Category: Uncategorized
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Gun: Favourite Pleasures
Gun, from Glasgow, are best known for their hit cover of Cameo’s Word Up. But they formed in 1987 and have kept going, releasing nine albums, Favourite Pleasures being the tenth. As a melodic hard rock album, it’s impossible to fault, and we’re really enjoying it, which is, after all, the point. This style of…
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Carson Cooman: Andreas Willscher: Organ Symphony No.5
German composer Andreas Willscher has (say the Press notes, we won’t claim expertise) won many awards for his compositions, which range from symphonic forms and oratorio to cabaret jazz and rock. Organ Symphony No.5 is on a grand scale but mostly peaceful and meditative; in the sleeve notes the composer said it was subtitled “of…
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Brazilian Landscapes
This fascinating CD is nominally classical with jazz influences, but you could call it world because of the rhythm, which leans towards the Latin. It’s a quiet and reflective album. The percussion plays varying roles in the music, coming to the fore in places and dropping back in others. There’s a sense of fun about…
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Fritz Kreisler: The Complete Solo Recordings, Vol.7
It’s slightly misleading to call this classical: it’s a bloke playing popular tunes on the violin, so it’s really pop music, just pop from the days when a new tune was Dame Clara Butt singing Old Folks At Home. Austrian-born Kreisler was busy after WWI with a comeback in America, world tours, and a warm…
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Chiaroscuro Quartet: Joseph Haydn String Quartets Op 20 Nos 4-6 (Vol 2)
This lovely CD can be taken two ways. You can just listen to it; it’s gentle, refined and atmospheric. The so-called Sun quartets of Joseph Haydn’s Op 20 are said to be the benchmark that subsequent composers aim for. It’s the music you hear in a National Trust shop when they want you to imagine…
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Dua Lipa: Dua Lipa
This is not the kind of album we would normally listen to, slick RnB pop by the latest young person with a decent voice, but as she is walking out with Mr Chris Martin and thus now fodder for the Daily Mail sidebar of shame, we thought we’d give her a serious listen. The whole…
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Carson Cooman: Hymnus
We seem to be falling over CDs from the prolific American composer Carson Cooman, who puts out an album every other day (he’s even on a jazz-based work we have lined up for review). His works are approachable, while being proper classical music as well, suitable for both novice and stuffed-shirt expert. The Press notes…
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Niels Rønsholdt: Songs of Doubt
This is a remarkable CD. It’s not for anyone who thinks Ed Sheeran produces complex songs but it’s a powerful and affecting work that should appeal to classical and electronic pop fans alike. The sound is somewhere between Martin Grech’s Open Heart Zoo, still a classic album (came out in 2002, the music was more…
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Basco: Interesting Times
Basco are a Danish folk band playing complex Celtic-influenced folk with added accordion, the latter contributing a touch of whimsy. The band is Ale Carr (cittern), Andrea Tophoj (violin, viola), Hal Parfitt-Murray (violin mandolin, vocals) and Anders Ringgaard Andersen (accordion, trombone) so the instrumentation means they sound like a less driven Seth Lakeman, and with…
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NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories, (with Jeff Alulis, book)
If you like music and want a holiday read you can pick up and put down, this entertaining book is ideal. You don’t even need to know much about NOFX, a legendary punk band who’ve stayed punk and refused to sign a major label deal. That’s discussed here: while they perhaps envy their old mates…
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