New Music Reviews
Jake Bugg, KokoThursday, 15 November 2012
Billy Bragg recently described Jake Bugg as “a teenager with an ear for a good tune and a chip on his shoulder". He was referring to Bugg’s evocations of council estate life, which have invited comparisons to the Arctic Monkeys. Others have sneered at the youngster’s friendship with Noel Gallagher and his unashamedly retro sound. But what’s wrong with being an angry young man with a guitar? Read more...
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Kurt Elling and Sheila Jordan, Queen Elizabeth HallThursday, 15 November 2012
Just occasionally an artist hits the truth of the song in such spectacular fashion that it makes you feel with ever greater intensity what it means to be human. Read more... |
Cage Rattling, King's PlaceWednesday, 14 November 2012
In 1991, the Basque performance artist Esther Ferrar wrote a letter to modern music’s inventive genius, John Cage, on the future of anarchism. Read more... |
Herbie Hancock Plugged In, Royal Festival HallTuesday, 13 November 2012
At the beginning of last night's show, Herbie Hancock looked like he was going to perform with the dignity and serenity befitting a 72-year-old with some 50 years playing experience. The improvisation that launched from a base of Wayne Shorter's “Footprints” was elegant, charming, tasteful and often very beautiful. Read more... |
Black Top #5, Café OtoTuesday, 13 November 2012
For the way it combined mercurial, on-the-fly interplay, seismic textural shifts and listening of the highest order, this gig was remarkable. In the space of two continuous sets there wasn't a longueur to be found, such was the incredible union of Black Top #5's boundary-pushing improv and fine-tuned musicianship. Read more... |
Charley Pride, IndigO2/ Lucinda Williams, Royal Festival HallMonday, 12 November 2012
Britain has a grudging relationship with country music – we’ve never produced a successful country singer (although the likes of guitarist Albert Lee and several songwriters have prospered in Nashville) and our love for the likes of Johnny Cash is tempered by a contempt for much of what is marketed as country music. I’m often surprised by how blues, soul and jazz lovers can admit ignorance of a musical form so closely related to other American genres. Read more... |
Emeli Sandé, Royal Albert HallMonday, 12 November 2012
You can tell by all the important upper case that the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games were the shows to be seen emoting at. Emeli Sandé can make the unique boast that she performed on both bills. That’s quite a badge of honour for a musician whose debut album Our Version of Events was released only in February, and whose songwriting career has been at least as much about supplying hits to talent-show graduates. Read more... |
Melody Gardot, Barbican HallSunday, 11 November 2012
The moody lights and the smoke make it look like Melody Gardot is emerging from the swamp, probably somewhere near New Orleans, as she begins her set singing a capella. Her walking stick and shades (the result of a bad accident in 2003) only add to the initial feeling that she is the spiritual heir, if not the actual misbegotten daughter of a figure like Dr John, the Night Tripper. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Bill Withers, Massive Attack, Django Reinhardt, Diablos Del RitmoSunday, 11 November 2012
Kieron Tyler Read more... |
Bon Iver, Wembley ArenaFriday, 09 November 2012
Bon Iver’s eponymous second album is nearly a year-and-a-half old now, so its bigger, richer sound – compared to the homemade sparseness of the debut – is well established. Nevertheless, it was hard not to wonder how any band assembled by Justin Vernon would function in the hangar-like Wembley Arena. Would success claim another victim? Read more... |
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