1990s
CD: Underworld - DRIFT Series 1Saturday, 26 October 2019
Underworld’s first album in three years comes in two versions: a seven-CD box set with a disc of Blu-ray visuals and an 80-page full-colour book or a stand-alone ten-track sampler, which is also included in the gargantuan release. As theartsdesk has... Read more... |
Richard Hawley, Barrowland, Glasgow - black clad crooner's songs remain full of atmosphere and heartThursday, 17 October 2019
When Richard Hawley arrived onstage, he had a confession to make. “I like to talk”, he declared, before adding “and play rock n’ roll”. Both were delivered in ample supply during the ensuing performance, the black clad quiff wearing troubadour a... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dip - Ḣ-Camp Meets Lo-FiSunday, 13 October 2019
The temptation with the 20th anniversary reissue of Ḣ-Camp Meets Lo-Fi (Explosion Picture Score) is to look for traces of what came earlier and pointers towards what would come in Iceland’s music. The album was credited to Dip, a collaboration... Read more... |
CD: 808 State - Transmission SuiteSaturday, 05 October 2019
Prior to the UK dance music explosion of summer 1988, house and techno were American micro-scenes, geographically restricted to Chicago, Detroit and New York. Small coteries showed interest in the UK, but few thought of making the stuff. Mancunian... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Daisy AgeSunday, 29 September 2019
In the lyrics of 1989’s “Doin’ Our Own Dang”, Jungle Brothers’ Mike D noted his combo were “Breaking the beat others wished they broke.” Going further, he acknowledged “Cause you’re trying to feel what’s on my reel to reel.” Jungle Brothers... Read more... |
The Intelligence Park, Linbury Theatre review - baroque to the point of obscurityThursday, 26 September 2019
Could Gerald Barry's first opera really be as enervating in the Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre as it seemed nearly 30 years ago at its Almeida Music Festival premiere? Since then we've become accustomed to wonder at, even love, the Barry style... Read more... |
The Sisters of Mercy, Roundhouse review - hits delivered from the darknessMonday, 23 September 2019
While bands such as The Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees and, especially, Bauhaus had a hand in inventing goth music at the start of the Eighties, it was The Sisters of Mercy who defined it. Their combination of black clad cowboy shtick,... Read more... |
City on a Hill, Sky Atlantic review - power, corruption and larceny in 1990s BostonThursday, 19 September 2019
Connoisseurs of gnarly Boston-based crime sagas like The Town, The Departed and Black Mass will quickly find themselves at home in this sleaze-ridden new show, made by Showtime and brought to us by Sky Atlantic. Created and largely written by Chuck... Read more... |
Edwyn Collins, Concorde 2, Brighton review - enjoyable evening of tight guitar popFriday, 13 September 2019
In March of this year Edwyn Collins released his ninth studio album, Badbea, his fourth since two life-altering cerebral haemorrhages derailed him in 2005. It’s a vivacious collection that runs the gamut of what guitar pop can be, from acoustic... Read more... |
What Girls Are Made Of, Soho Theatre review - euphoric gig-theatreFriday, 13 September 2019
It’s now Edinburgh Fringe transfer season in London, but here’s one they made earlier: Cora Bissett’s Fringe First-winning autobiographical play from the 2018 Festival about her time in 1990s indie band Darlingheart. Though the broad shape of this... Read more... |
Edinburgh International Festival 2019: JARV IS review - Britpop legend still deliversSaturday, 24 August 2019
”Cunts Are Still”. Well, that got your attention, didn’t it? Not my words, merely the title of one of JARV IS’s new tracks. In case you didn’t get it, JARV IS is a play on words and the name of given to Pulp frontman and founder Jarvis Cocker’s... Read more... |
Cindy Sherman: #untitled, BBC Four review - portrait of an enigmaMonday, 29 July 2019
Cindy Sherman predicted the selfie, so goes the claim. From our current standpoint, it is all too easy to analyse her many hundreds of photographic self-portraits made since the late 1970s as cultural forebears of the digital medium. What this BBC... Read more... |
