electronica
Adam Sweeting
Blondie took 17 years off between 1982 and 1999, and bounced back with the chart-topping single "Maria". Now, refreshed after an eight-year power nap following 2003's The Curse of Blondie, they've returned with their ninth studio album.This would have been a splendid record in 1980, a year which its snappy synth-pop flashbacks seem to want to evoke. In 2011 it's still not bad, though there's a sense that the tracks are compensating with artful studio technology for shortcomings in the writing, and perhaps in Deborah Harry's brittle vocals. Nonetheless, the disc comes roaring out of the blocks Read more ...
caspar.gomez
Thursday 23 JuneHaven’t left yet but someone sends me an email saying, "Not going to Glastonbury this year and feeling rather smug about it." What are they feeling smug about? The fact that they’re going to have a forgettable, normal weekend while this extraordinary event is going on? It is, of course, to do with ideas of rain. A lot of the pre-Glastonbury coverage focuses endlessly on rain and mud, as if home comforts are everything. When did comfort become the big cultural draw?Possibly when the average age of music journalists went from 27 to 45, or possibly when we began our techno- Read more ...
joe.muggs
This is where the delirium kicks in. Tired but happy, the attendees started the third day of Sónar festival slightly boggled by how to pick and choose from the strange delights on offer. Saturday was when the true musical variety of the festival was displayed: straight-up hip hop to eye-popping South African tribal dance displays, balmy ambient revivalism to apocalyptic techno, heartbroken electronica to deranged prog rock: it was all on offer...If day one was a warm-up, and day two when the energy levels peaked, this was where we just got swept along in the sheer diversity of the festival Read more ...
joe.muggs
Thursday was gentle – an easing into the festival experience – but yesterday is when Sónar Festival really kicked into gear. With tapas and Estrella coursing round their veins, the audience was thoroughly drawn into Barcelona's bohemianism and ready to go from the beginning of the day. Which is a good thing, as shameless, in-your-face rave music seemed to be the order of the day.The SonarDome stage throughout the weekend has entirely featured alumni from the Red Bull Music Academy, and while the yearly Academy has built a reputation for nurturing sophisticated and intricate electronica, it Read more ...
joe.muggs
“This is what Ibiza used to be like,” said the man dancing next to me. I've never been to the White Isle, so I have to take his word for it, but he presented a very convincing argument that the commercialisation of dance music's Mediterranean Mecca has led to a polarisation of its crowds towards either ostentatious spending or mindless drunkenness – whereas Barcelona's Sónar Festival attracts more diverse and discerning hedonists focused on music above all. Certainly a good cross-section of people were in attendance for the first day of Sónar. A large number of electronica nerds mingled Read more ...
igor.toronyilalic
What strange goings-on at this year's Spitalfields Music festival. One church is set ablaze by a female laptop trio; another is swamped by 17th-century collectivists; one man opens up a black hole with the back of his guitar; and a harpist becomes a stick insect, taking to his instrument with two bows.
At Spitalfields Church on Monday night, James Weeks and the New London Chamber Choir set about raising our spirits with three early American anthems by William Billings (1746-1800). How vigorous the round Wake Ev'ry Breath felt, as the choir filed in one by one, unleashing the wave upon wave Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Jamie Woon is in the fresh first flush of success but it's been a good while coming. An unassuming 28-year-old with dark good looks, he first appeared five years ago with an extraordinary spooked take on the gospel perennial "Wayfaring Stranger" but then, on the recording front at least, he vanished. 2011, however, sees him busier than he's ever been and this tour is a preamble to the summer festival circuit.Woon arrives onto a stage filled with keyboards and stands at its centre, greeted by whoops from a young crowd. He wears a black T-shirt and jeans, a loose hank of hair hanging over one Read more ...
joe.muggs
They started as a band of hyper-accomplished musicians aiming to play fiddly electronica in a guitar-band format and thereby creating a rather witty new kind of progressive rock. Now, minus key member Tyondai Braxton but plus a few leftfield star guests, Battles are playing a neat line in chugging heavy metal calypso techno dub punk pop. No, the notion of genre in the 21st century doesn't get any easier, does it? But preposterous definitions aside, a lot of this record boogies along with a surprising amount of fun given its makers' conspicuous virtuosity and the hodge-podge of influences Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
At one level the day of the single is gone - the 7-inch, the CD, the physical format - and yet, at another it's more relevant than ever. Sure, any track can now be downloaded from an album and hit the charts but singles, downloads - chosen representative songs - still give the best snapshot of what an artist is capable of. With this in mind, theartsdesk gleefully tucked into the latest batch of releases which includes Depeche Mode, Arctic Monkeys, pop, rave, folk and a whole lot more besides.Wiley, Numbers in Action (Big Dada)
Sometimes it's hard to separate tracks by the jester-king of Read more ...
Ismene Brown
It's time to dust down your tent and ice-box and plan some summer breaks with theartsdesk's definitive clickable festival guide - listings and links for all the UK festivals this summer, from rock by the lochs to DJs in London parks, and catching classical and opera on the way. See theartsdesk's invaluable European festivals 2011 guide too. SCOTLAND Knockengorroch World Ceilidh, 26-29 May, Drumjohn, GallowaySecret Scottish streams and woods resound to roots music sounds, with Adrian Edmondson & the Bad Shepherds, Salsa Celtica, Horace Andy & Dub Asante, DJ Yoda, Russkaya Read more ...
alexandra.coghlan
In a week in which the nation has debated the relevance of classical music, it was left to the LSO’s Eclectica concert series to have the final word. Incorporating world and electronic music alongside traditional chamber works and contemporary programmes, Eclectica’s concerts offer dressed-down, laid-back forays down the roads less travelled of the classical repertoire. With one of the 20th century’s musical greats as a grandfather and a growing reputation for his work as a producer, DJ and composer, incorporating classical music into a club idiom and setting, who better than Gabriel Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
It took until the fourth song of their set for Suuns to take off. Lurching into “PVC”, the Montréal quartet gelled. Monolithic drums, pounding, relentless bass guitar and slabs of sheet-metal guitar rolled off the stage. Harnessing the power of heavy metal, they’d achieved escape velocity. More powerful than on album, the unassuming-looking Suuns made a compelling case for their stripped-down, post-Krautrock rock.Before that, the stage belonged to Gyratory System, the vehicle of Andrew Blick. Recent instrumental album New Harmony was a hypnotic marriage of bloopy early acid house and motorik Read more ...