Review Corner

Category: Uncategorized

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    Malpas: Rain River Sea

    This isn’t out until 27th July but we’re plugging it now so you can get head of the curve and find them early. The opener is Under Her Sails, a song we’ve had on repeat for some time. It’s a gentle, quirky electronic track that’s crisp and appealing mix of folk and ambient electronica that’s…

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    Simi Stone: Simi Stone

    Stone, half of The Duke and the King, has produced an album that’s a bit like going on a bender on expensive wine. The first couple of glasses are beautiful but after that; well, you’re half a bottle of wine into the session and it doesn’t matter. Somewhat similarly: the first few tracks on this…

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    Michael Habermann: Sorabji, Piano Music

    It’s impossible to say anything bad about this, to be honest. Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was born Leon Dudley Sorabji in Chingford, his father being a civil engineer of Parsi parentage from Bombay. As a teenager, Sorabji took interest in the work of Schoenberg, Mahler and Debussy among others and eventually created his own system of…

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    Twin Shadow: Eclipse

    It’s good to have an artist making pop for adults, and we’ve been playing Twin Shadow a lot. The initial impression — for older readers — is John Hughes and Atlantic 252. For younger readers, the latter was an Irish music station broadcasting on longwave, playing American-style radio friendly hits: Richard Marx was on a…

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    Barbarossa: Imager

    After the piratical reference above we come to Barbarossa, which we think means red beard in foreign, me ‘arties. It’s really James Mathe, purveyor of slow-burning electronica. Mathe has strayed from the folk that saw him become part of the Fence Collective (Kid Creosote, KT Tunstall et al), and a band member for the likes…

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    Outfit: Slowness

    We remember Outfit’s 2013 debut Performance with mixed feelings: it evokes a memory of disappointment mixed with promise, and the fleeting thought “Why did we never leave that on the Review Corner iPod” followed by “It was only good in places”. This is better and we may now revisit that last album, which can now…

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    Shuya Xu: Nirvana

    Unlike the Schubert also reviewed this week, this is not easily accessible and should be approached with caution. You need some expertise in the handling of classical music to deal with it, and probably gloves. This is modern music, and as discordant, erratic and as dramatic as you might wish. Xu Shuya graduated from Shanghai…

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    Gengahr: A Dream Outside

    Gengahr (we’ve no idea how to pronounce it — Gengarrr as in “Gengarrrr me ‘arties?”) are a rather hyped band, and one of those myriad of “next big things” knocking about at any one time. At first listen, it’s both hard and easy to say why: easy because their slightly stoned, pleasant pop and falsetto…

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    Jason Derulo: Everything Is 4

    We tend to be a little sniffy about performers like this — sexist lyrics, formulaic RnB — but we have to say that Derulo has finally beaten us down and this isn’t bad at all. In fact track seven Broke, is nearly a must-hear tune, with a massive beat and catchy hook. But not quite.…

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    Du Blonde: Welcome Back To Milk

    Du Blonde is Beth Jeans Houghton, of Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny fame (ok, relative fame), whose album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose we found proficient but a little twee, not to say dull. One Review Cornerer did profess fondness for it and took the CD but we never heard it played. It…