Review Corner

Tag: Sandbach Chronicle

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    55 Cancri e: Att Lämna Tellus

    Starting the year on a wacky note is Sara Hausenkamp’s new album, Att Lämna Tellus or leaving Tellus as you doubtless translated it from the original foreign. Hausenkamp is Swedish and learned classical guitar as a child before playing keyboard in different bands as teenager. She also makes illustrations, collages and photos, and writes, paints…

  • Nelson Goerner/Beethoven: Piano Sonata No29 Hammerklavier and Bagatelles, Op. 126

    The Press notes say he’s nicknamed “the poet of the piano” and from this CD we can see why. Hammerklavier is seen as one of the greatest piano sonatas, and Beethoven himself said: “Here is a sonata that will make pianists work hard.” Written in 1818, it is said to be Beethoven’s most technically challenging…

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    Beans on Toast: A Spanner in the Works

    Beans On Toast is the stage name of folk singer Jay McAllister from Essex. He’s a mate of Frank Turner, and thus gets to play Wembley supporting Frank and then considerably smaller venues on his own account. (He just played Manchester Gorilla). A Spanner in the Works opens with an angry rant about 2016. If…

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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…