New Music Reviews
Reissue CDs Weekly: John Mayall - The First GenerationSunday, 17 January 2021
The First Generation 1965–1974 is a 35-CD box set dedicated to the blues maven and propagator John Mayall. As well as the discs, there are three books: one a hardback, another reproducing fan club material, and the third a facsimile of the press pack for his first album. Also included are two posters and a signed photograph of Mayall. Five thousand copies have been made. Read more... |
Gillam, Hallé, Bloxham, Hallé online review - music of poetryFriday, 15 January 2021
Jonathan Bloxham makes his debut as conductor with the Hallé Orchestra in the third of the Hallé’s Winter Season concerts on film. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 & 1975Sunday, 10 January 2021
Two of the four CDs in this set are of a live performance taped on 16 April 1964. The other pair of discs were recorded on 9 July 1975. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Lost Innocence - Garpax 1960s Punk & PsychSunday, 03 January 2021
An old saw relating to The Doors says their ambition when they formed was to be as big as Los Angeles-based garage-psych sensations The Seeds. After listening to Lost Innocence – Garpax 1960s Punk & Psych, it’s hard not to wonder where the bands heard were aiming. Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2020: Joensuu 1685 - ÖBSaturday, 02 January 2021
This breathtakingly lovely album opens with the aptly titled “Hey My Friend (We’re Here Again)”. Before the October 2020 release of ÖB and its related singles, the last record Finland’s Joensuu 1685 issued was a 12-inch on a Norwegian label which came out in 2011. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Looking back at 2020Sunday, 27 December 2020
In 2020, one archive release exerted a more forceful presence than any other. Live At Goose Lake August 8th 1970 caught The Stooges as they promoted their second album Fun House. The source was a previously unknown, professionally recorded tape documenting the whole album as it was played live, in its running order. Iggy Pop and the band were hard yet sloppy, tight yet rough, always blazing. Wonderful – and a reminder that musical surprises still crop up. Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2020: bdrmm - BedroomSaturday, 26 December 2020
It’s become something of an end-of-year list cliché to say that 2020 has been a great year for music despite being a catastrophic shitstorm when judged by any other metric you care to mention. “Ah!” says 2020, “but clichés are clichés because they’re true,” and sits back smugly, arms folded, conveniently forgetting that this is a cliché in itself and so leading us into a whirlwind of circular reasoning. That’s just so 2020, right? Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2020: Steve Earle & The Dukes - Ghosts of West VirginiaWednesday, 23 December 2020
In this most dark and dislocating of years, music has sustained me as it always has. Balm, refuge, escape, retreat. A way of opting out of the daily horror show, often with familiar sounds – musicians and albums that have long been old friends, familiar grooves that seemed more profound in the other-worldly silence and isolation of 2020. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Sumer Is Icumen In - The Pagan Sound Of British & Irish FolkSunday, 20 December 2020
The winter solstice occurs tomorrow, 21 December. Stonehenge, one of this island’s most significant structures, is constructed in alignment with the setting sun on that day. After the solstice, the days lengthen and a new cycle of the year begins. Read more... |
Songlines Music Awards - Cerys Matthews introduces a global line-up of winnersMonday, 14 December 2020
Booking a venue, filling it with people, and handing out awards-night hardware to a range of international artists is a challenge to be reckoned with at any time, even more so in the wake of this year's pandemic. Read more... |
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