New Music Reviews
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - 12 hours on the musical frontline of Day ThreeTuesday, 21 May 2024
If the weather’s good TGE Beach is a grand start to a day. As it sounds, it’s a purpose-built seafront space to the east of central Brighton, containing three stages as well as stalls selling vegan kebabs, Filipino street food and German sausage. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Andwella - To DreamSunday, 19 May 2024
Original pressings of Love And Poetry sell for up to £2,800. Copies of the August 1969 debut album by Andwellas Dream can sometimes also be found for £700, a relative bargain in the context of the upper limit of the prices the collector’s market has settled on. Read more... |
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - a dip into day one and the elephant-in-the-roomFriday, 17 May 2024
Before reviewing The Great Escape, we must first deal with the elephant in the room. Or, in this case, the room that’s crushing the elephant, like the trash compactor in the first Star Wars film. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM BIT Read more... |
Laufey, Royal Albert Hall review - fans in heavenFriday, 17 May 2024
In many ways, Laufey’s emotionally charged, sold-out Royal Albert Hall debut was a masterclass. Read more... |
Hidden Door 10th Birthday Party, St James Quarter, Edinburgh review - going undergroundWednesday, 15 May 2024
It’s hard to imagine that The Arches – a string of stylish glass-fronted units in prime city centre location, housing boutique bars, high-end eateries and stylish salons – were once a bunch of old storage units which were opened up a decade ago by a volunteer-run, grassroots arts festival calling itself Hidden Door. Read more... |
Conchúr White, St Pancras Old Church review - side-stepping the past to embrace the futureTuesday, 14 May 2024
If there’s a feeling of déjà vu, it isn’t detectable. Conchúr White played St Pancras Old Church in April 2016 with County Armagh’s Silences, the band he fronted. This evening, a mention of having been here before is absent. Nothing in the body language suggests any familiarity with where he’s playing. Read more... |
Pop Will Eat Itself, Chalk, Brighton review - hip hop rockers deliver a whopperMonday, 13 May 2024
By midway, things are cooking. “Can U Dig It?”, a post-modern list-song from another age (Ok, 1989), boasts a whopping guitar riff. Keys-player Adam Mole, his ushanka cap’s ear-covers flapping, leaps onto his seat, waves his synth aloft. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Little Girls - Valley SongsSunday, 12 May 2024
The name, Caron and Michelle Maso explained to Los Angeles radio DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, was a literal description. “We’re both like five feet. We’re all grown up, but we’re still little.” Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: West Coast Consortium - All The Love In The WorldSunday, 05 May 2024
West Coast Consortium’s first single was July 1967’s “Some Other Someday,” a delightful slice of Mellotron-infused harmony pop which wasn’t too far from The Ivy League’s “Funny How Love Can be” and The Rockin’ Berries’ “He’s in Town” – each of which were hits in, respectively, 1965 and 1964. All three bands were on the Pye label and its associated imprint Piccadilly. Read more... |
CVC, Concorde 2, Brighton review - they have the songs and they have the presenceFriday, 03 May 2024
The joy of CVC, when they catch fire, is the zing of gatecrashing a gang of cheeky, very individual personalities having their own private party. There’s a moment tonight, for instance, midway through the evening, when guitarists David Bassey and Elliot Bradfield, close in on each other, lock eyes, and spar clanging notes with spine-tingling precision. This band are tight, tight, tight. Read more... |
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