New Music Reviews
theartsdesk in Reykjavík: Iceland Airwaves 2014Sunday, 16 November 2014
A slim 69-year-old man in a rumpled sports jacket looking like a gone-to-seed history lecturer with the colour-clash dress sense of Michael Portillo is gripping a microphone so hard it’s a wonder it hasn’t been crushed. He is barking lyrics in Icelandic so gruffly that this could be any Celtic or Nordic language. Read more... |
The Kooks, O2 Academy, BirminghamSunday, 16 November 2014
Brighton’s guitar pop outfit, the Kooks have been churning out largely pleasant but fairly bland songs since their 2006 debut Inside In/Inside Out. Recent album Listen, however, has suggested that things might be changing. Less evident, but not entirely banished, are the unremarkable strum-alongs, with a rawer and funkier groove edging its way into a few of their tunes with some success. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Velvet UndergroundSunday, 16 November 2014
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Jazz Voice, Barbican/Jazz on 3, Ronnie Scott'sSaturday, 15 November 2014
Is it just me, or do Guy Barker's orchestral charts for Jazz Voice get more refined, more nuanced, more richly detailed every year? Effectively becoming earworm central last night, the Barbican resounded with tintinnabulating glockenspiels, delicately plucked harp strings, punchy horn charts and luxuriant strings, as Barker sprinkled his arranging magic over the customary epoch-spanning celebration of anniversaries, birthdays and milestones stretching back from 2014. Read more... |
Kate Tempest, The Haunt, BrightonFriday, 14 November 2014
Even before Kate Tempest appears, it’s clear this isn’t going to be an evening of slam poetry jamming. Her band walk on, three guys who attack a line-up of electronic kit with vigour, one wielding drumsticks, alongside Anth Clarke, a striking black female MC, who looks like a 2007 nu-raver in baseball cap, white sunglasses and a crop top. They whip up a hammering electro racket before cutting out abruptly when Tempest walks on, all smiles, flowing blonde locks and a low-key black T-shirt. Read more... |
Susheela Raman, Jazz CafeWednesday, 12 November 2014
If a band gets up and says “We are only going to be playing songs from our new album, not actually released here yet” normally most audiences would groan mightily. But somehow Susheela Raman has educated her audience to expect the unexpected. Her somewhat wayward musical path has included Indo-jazz, rock covers, Tamil voodoo music and introspective songs. It has not been one that a manager or record company would have recommended. They tend to like more of the same. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Cyril Davies, Girls With GuitarsSunday, 09 November 2014
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Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 12Friday, 07 November 2014
The voice is unmistakably Icelandic. Fluting and dancing around the notes, the words it carries are broken into segments which don’t respect syllables. Although singing in English, Hildur Kristín Stefánsdóttir hasn’t sacrificed her Icelandic intonation. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Love, The Red CrayolaSunday, 02 November 2014
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Sheryl Crow, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 01 November 2014
Sheryl Crow doesn’t do genres. She may have recorded her first authentically country album, Feels Like Home, in Nashville recently, but for her, the tag seems to mean little. “It’s country, but it just sounds like a Sheryl Crow record,” she told the BluesFest audience last night, and whenever the subject came up afterwards, she put finger-wiggling inverted commas around the term “country”. Read more... |
The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground Super Deluxe Edition
The Cyril Davies' All-Stars: Radio Sounds of Cyril Davies Various Artists: Girls With Guitars
Love: Love Songs The Red Crayola: The Parable of the Arable LandPages
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