fri 15/08/2025

New Music Reviews

The Flaming Lips, Brixton Academy review - an explosion of joy

Nick Hasted

“Thanks for being in here with us tonight,” Wayne Coyne begins, “when you could be outside with the universe shining down on us.” Having clearly experienced a pre-gig epiphany from the unexceptional South London sky, The Flaming Lips singer seems primed to take us all higher.

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Prom 66: In the Name of the Earth review - John Luther Adams's ambitious choral spectacular

Bernard Hughes

This is the kind of thing that the Proms does well – indeed, where else would it get an outing?

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Slade - Feel The Noize

Kieron Tyler

Original UK pressings of Slade’s Seventies mega-hit singles like “Coz I Luv You”, “Everyday”, “Gudbuy T’Jane” and “Mama Weer all Crazee Now” sell for between £1 and £5 if they’re in decent shape. If a copy is needed to listen to, there’s little need to fork out more than £2.

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Michael Rother, Jazz Cafe review - classic Krautrock from the Neu! and Harmonia legend

Tim Cumming

Neu!, Neu! 2 and Neu! 75.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Tunnelvision - Watching the Hydroplanes

Kieron Tyler

A ghostly voice pronounces “there’s no need to make the sepulchre white.” Following this declaration, what sounds like an ocarina wails mournfully over spindly guitar, a sonorous bass guitar and circular, heartbeat drumming. Tunnelvision’s “Whitened Sepulchre” isn’t a happy-go-lucky look at life.

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theartsdesk on Vinyl 52: Yardbirds, Fad Gadget, Spoon, Cate le Bon, Cabaret Voltaire and more

Thomas H Green

Welcome to the latest edition of theartsdesk on Vinyl, the monthly online musical resource that knows no genre boundaries as it treks through every release on plastic that it can find.

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Duff McKagan, Islington Assembly Hall review – Guns N' Roses bassist revels in the spotlight

Ellie Porter

Guns N’ Roses members do love a side project, from Slash’s Snakepit and Conspirators to Axl’s stint as AC/DC frontman.

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Peaches, Royal Festival Hall review - blissful anarchy

Katherine Waters

“Thank you for making us so fucking special!” It’s the end the set and both adjectives are appropriate. “Yes I had to say fucking special,” Peaches yells, combative and loved.

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CD: Whitney - Forever Turned Around

Owen Richards

As days get shorter and the sun tucks itself behind a blanket of clouds, Whitney return with the bittersweet sound of summer ending. Forever Turned Around is the long-awaited follow up to 2016’s Light Upon the Lake, and the band have lost none of their melodic magic.

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Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Dingwalls review - What's going on? Good question

Liz Thomson

There’s something truly sad and dispiriting about listening to an artist trash their back catalogue and absolutely totally ruin their greatest song, especially when that song has acquired anthemic status and been chosen to be preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry.

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