From Pixies and The Breeders to The Amps, and now a slowly growing solo discography, bassist/singer/songwriter Kim Deal has experienced the full spectrum of a long-lasting, fruitful career in music. Accomplishing by herself what most bands seek to do as a collective, Deal is one of the brightest and most influential figures in indie rock, and a resurgence is beginning to form around the veteran musician. In 2024, Deal released Nobody Loves You More, her celebrated debut solo album that showcased a creative maturity that was both spellbindingly alien yet warmly familiar, an 11-song collection that saw a touch of soul reach her wiry vocals. The album was released to wide critical acclaim and open arms from both those who have followed Deal for decades and…
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Unavailable for many years, this classic Fairport album released in 1986 marking the solid beginnings of the now legendary Cropredy Festival. Features two bonus live tracks.
Though their most famous albums were over a decade past by the late ’80s, Fairport Convention was still releasing albums that were good enough to convert new listeners. Red & Gold is a case in point, an assured and enjoyable album of the band’s trademark mix of English folk and rock. Simon Nicol’s vocal on the title cut is worth the price of the album by itself; it’s as sure and passionate a track as he’s ever cut, a sorrowful account of a great battle as seen by a peasant farmer who doesn’t understand why it’s all happening. In fact, the songs…
Fantasy & Reveries, Brad Mehldau’s recording of his solo compositions Fantasy for Piano and Fourteen Reveries, out on Nonesuch Records. Fantasy for Piano was written in the same period as Mehldau’s Three Pieces After Bach. Fourteen Reveries, similarly to the composer’s Suite: April 2020, comprises a collection of shorter pieces. Reveries 1 and 2 are available today, along with videos featuring their scrolling scores.
“Fantasy for Piano … shares similar obsessions with Three Pieces After Bach: long, extended pedal-points, sharp juxtapositions between triadic consonance and extreme dissonance, and a freely subdivided 7/4 meter,” Mehldau says in his liner note. “It is written very densely, and the challenge is often to convey the melodic…
Arriving in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the band’s October 29, 2016 performance at London’s O2 Arena, the previously unreleased album captures a remarkable night in the band’s history and stands as a tribute to founding guitarist Mick Ralphs, whose appearance that evening would be his final live performance with Bad Company.
There’s a poignant moment at the end of Live In London when Paul Rodgers tells the crowd: “Take care of each other, and we’ll see you again.”
This was the final show of Bad Company’s 2016 UK tour, recorded at London’s O2 Arena on 29th October. Four days later, Mick Ralphs suffered a stroke. This would be his final live performance with the band. Listening ten years on, those words carry a weight nobody…
The World According To Clash was originally put together by the band’s US label, Epic, back in 1982 and distributed to radio stations across the States just prior to the release of Combat Rock. Over time, the set – an all killer, no filler compilation featuring 11 of the band’s most enduring songs – has become sought-after among Clash completists.
But puzzlingly, rather than a straight reissue of the original promo, which would at least have felt like a charming curio – Sony have rejigged the title, the tracklisting and changed the artwork. So ‘Magnificent Dance’, ‘This Is Radio Clash’ and ‘Police On My Back’ have been excised from the running order and replaced by ‘The Magnificent Seven’, ‘The Guns Of Brixton’ and ‘Spanish Bombs’ – perhaps an improvement…
Stephan Micus is an extraordinary musical traveller, collecting instruments around the world and then making his unique musical compositions from them. This album features a dozen instruments from Borneo, Japan, India, Armenia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana, Morocco, Ireland, Switzerland and Bavaria.
Celebrating the richness of the sea, it’s his 27th solo album for ECM.
Micus has always been influenced by the natural world and his music has been inspired by deserts, forests, thunder and more. Traces in the Sand doesn’t attempt to depict the sea, but reflects on the feelings its continually changing state evokes. “To focus totally on a composition necessarily narrows down your perception,”…
Remember when Wes Anderson stuffed all those old Kinks songs into Rushmore even though there was no obvious reason to? The music did not match the film’s contemporary setting, nor did it directly reflect the actions or thoughts of its protagonist. Yet the songs worked brilliantly, capturing the confusion and angst of adolescence without adding melodrama or sentimentality.
Jake Bugg’s new album Alamo works in an analogous way. The 32-year-old singer-songwriter’s seventh full-length record sounds like the work of an adolescent just starting. It is confessional and deliberately naïve. The songs are built largely around Bugg and an acoustic guitar, evoking the sort of bedroom confessions one sings to oneself about friends, lovers, and…
…features the full original album remastered for the first time, as well as 19 previously unreleased demo tracks, 14 previously unreleased studio recordings, and a further 42 non-album cuts. The audio recordings of 2007 live film ‘U.F.O.s at The Zoo’ and a concert at The Hollywood Bowl will also be included.
Since 1999’s The Soft Bulletin, the Flaming Lips have issued an album once every three or four years — roughly once per presidential term, making At War with the Mystics the second album they’ve made during George W. Bush’s presidency. While Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots‘ themes of seizing the moment and accepting mortality could easily be read as a reaction to 9/11, At War with the Mystics is a more overtly timely album…
…include the newly remastered album, a selection of previously released studio rarities, and two full concerts (one of which generously contributed to the band’s live double album ‘The Name of This Band is Talking Heads’).
