What does it sound like?:

Sabrina Piggott’s roots are in County Cork and folk music. Her voice is pure, even if the Irish brogue sometimes mangles the vowels in a manner similar to Björk. She has a distinctive style of playing the acoustic guitar. A champion bodhran player, it is rhythmic rather than melodic, very effective at ratcheting up the drama and intensity in her songs. Her wings have taken her from Ireland and beyond Folk. David Crickmore produces this debut, giving her plenty of space as though he’s recording her in Iceland. It helps he brings a bag of tricks including Electronica and found sounds. He’s a multi-instrumentalist who used to be in a synthpop band with Bill Nelson in the eighties. David Hornberger’s cello adds colour and authority.

Roots And Wings is a hybrid of old and new, acoustic and electronic, Folk and Pop. It’s full of passion. Sabrina sings with a powerful conviction, feet firmly planted on the floor, chin held high, even in the quieter moments. Each song has the story-telling of Folk at its heart but delivered in a thoroughly modern way. Roots And Wings captures Sabrina caught on the horns of a dilemma. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

John Paul White made his name duetting with Joy Williams in The Civil Wars. Four Grammys later, he can call on some of Nashville’s finest to help him with his solo career. Ben Tanner produces, Pat Bergeson plays lead guitar and the legendary David Hood provides a hefty bottom end. White declares he was inspired by the lush, orchestrated music of 1960s Nashville, aiming for a torch song, classic timeless quality, and you can hear the money that’s been spent on this record.

Of course, ‘solo’ it doesn’t matter how many talented people are surrounding you, in the end the responsibility is on your shoulders. White, himself, sings lead on nine of the ten songs, writes seven entirely by himself and co-writes the remaining three, plays guitar and co-produces.

White aims high, his lyrics concentrating on the universal experience of disappointment in love, swept along on grand melodies. Sadly, under the rather resplendent sound, the songs aren’t particularly strong. There’s none of the excitement of the usual Country fare of disease, failed crops, alcoholism, heroin addiction, illegitimate births, betrayal or revenge killings. White’s only real problem in life is his difficulty maintaining » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Malihini consist of a young Italian couple, Giampaolo Speziali and Federica Caiozzo. They sound as though they are drifting aimlessly through life, spending all their time mooning over each other. On Hopefully Again, their debut album, they invite us into their universe, probably a dilapidated bedsit in Rome, but they are so self-absorbed, they don’t notice we are there. The outside world barely intrudes on their daily existence, even when it snows.

The sound is simple, no clutter. There’s a nice chicka-chicka guitar, the bass is plump, the drums unobtrusive and the synthesiser neat and tidy. Federica’s vocals are hushed and smoky, Giampaolo’s confident and intimate. Most of all, God bless them, there are tunes. The melodies are strongest in the choruses but there is sweetness everywhere across all of the ten co-written songs. The whole album is sensual and romantic, a real pleasure to listen to. Hopefully Again improves with repeated listens as though it matures with time. It’s the kind of record that will be described in those reverent tones used when looking back at a lost classic. It’s an album to cherish and to nurture. Catch it now, while you » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Amazing Grace is a phenomenum. It is Gospel’s most successful live album and Aretha Franklin’s best selling of a fifty year career. It won a Grammy. It was recorded live in a humble church, The New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, over two nights in front of an audience of about two hundred. It was January 1972 but it was baking hot in that church. All the performers were sweating profusely. The Reverend James Cleveland played piano, beautifully, and directed his Southern California Community Choir. There was a full band, including a fabulous rhythm section of Chuck Rainey on bass and Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie on drums. Ken Lupper’s spiritual organ was an enticing call to worship. Aretha’s father, C.L. Franklin, a famous Baptist Minister and preacher himself whose sermons sold in their millions, made an appearance to deliver what is effectively a eulogy to his daughter. Sydney Pollack recorded the whole thing for prosperity for a documentary that never saw the light of day until after Aretha’s death. largely because of problems of its own making.

Amazing Grace was billed as a homecoming. The great, hugely successful Soul singer, Aretha Franklin » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

According to historians Soul music died in 1976 when disco and funk took over. However, there are plenty of modern-day acts that are updating the sound and keeping the flame alive. Yola’s latest album could be Dusty Springfield going to Memphis and covering Shelby Lynne songs. In another dimension, Durand Jones & The Indications might have graduated from Booker T Washington School and signed for Stax in 1968. St. Paul & The Broken Bones are torn on the horns of the dilemma between the secular and the profane, just like Al Green or Marvin Gaye. James Hunter sounds as though he learnt guitar at the knee of Bo Diddley. Leon Bridges worships at the altar of Sam Cooke. The list goes on.

