What does it sound like?:

David Bowie emerged from the eighties a rich man but in the wilderness as an artist. A period of relative anonymity as a band member of Tin Machine, and the sense that the Sound + Vision tour effectively retired his back catalogue, suggest the move was deliberate. There was a part of Brit Pop that was influenced by seventies Bowie but very few of the younger acts and music journalists seemed familiar with his work. The result was that he could spend the nineties enjoying writing and recording music without having to consider the needs of a commercial or a critical audience.

Nile Rodgers still hoped to make a hit but Bowie preferred to create a playlist about himself and his new wife, a jazz-influenced, club-ready sequence of tracks to start their own private party. He always wanted to be a saxophonist in a jazz quartet and on Black Tie White Noise he almost realises his dream. The album is a kind of Acid Jazz, a genre that enjoyed a commercial breakthrough in the early nineties. Lester Bowie, a jazz trumpeter of real class, had the good grace to allow David the space » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Those who like Hawkwind can be pretty uncritical, whereas those who don’t definitely compensate for that generosity of spirit. This compilation is probably gtreen kryptonite for Abba and Adele-listeners, as much as those artists often repel Hawkwind fans. Greater minds than mine have asked will happen when Hawkwind are no more? Will there be a tribute act? Will space rock return? You’d think it could, particularly if there are exciting revelations about alien life, missions to Mars, mining of asteroids, etc, capturing the imagination of noisy geeks who like an occasionally bifter.

The unappreciated aspect of Hawkwind is their range, and the unfamilar listener could easily say “It’s Hawkwind, Jim. But not as we always know it”. Which Hawkwind? They have produced 34 studio albums. This excludes the 12 live ones, including the incomparable and possibly immortal “Space Ritual”. Folk, psychedelic, progressive, proto-metal, almost-punk, rave, tribal native American, electronic, orchestral, or what? This 6-CD compilation takes most of the well-known tracks plus deep cuts, single versions, and the occasional live recording, as well as definitive tracks – the “Master of the Universe” here is the one from “In Search of Space” where Lemmy’s bass » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Wow! You’ve maybe seen the hype and read the largely glowing reviews, yes? But it’s on that Britbox, yet another wretched add on pay per view channel. My advice would be to cancel one of the others, Sky Sport say, or sign up on a weeks free trial or a 3 months at 99p pcm, as you will otherwise miss out on one of the more harrowing cop procedurals ever, if not the. A good deal more nuanced than standard Welsh fare, with depth in the characters, or most of them, and empathy wrought in the core ensemble. Not in any way feel good: the foreground and hinterland are exquisitely bleak and, often, more than a little disturbing, Dougray Scott is terrific as the exquisitely damaged lead, with a range of other well known faces to add class. Hell, we even get ‘both’ of TVs Rebus’s for good measure, with Ken Stott and John Simm, one playing to type and the other decidedly not. Even Angela Griffin, always a perennial add on in almost anything ever on the telly, assails herself with credit. Ok, it is still Welsh and there are a few stock booze/coke/prozzie » Continue Reading.