New Music Reviews
Reissue CDs Weekly: C86, The Motown 7s BoxSunday, 22 June 2014
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Melanie De Biasio, Purcell RoomTuesday, 17 June 2014
It’s statement of intent to open your first British headlining show with a 15-minute version of an album track which lasts a minute and three-quarters – from an album which itself lasts barely more than 30 minutes. And then to riff on it, incorporating elements from a debut album which barely anyone beyond your native country has heard. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dead MoonSunday, 15 June 2014
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Pat Metheny Unity Group, Eventim ApolloThursday, 12 June 2014
The Eventim (Hammersmith) Apollo, where Pat Metheny’s Unity Group last night gave a spellbinding, if sometimes baffling, performance, has hosted a goodly range of gigs in its time. Few of these can have offered such diversity within a single evening. Piece after piece left last night’s audience whooping with exhilaration, though Metheny’s fondness for mechanical innovation briefly threatened the audience’s otherwise adoring reception. Read more... |
Field Day, Victoria ParkTuesday, 10 June 2014
Decidedly diverse in its musical offerings as ever, this year’s Field Day, which for the first time was spread over two days with the Pixies as a fitting finale, was gifted with glorious sunshine and a chipper ambience. Fresh ferocious voices breaking out and established names reaching back to their roots made for a harmonious mix of boldness and greatness. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Too Slow to DiscoSunday, 08 June 2014
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Arcade Fire, Earls CourtSaturday, 07 June 2014
When you have quite as much going on as 10-piece (in their current form) experimentalist Canadian indie band Arcade Fire do, it’s hard to know where to look. It’s a fact they’re aware of, and it seems like they even riff on it quite heavily with the overwhelming presence of the fragmented, fractured aesthetic of their latest album Reflektor at Earls Court, on the first of their two-night run. Read more... |
Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets…Thursday, 05 June 2014
Any band’s reunion is bittersweet. They can never be what they were at their peak and know it, and yet fans hope. Recapturing past magic is tough. Hair is lost, weight is gained and aging depletes energy. With Pulp, the band never assumed formula rock personae and their reunion was always going to be more seamless with their own past than most. There was less chance that memories would be sullied. Read more... |
One Direction, Murrayfield Stadium, EdinburghWednesday, 04 June 2014
The sheer scale of One Direction’s global victory march is something to behold. Last night’s stopover on their Where We Are tour was the biggest concert ever staged by one band on Scottish soil, with 64,000 fans pouring into the national rugby stadium (I didn’t conduct a scientific poll of the gender split, but it had certainly never been easier to use the Gents at Murrayfield.) Read more... |
Supersonic Festival, Custard Factory, BirminghamMonday, 02 June 2014
For those not in the know, the Supersonic Festival is Birmingham’s annual knees-up of noisy avant garde music drawn from a broad range of genres that is curated by local promoters and heroes, Capsule. This year, despite the event being reduced to two days from the usual three, there was doomy, sludge rock; electronic weirdery; pseudo film soundtrack music; screaming guitars; the legendary Bill Drummond and the mighty Swans. Read more... |
Various Artists: NME C86, The Motown 7s Box – Rare and Unreleased Vinyl Volume 2
Dead Moon: In the Graveyard, Unknown Passage, Defiance
Various Artists: Too Slow to DiscoPages
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