sat 25/05/2013

New Music reviews, news & interviews

 

CD: Laura Marling - Once I Was an Eagle

Lisa-Marie Ferla

I suppose that whether Once I Was An Eagle appeals may depend on whether you consider "underwhelming" a synonym for "disappointing". It's the word that surfaces most, the more I listen to the fourth album from newly Los Angeles-resident Laura Marling; but I use it to conjure the lack of flashiness, of anything overpowering about the record rather than for its negative connotations.Neither respect nor acclaim for the young songwriter has ever faltered, even in those circles where those she once...

Neko Case/Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Village Underground, London

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Neko Case wasn't about to launch a Yeah Yeah Yeahs-style pre-emptive strike aimed at the Village Underground's amateur camera-wielders. She doesn't mind the odd photograph, she said; just don't try to film her. It makes her feel a little uncomfortable. Didn't we all use to just remember?She's 23 now, with the sort of voice that can instantly hush the chattiest Shoreditch crowdAly Spaltro (below right), the songwriter better known as Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, remembers. It's in her songs, and in...

Steve Earle, Royal Festival Hall

Tim Cumming

Steve Earle is country music's great polymath - short story writer, playwright, novelist, activist, actor, oh yes, and singer and songwriter of some...

CD: Tricky - False Idols

Mark Kidel

Tricky left Massive Attack, the Bristol collective who provided tbe soundtrack to many a shopping therapy expedition, and went on to make one of the...

CD: British Electric Foundation - Music of...

Joe Muggs

It took nine years between the first and second instalments of this series, and another 22 years to make the third. And that's one of the least...

CD: Stooshe - London with the Lights On

Thomas H Green

Mouthy London trio's debut is loaded with enjoyable bawdiness and attitude

Lubomyr Melnyk, Village Underground

Kieron Tyler

The pioneer of continuous music astonishes while Bon Iver’s preferred artist Gregory Euclide paints live, on stage

Reissue CDs Weekly: Scott Walker

Kieron Tyler

Easy listening and continental European intellectualism combine on the early albums from pop’s wilful auteur

CD: Jamie Cullum - Momentum

Peter Quinn

Stylistic mash-ups of album number six result in perfect pop

Rock ‘n’ Roll Britannia, BBC Four

Kieron Tyler

The entertaining tale of the protracted birth of a British rock scene which took America on at its own game

CD: Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Joe Muggs

Do YOU believe the hype?

Tomorrow's World, ICA

James Williams

Good things happen when one of Air collaborates with New Young Pony Clubber

CD: The National - Trouble Will Find Me

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Indie rockers go from strength to strength on album number six

CD: Club 8 - Above The City

Thomas H Green

Long-standing Swedish duo produce enjoyable if hit-and-miss electro-pop

Beware of Mr Baker

Graham Fuller

Documentary paints the legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker as an irresponsible genius

The Jim Jones Revue, The Sebright Arms

Garth Cartwright

Old school rockers mix Little Richard and The Cramps to pack a ferocious punch

CD: Steve Martin and Edie Brickell - Love Has Come For You

Fisun Güner

A captivating and beautiful album featuring songs that are strongly narrative-driven

Eska/Spiro, The Foundling Museum

Tim Cumming

Minimalism and systems music meets 18th-century folk and dance tunes

Reissue CDs Weekly: Sun Records

Kieron Tyler

A mind-blowing journey to rock ‘n’ roll’s ground zero with Sam Phillips and some of the most joyful music ever recorded

Extract: Mariachi, Machetes, Meths - Manu Chao in Mexico

Peter Culshaw

In an exclusive excerpt from his new book on the militant French rock icon, the author finds himself embroiled in drug gang outrages

CD: Agnetha Fältskog – A

Kieron Tyler

Less-than-wonderful return from one quarter of ABBA

CD: Primal Scream - More Light

Russ Coffey

Has Bobby Gillespie come up with the sound of austerity Britain?

SPOT Festival 2013, Aarhus, Denmark

Kieron Tyler

A beer-enhanced taxi, bad-trip vibes, folk-inclined warmth, coal-hole quietness and Iceland’s hot tip at Denmark’s showcase of Scandinavian music

CD: Savages - Silence Yourself

Lisa-Marie Ferla

They have the presence and the manifestos - but do they have the songs?

Sinéad O’Connor, The Dome, Brighton

Thomas H Green

The iconoclastic Irish singer remains a must-see in concert

The Knife, Roundhouse

Kieron Tyler

Sweden’s art-dance electro-tricksters turn the idea of a live show inside out

theartsdesk at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival

Nick Hasted

Van Morrison leads the charge of perfect jazz on some summer days

CD: Pat Metheny - Tap: The Book of Angels, Vol 20

Peter Quinn

Brilliant first meeting between the jazz guitarist and the avant-gardist

The Big Reunion, Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Reality TV and washed-up '90s pop creates a harmonious match. No, seriously

Footnote: a brief history of new music in Britain

New music has swung fruitfully between US and UK influences for half a century. The British charts began in 1952, initially populated by crooners and light jazz. American rock'n'roll livened things up, followed by British imitators such as Lonnie Donegan and Cliff Richard. However, it wasn't until The Beatles combined rock'n'roll's energy with folk melodies and Motown sweetness that British pop found a modern identity outside light entertainment. The Rolling Stones, amping up US blues, weren't far behind, with The Who and The Kinks also adding a unique Englishness. In the mid-Sixties the drugs hit - LSD sent pop looking for meaning. Pastoral psychedelia bloomed. Such utopianism couldn't last and prog rock alongside Led Zeppelin's steroid riffing defined the early Seventies. Those who wanted it less blokey turned to glam, from T Rex to androgynous alien David Bowie.

sex_pistolsA sea change arrived with punk and its totemic band, The Sex Pistols, a reaction to pop's blandness and much else. Punk encouraged inventiveness and imagination on the cheap but, while reggae made inroads, the most notable beneficiary was synth pop, The Human League et al. This, when combined with glam styling, produced the New Romantic scene and bands such as Duran Duran sold multi-millions and conquered the US.

By the mid-Eighties, despite U2's rise, the British charts were sterile until acid house/ rave culture kicked the doors down for electronica, launching acts such as the Chemical Brothers. The media, however, latched onto indie bands with big tunes and bigger mouths, notably Oasis and Blur – Britpop was born.

By the millennium, both scenes had fizzled, replaced by level-headed pop-rockers who abhorred ostentation in favour of homogenous emotionality. Coldplay were the biggest. Big news, however, lurked in underground UK hip hop where artists adapted styles such as grime, dubstep and drum & bass into new pop forms, creating breakout stars Dizzee Rascal and, more recently, Tinie Tempah. The Arts Desk's wide-ranging new music critics bring you overnight reviews of every kind of music, from pop to unusual world sounds, daily reviews of new releases and downloads, and unique in-depth interviews with celebrated musicians and DJs, plus the quickest ticket booking links. Our writers include Peter Culshaw, Joe Muggs, Howard Male, Thomas H Green, Graeme Thomson, Kieron Tyler, Russ Coffey, Bruce Dessau, David Cheal & Peter Quinn

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