thu 19/06/2025

New Music Reviews

Matthew Halsall/Zara McFarlane, Ronnie Scott's

Tim Cumming

Fronting her four piece band - pianist Peter Edwards and saxophonist Binker Golding among them - the young jazz/soul singer Zara McFarlane performs a mix of new songs and tunes from her album, Until Tomorrow. Among the former, “Woman in the Olive Groves” is inspired by a midnight taxi ride through southern Italy, passing an African woman by the highway, among the olive groves, trading her sex.

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Hammer & Tongue + Slipjam:B - 10th Annual Poets vs MCs, Concorde 2, Brighton

Thomas H Green

For a decade these two outfits, the Hammer & Tongue poetry collective and the Slipjam:B crew of hip hop MCs, have been taking each other on. They both run their own successful nights but this evening is their yearly face-off. As it reaches its climax, after a series of rounds, the two units are onstage together, MCs stage right, poets stage left, taking turns to front up, laying into each other, riding a thin line between affable digs and bawdy insult.

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RBMA presents LFO, XOYO

joe Muggs

Of all the major acts from the the acid house/rave explosion, Leeds's LFO seem least interested in becoming a “heritage act”. Perhaps it's because Mark Bell (the sole member of LFO since the early departure of Gez Varley) has no need to cash in on the brand, thanks to his lucrative “day job” as producer of choice for the likes of Björk and Depeche Mode.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Hawkwind, Dual Form, The Children’s Hour, Buddy Guy

Kieron Tyler


Hawkwind Space RitualHawkwind: Space Ritual

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Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy, BBC Four

Kieron Tyler

Although there was no shortage of interview clips with Glen Campbell [who has died at the age of 81] in this fine overview of his career, the tragedy was that archives were so heavily drawn on. Tragic because pop-country stylist Campbell has Alzheimer’s and is limited in what he can contribute.

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Sinéad O'Connor, LSO St Lukes, London

Thomas H Green

The manner and the speed with which Sinéad O’Connor veers between impishly poking fun at herself and her material, and delivering it with scorching force, is bewildering.

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Dropkick Murphys, Barrowlands, Glasgow

Lisa-Marie Ferla

Was there ever a band to generate such passionate fan adulation as Dropkick Murphys? Keeping up a chant of "Let's Go Murphys" for a good 10 minutes before there was any sign of the Boston seven-piece on the city's most famous stage, the Glasgow punks were in fine voice even before the raucous singalongs began.

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CD: José James - No Beginning No End

peter Quinn

On this debut album for Blue Note, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter José James effortlessly blends the beat-driven mien of hip-hop, the surprising transitions of jazz and the raw emotion of classic R&B to produce his strongest statement to date. Following three critically acclaimed albums for the Brownswood and Verve labels, James seems to have discovered the key to making the simple resonate.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Marianne Faithfull, Françoise Hardy, Pia Fraus

Kieron Tyler

 

Marianne Faithfull Broken EnglishMarianne Faithfull: Broken English

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Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 6

Kieron Tyler

Santa has returned home, but he wasn’t the season’s only visitor from the Nordic lands. The crop of recent music in from the region embraces genre-crossing jazz, vintage-style rock, the expected electropop, cross-border collaborations and a seven-year-old Finn. Exploring all corners of Scandinavia’s music, theartsdesk journeys where no one else does, landing in Norway first for some finely formed jazz.

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