Review Corner

Tag: Congleton Chronicle Series

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    Oskar’s Drum: A Cathedral Of Hands

    Another CD that’s hard to review; on one hand, it’s excellent, on the other it’s hard to know why we should tell anyone to buy it. Is consistently interesting a good enough reason? Oskar’s Drum is Patrik Fitzgerald and Yves Altana. Older readers may have come across Fitzgerald’s work, as he claims to be an…

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    Justice: Woman

    This is Justice’s third album. It’s safe to say their first (Cross) was a corker but the second (Audio, Video, Disco) was a bit pants. This new one is much better than the pants one but not quite at corker-dom. That’s partly because the first one was so good, the band’s Gaspard Augé and Xavier…

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    The Travelling Band: Pinhole Sounds Volume 1

    This is technically an EP but it’s also a mini-album, a sampler of work from The Travelling Band and bands they like, featuring Jo Rose and Pit Pony, Barbarisms and A Dyjecinski. It came out in November and it slipped by us; searching on the internet, it appears to have been scandalously overlooked. The origins…

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos 1-4

      After playing Beecke (Ignaz von Beecke: Piano Concertos) it was interesting to listen to this Mozart CD, the final volume of Brautigam’s cycle of Mozart piano concertos recorded on copies of period fortepianos. The instrument in this case is by Paul McNulty (2007), and it gets its own page in the excellent sleeve notes;…

  • Ignaz von Beecke: Piano Concertos

    You can’t really go wrong with this collection of piano concertos from the long-forgotten Beecke. If your new year resolution was to get some classical music in your collection, this is easy to listen to and approachable. If you’re fan of Mozart and Haydn, he’s not at that class but it’s still a pleasure to…

  • Alison Rayner: Quintet A Magic Life

    This modern jazz album is one about which you could say very little or write an essay. On one level, it’s easy listening, and you can play it as pleasant background music; given the musicianship of the players, that’s like using a Lamborghini to nip to Tesco. Jazz players of this calibre make it all…

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    Non Canon: Non Canon

    Non Canon is Barry Dolan, also known as Oxygen Thief, about whom we know nothing: he has supported Frank Turner and InMe so we guess it’s punky folk. Non Canon is more folky, with string instruments to the fore, though Turner is an obvious comparison. This is the kind of act you’d see at a…

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    Regina Spektor: Remember Us To Life

    It’s hard to know what to say about this. Spektor writes piano-led good songs that tread a line between the arty and the pop, never too whacky not to be enjoyable but never quite pure pop, neither Laurie Anderson nor Adele. She’s a solid performer and sounds like no-one else; the only question is whether…

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    The Slow Show: Dream Darling

    If The Slow Show’s music was in a film it would a rom com, as the hero walked away into the sunset after finally splitting up with the girl he still loves; as the camera followed him into the middle distance he’d give a little happy skip because, hey, life’s not that bad really. This…

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    Aylish Kerrigan, Dearbhla Collins: I Am Wind on Sea

    This is a selection contemporary vocal music from Ireland, six composers’ work presented by mezzo-soprano Aylish Kerrigan and pianist Dearbhla Collins. By contemporary we mean the last century or so and by Irish we don’t mean songs about whisky in jars: while some parts of this CD are charming, others are more challenging. The opening…