New Music Reviews

Ondatrópica and Konkoma, Hackney Empire

howard Male Sunday, 22 July 2012

What function does a critic even serve at an event like this? Some of the best Colombian musicians across several generations are playing some of the best music Colombia has ever produced to an audience that largely consists of blissfully happy Colombians on Colombian Independence Day. But before the party got into its stride there’s a non-Colombian support band to consider.

Comment

Desdemona, Barbican Hall

Peter Culshaw Saturday, 21 July 2012

Peter Sellars has a talent for controversy, from his early days when he was the director who brought you Così fan tutte set in a diner on Cape Cod, Don Giovanni as a cocaine-snorting, Big Mac-eating slum thug, and Figaro getting married in Trump Tower.

Comment

Dr John, Under The Bridge, London

Thomas H Green Friday, 20 July 2012

The omens did not augur well for this one. Under The Bridge, a venue beneath Chelsea Football Stadium, used to be an iffy nightclub called Purple but has been redesigned by the man behind America’s House of Blues chain into a shiny visual fusion of TGI Friday's and the Hard Rock Café.

Madonna, Hyde Park

Natalie Shaw Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Madonna earned her place in the pop elite many years ago, and there are many reasons for this, which needn't be reduced into a list. Certainly though, a big reason will be the obvious - how much better her fans' lives are with her songs in them.

Comment

Paloma Faith, Somerset House

Bruce Dessau Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Paloma Faith has always struck me as a few cuts above your average conveyor belt post-Winehouse soul sister. A recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show in which she gave Russell Brand as good as she got in the verbals department suggests that there's more to this former magician's assistant than meets the eye.

Neneh Cherry and the Thing, Village Underground

howard Male Monday, 16 July 2012

In the grim windowless warehouse that is the Village Underground, Eighties hip-hop-pop princess Neneh Cherry told us that her current return to all things jazzy and experiment was born just down the road in Acton. This is only interesting in the sense that her three collaborators, The Thing, actually come from Sweden where Cherry herself is also based.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Jimmy Page, Keith Jarrett, Elton John, Swing Out Sister

theartsdesk Sunday, 15 July 2012

Jimmy Page: Lucifer Rising and Other Soundtracks

Kieron Tyler

Sharon van Etten, Oran Mor, Glasgow

Lisa-Marie Ferla Friday, 13 July 2012

It is sometimes hard to be enthused by midweek gigs. Last night was one of those occasions, at least for the 30 seconds I thought I was going to be watching most of the show on the iPhone screen of the six feet of beard that planked itself in front of me just in time for the music starting. Those are the nights you need, as Sharon van Etten might say, “something that’s hard to describe”.

Comment

Nova Festival

Thomas H Green Thursday, 12 July 2012

I have to be honest - I didn’t go to very much of Nova. Suffice to say I’d put my name down to review it and then fate threw a house move into the mix in the same week. Nevertheless, relatively undaunted, I planned to head down to the Pulborough site in West Sussex, only 20 miles from where I live, taking my two daughters along. Then I lost my driving license. And then it started raining and didn’t stop.

Christian Wallumrød, Karl Seglem, Garth Knox, LSO St Luke’s

Kieron Tyler Wednesday, 11 July 2012

It could have been a cow lowing in the distance, the sound drifting across a barren landscape. Its tone transformed after echoing through hillsides and ravines. Actually, it was Karl Seglem blowing into the horn of a goat. Suddenly, he stopped and began wordlessly chanting. The other two musicians on stage at St Luke's kept their heads down and continued providing the sonic wash knitting together this collaboration between the classical, jazz and uncategorisable.

inside new music

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