sat 13/09/2025

New Music Reviews

Reissue CDs Weekly: Tyrannosaurus Rex

Kieron Tyler

 

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Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, October Gallery

Tim Cumming

There have been Throbbing Gristle reunions at Tate Modern, and Psychic TV last played in London at the now-demolished Astoria in 2008 – the band in nurse’s uniforms, playing psych garage rock over projections of medical procedures and sex scenes – but it’s a long time since Genesis Breyer P-Orridge was in London.

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PJ Harvey: Recording in Progress, Artangel at Somerset House

mark Kidel

Artangel continues to instigate extraordinary events in extraordinary places. Over the past two decades and more, directors Michael Morris and James Lingwood have helped generate major and ground-breaking work by Rachel Whiteread, Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, Roni Horn, Jeremy Deller, Steve McQueen, Matthew Barney, Gregor Schneider, Francis Alÿs and many others. It's a long list.

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Latvian Radio Choir, Kļava, St John's Smith Square

Gavin Dixon

Latvia likes to be different. At least that’s the message they sent out with the cultural programme marking the start of the country’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. Pomp and circumstance were out, and instead we got a Cage-inspired happening, an audio/visual presentation that was many things: part video installation, part performance art. The only thing you couldn’t describe it as was a choral concert.

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Die Antwoord, O2 Academy Brixton

Russ Coffey

After three albums the question remains: is Die Antwoord more than a just a clever joke or is the act simply a caricature of South Africa’s trashy “Zef”-side? The guys and gal behind "Ninja and Yo-landi Vi$$er" are in no doubt – they claim to be “conceptual artists”. And many fans agree, saying that besides the posturing lie some real cultural truths. Last night three or so thousand descended on Brixton to make up their own minds.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Radio Birdman

Kieron Tyler

 

Radio Birdman box setRadio Birdman: Radio Birdman

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First Aid Kit, Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Guy Oddy

All-seater, up-market concert halls can be a bit intimidating to bands when they are used to more intimate venues. Silences can feel awkward and stage talk can dry up or be reduced to perfunctory “thank you”s. So it almost proved this evening when First Aid Kit strode onto the stage of Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.

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Paolo Nutini, O2 Arena

Matthew Wright

With his new soul-inflected rasp, there aren’t many singers better equipped to perform through a bout of tonsillitis than Paolo Nutini. (Tom Waits won’t, alas, be selling out the O2.) Last night’s gig was re-scheduled from November when the infection struck. It was postponed even longer than expected for the members of the audience arriving on the broken-down Jubilee line.  

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Magma

Kieron Tyler

 

Magma KöhntarköszMagma: Köhntarkösz, Köhntarkösz Anteria, Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Powder

Kieron Tyler

 

Powder Ka-Pow! An Explosive Collection 1967–68Powder: Ka-Pow! An Explosive Collection 1967–68

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