Reviews
Inside Reviews
June Tabor and Oysterband, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Twenty-one years after releasing their first album, Freedom and Rain, June Tabor and Oysterband return with Ragged Kingdom, a vibrant and rousing set whose slant is angled closer to the English folk tradition and the matter of magic, mystery, history, murder and mayhem deeply embedded within; it is no place for health and safety.
Peggy Sue, The Lexington, London (Rated 3/ 5 )
Monday, 19 September 2011
"If all you want is peace and quiet," Peggy Sue sing tonight on their new single, "Song & Dance", "you've come to the wrong place."
Bestival, Robin Hill Country Park, Isle of Wight
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Simon Price: Fancy dress, a carnival vibe and wild weather ensure the festival season ends on a high.
Album: The Jayhawks, Mockingbird Time, (DECCA)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
They promised “the best Jayhawks album ever” (surely still Hollywood Town Hall), so you’d be forgiven for an initial sense of disappointment at Gary Louris and Mark Olson’s firs tJayhawks effort since 1995.
Album: Bill Frisell, AllWe are Saying... (SAVOY JAZZ)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
The songs of John Lennon, from Beatlesto “Woman”, rendered instrumentally by two guitars, violin, bass and drums– ensemble interpretations which, miraculously, give thorough accounts of each melody and attendant harmony.
Album: Various artists, The Rough Guide to World Playtime (WORLD MUSIC NETWORK)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Singing games are synonymous with childhood, and their roots go back to Homer. Many of these come from expat communities, for whom they are a way of reinforcing ethnic identity.
Album: Trombone Shorty, For True (VERVE)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews has been slipping the slide in New Orleans since his trombone was taller than he.
Album: Bach, Keyboard Concertos – Tharaud/Labadie/Les Violons du Roy (VIRGIN CLASSICS)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Les Violons make an interesting contrastto Alexandre Tharaud’s 1980s grand piano in this hybrid reading of Bach’s keyboard concertos.
Album: Brad Mehldau, Kevin Hays, Patrick Zimmerli, Modern Music (NONESUCH)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
A real puzzler, this. US star Mehldau presents a duo with his fellow pianist Kevin Hays, produced and arranged by classical composer Patrick Zimmerli.
Album: Robert Mitchell 3IO, The Embrace (3IO RECORDS)
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Their previous album featured a great arrangement of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”. This time round it’s Aphex Twin’s “Alberto Balsam”, “Twice” by Little Dragon and “Third Stream” by 4Hero, all of which twinkle brightly.
Album: Kasabian, Velociraptor (Columbia) (Rated 4/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
As on the splendid West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Kasabian talk a good fight with Velociraptor – and if the results don't quite bear out the bluster, that's probably more a reflection of the excellence of its predecessor than a measure of its own shortcomings.
Album: Mogwai, Earth Division EP (Rock Action) (Rated 4/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
Earth Division finds Mogwai in unusually calm and engaging mood, its four tracks for the most part eschewing their trademark surging post-rock in favour of a lighter, more reflective approach.
Album: Pajama Club, Pajama Club (Lester/EMI) (Rated 3/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
So this is what mum and dad get up to in the garage when the kids have flown the nest.
Album: The Waterboys, An Appointment with Mr Yeats (Puck/Proper) (Rated 3/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
Mike Scott has been building towards this album-length adaptation of the poetry of W B Yeats for some time now, ever since he included "The Stolen Child" on Fisherman's Blues in 1988.
Album: Trombone Shorty, For True (Verve Forecast) (Rated 4/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
Since Hurricane Katrina demolished New Orleans' musical infrastructure, there has been a committed reconfiguration of the city's brass-band tradition courtesy of young players like those in the Rebirth and Soul Rebels bands, among whom Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews perhaps offers the greatest crossover potential.
Album: Nitin Sawhney, Last Days of Meaning (Positiv) (Rated 3/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
The "Meaning" in question is one Donald Meaning, a "tired old man without a soul" (played by John Hurt) railing against the dying of the light, his reflections interspersed among the music tracks of Last Days of Meaning.
Album: SuperHeavy, SuperHeavy (Polydor) (Rated 2/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
The sad fact about supergroups is that they are rarely the result of any musical imperative.
Kaiser Chiefs, Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds (Rated 2/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
Muddy underfoot, under a cloudy sky, the grounds of Kirkstall Abbey resemble a festival site after a day or two's footfall.
King Creosote and Jon Hopkins, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Friday, 16 September 2011
"It's been quite heavy going so far, hasn't it?" quips Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote, after playing the entirety of his Mercury Prize-nominated album, Diamond Mine. But any heavy going was dispelled by the sheer hymnal quality of the songs, the audience caught in an emotive trawl through a mythologised version of life in a Scottish fishing village.
Bestival, Robin Hill Country Park, Isle of Wight (Rated 4/ 5 )
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
As well-loved for its eccentric festivities as it is for its eclectic line-up and big-name headliners, eight-year-old Bestival again staked it's claim as the UK's boutique alternative to Glastonbury with yet another fantastical journey into the musical imaginations and record collections of curator Rob da Bank and comrades.
Kurt Vile and the Violators, The Scala, London (Rated 4/ 5 )
Monday, 12 September 2011
Since Kurt Vile released his fourth album, Smoke Ring for My Halo, earlier this year, he has found himself in a different league.
The Rapture, XOYO, London (Rated 3/ 5 )
Monday, 12 September 2011
Singer Luke Jenner strolls on stage arms aloft in a triumphant pose.
Dolly Parton, O2 Arena, London
Austra, Scala, London
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Everyone's favourite hillbilly queen doesn't strike a false note – even during a rap about her breasts
Album: Ladytron, Gravity the Seducer (Nettwerk)
Sunday, 11 September 2011
There may one day be a Ladytron album that doesn't require me to use the word "glacial", but this isn't it.
Album: Charles Lloyd, Maria Farantouri, Athens Concert (ECM)
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Saxophonist Lloyd's work for ECM over 22 years forms a redemptive arc, re-establishing him as one of the greatest of all contemporary jazz artists.
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