New Music Reviews
Bluedot Festival 2023 review - monsoon weather can't defeat the music'n'science extravaganzaWednesday, 26 July 2023
“This wasn’t the day to wear white suede boots,” says Django Django’s singer Vincent Neff, midway through the band’s Friday evening set. He’s not kidding. Read more... |
Album: Susanna - Baudelaire & OrchestraMonday, 24 July 2023
After his death in 1867, it didn’t take long for Charles Baudelaire’s poems to be set to music. Composer Henri Duparc did so in 1870, but Claude Debussy’s late 1880s framing of five of the Symbolist pioneer’s verses confirmed this as more than a one-off fascination for the musical world. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Autonomy - The Productions of Martin RushentSunday, 23 July 2023
Two producers named Martin worked with Buzzcocks and Joy Division. Martin Hannett was in the studio for Buzzcocks’ debut release, the Spiral Scratch EP, issued in January 1977, and also for the bulk of the tracks spread across their last three United Artists singles in 1980. He also shaped every studio recording Joy Division made for Factory Records. Read more... |
Tinariwen, O2 Institute 2, Birmingham review - desert superstars raise the roofFriday, 21 July 2023
Mali’s Tinariwen have been a serious powerhouse in non-Western music since the 2001 release of their first major label album, The Radio Tisdas Sessions. Their sound certainly hasn’t stood still in the last twenty years though. Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 78: Crass, Rhiannon Giddens, Rudimental, Ralfe Band, Ray Barretto, Ultravox and moreMonday, 17 July 2023
VINYL OF THE MONTH Pere Ubu Trouble on Big Beat Street (Cherry Red) Read more... |
Album: Rain Parade - Last Rays of a Dying SunMonday, 17 July 2023
The atmosphere is foggy. What can be discerned through the murk is either out of focus or translucent. Words drift in from somewhere which can’t be pinpointed. “I’m tuning you in,” “I’ve picked up the loaded dice,” “Everything you know is everything that you let go.” Control is just out of reach. The songs are mid paced, with nods to Crazy Horse and Television. There are odd snatches of backwards guitar. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Keeping Control, Where Were You - Leeds and Manchester navigate the aftershocks of punkSunday, 16 July 2023
“Keeping Control” were the watchwords adopted by The Manchester Musicians’ Collective, an organisation founded in April 1977 to bring local musicians together and give them platforms. On 23 May 1977, it put on its first show – also the first live show by The Fall. Instantly integral to Manchester and its music, the Collective went on to put out two compilation albums, 1979’s A Manchester Collection and 1980’s Unzipping The Abstract. Read more... |
Blur, Wembley Stadium review - a glorious reunion tripWednesday, 12 July 2023
“One night I had a vision of this,” says a visibly emotional Damon Albarn as he looks out to the mass of the crowd at Wembley. Despite closing the London Olympics in 2012, selling millions of albums and headlining Glastonbury, there is the sense that even in their prime, performing two nights at the 90,000 Stadium was one step out of reach. Read more... |
theartsdesk in Montreal - the world's largest jazz festival just got youngerTuesday, 11 July 2023
The Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM), the largest in the world, is genuinely on a roll. The head of programming of the huge event, which takes place all around the Quartier des Spectacles in the centre of the city, says in this year's wrap-up press release that “a new wind is blowing through our beloved jazz world, and we can be proud today to see the public rallying around. A booming new scene with legends leading the way: Vive le jazz!” Read more... |
KISS, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - familiar feel to rock legends bombastic farewellMonday, 10 July 2023
The farewell for KISS has lasted so long that this Glasgow show, their final ever UK gig, came four years after the End of the Road tour first stopped off in the city. Admittedly that is partly down to the coronavirus scuppering touring plans for a couple of years, but even without that there is a suspicion a group who have monetised themselves so effectively over the years might have found a reason for another trip back here. Read more... |
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