Nick Waterhouse finds himself described as a Soul revivalist. In fact, he creates R&B in the old-fashioned sense of Rhythm & Blues, as in the early sixties. More than that, despite hailing from California, his style of R&B is very British. He could easily fit on a bill with The Animals and The High Numbers before they became The Who, when they were Maximum R&B. However, it could be even more complicated. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Curtis Mayfield was born in Chicago and, with The Impressions, was an instigator of its soft soul sound, a sound characterised by rich orchestration and sweet, keening vocals. He wrote the songs, played guitar, keyboards, saxophone, produced and sang lead. By 1970, he’d formed his own company, Curtom, with its associated record label. The following year, the band dissolved and Mayfield was established as a solo artist. This box collects remasters of his first four non-soundtrack studio albums in which he took advantage of his creative control to establish his signature sound and explore his favourite themes. Those albums are Curtis, Roots, Back To The World and Sweet Ecstasy.

Curtis Mayfield was one of the first Soul singers to tackle social issues. The Impressions’ People Get Ready, more than an inspiration for Bob Marley, was as far back as 1965. 1968’s We’re A Winner was an unambiguous anthem of black pride. The consciousness of solo debut album, Curtis, predates Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin’ On and Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions. The only contemporary equivalent would be to imagine Sly & The Family Stone’s Stand! produced by Norman Whitfield and sung by The Temptations.

The secret is » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Deer Tick lean heavily on the talents of their frontman and songwriter, John J. McCauley. In his heart, he is a barstool balladeer but, after a few drinks, the band easily lead him astray into boozy, rowdy garage, out-ramshackling Pavement. A few more drinks later and he’s back on the barstool, swaying with Dylan Thomas maudlin.

Mayonnaise is their third compilation in less than two years (Deer Tick Vol. 1 is the better of 2017’s pair). It focusses on rarities, alternate versions and covers. They choose delicate flowers such George Harrison’s troubled Run Of The Mill and The Velvet Underground’s barely breathing Pale Blue Eyes to showcase their sensitive side. Ben Vaughan’s Too Sensitive For This World is, perhaps, taking it a step too far. The Pogues White City, on the other hand, is more wild and ragged. The one new original song, Hey! Yeah! falls somewhere between the two stools. Nevertheless, the thirteen tracks are a fun if schizophrenic listen, exactly as you would imagine Deer Tick’s world to be.

However, three compilations in such a short time is somewhat strange. The last album, their fifth, Negativity, was released in 2013. Have » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Katie Doherty and Mara Simpson have a lot more in common than just the rich, creamy texture of their voices. They both have their second album released today; gentle, intimate, personal, beautifully recorded albums in the ‘contemporary folk’ idiom. They both have been formally trained. Katie obtained a degree in Folk at Newcastle University back in 2006. Mara is classically trained in composition, piano and guitar. They both rely on a small number of musicians to embellish their songs with subtle sophistication and a dependable strength. Katie has her Navigators, Dave Gray and Shona Mooney, and Mara’s band consists of Fiddes Smith, Jools Owen and Jamie Patterson, plus Poppy Ackroyd provides orchestration to some songs. Finally, they both have a passion for story telling through music.

Katie comes across as more shy than Mara. Her first album was issued in 2007. In the interim, she’s lived the life of a farmer’s wife, bringing up family and keeping her musical muscles twitching as musical director for The Royal Shakespeare Company’s As You Like It and in her native Gateshead Theatre. There is a purity about her singing and her songs, more authentically Folk than Mara. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Wes Bayliss and Jason ‘Rowdy’ Cope bonded over a mutual love of fishing and Southern Rock. It wasn’t too long before they were writing songs together. They both rock hard on guitar but Rowdy causes most sparks to fly. Wes’s voice has a characteristic Tennessee mournful twang but can also scream itself as hoarse as Robert Plant. Jay Tooke and Johnny Stanton complete the four piece.

Old News is their second album, fifteen tracks, of which six are covers, including all of the last four when they let their hair down as though encoring after a triumphant gig. Finishing the album with songs by Wayne Mills, Merle Haggard, Greg Allman and Tom Petty tell you pretty much all you need to know about the band. They may be following in the footsteps of Lynyrd Skynyrd and, even, Kings Of Leon but, like Jason Isbell and The Drive-By Truckers, they still retain a strong Country element in their style.

