe Rogan gained fame for his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, he has been, variously, a comic, presenter of goofball...