CDs/DVDs
Album: Juniore - Trois, Deux, UnMonday, 09 September 2024
Although it takes seconds to discern that Juniore are French, a core inspiration appears to be the echoing surf-pop instrumentals of Californian studio band The Marketts, whose 1963 single "Out of Limits" became their most well-known track. Add in... Read more... |
Album: LL COOL J - THE FORCESaturday, 07 September 2024
This album only has one serious flaw: LL COOL J didn’t open it with “OK you can call it a comeback”. Sorry, cheap joke (if you didn’t know, his classic hit “Mama Said Knock You Out” starts with the lyric “Don’t call it a comeback!” and this, his... Read more... |
Album: Fat Dog - WOOFFriday, 06 September 2024
As a live sensation, Fat Dog have been the talk of the year. The London five-piece offer a dementedly energized night out. Performative concerts, tight as zip-wire but hedonistic and loose round the edges. They’ve developed a solid rep for sending... Read more... |
Album: Boston Manor - SundiverWednesday, 04 September 2024
Sundiver is the daylight chapter that follows Boston Manor’s 2022 introspective concept album Datura. The second half of the story continues with the same poetic, immersive style but offers a brighter and more substantial experience across the 11... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Laurel and Hardy - The Silent YearsTuesday, 03 September 2024
Though among the most successful film comedians of the early sound era, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s cinematic partnership had actually started in the early 1920s. It’s easy to overlook their silent short films, 15 of which are collected here.The... Read more... |
Album: Laurie Anderson - AmeliaMonday, 02 September 2024
Laurie Anderson is what Leonardo da Vinci would have hailed as una donna universale: inspired by science and technology, she's wide-ranging artist, a writer, film-maker, and explorer. She has a remarkable gift for story-telling, and her latest... Read more... |
Album: Lee Scratch Perry & Youth - Spaceship to MarsSaturday, 31 August 2024
Lee “Scratch” Perry, Reggae’s dub emperor and all-round sound magician died in 2021, after a 60-odd year career that is rumoured to have produced something in the realm of 2,000 albums and numerous additional tracks. So, perhaps it isn’t such a... Read more... |
Album: Mercury Rev - Born HorsesFriday, 30 August 2024
After the client has settled on the analyst’s couch, the lights are dimmed. Music sets the mood. A wordless vocal is accompanied by chimes. Cool saxophone breezes in. Sparse piano lines ripple like heat haze. Drums are understated, yet oddly... Read more... |
Album: Galliano - Halfway SomewhereThursday, 29 August 2024
Some performers are born to perform. It seems obvious, but it’s not a given in the music world. Some just want to make sound, some want to compose, not all are in it to connect directly to an audience. Rob Gallagher, however, is all about that... Read more... |
Album: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild GodWednesday, 28 August 2024
There’s a specific vocabulary that attends the arrival of a new Nick Cave album in the 21st century. Words like redemptive, cathartic, stark, unsparing are a crucial part of his music’s terroir. They’re as inescapable as the figure of death,... Read more... |
Album: Miguel Zenón - Golden CityMonday, 26 August 2024
Miguel Zenón’s Golden City (Miel Music) is an ambitious album. Its ten tracks and a postlude seek to portray “the beauty and resilience that give San Francisco its soul”.The timing of the release is fortuitous, coming just eight days after Kamala... Read more... |
Album: Fontaines DC - RomanceSaturday, 24 August 2024
Whether it’s maturing or selling out, the tendency for rock bands to soften and smooth down their sound is understandable and, for fans, usually dispiriting – edge, purity, and strangeness evaporate as the dollars roll in. With their fourth album... Read more... |
