CDs/DVDs
Graham Fuller
It’s an odalisque to arouse envy in Titian, Boucher, Ingres, or Manet.Filtered amber, white, and blue lights successively bathe Brigitte Bardot, crowned by that golden cloud, as she asks Michel Piccoli, her co-star and screen husband in Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Mépris (1963, Contempt), to evaluate her naked body’s flawless components while she inventories them post-coitally – feet, ankles, knees, thighs, behind, breasts, nipples, shoulders, arms, face, mouth, eyes, nose, ears.In assessing her economic power as a sexual commodity, however, Bardot (playing ex-typist Camille Javal but also herself) Read more ...
Liz Thomson
2020 was a cruel year for everybody but in addition to the horrors of Covid which included the loss of her compadre John Prine to the virus, Lucinda Williams endured damage to her Nashville home in a tornado and then, in November 2020, she suffered a stroke, which left her with impaired motor skills on her left side. Playing the guitar was no longer as natural as breathing and that would in turn make songwriting difficult. She needed a cane to walk. But within a year, she was road-ready and back in front of an audience though not (yet) playing guitar.So Stories from a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart is Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
The cover versions on Dream From The Deep Well include “I Know Who is Sick,” most familiar from the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Maken interpretation, and “Down by the Glenside,” which The Dubliners incorporated into their repertoire. The first opens the album, the second closes it. Between, amongst the original compositions, there is also an adaptation of Tim Buckley’s “I Must Have Been Blind.”Taking these as a way in to the fourth studio album from the UK-born but Irish singer-songwriter Brigid Mae Power is an understandable path to follow, but after Dream From The Deep Well concludes it Read more ...
Cheri Amour
Whether it’s the newly platinum tresses or the bubblegum production shimmer that make up Maisie Peters’ sophomore record, The Good Witch has a definite nod to The Wizard of Oz’s Glinda. Unlike that Good Witch of the North though, Peters’ career didn’t just pop off like a bubble. Still only 23 years old, Peters has actually been crafting songs for over a decade now.The West Sussex-born songwriter tested her craft in her teens busking on the streets of Brighton. Her stardust didn’t go unnoticed with chart-topper and MBE Ed Sheeran (perhaps, the Wizard of this story) signing Peters to his label Read more ...
Joe Muggs
There are whole books to be written – indeed, hopefully being written – on how hip hop has interacted with dance music culture in North America over the past decade plus. From the overblown mania of rap megastars jumping on David Guetta tracks in the heat of the EDM explosion at the start of the 2010s, to the far more sophisticated fusions done brilliantly by Beyoncé and slightly less so by Drake on big albums last year, it’s created some of the most ubiquitous sounds globally. And in the thick of the raves and festivals, Black American vernacular forms like trap, drill, New Jersey club and Read more ...
Nick Hasted
Pinned eyes stare from a frozen husk of a face as a clubber comes down, cradled high over London on a window-cleaner’s perch. Director WIZ’s 18-minute video for Flowered Up’s rave epic “Weekender” (1992) takes you on the E’d up odyssey of Little Joe (Lee Whitlock), from skinning up at work through clubland peaks to chilly aftermath.This BFI release pairs this perfect marriage of music, film and moment’s 2K remaster with Chloé Raunet’s new documentary I Am Weekender. Here Jeremy Deller dubs Weekender “the first meditation on rave culture”, Lynne Ramsay, who similarly caught clubbing’s hazy Read more ...
Guy Oddy
It’s some 40 years since Swans first made a name for themselves through the sheer volume of their live performances and provocative song titles like “Time is Money (Bastard)” and “Raping a Slave”. Irritated by this reputation though, it wasn’t long before band leader Michael Gira had turned down the volume somewhat (though not too much) and was bringing new sounds into their repertoire.This keenness not to stand still artistically has remained a constant throughout Swans’ history, and so it is no surprise that there is plenty that is new and interesting on The Beggar. Opening track, “The Read more ...
Guy Oddy
Like his fellow (occasional) Queen of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl, the death of Taylor Hawkins (as well as those of Mark Lanegan and Anthony Bourdain) has hit Josh Homme hard. Not one for reflective ballads, however, Homme’s reaction to these and other recent difficult events on In Times New Roman… often sounds close to an unfocused howl of misery.In addition to these personal tragedies, Homme has also had to deal with a messy divorce and subsequent family issues. More than the deaths of his friends, this is the subject that seems to have particularly provoked his ire on the Queens’ latest Read more ...
Joe Muggs
It’s easy to take Sigur Rós’s emotive force for granted. So ubiquitous has their 2005 “Hoppípolla” been on everything from talent shows to apocalyptic environmental collapse documentaries to lyrical scenes of birds in flight that it became the archetypal tear-jerking music of the modern era. Everything about the band was designed with weapons-grade effectiveness for omniemotional impact.Jón Þór “Jónsi” Birgisson’s voice is androgynous, and his made up “Hopelandic” language makes it seem like he’s singing folk songs of all cultures and none – almost as if he’s inhabiting a shared Read more ...
Mark Kidel
Synths has a special attraction in a world that aspires to modernity. Thirty years ago Algerian Rai, which combined elements of traditional North African music with rock, was characterised by the sweet and slight tinny sound of electronic keyboards. Slightly tweaked they could imitate the harmonics and microtonal universe of Arab music. Now they are all over Africa, as well as in the super-charged dabke wedding music of Omar Souleyman and many other places.Jantra is a star of underground dance music in Sudan. His first album has been pieced together very creatively from existing material Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Brit alt-indie outfit Django Django refuse easy categorisation and, as a result, during a decade-plus career, have never quite found their place with the wider public. Critical acclaim has come their way, and those who’ve kept an ear open know their catalogue contains gems (“First Light”, “Hail Bop” and “In Your Beat” spring to mind) as well as great remixes.Their fifth album is a 21-track monster, with multiple guests. An explicitly stated attempt to blast off in all directions, away from any usual working practices and templates, it’s mostly a success.Let’s get the classic music-journo- Read more ...
peter.quinn
From the celestial vocal harmonies of “Call The Tune” and insistent looped rhythms of “Omnipuss” (in which you feel the spirit of Miles’s On The Corner), to the Sly Stone-esque “Clear Water” and intensely vital “Vuma” (featuring South African vocalist and songwriter, Thandiswa, plus vibist and label mate, Joel Ross), this Blue Note debut from the singularly great multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello presents a treasure trove of musical memories.Like her 2018 album Ventriloquism, The Omnichord Real Book appears to channel a desire to transcend narrow genre Read more ...