psychedelia
CD: OM – Advaitic SongsThursday, 19 July 2012
The sacred word 'om' is spoken in different ways according to its context. Elongated, it can be stretched over multiple syllables. As a musical unit, OM work with building blocks that are similarly minimal, yet drawn out for maximum effect. And like... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Sound System, Songs for the Lyons Cornerhouse, All Kinds of Highs, BananaramaSunday, 08 July 2012
Various Artists: Sound System - The Story of Jamaican MusicThomas H Green This is lovely, a box-set celebration of Jamaican music, marking 50 years of the country’s independence. In a brooks-no-argument fashion, it reminds the forgetful that the... Read more... |
CD: The Smashing Pumpkins - OceaniaSaturday, 16 June 2012
Naturally it couldn't be anything as straightforward as a mere album. Rather, Smashing Pumpkins supremo Billy Corgan would have it that Oceania is "an album within an album", and that its 13 songs form a subset of the ongoing Teargarden by... Read more... |
CD: The Cult - Choice of WeaponSunday, 20 May 2012
The end had long been nigh for The Cult, when it first came in 1995. It wasn’t just the booze and the arrival of grunge. It was as much that smart-arse Brit Pop was never going to have much truck with a man who called himself Wolf Child and wrote... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Denmark: SPOT Festival 2012, AarhusFriday, 11 May 2012
For a Brit navigating Denmark’s annual showcase of home-grown music, it’s impossible to eradicate thoughts of the Danish TV seen in the UK recently. Obviously, detecting Borgen-style intrigue while wandering around is unfeasible. But something else... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Small FacesSunday, 06 May 2012
Small Faces: The Decca Album (Deluxe Edition), From The Beginning (Deluxe Edition), The Immediate Album (Deluxe Edition), Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Deluxe Edition)Kieron Tylertheartsdesk’s reissues round-up is usually dedicated to three... Read more... |
CD: Haight-Ashbury 2 – The AshburysThursday, 03 May 2012
Choosing such a loaded name is wilful. Scottish trio Haight-Ashbury are going to be identified with psychedelic-era San Francisco whatever they do. Should they wish to extend their musical wings, diversions into drum and bass or metal aren’t going... Read more... |
CD: The Time And Space Machine - Taste The LazerTuesday, 03 April 2012
Richard Norris has been mucking about making strange noises and joining the dots (and sometime microdots) in electronic dance music’s shadowy regions for 25 years. He's had multiple incarnations, from NME writer to creator of proto-acid house with... Read more... |
theartsdesk video exclusive: BlacksmifTuesday, 28 February 2012
Londoner Yemi Olagbaiye is the model of a new generation musician for whom the dissolution of genre categories means not homogenisation but an opportunity for greater individuality. Olagbaiye grew up playing guitar music, then moved on to drum'n'... Read more... |
CD: Paper Dollhouse - A Box Painted BlackSaturday, 07 January 2012
One of last year’s finest surprises was the debut album from Rayographs, a fractured, psychedelic excursion that remains enthralling. Paper Dollhouse is the solo guise of Rayographs’s Astrud Steehouder. While A Box Painted Black isn’t quite the... Read more... |
2011: The Rave ReturnsFriday, 30 December 2011
Against all the odds, I find myself going into 2012 with a strong sense of optimism. And the reason? I am a born-again rave zealot. I saw it at Outlook Festival in Croatia, I saw it at Sónar in Barcelona, and I saw it at the Big Chill where I was... Read more... |
CD: Anchorsong - ChaptersSunday, 27 November 2011
It's understandable that people get put off leftfield dance music, given how much micro-genre delineation and dog-in-a-manger protectionism there can be in underground scenes. It can seem a shame sometimes, but then again, these are part and parcel... Read more... |
