New music
The Master Musicians of Joujouka, Morocco review - a healing encounterTuesday, 18 June 2024
A small mountain village, tucked away in the foothills of the Rif Mountains, south-east of Tangier. The “smallest music festival in the world”, so it says in the Guinness Book of Records. But this remarkable musical event – more of an encounter than... Read more... |
Album: Kehlani - CRASHMonday, 17 June 2024
The noise in the international mainstream in recent years might be about dance-pop, hip hop beefs and the serious balladry of Taylor, Billie and Lana – yet at the same time, R&B has been strange, brilliant, ultra-popular, but generated a tiny... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Margo Guryan - Words and MusicSunday, 16 June 2024
Late summer 1966. Jazz was Margo Guryan’s thing. She was not interested in pop music. This changed when she was played The Beach Boys’s “God Only Knows.” Amazed by what she heard, she tuned in to pop radio for the first time. Her head was further... Read more... |
Album: John Moreland - VisitorSaturday, 15 June 2024
The mournful, lonesome voice of John Moreland from Bixby, Oklahoma, will be known by a few, but not many, in this country. The 12 songs on his latest album, Visitor, released on the Thirty Tigers label, should help to remedy that.Visitor is the... Read more... |
Smashing Pumpkins / Weezer, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - double-bill of unlikely bedfellows makes a racketFriday, 14 June 2024
The current trend for package tours with two headliners appears to be growing, and this jaunt presented somewhat unlikely bedfellows – the theatrical angst of Billy Corgan’s crew and Rivers Cuomo’s indie trendsetters united by a shared love for... Read more... |
Album: Moby - Always Centered at NightFriday, 14 June 2024
US electronic perennial Moby has had a good run. He was a rave culture phenomenon from 1991 onwards. He blew that with a vegan punk album. He released Play at the decade’s end and sold millions. He then had decadent superstar years, a run of huge,... Read more... |
Album: Kneecap - Fine ArtThursday, 13 June 2024
For a band just putting out their debut album, West Belfast’s Kneecap have been courting media attention for some while and have already been seen in the LA Times, The Guardian and even Variety. But then, they have previously released a swathe of... Read more... |
theartsdesk on Vinyl 84: Ibibio Sound Machine, Dave Clarke, Eliza Rose, Billy Idol, Bodega, Mui Zyu and moreWednesday, 12 June 2024
VINYL OF THE MONTHAriel Sharratt & Matthias Kom Never Work (BB*Island) + Ella Ronen The Girl With No Skin (BB*Island)Two offbeat albums from the uncategorisable Hamburg label BB*Island. They are home to the literary indie outfit The Burning Hell... Read more... |
Girls Aloud, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - pop queens return with poignant hit paradeWednesday, 12 June 2024
There was a point in this pop revival jaunt where you could feel members of the crowd wince. Not for the performance, but because Nicola Roberts introduced a song by mentioning it was from “the Chemistry album, which came out 19 years ago”. You... Read more... |
Album: John Grant - The Art of the LieWednesday, 12 June 2024
“I feel ashamed because I couldn’t become the man that you always hoped I’d become.” The line is repeated during “Father,” The Art of the Lie’s third track. After this, there’s “Mother and Son,” “Daddy” and the allusive “The Child Catcher”. Parent-... Read more... |
Album: John Cale - POPtical IllusionMonday, 10 June 2024
At 81, John Cale, an immensely prolific, wide-ranging and innovative musician, continues to take risks, making music that may not always be instantly appealing, but always true to an artist’s authentic path. Hot on the heels of Mercy (2023),... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Moving Away from the Pulsebeat - Post-Punk Britain 1977-1981Sunday, 09 June 2024
“Moving Away from the Pulsebeat” is the final track – barring the locked-groove return of the two-note guitar refrain from “Boredom” – of Buzzcocks’ March 1978 debut album, Another Music In A Different Kitchen. At five minutes 40 seconds it didn’t... Read more... |
