Author: jerobear
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Nadine Khouri: The Salted Air
Khouri is a British-Lebanese musician and songwriter based in London, whose work is described by the Press release as “music born of perennial outsider status”. The PR cites a four-star Mojo review (“dark, possessed beauty”) and a five-star Radio Two review (“fascinating musical tapestry”). We’d give it three stars (“all a bit the same, really,…
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Patrick Hawes: Revelation, Beatitudes and Quantia Qualia
This is a tranquil and calming album, despite the title (Revelations featuring blood, mountains of fire, bottomless pits and destruction). It’s a weighty topic delivered with a light touch; the nine pieces that make up the album are inspired by the Book of Revelation and its imagery. A second work, Beatitudes, is a collection setting…
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Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet No 2 Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet
Brahms (born 1833) spent part of 1860 in the country suburb of Hamm, outside his native Hamburg, where he enjoyed the peace and quiet. The Piano Quartet No 2 was written about this time, and Brahms reported that it received a sympathetic reception. The work is 48 minutes long and makes wide use of sonata…
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Joshua Radin: The Fall
Inoffensive is the word for singer-songwriter Josh, though that doesn’t mean bad, more that he’s Ohio’s answer to Jack Johnson. Remember him? The tree-hugging Hawaiian dude whose pleasant if bland music was everywhere a few years back; when the Review Corner went to surfer central in Devon some children ago, it was the soundtrack to…
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Banks and Steelz: Anything But Words
This came out a while back, and we steered clear of an album featuring a rapper we never heard of and a man from a second division indie band. This is Interpol’s Paul Banks, who’s joined together with Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA (we’re not sure where the Steelz comes from, hence our ignorance) for an album…
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Sarah Darling: Dream Country
This charming album has enraptured us in the Review Corner this week. The sleeve is simple, with a celestial, dream-like air about it; the Bandcamp (or Pledgemusic, whatever) donors are presented in a star map, each supporter a small place in heaven. Imagine fluffy pink and unicorns, and you get a feel of the general…
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As Lions: Selfish Age
As Lions don’t so much roar as stride about cockily, following the alpha male around, not quite hard enough to take him on. (In more than one way: the band’s Austin Dickinson is son of Paul Bruce, the definite alpha male of British rock). It’s derivative and predictable, and never varies from its format of…
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Amber Run + Meadowlark + Island (Manchester Academy 2)
Although the headliners at Manchester Academy 2 were Amber Run, it was support band Meadowlark I wanted to see, their singles of the past year or so being among my favourite releases, Kate McGill’s winsome vocals accompanied by sparse music. Sadly, faulty traffic lights at Monk’s Heath and incompetent traffic management for roadworks in Manchester…
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Toothless: The Pace Of The Passing
Toothless is Ed Nash, the bass player for the excellent Bombay Bicycle Club, one of two English bands (Foals being the other) producing world class adult pop. They’ve now hung up their bicycle clips for a while, and Nash has made this. He’s a clever and learned chap, and the Press notes could probably act…
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