Review Corner

Tag: Congleton Chronicle

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    Quatuor Danel: New Sounds From Manchester

    We’ve been enjoying this new CD from Quatuor Danel, the quartet in residence at the University of Manchester. On this CD they present new compositions by four English composers associated with the university, two (John Casken and Philip Grange) already quite well known (so the Press notes say) and two younger ones, Camden Reeves and…

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    Rob J Madin: Cracked Shattered and Pop

    And then there are albums that utterly defy classification. Madin is best known for his comedy creation Brett Domino, who does slightly geeky musical comedies — he’s got 20 million hits on YouTube and did a Comic Relief song. He’s also C-Bomb, a slightly geeky dubstep producer in Sheffield, who had a pilot television show.…

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    Major Lazer: Peace Is The Mission

    Summer is here, well nearly, and Major Lazer (aka Diplo plus chums) is also here, offering a soundtrack for all your BBQs or parties. Previous Major Lazer CDs have not so much been albums as compilations of dance tracks and this no different. Opener Be Together is a slower song but after this measured opening…

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    Blur: The Magic Whip

    We’re with Scroobius Pip and Dan Le Sac on “Thou Shalt Always Kill” – Blur, just a band. We don’t worship the ground they walk on and in fact play Graham Coxon’s solo stuff more. We were slightly baffled by the restrictions attached to the streamed copy of this — we couldn’t even tell people…

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    Nick Cave and Warren Ellis: Loin Des Hommes (Soundtrack)

    As if he didn’t have enough to do, on top of the Bad Seeds / Cave / Grinderman work, Brighton’s most visible resident also does movie soundtracks. (This isn’t really classical but it’s what we listened to this week). We bought the bleak film The Proposition some years ago, because Cave wrote the music and…

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    Peter Sheppard Skaerved: Telemann: The Great Violins, Vol. 1

    This rather lovely and delicate new album is from Divine Art and is the first instalment of an ambitious new project, to record baroque works on some of the world’s most historic instruments. For volume one, Peter Sheppard Skaerved is playing a 1570 Amati, already 150 years old when Telemann wrote his 12 fantasies for…

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    Ash Hunter: Rural Music

    This came via Wedge at A&A Music so we weren’t expecting much: in fact it’s wonderful. Overall the vibe reminded us of Traffic’s mix of folk and jazz, from an era when people used to be optimistic about putting the world to rights with a few good ideas and a steady supply of weed. It…

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    The Wombats: Glitterbug

    Time travel does exist: The Wombats are in fact a cheesy 70s disco band stranded in this century. Shortly after an appearance on Top Of The Pops in 1975, they took a wrong turn and ended up in Dr Who’s Tardis, then found themselves stuck in 2007. Still dressed in Wombat suits and with Peter…

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    Gilbert Rowland: Handel: Suites for Harspichord Vol3

    Having spent the week listening to Sebastien Fagerlund’s intellectually stimulating music (see this page) and the thrash punk of Gallows (ditto), and enjoying both, it’s a big jump to Rowland’s presentation of Handel’s harpsichord music, whose aim is “merely” to entertain. We’ve enjoyed this too, but there’s just less to say, at least without just…

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    Sebastien Fagerlund: Darkness In Light

    Sebastien Fagerlund is Finnish and his Wikipedia entry reads: “He is described as a post-modern impressionist whose sound landscapes can be heard as ecstatic nature images which, however, are always inner images, landscapes of the mind.” It says the violin concerto Darkness in Light “inhabits the zone between dream and reality” and is partly inspired…