mon 22/09/2025

New Music reviews, news & interviews

Album: Mulatu Astatke - Mulatu Plays Mulatu

Sebastian Scotney

The tour by the 81-year-old Mulatu Astatke which is currently under way and this album seem to be giving off different messages. Coming to London on 16 and 17 November, it is being marketed as a farewell. Last night's show at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels had lured a full house through being billed as “his very last concert on Belgian soil". Paris’s Salle Pleyel mentions “une grande tournée d’adieu”.

Music Reissues Weekly: Sly and the Family Stone - The First Family: Live At Winchester Cathedral 1967

Kieron Tyler

The remarkable The First Family: Live At Winchester Cathedral 1967 represents the first-ever release of a previously unheard recording of a 26 March 1967 Sly and the Family Stone live show. It is the earliest document of Sly and Co. to surface.

Album: Robert Plant - Saving Grace

Mark Kidel

Robert Plant is magnificently well-equipped to shine as a consummate musical survivor: not only has his voice kept its magic, with a range from...

Brìghde Chaimbeul, Round Chapel review -...

Kieron Tyler

Hackney’s Round Chapel is an appropriate venue. Scottish smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul opens her set with “Dùsgadh/Waking.” It has the spirit...

First Person: Musician ALA.NI on how thoughts of...

ALA NI

I’ve never thought of myself as a political artist. I write about love. The tender bits, the messy bits, the heartbreak that rearranges a life. That’...

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Album: NewDad - Altar

Graham Fuller

The hard-gigging trio yearns for old Ireland – and blasts music biz exploitation

Album: The Divine Comedy - Rainy Sunday Afternoon

Guy Oddy

Neil Hannon takes stock, and the result will certainly keep his existing crowd happy

Music Reissues Weekly: Robyn - Robyn 20th-Anniversary Edition

Kieron Tyler

Landmark Swedish pop album hits shops one more time

Album: Twenty One Pilots - Breach

Tom Carr

Ohio mainstream superstar duo wrap up their 10 year narrative

Album: Ed Sheeran - Play

Thomas H Green

A mound of ear displeasure to add to the global superstar's already gigantic stockpile

Album: Motion City Soundtrack - The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World

Ellie Roberts

A solid return for the emo veterans

Album: Baxter Dury - Allbarone

Kathryn Reilly

The don diversifies into disco

Album: Yasmine Hamdan - I Remember I Forget بنسى وبتذكر

Kieron Tyler

Paris-based Lebanese electronica stylist reacts to current-day world affairs

theartsdesk on Vinyl 92: Marianne Faithful, Crayola Lectern, UK Subs, Black Lips, Stax, Dennis Bovell and more

Thomas H Green

The biggest, best record reviews in the known universe

Blondshell, Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow review - woozy rock with an air of nonchalance

Jonathan Geddes

The singer's set dripped with cool, if not always individuality

Ganavya, Barbican review - low-key spirituality

Mark Kidel

Communion and intimacy with diminishing returns

Music Reissues Weekly: Chiswick Records 1975-1982 - Seven Years at 45 RPM

Kieron Tyler

Triple-album 50th-anniversary celebration of the mould-breaking British independent label

Album: Josh Ritter - I Believe in You, My Honeydew

Thomas H Green

The alt-country singer's latest isn't consistent but does hit highs

Album: David Byrne - Who is the Sky?

Mark Kidel

Born to be weird

Edinburgh Psych Fest 2025 review - eclectic and experimental

Miranda Heggie

Underground gems and established acts in this multi-genre, multi-venue day long festival

Supersonic Festival 2025, Birmingham review - a deep dive into the spectacularly weird and very wonderful

Guy Oddy

Festival season comes to an end with a celebration of the freakiest of the musical underground

Album: Faithless - Champion Sound

Thomas H Green

Three decades into their career the perennial dance duo nail a lengthy but likeable set

Album: Saint Etienne - International

Kieron Tyler

British pop institution’s final communiqué is an unalloyed winner

Album: Brad Mehldau - Ride into the Sun

Sebastian Scotney

A sincere tribute to Elliott Smith

Music Reissues Weekly: The Outer Limits - Just One More Chance

Kieron Tyler

Exhaustive anthology unearths the full story of the Sixties mod-pop band from Leeds

theartsdesk Radio Show 37 - Pete Lawrence of the Big Chill discusses the power of protest music and his new project This Is The Fire

Peter Culshaw

Talking to cultural activist Pete Lawrence – camp outs, singalongs and saving the world

Album: Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend

Ellie Roberts

Short but not so sweet

Album: CMAT - EURO-COUNTRY

Kathryn Reilly

The flame-headed chanteuse with the comic touch hits pop perfection

Album: The Hives - The Hives Forever, Forever The Hives

Guy Oddy

No power ballads, no acoustic interludes - just speedy rock’n’roll all the way

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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