New Music Reviews
EFG London Jazz Festival round-up review - great moments in London's tiny clubsTuesday, 22 November 2022
There are moments when a very great jazz musician makes her or his ideas flow naturally, unstoppably and with complete conviction. And when one is in a tiny venue and can feel the joyous intensity with which every single person in the room is listening… there are few if any musical experiences that can match it. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Goin' Round In My Mind - The Merrell Fankhauser AnthologySunday, 20 November 2022
Merrell Fankhauser's first outing on record was with Californian instrumental surf band The Impacts, who issued their sole album in 1963. Thereafter, he was the prime mover in an unbroken succession of pop, psychedelic and freak-rock bands. His first solo album arrived in 1976. Read more... |
Native Rebel showcase, EartH review - jazz community, psychedelia and iffy acousticsFriday, 18 November 2022
Quite how Shabaka Hutchings manages to be Shabaka Hutchings is one of the great mysteries of modern culture, and one that could probably teach us all a lot of value to society if we ever worked it out. From the devastating energy of The Comet Is Coming and Sons Of Kemet to the gentlest of shakuhachi experiments posted near daily on his social media, he consistently pushes the boundaries of style and genre. Read more... |
Album: Neil Young with Crazy Horse - World RecordWednesday, 16 November 2022
When most of us fall victim to things beyond our control, the impulse is to howl into the abyss, scream to the stars, wave our fist at clouds. Most of us, of course, aren’t Neil Young. Read more... |
The Bevis Frond, The Lexington review - stunning psychedelic rockMonday, 14 November 2022
Very little points to anything specific. Parts of “Superseded” nod towards the 1968 Pretty Things’s track “Eagle’s Son”. Elsewhere in the set, a circular bass guitar figure is reminiscent of a motif from Spirit’s “1984”. But for a band so explicitly looking to rock’s psychedelic lineage, the influences are effortlessly subsumed into the whole to become mostly invisible foundations rather than noticeable elements of the superstructure. Read more... |
Courtney Barnett, Brighton Dome review - canny, poetic singer shows she can rock out with the bestMonday, 14 November 2022
There’s a disconnect between Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett on record and in concert. On record, especially on her latest album, her dryly-stated, touching emotional lyricism is to the fore, but in the live arena you’re as likely to be presented with a scorching rock goddess, playing with her fingers and no plectrum. Read more... |
Franz Ferdinand, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - a homecoming with all the hitsSunday, 13 November 2022
There was something devilish about Alex Kapranos at this homecoming gig, and not simply due to the blood red shirt the Franz Ferdinand frontman was wearing. Throughout the night the singer would cajole and conduct the crowd with finger-pointing flair, as if tempting them to join him on the dark side, and when he spoke it was to demand more from the audience like a preacher zealously seeking extra funding for a mega church. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Ride - 4 EPsSunday, 13 November 2022
“When we started out we were really just an amalgamation of three bands – the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and the House of Love,” said Ride’s Andy Bell in 2012. The arrival of the literally-named double album 4 EPs – collecting their first four EPs in one place – brings a chance to ponder this. Read more... |
Barbara Dickson, Cecil Sharp House review - intimate and beautifully pacedFriday, 11 November 2022
Cecil Sharp House, citadel of folk music, finally resounded last night to the mellifluous tones of Barbara Dickson whose distinguished career began at the Howff Folk Club, Dunfermline, in the heady days of the 1960s folk revival. Read more... |
PJ Harvey - Orlam: In Conversation with Max Porter, The Old Market, HoveFriday, 11 November 2022
In an intimate evening with Polly Jean Harvey MBE, the double Mercury Prize winning artist sang an altogether different kind of tune than you might expect. Reading from her new book of poetry, Orlam, a coming of age story about a not-girl-not-boy, set within the changing seasons of a mythical Dorset landscape, the songs we heard were odd little twists of nursery rhymes, whisper-sung in a strong West Country accent. Read more... |
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