…Continuing their alliance with avant-garde producer Brian Eno (formerly of Roxy Music and co-producer of Buildings and Food), Fear of Music blended rhythmic dance-rock with unique electronic treatment, creating a sonic melange that galvanized critics. Primarily recorded at a Long Island City loft maintained by the rhythm section of bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz, the album featured some of their most dazzling songs, including the groove-based opener “I Zimbra,” moving tracks “Heaven”…
In the 1988 documentary Rattle & Hum, B.B. King chats with Bono, then 27. The bluesman reflects on his station in life: “[People] say, ‘There he is, a 62-year-old — and what is he trying to do?’” It’s a question that U2‘s members may have asked themselves as they worked on Carnaval de Luz, their 16th full-length and first album of original music in nearly a decade. They were teens when the group formed in Dublin half a century ago, in their thirties when their art-damaged rock started to “fuck up the mainstream,” middle-aged when they reinvented themselves with “Beautiful Day,” and old enough to know better when they brute-forced Songs of Innocence onto your iPhone. Their resume boasts multiplatinum Number One hits, instant sellout tours, and…
Oso Oso’s basking in the glow was the band’s big breakthrough: an emo record whose huge hooks and reflective lyrics earned an audience beyond small clubs and basements. It remains an addictive collection that even made the mainstream press take note. From there, the next two Oso Oso releases moved further away from emo and experimented with more traditional pop sounds. sore thumb had its moments, but sounded like it was rushed, not quite ready to meet the public that was waiting with bated breath. life till bones was definitely the more successful collection of the two. Those songs sounded like a band establishing its sound, but it turns out that Lilitri and his bandmates aren’t done tinkering. Fortunately, an exchange of information is…
Taking a slight deviation from the widely celebrated path through experimental sounds that has largely defined their efforts over the years, the venerable Sub Rosa returns with rare and essential dive into the world of ethnomusicology with Ethiopian Musics 1971, their third release dedicated to the recordings of Ragnar Johnson and the second devoted to the groundbreaking recordings he made in Ethiopia with Ralph Harrisson during the summer of 1971. Belonging to a larger body of recordings dedicated to the rich and remarkably diverse traditions of that country – among the first to bring them to a wide global audience – captured with an unprecedented attentiveness to the process of recording that allows these sounds to remain fresh and present after…
“The Book of Love is long and boring,” Stephin Merritt once famously crooned, but Dawuna interprets that book a little differently. Maybe he just skips straight to the good parts: Love’s Arp, his second full length album, is a gratifying rumination on the “L” word, wandering its trippy labyrinths, exploring its rocky edges, and smoothing out its warm silk sheets.
It’s a wonder this album ever came to be: Glass Lit Dream turned up on this very site in 2020, and its rapturous reception catapulted him into rarefied critical air. But just when things were beginning to gain momentum, Dawuna was bedridden by a traumatic brain injury which left him with amnesia; he also struggled through a bumpy divorce. Staying with his brother in Baltimore…
Just Once brings together a fascinating collection of rare live recordings spanning the years 1982 to 2017, documenting songs that The Fuzztones performed only once on stage. More than just an archival release, the album offers a unique glimpse into the band’s early New York years, when they were building their reputation in legendary venues such as CBGB, The Dive and Irving Plaza – places that have long since disappeared but remain an important part of the city’s underground rock history.
Led by frontman Rudi Protrudi, and featuring musicians including organist Deb O’Nair and guitarist Elan Portnoy, The Fuzztones developed a distinctive musical identity rooted in the raw energy of 1960s garage rock, psychedelic…
Slightly All The Time Recordings 1970-1974 is a new CD box set featuring English rock band Soft Machine.
This comprehensive anthology features 14 CDs and three blu-rays and covers the first half of the 1970s and the five albums (‘Third’, ‘Fourth’, ‘Fifth’, ‘Six’ and ‘Seven’) they recorded for CBS with each one newly remastered from the original quarter-inch tapes. In addition, it includes all of their existing BBC sessions (half of which are unreleased) and a generous selection of rare and previously unavailable concert recordings from Europe (UK/France/Switzerland).
Compiler Mark Powell has unearthed an entirely different set of recordings of their ‘Fifth’ album, as well as over 6 hours…
For their third album together, Bill Laurance and Michael League retreated to a magical place: Château Palmer in the Bordeaux region. Edition Palmer IV is the fourth release in the collector series by ACT and Château Palmer.
The essence of the duo formed by pianist Bill Laurance and bassist and oud player Michael League: say a lot with very little – a concept that, through two albums released to date and acclaimed concerts, has earned them a following that, for once, truly deserves to be called “cult”. For their third album together, Close to Home, Bill Laurance and Michael League retreated to a magical place: Château Palmer in the Bordeaux region – home to some of the world’s finest Grands Crus, as well as a place of creativity and encounter.
Afrobeat scion Seun Kuti’s new six-track album Na Dem serves as a masterclass in musical versatility, pushing the boundaries of his sound through rich arrangements and high-profile international features.
The album opens with Adara, a deeply personal piece named after Kuti’s daughter, who delivers a touching intro to the track. Meaning “hope for a better day,” the song provides a soulful, uplifting ray of light that sets an inspiring foundation. It is followed by Real Life, which further explores the complex textures and reflective songwriting of the ensemble. The record dives into explosive territory with Problems, a powerful fusion featuring Jamaican reggae powerhouse Kabaka Pyramid. The album’s centerpiece title track…
Sax and drums and Rock ’n’ Roll. In a moderately unexpected turn of events Australian demolition duo Party Dozen find themselves a decade in, arriving at their fifth album with no sign of slowing down. 21 Bum Salute is a fine distillation of their special blend of honkin’ skronkin’ chaos, a rattling half hour of fizzing, restless, motion. They contend it is their best yet and they may well be right. It’s a raucous good time.
‘Special Unit’ rolls in on a building crescendo and wastes little time in setting the scene, uptempo swinging drums, gibbering vocals and honking sax. The relentless, distorted, groove of ‘Euro Stomper’ gathers layers of twisting sound until it reaches a delirious level of blow-out. ‘Mad Rooter’ is an unstoppable strutter…