Showing 1134 results for: Reviews
Cian Nugent – Doubles - September 2011 September 4th, 2011
Like Glen Jones, the young Dubliner Cian Nugent operates in the shadow of the American avant-folk maestro John Fahey, here on two lengthy acoustic guitar instrumentals. The drone-tuned, one note, assault of the opening five minutes of Peaks & Troughs, and its subsequent quarter of an hour flirtation with development, echo Fahey at his most…
Glen Jones – The Wanting - September 2011 September 4th, 2011
The former front-man of the Boston psychedelic band Cul-de-Sac, Glen Jones is ageing gracefully, touting his fourth collection of acoustic guitar instrumentals. Titles shape responses; Twenty-three Years In Happy Valley, Or Love Amongst the Chickenshit, invites us to read its banjo flurries ambiguously; the seventeen minute closer is a dense cycle of blurred finger-picking, with…
Various Artists – The Story Of Trojan Records - August 2011 August 28th, 2011
Trojan records’ vast back catalogue of essential Jamaican reggae is a valuable property, but how can Universal exploit an asset already so thoroughly strip-mined? Disc one of this five CD, budget priced, set The Story Of Trojan Records, features familiar UK reggae hits of the sixties and seventies – The Pioneers’ Longshot Kick De Bucket,…
Tinariwen – Tassilli - August 2011 August 28th, 2011
When world music artists collaborate with Western acts, our inner Rousseau, with his patronising vision of the noble savage pumping out some exotic groove from an ancient wellspring of innate good taste, is usually severely compromised. It turns out all your favourite developing world star really wanted to do was duet with some embarrassing rock…
Bill Frisell – Sign Of Life : Music For The 858 Quartet - August 2011 August 28th, 2011
Bill Frisell plays jazz, folk and blues, but there’s no dirt under these fingernails. Frisell’s considered interpretations of durable American genres are hand-tooled for the konzerthalle, not the juke joint. The sixty year old guitar guru is joined on Sign Of Life by the viola player Eyvind Kang, the cellist Hank Roberts, and the violinist…
Paolo Angeli & Takumi Fukushima – Itsunomakika - August 2011 August 28th, 2011
Paolo Angeli wrestles a giant Sardinian guitar, with hand-triggered analogue one-man band adaptations bolted to it, like Heath Robinson fusing free improvisation and soaring gypsy folk. Here, the Japanese singer and violinist Takumi Fukushima augments his signature moves, her voice fluttering and flowering like Bjork, or the great Czech improviser Iva Bittova, from rabid dog…