Anna Burch
Anna Burch has spent the best part of the last decade as part of Frontier Ruckus and more recently with Failed Flowers, and released her debut solo album Quit The Curse earlier this year to significant acclaim. It’s full of polished, melodic indie-guitar-pop. She plays a small show at The Old Blue Last on Wednesday.
An even more in-demand show is taking place on Thursday at Village Underground where Jon Hopkins will be playing tracks from highly anticipated new album Singularity. He has two shows lined up at Brixton Academy later in the year, so this represents a rare chance to see him in an unusually intimate setting.
Over at the Barbican meanwhile Max Richter and artist Yulia Mahr curate Sounds & Visions, a three day festival of performances. The standout events are 12 Ensemble performing Richter’s own Infra on Friday and the BBC Symphony Orchestra playing Three Works from his excellent Woolf Works on Saturday. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Jlin also appear on Friday to complete one of the best gig line ups of the year so far. Electronic musician Clark, the London Syrian Ensemble and Ex Eye (the latest project of Colin Stetson) are other names appearing over the weekend – see full details here. Check back here for reviews afterwards.
In heavier, noisier territory Lightning Bolt bring their incendiary sounds to the Garage on Monday and Danish alt-rock types Iceage treat fans to tracks from well-received latest album Beyondless at the Scala on Tuesday. Canadian outfit Nap Eyes are a more nuanced proposition; they’ll be at Oslo on the same night, with support comes from Haley Heynderickx – we really liked her latest album I Need To Start A Garden.
Two other well-received albums that we’ve covered recently are Vide Noir by Lord Huron and The Projector by Simon Felice. Both artists are in London on Wednesday – Lord Huron at the Lexington and Simon Felice at Omeara. Two other notable shows on Wednesday see ionnalee (Swedish singer Joanna Lee, formerly fronting iamamiwhoami) promotes latest album Everyone Afraid to Be Forgotten at Heaven, and James Heather plays from last year’s album of Stories From Far Away On Piano at St Pancras Old Church with the help of Iskra String Quartet.
Finally, Afrobeat originator Tony Allen and Detroit funk and soul artist Amp Fiddler join forces to play a show at Peckham’s Ghost Notes on Thursday and an artistic pairing with a longer history, Welsh harpist Catrin Finch & Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita, bring their delicate, glistening sounds to Union Chapel on Saturday.
New announcements
We really enjoyed seeing Natalie Prass at Bush Hall last month and she’ll be returning to the capital for a show at the Electric Brixton on 8th November (somewhat annoyingly, on the same date as the previously reported show by Neko Case at the Barbican). Don’t delay on the decision-making process is our advice.
Dirty Projectors also announced a pair of dates at Village Underground – they’ll be appearing on 21st & 22nd August. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah meanwhile will be marking the 10th anniversary of the release of Some Loud Thunder by playing it in full at the Victoria on 29th May (they’ll be back at the Electric Ballroom later in the year on 26th October). Finally, The Streets have just finished playing three shows at Brixton Academy and they’ll be doing the same on 2nd, 3rd & 5th February of next year.
In other news Sunflower Bean are also returning to London – they’ll play the new Hackney Arts Centre on 22nd November, The Goon Sax will be appearing at the Sebright Arms on 29th May and Catalan rapper Bad Gyal will be playing Electrowerkz on 23rd May.
Anna Burch MP3s or CDs
Anna Burch on Spotify
