Category: Uncategorized
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The Selecter: Subculture
It’s difficult for bands like The Selecter: on one hand they’re playing to an aging fanbase of 2-Tone fans who just want to hear what they know. We saw Selecter at Capesthorne’s Rewind on Saturday, playing to an audience looking to relive the 1980s and hear all the old tunes. On the other: they’ve still…
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José Antonio Escobar: Luis Milan: El Maestro
Ah, just to be known as “El Maestrao” eh? Not that’s he’s around to appreciate it: Luis died in 1561 and was a Spanish Renaissance composer. He was a vihuelist, which is what people were before they became guitarists: the vihuela is a guitar-shaped string instrument from 15th and 16th century Spain, Portugal and Italy.…
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Live: Rewind, Capesthorne Hall, August 2015.
It was party time at Capesthorne Hall over the weekend as the latest of the now-annual Rewind festivals was held at the Siddington stately home. The event, which had a daily capacity 20,000, was sold out as thousands of fans of the 80s legends descended on Capesthorne in a range of fancy dress outfits. The…
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Lianne La Havas: Blood
A bit of a curate’s egg from Ms Barnes, with some songs swooningly nice and others gliding past the ears unheard, making as much fuss a quietly moving halibut. Opener Unstoppable is one of the former, a sultry, a slow jazzy number reminiscent of a summer’s day and sun-dappled trees. Wonderful is stripped back to…
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Calls Landing: Heirlooms
Watching Kerrang! television (as we often do), it’s noticeable that many of the tunes played are getting for two decades old — the likes of Blink 182, Sum 41, Offspring and Alien Ant Farm all get heavy rotation. Then there’s New Found Glory, who are maybe not up there with Blink or Green Day as…
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The Dunwells: Lucky Ones EP
The Dunwells are one of those bands that don’t really appeal to me, but I can see they’re extremely good. In fact, me saying this is good is better than a fan raving aobut them, because the fan is biased and I’m viewing it objectively. The Dunwells play pop that teeters on the middle of…
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Paul Smith and the Intimations: Contradicions
Smith is the singer with Maxïmo Park, who have a hard-core following (which includes the Review Corner) but have sold comparatively few albums — I think I saw a lifetime total of 2m the other week. Two million albums is good, but it’s not Oasis. A fair chunk of that was the A Certain Trigger,…
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Cattle and Cane: Skies / Hyde and Beast: Hard Times Good Times
Cattle and Cane: Skies Taken from the new album Home, this is a jolly while at the same time slightly downbeat country/pop tune. It’s both modern sounding and harking back to the generic sound of many a folk/rock hit of the seventies with its slightly anthemic singalong chorus. It’s a perky tune, though it didn’t…
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Boo Hewerdine: Open
This new album is a sort of greatest hits for Hewerdine; it features unreleased recordings made during sessions in 2003. The tracks include early versions of two of his classic songs (Muddy Water and Geography) as well as acoustic recordings of concert favourites such as Microfilm and Name, the latter song opening the album. As…
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