new music reviews, news & interviews
Jonathan Geddes |
A new look and new vibe for Grant-Lee Phillips at this pared-back performance, part of the Celtic Connections festival that takes over Glasgow for a couple of weeks every January and February.
Ibi Keita |
I’ve grown apart from trap as a genre over the years, which is exactly why DON’T BE DUMB caught me off guard in the best way. This album feels like the kind that rewards time and attention, one you keep coming back to and notice something new with each listen.
Kieron Tyler
The opening track – “Ālibek’agnimi” (“አልበቃኝም” in its original title) – is a cool, close-to six-minute soul instrumental on which the organ…
Sebastian Scotney
I have enjoyed Scenes From Above (Blue Note) more than any other album from Julian Lage since Modern Lore (Mack Avenue, 2018). There are many reasons…
Thomas H. Green
Thrash metal’s “big four”, the ones who originally set the genre rolling, are, famously, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. These are American…
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
Thomas H. Green
London band offer offer pithy wordage and light musical skronk
Kieron Tyler
When less craft would add impact
Guy Oddy
East Midlands’ punk-funkers have plenty to say as the house burns down
Kieron Tyler
The 1982 debut album from South London musical free spirits Clive and Mark Ives
Tim Cumming
Ambient Sufi songs for inner space
Graham Fuller
The Isle of Wight's finest flex their musical muscles
Ellie Roberts
All-consuming pop perfection
Kieron Tyler
Unaffected Doors homage from the most unlikely band
Ibi Keita
Never enough hype, never enough volume, never enough Turnstile
Kieron Tyler
Unadorned chronicle of the Brian Jones years
Tom Carr
Second album from Canadian metallers edged ahead with its graceful yet heavy tones
Sebastian Scotney
Natural harmonics ring out subtly, gloriously, magically
peter.quinn
From haiku to heartstrings: the year's essential vocal jazz recordings
Kathryn Reilly
Imbued with duende, this stellar masterpiece sets the bar sky-high
Kieron Tyler
Fresh slants on the known, in a year when Yeah Man, It's Bloody Heavy!! was the most startling archive release
howard.male
Documentary adds little to what we know about British rock's greatest solo star
Nick Hasted
Saxophonist's beautiful, bittersweet melodies confront a time of war
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
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
the future of arts journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
latest in today
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts…
Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab caused an international outcry at last year's Venice film festival – a fact that the Oscar-…
A new look and new vibe for Grant-Lee Phillips at this pared-back performance, part of the Celtic Connections festival that takes over…
Juraj Herz’s acclaimed dark comedy The Cremator proved too much for post-1968 censors, the film withdrawn from circulation in 1973 and…
After the myriad intricacies and moodswings of Janáček's The Makropulos Case on Tuesday and Thursday - I was lucky to catch both…
What a journey Jamie Eastlake’s play has had: his stage adaptation (which he also directs) of Jonathan Tulloch’s book The Season Ticket…
Marketed as “City Noir” to begin with, this programme title was switched to “Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 4” closer to the off, perhaps…
Director Bill Barclay’s new collaboration with the Gesualdo Six – commissioned by St Martin-In-The Fields for its 300th anniversary –…
In the long slide from its imperial economic might, it’s hard to make a case for finding a place for “The UK” and ‘“World-leading” in the…
I’ve grown apart from trap as a genre over the years, which is exactly why DON’T BE DUMB caught me off guard in the best way. This album…
Most read
If any readers can still remember 2024’s first iteration of Red Eye, they will have an approximate idea of the kind of things they can…
State of Statelessness is the brainchild of the Drung Tibetan Filmmakers’ Collective based in Dharamshala, home to the Dalai Lama and…
After the myriad intricacies and moodswings of Janáček's The Makropulos Case on Tuesday and Thursday - I was lucky to catch both…
In the 80s, An Audience With... gave a television studio to an actor who then recounted stories culled from a life in entertainment. The…
For his latest pick’n’mix sortie into the world of the women’s picture, François Ozon has gone back to the 1930s and a popular play of the…
I’ve grown apart from trap as a genre over the years, which is exactly why DON’T BE DUMB caught me off guard in the best way. This album…
Director Bill Barclay’s new collaboration with the Gesualdo Six – commissioned by St Martin-In-The Fields for its 300th anniversary –…
What a journey Jamie Eastlake’s play has had: his stage adaptation (which he also directs) of Jonathan Tulloch’s book The Season Ticket…
In the long slide from its imperial economic might, it’s hard to make a case for finding a place for “The UK” and ‘“World-leading” in the…
Marketed as “City Noir” to begin with, this programme title was switched to “Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 4” closer to the off, perhaps…