New music
Album: Ammar 808 - Club TounsiFriday, 23 May 2025
Ammar 808 is the high octane vehicle for the Tunisian-born producer Sofyann Ben Youssef, now based in Denmark. His first album Maghreb United (2018) struck hard and fast in a field already well-populated by the fusion of traditional Arab sounds and... Read more... |
Pixies, O2 Academy, Birmingham review - indie veterans pack the houseThursday, 22 May 2025
Pixies might just be the ultimate Radio 6 Dad band. They’ve been around (on-and-off) for around 40 years; they’ve got a fine back catalogue of slightly weird, guitar-driven scuzzy rock music and they have absolutely no pretentions to being flash at... Read more... |
Album: Sports Team - Boys These DaysThursday, 22 May 2025
How do you solve a problem like Sports Team? Taking them at face value, they’re a living metaphor for the slow music biz relegation of the working class in favour of the privileged, a bunch of snarky ex-Cambridge University students who make smug... Read more... |
Album: Stereolab - Instant Holograms on Metal FilmWednesday, 21 May 2025
Stereolab always walked a knife edge between deadly serious and dead silly. Their sound was constructed around the sort of reference points – French, German and Brazilian psychedelia, Radiophonic Workshop sound effects, 1960s library music – which... Read more... |
The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a feast of music from across the worldTuesday, 20 May 2025
Photographer Finetime and I have our first pints outside Dalton’s, a bar on Brighton seafront, at almost exactly midday. They are Beavertown Neck Oil IPA at 4.3%. The sun is out, glinting off the sea. Feels like the calm before the storm.Quarter of... Read more... |
Album: Robert Forster - StrawberriesMonday, 19 May 2025
“Tell me what you see” invites Robert Forster during Strawberries' “Tell it Back to me.” The album’s eight songs do not, however, necessarily say what Forster actually sees. These vignettes about encounters between characters come across as... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Chapterhouse - White House DemosSunday, 18 May 2025
Quoted in an early music press article on his band Chapterhouse, singer-guitarist Stephen Patman said their ambition was “to have our records on sale in 20 years’ time. To leave something behind when we die." That was September 1990, in a piece tied... Read more... |
Songlines Encounters, Kings Place review - West African and Anatolian magicSaturday, 17 May 2025
Songlines Encounters is your round-the-world ticket to great world music and performances, a chance to travel widely in music and culture without the burden of check-ins, passport control, flight delays, or transfers. All you need do is get to... Read more... |
The Great Escape Festival 2025, Brighton review - a dip into ThursdayFriday, 16 May 2025
As every social space in Brighton once again transforms into a mire of self-important music biz sorts loudly bellowing about “waterfalling on Spotify”, it’s also a great time for those who relish gigs by new talent from all over the world. For three... Read more... |
Album: Rico Nasty - LETHALFriday, 16 May 2025
Rico Nasty’s new album LETHAL signals a shift in direction, but whether it is a bold evolution or a step towards something less distinct is up for debate. Known for her fiery rage-rap and punk energy, Rico tones things down here, trading some of her... Read more... |
Lucy Farrell, Catherine MacLellan, The Green Note review - sublime frequenciesThursday, 15 May 2025
Lucy Farrell, one quarter of the brilliant, award-winning Anglo-Scots band Furrow Collective, and a solo artist whose stunning debut album, We Are Only Sound, was released in 2023, divides her time between the UK – she’s a native of Kent – and... Read more... |
Album: Billy Nomates - MetalhorseThursday, 15 May 2025
Metalhorse is a concept album that uses visions of a dilapidated funfair as a metaphor for life’s various ups and downs. It especially seems to concentrate on the downs though, especially when it employs opening lines like “My best friend’s dying”... Read more... |
