New Music Reviews
Music Reissues Weekly: The Long Ryders - Native SonsSunday, 21 January 2024
Native Sons joyfully reframed musical styles of the past for the present. Even so, the freshness and oomph of The Long Ryders’ debut album meant revivalism was sidestepped. Originally issued in October 1984, it was a landmark in helping to nurture what would later be habitually defined as Americana. The word had been around, but Native Sons was pivotal to it gaining traction. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Mike Makhalemele & Winston “Mankunku” Ngozi - The Bull And The LionSunday, 14 January 2024
The Bull And The Lion was originally released in 1976 by Jo'burg, a South African label which opened-up for business in 1973 with a couple of singles and the first album by black singer Margaret Singana. Her debut LP was titled Lady Africa. The same year, the imprint issued the second single by Rabbitt, a white pop-rock band whose guitarist Trevor Rabin became internationally known when he played with Manfred Mann and then joined Yes. Read more... |
Album: Nailah Hunter - LovegazeSaturday, 13 January 2024
Nailah Hunter’s debut album occupies a domain where trip-hop, Lana Del Rey were she recording in a deep, echo-filled cave and ambient-slanted pop overlap. There’s a kinship with FKA Twigs and Julia Holter, but Hunter’s propensity to channel what feels like a mystical experience means that Lovegaze is more inscrutable than what’s generated by first impressions. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: East Village - Drop OutSunday, 07 January 2024
The album’s opening track is titled “Silver Train.” Built around a choppy acoustic guitar refrain, it features Hammond organ, spindly electric guitar lines, pattering percussion and has a vibe – with a gospel edge – suggesting a familiarity with Let It Bleed- and Sticky Fingers-era Rolling Stones. Or, in a different time, the Primal Scream of “Movin’ On Up.” Read more... |
Best of 2023: Music Reissues WeeklySunday, 31 December 2023
In the Light of Time - UK Post-Rock and Leftfield Pop 1992-1998 was unexpected. Collecting 17 tracks, it brought a fresh perspective on a particular aspect of the UK’s independent-minded music. This ground-breaking, agenda-setting release was effectively the soundtrack to what has been written about post-rock. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Hawkwind - Space RitualSunday, 24 December 2023
As Britain headed towards the end of 1972, pop fans had fair cause to scratch their heads about a single which first charted in July. In mid-August, Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine” peaked at number three behind Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs skiffle-esque “Seaside Shuffle” and, in the top spot, Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” Donny Osmond’s oleaginous “Puppy Love” was number four. At 11, David Bowie’s “Starman.” Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2023: Scott Dunn with Claire Martin and the RPO - I Watch You SleepSaturday, 23 December 2023
A flawless song list comprising Richard Rodney Bennett originals plus some of his favourite standards, stunning arrangements by conductor Scott Dunn, plus the mellifluous vocals of Claire Martin magically aligned in my Album of the Year, I Watch You Sleep, an extraordinarily beautiful tribute to Bennett marking the tenth anniversary of his death. Read more... |
The Loveless, Castle & Falcon, Birmingham review - a proto-punk Xmas from Marc Almond’s new bandFriday, 22 December 2023
Back in those halcyon days of 2017, before the pandemic, Marc Almond did a tour of large concert halls, singing songs that had influenced him over the years. Needless to say, there was something of a focus on glam and proto-punk tunes from the likes of Lou Reed and David Bowie – which all seems to have sown the seeds for his latest musical direction. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Brinsley Schwarz - Thinking Back: The AnthologySunday, 17 December 2023
Typically tagged as the originators of pub rock, Brinsley Schwarz were where Nick Lowe honed his muse. But there were twists, turns and a waywardness which makes approaching them as a linear proposition difficult. Sometimes, they pointed one way yet then headed in a different direction. Next, off elsewhere. The complete-catalogue, seven CD set Thinking Back - The Anthology 1970-1975 encapsulates all of this. Read more... |
Lankum, Roundhouse review - a warm evening of folk masteryFriday, 15 December 2023
The folk band Lankum are (for want of a less cliched phrase) at the height of their power. Their gig at the Roundhouse, as they said themselves, was the biggest audience they had ever played for – and everyone was loving it. The Roundhouse, surely one of the most beautiful venues for gigs, felt completely packed by the end of the support act, Rachael Lavelle.
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
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.
It followed some...
Gilliver, Liverman, Rangwanasha, LSO, Pappano, Barbican revi...
For all its passing British sea shanties and folksongs, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony does Walt Whitman’s determinedly global-oriented...
theartsdesk Q&A: Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof on...
Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof is now an...
Bowling For Soup, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton review - nostalg...
Bowling For Soup are celebrating their iconic album, A Hangover You Don’t Deserve, on a fun-filled, energetic tour for its 20th...
Philip Marsden: Under a Metal Sky review - rock and awe
Working on materials was basic to human culture from the start: chipping at flint to make a hand-axe; fashioning bone or wood; drying hides....
Blu-ray: High and Low
Akira Kurosawa’s mastery of different genres is a given and one of High and Low’s strengths is a seamless blending of various...
The Years, Harold Pinter Theatre review - a bravura, joyous...
Annie Ernaux’s semi-autobiographical book Les Années charts a woman’s life across time and space, history and memory, through...
Nina Conti: Whose Face Is It Anyway?, Brighton Dome review -...
“I really am the repository for all your shit,” Nina Conti’s famous Monkey hand puppet tells her. Monkey may have a point.
The brilliance of...
Braimah Kanneh-Mason, Fernandes, Gent, 229 review - a beguil...
It was the sonically adventurous, shiveringly atmospheric cello piece by Latvian composer Preteris Vasks that proved to be the first showstopper...
Phaedra + Minotaur, Royal Ballet and Opera, Linbury Theatre...
Greek myths are all over theatre stages at the moment, their fierce, vengeful stories offering unnerving parallels with events in our modern world...