New Music Reviews
Tallinn Music Week 2023 review - when music is unavoidably the language of freedomThursday, 18 May 2023
Estonia’s Mart Avi styles himself as “the twilight samurai of alternative pop”. He creates “nowhere-somewhere music, mapping uncharted territories between avant-pop and timeless grandeur”. The characterisations are issued via AVICORP, his internet presence. Read more... |
The Great Escape Festival 2023, Brighton review - a long, hot, messy Day ThreeTuesday, 16 May 2023
“stay with the beer. beer is continuous blood. a continuous lover.” So said Charles Bukowski in his poem “how to be a great writer”. Who am I to argue. It’s a bright day and 11.50 AM. The sun isn’t past the yard-arm but the beer is cold and good. IPA. Finetime and I stand with Vanessa, her 18-year-old son Cody and her mate Jodie. Vanessa has a short blond crop which glows. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Cherry Stars Collide, Waves of DistortionSunday, 14 May 2023
In July 2007, an article in The Guardian expressed surprise that shoegazing was influencing a series of current musicians, Blonde Redhead, Deerhunter, Maps and Ulrich Schnauss amongst them. “You could hear the heady, woozy influence of a style of music that had been a byword for naffness and overindulgence for the past 15 years,” said the article’s opening paragraph. “A type of music that Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers had said he ‘hated more than Hitler’". Read more... |
Róisín Murphy, Royal Albert Hall review - shamanic razzle dazzle keeps us on our feetSunday, 14 May 2023
In one sense you know what you’re going to bet with Róisín Murphy. Disco beats, a lot of bright colours, costume changes, goofing about, kick-arse vocals, and hats – lots and lots of hats. And yes, all that was present and correct at the Royal Albert Hall. But in another way, any given show is alien territory. Read more... |
The Great Escape Festival 2023, Brighton review - a vibrant dip into Day OneFriday, 12 May 2023
Brighton is writhing with music biz sorts. The Great Escape is here, the multi-venue festival that’s taken place here for over a decade-and-a-half, presenting bands from all over the world, most of them little known, at least in the UK. Read more... |
Lucinda Chua, ICA review - sublimity on a rainy evening in LondonThursday, 11 May 2023
As my editor noted, this was the first gig in his 30 years of music journalism that had guided meditation as its support act. This set the tone for a beautiful, peaceful evening at the ICA for Lucinda Chua, a homecoming gig and a welcome listen to pieces from her new and older albums. |
Jah Wobble, Brighton Festival 2023 review - Coronation bank hol Sunday marathonTuesday, 09 May 2023
Jah Jah Jah blah blah blah. We’ll get to that. Read more... |
Duran Duran, Utilita Arena, Birmingham review - New Romantic veterans return homeMonday, 08 May 2023
Duran Duran were back in their hometown of Birmingham this weekend for the first time since performing as part of the open ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games and were justly forthright in trumpeting their local history. Even Pinner-born Simon Le Bon was keen to claim his stake, telling the audience a long and convoluted tale about being dubbed an honorary Brummie by UB40’s Ali Campbell 25 years ago. Read more... |
Die Verlierer, New River Studios review - Berlin punks instantly find an audience at their UK debutMonday, 08 May 2023
It’s flabbergasting. OK, there’s the power of the internet as a propagation tool but here’s a German band playing their first UK show to a jumping-up-and-down audience punching the air while shouting along with the chorus of “X-Ray Vision” – which, indeed, is “X-Ray Vision”. The reception is extraordinary. Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Tony Rivers - Move A Little Closer: The Complete Recordings 1963-1970Sunday, 07 May 2023
Amongst the stranger recordings surfacing in 1977’s summer of punk was the version of Sex Pistols’s “Pretty Vacant” appearing on the budget Hallmark label album Top Of The Pops Volume 60 – the latest in a long-running series collecting ostensibly sound-alike versions of current hits recorded by anonymous session musicians and singers in a Wembley studio. Read more... |
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