pop music
CD: Moby – DestroyedMonday, 16 May 2011
What is it with synthesisers and sadness? There’s something inherently melancholic about this instrument, a quality that’s been accentuated by its use in the soundtracks to dystopian movies such as Blade Runner. Moby is a man who has exploited... Read more... |
Photo Gallery: Moby, DestroyedSaturday, 14 May 2011
As well as a new album, Destroyed, Moby is putting out a book of photographic prints under the same title. The idea of the book is to capture the essence of being on a global tour, from the mundanity of waiting in airports to the majesty of... Read more... |
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Leeds Town HallThursday, 12 May 2011
The trick is to transform something relatively easy into something dazzling and bewilderingly complex. Seeing the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is like watching eight masters of close-up magic. You’re not quite sure where to look, unable to... Read more... |
CD: Miles Kane – Colour of the TrapTuesday, 10 May 2011
I missed out on Miles Kane's earlier work with The Rascals, but was quickly seduced by his partnership with Arctic Monkey Alex Turner as The Last Shadow Puppets, whose cinematic grandeur struck the right balance between contemporary pop, wistful... Read more... |
CD: Hanson - Shout it OutSunday, 08 May 2011
Of course, Hanson are a joke. Literally. On the internet you’ll find them as a subsection of "blonde jokes". And looking back on 12-year-old Zac’s ridiculous hair on “MMMBop”, it’s easy to see why. But they are no longer blond, nor are they kids... Read more... |
CD: Wild Beasts - SmotherThursday, 05 May 2011
There's no doubt about it, Hayden Thorpe has the most manly falsetto in modern music. It's not the wheedling whine of the post-Radiohead generation of indie sadsacks, nor the haunted and haunting quaver of an Anthony Hegarty, nor yet the... Read more... |
Singles & Downloads 12Wednesday, 04 May 2011
Hip-hop soul, chart rave and Balearic beach-pop with a 1990s flavour, synthesiser-led space-rock, a localised Goth-electronic revolution, Kenyan Kamba beats, an eccentric attempt at bringing opera into pop, and vibrations from dubstep's deep roots.... Read more... |
CD: Dan Kelly - Dan Kelly's DreamSunday, 01 May 2011
Dan Kelly is rapidly becoming a big noise Down Under. His uncle, Paul Kelly, is a star of long standing in Australia, but Kelly junior's profile is also now rising fast. Judging from his fifth album, the only thing I've heard by him, such attention... Read more... |
Ron Sexsmith/ Jim White, BarbicanSunday, 01 May 2011
Two cult singers on the same bill. A stirring prospect in itself, but last night they were both also at watersheds in their careers. The headliner, Ron Sexsmith, was looking to cultivate a more mainstream audience. He’s had his moments over the... Read more... |
N-Dubz, Brighton CentreTuesday, 26 April 2011
N-Dubz's music is throwaway post-grime cheese-pop aimed at fans aged between 10 and 20, max. I've been writing a rearguard action for electronic pop in the pompously self-assured court of rock for more than a decade so I arrived at the Brighton... Read more... |
CD: Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part TwoTuesday, 26 April 2011
The question used to be: “Can white men rap?” A more apt variant today is, “Can white men in their middle forties with juvenile nicknames rap?” Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA recorded Hot Sauce Committee Part Two in 2009, but then put the release on... Read more... |
Upside Down – The Creation Records StoryMonday, 25 April 2011
“I thought I was creating metaphysical history by running Creation,” says the label’s Alan McGee in Upside Down. Seconds later the meat-and-potatoes rock of Oasis blasts from the soundtrack. The drug-assisted disconnect between such lofty aspiration... Read more... |