Their own songs use the grammar of Rock to speak the language of Country, sensitive lyrics set to a pounding kick drum and storming riffs. That doesn’t mean they are adverse to an acoustic, forlorn » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

House represents the democratisation of Disco. We have to thank The Roland Corporation, a Japanese electronics company, whose relatively inexpensive equipment, the TR-808 drum machine, the TB-303 bass synthesiser and the JX-3P synthesiser provide its signature sound. A relentless 4/4 rhythm, with an off-beat electronic hi-hat, is embellished by deep bass and keyboard textures. Vocals aren’t essential but can easily be patched on from samples. Any DJ worth their salt could make records very cheaply and very quickly in their own homes (hence the term ‘House’).

This isn’t music for selling records or sounding good on the radio. Its purpose is to get the dance floor moving, each DJ having their own unique repertoire of tracks, a repertoire that changed every week. House is disposable and without any subtlety or artifice. It stimulates the communal activity of throwing your limbs about, without embarrassment, in a seething cauldron of a mass of likeminded souls as the bass thumps through your chest. Under those circumstances, House Music can be euphoric, especially when fuelled by the scene’s favoured drug, ecstasy.

The last thing you should do is sit down and listen to a 36 track 3CD » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Paul McCartney was sore and licking wounds when he made these two records in 1971 and 1973 respectively. The film, Let It Be, had shown him in a poor light, his promotional material for his first solo album provoked the headline, “Paul Breaks Up The Beatles” and it was his lawsuit, launched as he recorded Ram, that finally dissolved The Beatles partnership. He was seen as the bad guy and the critics hated his music, comparing it unfavourably to John’s and George’s early solo output. No wonder he ran off to Scotland and indulged himself in a prodigious pot habit.

Ram had been recorded with the help of a couple of guitarists and Denny Seiwell on drums. He decided he needed to be in a band again, bringing Denny Laine from The Moody Blues as permanent guitarist. Thus, with the addition of his ever present, adoring wife, Wings was formed.

Under his cloud of pot, Paul continued to write prolifically, usually strumming his acoustic guitar as his family sang along and played around him. He still had a winning way with a tune but his lyrics almost completely dried up. Detached as he » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Anthony Tombling, independent film director, is CUTS. He hails from Bristol and began his career as a singer for a band called Dragons. They released one album. He hasn’t given up singing altogether, guesting for Timo Maas, but his music-making is mainly shaping Electronica to accompany visual images. One of his pieces was used in the Ex Machina soundtrack and another in the Persons Of Interest TV show. Mainly, he composes music for his own films and this is his second release of 2018, the Exist 1 & 2 EPs being issued in April, the soundtrack to an experimental film about sleep paralysis.

A Gradual Decline has a terrible beauty. Tombling travelled to Iceland to record ice breaking from the glaciers and take advantage of Reykjavik’s perfect ambience for electronica, the land of ice and fire where two continental plates crack asunder. He uses those recordings in the manner of William Babinski’s Disintegration Loops where the sound declines as it repeatedly passes through the machines. He adds nagging beats, splintered noises and fragile, wispy melodies. Even at its most serene, the music creeps towards the edge. A synthesiser groans and creeks, a metronome ticks » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

In the year 2000, David Bowie headlined Glastonbury and played 21 of his best known songs to a crowd of at least 250,000 people. So many entered the site without a ticket, the following year’s festival was cancelled because of safety fears and by 2002 they built a fence. Those that were there described the performance as bliss. No less an authority than Emily Eavis rates it as the finest Glastonbury set in the festival’s history. It is regarded as a triumphant return by an artist whose album sales had diminished during the nineties and hadn’t played a greatest hits package for well over a decade. This release consists of two CDs, a DVD of the entire performance, nicely wrapped up in a Jonathan Barnbrook cover and notes written by Caitlin Moran, who was at the concert.

The band oozes class. Mike Garson is, by some distance, the best Bowie pianist (Rick Wakeman’s contribution to Hunky Dory was as a session musician). Earl Slick vies with Mick Ronson for the number one axeman slot. Gail Ann Dorsey and Sterling Campbell are an excellent rhythm section, second only in the Bowie parthenon to George Murray » Continue Reading.