Reviews
Inside Reviews
Oxjam: Fatboy Slim, Dalston Oxfam Shop, London (Rated 3/ 5 )
Thursday, 29 September 2011
When I walk in, The Clash's "Rock the Casbah" is shaking a rack of very serviceable shoes.
Slow Club, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London (Rated 3/ 5 )
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Slow Club's first record, Yeah So, could have been maddeningly twee: it was the sort of sprightly, lo-fi, folk-pop whimsy that ends up soundtracking cutesy indie movies or mobile phone adverts – and it came from a boy-girl two-piece. Yet there was also a roughly hewn, even strained quality to the vocals, while being a band of only two produced both intimacy and intensity.
Bombay Bicycle Club, The Barfly, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Freewheelers still making a big noise
Dry the River, Scala, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Buzz is something that many bands strive to attain in their careers, but which increasingly few deserve. What was once the whisperings of aficionados in record stores or at gigs is now almost entirely web-based, the internet offering the kind of instant word-of-mouth excitement that once took weeks to disseminate. All of which has worked out well for East London five-piece Dry The River, as the packed audience at the prestigious Scala tonight will testify.
Peter Bruntnell, The Borderline, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Monday, 26 September 2011
If I'd paid attention to Peter Bruntnell's lovely album Black Mountain U.F.O. when it was released in June it probably would have been the soundtrack to my summer.
Brian Wilson, Royal Festival Hall, London
Ghostpoet, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
Sunday, 25 September 2011
The former Beach Boy may be a passenger in his own show, but treasure him while he's still performing – his fragile genius won't be here for ever
Album: Wilco, The Whole Love (DBPM Records)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
What have we come to expect from a new Wilco album – the Beatles-y pop of Summerteeth, the experimentation of A Ghost is Born or the laid-back vibe of Sky Blue Sky?
Album: Brett Anderson, Black Rainbows (EMI)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
With the best will in the world, a fourth solo album of elegant, cello-backed ballads might have been too much, even for devoted Anderson fans.
Album: The Soul Rebels Brass Band, Unlock Your Mind (Decca)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
New Orleans brass bands have a reputation for energetic live shows that's not always transferable to record.
Album: Zola Jesus, Conatus (Souterrain Transmissions)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Zola Jesus is the recording alias of Russian-American singer Nika Roza Danilova, raised in Wisconsin and, at the age of 22, already on to her third album of neo-goth atmospherics.
Album: Chick Corea, Stefano Bollani, Orvieto (ECM)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Recorded live at Umbria Jazz late last year, with no preceding rehearsals, this is a mostly fabulous two-pianos set by superstar Corea, who was 70 in June, and the 38-year old Bollani.
Album: Meg Baird, Seasons on Earth (Wichita)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
She was a member of Espers, so it's reasonable to expect what you get: slightly tremulous, soft, thoughtful, non-generic but vertebrate acoustic music, backboned with a serious interest in what disciplined guitar arrangements can do for a cloud-shaped song.
Album: Fatoumata Diawara, Fatou (World Circuit)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Guitar riffs like quiet mantras, suspenseful stripped-down arrangements, and lyrics that address the political and private life of the contemporary African woman, all add up to make this Malian singer-songwriter and one-time Oumou Sangara backing vocalist's debut album a thrilling listen.
Album: Mark Fry, I Lived in Trees (Second Language)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Fry's Dreaming With Alice was a cult acid-folk obscurity of the early 1970s.
Album: Frankmusik, Do it in the AM (Island)
Sunday, 25 September 2011
After a false start with his affiliation to the Wonky Pop movement of 2008, Vincent Frank finally made a medium-sized splash in late 2009 with his debut album Complete Me.
Album: Brett Anderson, Black Rainbows (EMI) (Rated 3/ 5 )
Friday, 23 September 2011
Recorded in January 2010, just a few months after the release of Slow Attack, this presages last year's well-received Suede reformation both temporally and stylistically, Brett Anderson deliberately eschewing its predecessor's intriguing orchestrations in favour of something more "restless, noisy and dynamic"", created from standard rock instrumentation.
Album: Meg Bairds, Seasons On Earth (Wichita) (Rated 2/ 5 )
Friday, 23 September 2011
Meg Baird, formerly the frontperson of Philadelphia-based psychedelic folk-rockers Espers, is left a little exposed on her own solo album.
Album: Plaids, Scintilli (Warp) (Rated 3/ 5 )
Friday, 23 September 2011
Perhaps best known for their work with Björk, the Plaid duo of Ed Handley and Andy Turner may be the quintessential Warp group, in the way that they occupy the grey area between techno, classical and the avant-garde with such apparent ease.
Album: James Morrison, The Awakening (Island) (Rated 1/ 5 )
Friday, 23 September 2011
Presumably hoping for a little of that Rockferry magic to rub off on him, James Morrison's third album is produced by Bernard Butler, to neither party's great credit, I'm afraid.
Album: DJ Shadow, The Less You Know the Better (Island) (Rated 3/ 5 )
Friday, 23 September 2011
The title could be an unwitting subtext about the legal minefield of sampling: already, DJ Shadow has had to pull a lead-off EP track from this album because of sample-clearance problems, and the remaining tracks, in general, seem to offer more guarded approaches to the sample-collaging process than on his previous albums.
Brian Wilson, Royal Festival Hall, London (Rated 3/ 5 )
Friday, 23 September 2011
To borrow the football parlance, this was very much a gig of two halves, the first given over to Brian Wilson's ill-judged "reimaginings" of Gershwin, the second featuring Beach Boys classics played in note-perfect detail by his band, occasionally augmented by the Stockholm Strings sextet.
Album: Wilco, The Whole Love (dBpm/Anti-)
Friday, 23 September 2011
Having spent the better part of the last 15 years constantly touring and recording, building the Wilco "brand" with a dedication that includes customised posters in the classic counter-culture style for each of their shows, Jeff Tweedy decided to take a break for the latter half of last year and re-charge his batteries.
Album: Roots Manuva, Everevolution (Big Dada) (Rated 4/ 5 )
Friday, 23 September 2011
4Everevolution opens with a typically idiosyncratic, shuffle-strut electro groove that suggests we may be in for more of the engaging itchiness that characterised the splendid Slime & Reason, Roots Manuva noting how "It's our first time growing up".
Adele, Hammersmith Apollo, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Hometown glory for a soul survivor
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