New Music Reviews
Dexys, Shepherds Bush EmpireWednesday, 09 May 2012
Kevin Rowland always did march to the beat of his own drum. Whether it was purloining his album’s master tapes from his record company or refusing to consort with the music press, he constantly straddled a wobbly fence between control freak and paranoid lunatic. This, as much as Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ sublime, heartfelt music, made him a riveting, charismatic presence in the early 1980s. The name is now just Dexys, but what else had changed three decades on? Read more...
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Reissue CDs Weekly: Small FacesSunday, 06 May 2012
Small Faces: The Decca Album (Deluxe Edition), From The Beginning (Deluxe Edition), The Immediate Album (Deluxe Edition), Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Deluxe Edition) Kieron Tyler Read more... |
Quantic & Alice Russell with Combo Barbaro, KokoFriday, 04 May 2012
Ah, Koko, the old Camden Palace, another of London’s lovely venues, over 100 years old, all done up in red with gold gilt, and two layers of balcony boxes intact. It’s easy, as a regular gig-goer, to become oblivious to these heritage British venues but they are truly wonderful, full of personality that dozens of airport-like civic halls and sports arenas across the Americas can never muster. Read more... |
New Order, Brixton AcademyThursday, 03 May 2012
Someone came all the way from Saskatchewan to see New Order in Brixton last night, which is either a measure of the esteem in which the band is held or an indication that someone had a pile of Air Miles to get rid of. Judging by the positively rapturous cheers that went up as Bernard Sumner ambled onstage for the first London date of their first tour in six years, it must surely be the former. Read more... |
Bow Wow Wow, Islington AcademyTuesday, 01 May 2012
It’s hard to think of any other records as exuberantly hedonistic as the handful of singles this London band rattled off at the beginning of the 1980s. Yes, they were accompanied by the then necessary punk sneer which said, This is all strictly ironic. But the music couldn’t lie. The music really did want you to go wild in the country, even if naughty Annabella Lwin just wanted to sneak off for a fag. Or was naughty Annabella just an illusion too? Read more... |
Rizzle Kicks, The Dome, BrightonTuesday, 01 May 2012
So, Rizzle Kicks, teenybop pop-hop, right? So what we’re going to get is a bunch of over-excited tweens fobbed off with pre-recorded backing tracks, a bit of choreographed dancing and maybe some balloons? Certainly the support acts, Josh Osho and Mikill Pane, while passably entertaining, adhered to a minimal set-up and plenty of basic hype man call’n’response, but Rizzle Kicks didn’t. In fact, they firmly booted pre-conceptions into touch. Read more... |
Dan Mangan, Stereo, GlasgowMonday, 30 April 2012
Dan Mangan’s gravelly, expressive voice and the wisdom that infuses his lyrics do not speak to a songwriter still in his twenties. There’s this song on Nice, Nice, Very Nice, his first album for the Arts & Crafts indie powerhouse back in 2009, that has always given me chills for those reasons. It’s called “Basket” and, the singer explained, is “based on old people” he’s gotten to know over the years. Read more... |
Miles Kane, ForumSunday, 29 April 2012
Never underestimate the power of the iPod shuffle. When Miles Kane's album Colour of the Trap was released last year I liked it but still dismissed it as a fairly throwaway piece of stylishly dressed retro-fluff. Somehow though, tracks kept popping up and he eventually won me over. I wasn't alone. Songs started to appear on sports programmes and documentaries. Only moody mardy bums The xx cropped up more. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Carole King, Abba, Sheena EastonSunday, 29 April 2012
Carole King: The Legendary Demos Lisa-Marie Ferla Read more... |
Juan De Marcos Afro-Cuban All-Stars, Barbican CentreThursday, 26 April 2012
As both a catalyst and a musician, Juan De Marcos Gonalez has had a massive impact on Cuban music in the last couple of decades. Read more... |
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