fri 25/07/2025

New Music Reviews

Reissue CDs Weekly: Small Faces

Kieron Tyler

 

Small Faces Here Comes the Nice The Immediate YearsSmall Faces: Here Comes the Nice - The Immediate Years

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CD: The Gloaming - The Gloaming

peter Quinn

Musically, lyrically, dramatically, on every count this debut album from The Gloaming is exceptional. Four-fifths of the group - Clare fiddle player Martin Hayes, Chicago guitarist Dennis Cahill, the Cúil Aodha sean nós singer Iarla Ó Lionaird and Dublin-born hardanger player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh - are all well-known figures within traditional Irish music.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Jackson C. Frank

Kieron Tyler

 

Jackson C. FrankJackson C. Frank: Jackson C. Frank

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Gwilym Simcock, Kings Place

Matthew Wright

Gwilym Simcock, pianist, composer, and jazz-classical crossover specialist, is releasing two albums this year, and at Kings Place last night, the audience had a taste of both. An evening billed as the launch of Instrumation, Simcock’s new album of original suites, became a kind of Simcock tasting menu. He played half of Instrumation, which was officially launched, and sections from his second album of 2014, Reverie at Schloss Elmau.

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Landes, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place

David Nice

May this be a New Year sign and a symbol of a revitalized concert scene to come: an eclectic programme of dazzling range to draw in the new pick-and-mix generation, full of segues that worked and executed with the right balance of poetry and in-your-face exuberance by a crack team of young players.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Love, Poetry and Revolution

Kieron Tyler

 

love poetry and revolution Various Artists: Love, Poetry and Revolution

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Album of the Year: Wayne Shorter Quartet - Without A Net

peter Quinn

In jazz, 2013 belonged to Wayne Shorter. In recognition of a remarkable six-decade career as a saxophonist, educator and composer, Shorter, who turned 80 in August last year, received a lifetime achievement award from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz – only the second time in the Institute’s history that it has bestowed such an honour (Quincy Jones being the first recipient in 1996).

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Reissue CDs Weekly: The Best of 2013

Kieron Tyler

Despite his nickname and habit of doing a bunk, George “Shadow” Morton was one of America’s highest-profile and most distinctive producers and songwriters. He was responsible for shaping the sound and style of The Shangri-Las, Janis Ian, Vanilla Fudge and The New York Dolls. Until the release of Sophisticated Boom Boom!! – The Shadow Morton Story, the musical side of his story had not been told. A consummate collection, this significant release was pulled off with style.

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Queer as Pop, Channel 4 / The Joy of Abba, BBC Four

Tom Birchenough

Queer as Pop (****) was as much about social as musical history, and Nick Vaughan-Smith’s film told its story with a combination of outstanding archive material and some incisive interviewees, the archive taking fractionally more of the weight. Subtitled “From the Gay Scene to the Mainstream”, it started loosely in the Sixties, then jumped back and forth across the Atlantic until the present day as the story demanded.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Beachwood Sparks, John’s Children

Kieron Tyler


Beachwood Sparks: Desert SkiesBeachwood Sparks: Desert Skies

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