Live Music Reviews
by Daniel Paton
A pandemic-curtailed experience still opened up bold, uncompromising and personal musical visions from the likes of Yazz Ahmed, Dinosaur and Sarathy Korwar
by Alan Ashton-Smith
His songs are compelling yet often unsettling, telling the tales of fragile souls living through tough times
by Steven Johnson
Selections from his trio of Orkney Islands inspired albums are brought to life in a special show at the Barbican
by Daniel Paton
“I’d like to see you, but I can’t and that’s hard. But I can feel you psychically,” announces the Be Good Tanyas founder to her virtual audience
by John Murphy
Cave draws widely from his back catalogue for a solo piano show that lifts the bar considerably for online gigs
by Matt Cotsell
Celebrating International Women’s Day, the 2020 BBC 6 Music Festival did the obvious thing and staged five amazing solo women
by Matt Cotsell
A plea to recognise that sometimes the simplest things will bring the most satisfaction, and all we want in this moment is that endless beat
by Daniel Paton
At a time when there is plenty of talk of moving functions of government away from the capital and stimulating growth in towns and regions, it’s perhaps slightly surprising that the BBC 6 Music Festival...
by Steven Johnson
Young guitar bands have enjoyed something of a renaissance over recent years and The Murder Capital are one of the latest acts to find themselves very much in the spotlight. Hailing from Dublin, the four...
by Sam Shepherd
Since the release of their ground breaking album Souvenirs d’un autre monde in 2007, Alcest has consistently made steps across genre boundaries and in doing so has attracted a wide and diverse audience. The French...
by Matt Cotsell
Much as the worlds of packaging, clothing and illustration have resorted to mid-century tropes and colour schemes, so the world of modern music has resorted to tired remakes, reboots and rehashes of the late ‘70s...
by Matt Cotsell
The room, hidden as it is down an alleyway beneath the old Victorian train station arches, cavernous in proportion and flooded with darkness on this sharp March evening, is heaving with supporters and characteristically loud....
by Matt Cotsell
What’s your guilty pleasure? What perennial favourite do you always fall back on, when you’re feeling worn out? For the legend that is Keith Richards it’s apparently good old fashioned Shepherd’s Pie. A classic stodgy...
by Michael Hubbard
For some two years, a Jarvis Cocker-starring entity known as JARV IS… has been pitching up at caves, offbeat gig venues and the odd festival space, and setting about defining what Jarv… is. In so...
by Matt Cotsell
It seems that Jason Reece, of Austin based prog-metal lifers …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, has momentarily lost his cool and spends what seems like the first half of tonight’s...
by Tim Lee
The difference between Nadine Shah the singer and Nadine Shah the between-tracks raconteur is stark. Equally entertaining, but starkly contrasted. For when Shah sings (and this amplified by what she chooses to sing tonight) it...
by Steven Johnson
2019 was undeniably a good year for Big Thief – they released two critically acclaimed albums in UFOF and Two Hands and graduated into a band that now headlines festivals and comfortably fills venues like...
by Matt Cotsell
To set the appropriate mood as we wait for the headliners, there are two palm trees taking up centre stage behind the microphone stands, casting their unflinching bruise coloured shadows against the diffused pink screen...
by Tim Lee
It is 19 years since The Strokes’ debut album. How many pairs of Converse have been bought and destroyed in that time? How many t-shirts advertising obscure brands and unsuccessful sports teams have transitioned from...
by Matt Cotsell
Not deterred by the approaching ravages of Storm Dennis, people slowly begin to bundle into the dim recesses of the cavernous Green Door Store, ready to catch another performance by Californian dance punkers YACHT. As...
by Matt Cotsell
Opening with Highway, the girls in Automatic are going to take us on a ride, and whilst it may not be the craziest, and it may not reach its destination very quickly, it will be...
Matthew Dear – Preacher’s Sigh & Potion: Lost Album
John Grant – Boy From Michigan
Gaspard Augé – Escapades
Gilchrist / Tilbrook – Leeds Lieder Festival @ Victoria Hall, Leeds Town Hall, Leeds
Max Bloom – Pedestrian
Britten, The Five Canticles – Leeds Lieder Festival @ Victoria Hall, Leeds Town Hall, Leeds
Coote / Blackshaw – Leeds Lieder Festival @ Victoria Hall, Leeds Town Hall, Leeds