New Music Reviews
World Metal Congress, Rich Mix, London review - celebration and critique of a global phenomenonMonday, 25 March 2019
The stereotypical image of heavy metal music suggests it exists in isolation from other musical styles. And while it is true that metal is distinct and re-invents its transgressive nature all the time, the genre has generated commercial success as well as a loyal and diverse global community. Read more... |
My Baby, Castle & Falcon, Birmingham review – the Dutch/Kiwi band start up the festival vibe early for 2019Monday, 25 March 2019
Balsall Heath’s Castle & Falcon is one of the newer live music venues in Birmingham, a city that finally seems to be undergoing something of a renaissance in these otherwise uncertain times. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Rema-Rema - Fond ReflectionsSunday, 24 March 2019
Until now, Rema-Rema’s only release was a 12-inch EP released in August 1980. It had hit shops after the band fell apart at the end of the previous year. Negotiations with 4AD, a new offshoot of the Beggar’s Banquet label, were underway towards the end of 1979 but then guitarist and future Adam and the Ants-man Marco Pirroni left. They rehearsed without him but called it a day in November. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Where The Girls Are Volume TenSunday, 17 March 2019
The US music trade weekly Cashbox chose a picture of the then-hot Diana Ross & the Supremes and Temptations joint enterprise for the cover of its 14 December 1968 issue. Read more... |
Yxng Bane, Brixton Academy review - all the fam on stageSaturday, 16 March 2019
There’s a wolf howl and Yxng Bane (pronounced Young Bane) jumps off a block on stage and his furry hooded coat flies open and the arena erupts in screams. The pit is filled almost exclusively with seventeen year old girls, excellently contoured and sporting chunky trainers and crop tops like it’s the early 2000s all over again, and he’s wearing nothing underneath except many hours at the gym. Read more... |
Loreena McKennitt, Royal Albert Hall review - making Celtic connectionsFriday, 15 March 2019
Having long been immersed in folk and world music and acoustically-oriented singer-songwriters, it’s a surprise to be given a CD of music by someone who’s never crossed your radar, especially... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The ResidentsSunday, 10 March 2019
Writing in 1980, the musician and musical theorist Chris Cutler said that “without the support and patronage of the culture-establishment, The Residents were able to exist, continue to exist, grow, find their public, hold that public – and expand it – until the pop establishment was forced to take notice.” He contended that as they were neither musicians or part of music sub-culture they “exemplified a new type [of development], specialising in nothing, turning their hands to anything: a... Read more... |
I'm Every Woman, JW3, London - a musical celebration of International Women's DaySaturday, 09 March 2019
In one of the award-winning club’s forays from its Camden Town home, Green Note welcomed International Women’s Day with a special one-off concert exploring and celebrating the many ages and stages of being a woman. Three generations of musicians were on stage at North London’s JW3. Read more... |
CD: Karen O and Danger Mouse - Lux PrimaSaturday, 09 March 2019
As collaborations go, it’s a doozy. Karen O’s signature vocals over Danger Mouse’s production – it was always going to pique interest. And Lux Prima does much to meet expectations, gorgeous cinematic soundscapes that flit between haunting and defiant. At its best, its damn near mesmerising. But for those expecting a genre-defying, structure-blowing new horizon, it falls just short. Read more... |
Kamasi Washington, Brixton Academy review - reaching transcendenceWednesday, 06 March 2019
There’s jazz, and there’s transcendent jazz. Kamasi Washington and his band are the latter. His group — who hail from Los Angeles and have played together since childhood, made waves in 2015 when they released The Epic, a three-hour concept album, followed up by Heaven and Earth, which similarly explored esoteric conceptions and abstruse riffs. Read more... |
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