indie
CD: Fanfarlo - Let's Go ExtinctSaturday, 15 February 2014
It’s always difficult to know quite how seriously bands approach the things that distinguish between an album and a collection of songs: the naming, the sequencing, the artwork. For instance, I could say that “Life in the Sky” - the sprawling, six-... Read more... |
CD: Le Prince Miiaou – Where is the Queen?Wednesday, 05 February 2014
Where is the Queen? doesn’t hide where it’s coming from. Drawing so gracefully from disparate strains of Nineties rock while augmenting them with a literate sensibility, it immediately sets itself up as an album which stands apart.The soft-loud... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 10Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Finland’s Jaakko Eino Kalevi, who played his debut British show last November, heads up theartsdesk’s latest regular round-up of what’s come down from the north. A spellbinding display of individualistic pop, the London outing coincided with the... Read more... |
CD: Damien Jurado – Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal SonMonday, 20 January 2014
Damien Jurado last surfaced as one of Moby’s collaborators on the Innocents album. From the sound of Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son, Beck might have been a more logical musical partner. Texture-wise, Jurado’s new release sits alongside Sea... Read more... |
CD: Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy - A Tell AllTuesday, 07 January 2014
Country music in the 21st century is the weirdest thing, and not much of it seems to have to do with the country any more. At its commercial end, it sells billions of records by men with tight T-shirts and women with very white teeth who all drive... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Rennes: 35th Trans Musicales FestivalTuesday, 17 December 2013
White noise saturates the air. At mind-melting volume, it shifts through the aural spectrum to settle on the bass end. A voice begins yelling angry-sounding gobbets. The words are unintelligible. The stage is in darkness. Gradually, it becomes... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Jonathan Wilson – FanfareSunday, 15 December 2013
It’s ironic that the album which has invited itself back onto the turntable more often than any other this year is wholly redolent of another time and place: the California of the early Seventies. Whatever the shortcomings of his live performance,... Read more... |
CD: The Fauns - LightsSunday, 01 December 2013
Even on first listen, without context or introduction, the music of The Fauns already seems familiar. Their sound is an amalgam of many of the things I have enjoyed in 2013: The History of Apple Pie, all guitar fuzz and sweetness; the shimmer of the... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: I am the Center, Haiku SalutSunday, 17 November 2013
Various Artists: I am the Center – Private Issue New Age Music in America, 1950–1990A landmark reissue either retells a familiar story in a new way or tells an unfamiliar story in a way that fascinates. In both cases, the annotation, packaging,... Read more... |
CD: Sébastien Tellier – ConfectionMonday, 11 November 2013
Although Confection is sonic ear-candy of a most seductive type, it’s hard to grasp what the point is. The album is lush, orchestrated and enfolding, but it does nothing new and says little beyond being the product of meticulous craftsmanship.... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Reykjavík: Iceland Airwaves 2013Sunday, 10 November 2013
Kraftwerk closing a festival is a big deal. It’s an even bigger honour when the seminal German outfit reconfigure their set to acknowledge where they’re playing. Last Sunday, Kraftwerk performed the rarely heard “Airwaves”, from 1975’s Radioactivity... Read more... |
CD: Midlake – AntiphonWednesday, 30 October 2013
Many bands would pack it in after the departure of their lead singer, especially if he was their main songwriter. In Midlake’s case, the damage was compounded by Tim Smith leaving after work had begun on the band’s fourth album. Antiphon is what it... Read more... |
