new music reviews, news & interviews
peter.quinn |

For a beautiful treatment of Matsuo Bashō's celebrated haiku “A frog jumps in”, the dreamlike stream-of-consciousness of “I am a volcano”, the delightful, multilayered vocal harmonies in “Take this stone” and more, Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Oh Snap is my Album of the Year.

Kathryn Reilly |

A foreign-language release steeped in Catholicism isn’t exactly what you’d expect to top virtually every end-of-year album list. But Rosalía is famed for her uncompromising attitude to both genre and delivery. There’s the smallest soupçon of flamenco in here (see "La Rumba Del Perdón") but, largely, this is pop gone to the opera. 

Kieron Tyler
The stylish gentlemen pictured above are Crimson Earth, a band active from 1970 to 1976. Regardless of their longevity, the Dorset-based outfit…
howard.male
What is a documentary maker supposed to do when someone as gifted and empathic as Francis Whately has already covered most of the Bowie bases with…
Nick Hasted
Alabaster DePlume, aka Mancunian Gus Fairbairn, has been an antically charming performer, confounding unsuspecting crowds with tenderly comic…

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Liz Thomson
Authentically Mary
Katie Colombus
Finding strength not in reinvention but in turning inward to listen
Kieron Tyler
Home-counties prog rockers are collected in a box
Kieron Tyler
Intensity, jazz-oriented psychedelia and the joys of recontextualisation
Mark Kidel
A year of wondrous variety
Tim Cumming
One among a new wave of folk artists exploring their music's outer limits
Thomas H. Green
A seasonal slant on the most wide-ranging record reviews in the universe
Thomas H. Green
Alongside a whole heap of other excellent music from the last 12 months
Jonathan Geddes
The American trio's 20th anniversary celebration of 'Howl' did not always convince
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Softness, resilience and rewriting history in the most glorious possible way
Kieron Tyler
How the Edgar Froese-led trio were integral to inventing the future of music.
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A dubby trip hop and woozy neo-soul treat
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The Sunderland band played a variety of Christmas classics, with varying success
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The former child actor's past meets her present
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Hokey but entertaining seasonal barndance
Sebastian Scotney
Tasty harmonies from The Sunhouse Singers
joe.muggs
Strange for something so individual to sound so familiar - but they've done it
Kieron Tyler
Album of previously unissued BBC recordings is a valuable addition to the British jazz maverick’s catalogue
Tim Cumming
Seasonal classics and a handful of self-penned songs light up this quietly sophisticated set
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A perfect selection for sound system veterans, and newcomers too
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Gallic psychedelic pop that struggles to change gears
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A reminder of when hope and music rhymed
Kieron Tyler
The Icelandic singer-songwriter acknowledges that one’s own traditions can be enough
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Dancing to feed the spirit and the soul

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