guitar
CD: Enter Shikari - A Flash Flood of ColourMonday, 09 January 2012
Of all the unlikely and incompatible collisions of genre imaginable, thrash metal with clubland trance must be pretty near the top of the tree. One is beefy, roaring, angry and punctuated by vocals akin to a dyspeptic troll burping, the other is... Read more... |
CD of the Year: Bon Iver - Bon IverThursday, 29 December 2011
The albums that work their way under your skin are few and far between. The second CD by Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver, is one of those earworm-laden offerings that leave you wanting for more and haunted by seductive phrases and catchy tunes. There is... Read more... |
Deep Purple, O2 ArenaThursday, 01 December 2011
If anyone tells you that Deep Purple’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra (1969) wasn’t a masterpiece then they’re an idiot. In fact, it was, more or less, the only successful use of an orchestra with a rock band ever. Now, 40 years on, a pensionable... Read more... |
CD: Etta James - The DreamerWednesday, 09 November 2011
The Dreamer is the relatively low-key swansong from one of soul’s greatest divas, a mountain of barely restrained power, who inspired and influenced several generations of singers. Why some musicians survive lives of excess and others don’t is... Read more... |
CD: Hedvig Mollestad Trio – Shoot!Sunday, 06 November 2011
Fusion is a pretty difficult word to deal with. Miles Davis's Bitches Brew might have inspired a raft of jazzers to embrace rock, but an awful lot of the crossover that followed – like prog rock – became the musical equivalent of the love that dare... Read more... |
Tubular Bells, The Charles Hazlewood All Stars, St George's BristolSunday, 06 November 2011
Tubular Bells, the first half of which is being currently revived as a live piece in the UK, sold between 15 and 17 million units worldwide. Quite apart from the work’s innocence being co-opted and made spooky in William Friedkin's The Exorcist,... Read more... |
Anna Calvi, Shepherds Bush EmpireWednesday, 02 November 2011
It’s guitar rock, but not as we know it. Anna Calvi, the Londoner in her late twenties whose debut album created a stir earlier this year and earned her a Mercury Prize nomination, makes music that has all the familiar, recognisable elements of the... Read more... |
CD: George Benson - Guitar ManWednesday, 26 October 2011
Spoiler alert: this CD contains grooves that will bring out your inner air guitarist. From the album's lead-off song, “Tenderly”, whose sumptuous voicings lesser artists can only fantasise about, to its towering sign-off, “Fingerlero”, George Benson... Read more... |
DVD: George Harrison - Living in the Material WorldFriday, 07 October 2011
Martin Scorsese’s mammoth, authorised survey of the life of George Harrison is a strange old thing. Deeply moving, poetic, full of love, wit and warmth, it's also at times oddly assembled and, at a shade over three and a half hours, runs wide but... Read more... |
Bert Jansch: 1943-2011Wednesday, 05 October 2011
The great folk guitarist Bert Jansch died early this morning, aged 67. Whether as a prime mover in London's 1960s folk scene, or as part of pioneering folk-jazzers Pentangle, or as a songwriter and solo artist, his influence on everyone from Paul... Read more... |
What I'm Reading: Musician Justin AdamsTuesday, 13 September 2011
Justin Adams is considered to be one of the UK’s most original guitarists and record producers and is an extremely versatile collaborator. He was brought up in the Middle East - his father was a British diplomat in Jordan and Egypt - and his music... Read more... |
Red Hot Chili Peppers, KokoFriday, 02 September 2011
I'm not quite sure why Anthony Kiedis bothered to put on his multicoloured frock coat. It certainly wasn't to keep warm. The atmosphere in Koko was positively volcanic even before the Red Hot Chili Peppers appeared on stage at this exclusive Radio 1... Read more... |
