Music news

• Florence Welch embraces the quiet on new album

  07-06-2015 21:43
  
  The singer admitted that she often overcomplicates things in her music and life.
  
  Read more

• Sony Music CEO confirms launch of Apple's music streaming Monday: VentureBeat

  07-06-2015 21:17
  Apple Inc will announce its new music streaming service on Monday, according to remarks by the chief executive of Sony Music, Doug Morris, VentureBeat reported on Sunday. The announcement by Apple will be made during its Worldwide Developers Conference, VentureBeat said, citing remarks that Morris made in Cannes, France, at the Midem Music Industry Festival. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment.
  
  Read more

• Florence + The Machine Top Albums Chart With How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

  07-06-2015 20:30
  
  As Jason Derulo continues his reign in the singles chart with Want To Want Me...
  
  Read more

• Robbie Williams v Jimmy Page – and other celebrity neighbours from hell

  07-06-2015 19:30
  
  The singer’s planned building works on his London home have got his guitarist neighbour up in arms. But they’re not the only celebrity neighbours antagonising each other with grandiose reconstruction plansIt used to be a point of pride – or a point of estate agents’ patter – to have a famous person in the neighbourhood, but for well-heeled Londoners, having a celebrity in your backyard is worse than wind turbines, Japanese knotweed and a third runway put together, it seems. The problem
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Apple wants a lead role in streaming music

  07-06-2015 18:01
  
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple's iTunes helped change the way music-lovers bought their favorite songs, replacing plastic discs with digital downloads. Now the maker of iPods and iPhones wants to carve out a leading role in a revolution well underway, with a new, paid streaming-music service set to launch this summer.
  
  Read more

• Britten Sinfonia/Davies/Muhly review – Turing tribute celebratory yet sorrowful

  07-06-2015 17:48
  
  Barbican, London
  An infectiously enthusiastic Nico Muhly conducted the premiere of his ambitious new work about code-breaker Alan Turing, while Iestyn Davies was ravishingThough opinions about Nico Muhly’s music differ, it is a measure of his standing and popularity that two major premieres of his work can take place over a single weekend. The day after the Philadelphia Orchestra brought Mixed Messages to London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Britten Sinfonia gave the first performance of Senten
  
  Read more

• Ariana Grande Calls Time On Misogyny In Empowering Feminist Tweet

  07-06-2015 17:14
  
  Singer insists she “doesn't belong to anyone but herself” in Twitter Smackdown…
  
  Read more

• The Queen of Spades review – Gardner exerts dramatic grip in ENO swansong

  07-06-2015 16:35
  
  Coliseum, LondonThe orchestra and chorus are outstanding in director David Alden’s new staging of Tchaikovsky’s dark opera, but Felicity Palmer steals the show in conductor Edward Gardner’s final production in chargeArtistically at least, English National Opera and Edward Gardner have come a long way since he took over as music director at the Coliseum in 2007, and his final production in charge there is a good measure of what they have achieved. The orchestra and chorus in this new stagin
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Soak review – lush folk burns with the frustrations of youth

  07-06-2015 14:25
  
  Bush Hall, LondonThe Derry singer-songwriter with a soft burr deftly defies conformity yet againMost teenagers are contrarians, but few capitalise on their inconsistencies as well as Bridie Monds-Watson. She is a teenager who has been skateboarding longer than she’s played guitar yet writes world-weary songs loaded with adult acumen. And a singer-songwriter whose alias, Soak, is a blend of soul and folk yet she makes indie music. “My friends are at school doing A-levels, which is what I’d
  
  Read more

• Brooklyn Beckham Poses Backstage With One Direction At Summertime Ball

  07-06-2015 12:22
  
  Could the ID lads have found themselves a new fifth member...?
  
  Read more

• This Is Not A Drill: Zayn Malik Has Dyed His Hair Green!

  07-06-2015 11:53
  
  Zayn rocks green hair for World Environment Day...
  
  Read more

• Aww! Princess Charlotte & Prince George Appear In New Photo Together

  07-06-2015 10:53
  
  Prince George holds his cute baby sister in first official pictures…
  
  Read more

• Muse: Drones review – an Orwellian breakup album

  07-06-2015 10:00
  
  (Warners/Helium 3)Since Black Sabbath’s War Pigs and Iron Man, hard rock has enjoyed warily eyeing the interface between robotics and warfare, themes generally untouched by the more house-trained species of pop music. For their seventh album, Teignmouth trio Muse have grasped this paranoid sub-genre with both hands, riffing on a tendency already glimpsed on albums such as 2009’s The Resistance and 2003’s Absolution.Never a band to shy away from a prog-rock statement, Muse’s Drones is a c
  
  Read more

• Caitlyn Jenner Shares Poolside Snap With Girlfriends

  07-06-2015 09:14
  
  “Learn from those who have walked the path before you...”
  
  Read more

• Leftfield: Alternative Light Source review – a masterpiece of texture

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  (Infectious)The world has changed in the 16 years since the release of Leftfield’s last studio album, 1999’s Rhythm and Stealth. The former duo is now a one-man band in the shape of Neil Barnes, the music industry the band succeeded in charming is moribund, and dance music, subsumed into the mainstream partly through the band’s own success (remember the Guinness advert?) has been a busted flush for a good decade.The group were always among the real innovators of the scene with their absorp
  
  Read more

• Glass, Pärt, Kancheli, Umebayashi: New Seasons CD review – spirited and ethereal

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  Gidon Kremer (violin), Kremerata Baltica
  (Deutsche Grammophon)When the violinist Robert McDuffie asked Philip Glass to compose him a companion concerto to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Glass responded with a work with no clues among its four movements as to where winter, spring, summer or autumn can be found – listeners are left to decide for themselves. It certainly adds to the fun of The American Four Seasons, played with infectious enthusiasm by Gidon Kremer and borne along by the driving momen
  
  Read more

• Fiddler on the Roof; The Schubert Project, Daniel Barenboim – review

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  Grange Park Opera, Hampshire; Royal Festival Hall, London
  Bryn Terfel is a natural in Fiddler on the Roof. And Daniel Barenboim’s Schubert cycle proves unforgettableChutzpah is the only word. In its most audacious coup yet, Grange Park Opera has lured the towering, world-class bass baritone Bryn Terfel on to its small but perfectly formed Hampshire stage to sing Tevye in an all-singing, all-dancing (and what dancing) Fiddler on the Roof. The Welsh farmer’s son with three sons took on the rol
  
  Read more

• Ryn Weaver review – the birthing pains of a star

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  Notting Hill Arts Club, London
  Seriously tipped US singer-songwriter Ryn Weaver rolls into the UK on a wave of devotion. The rest could be history…You assume, when a star is born, you might notice – that the molecules nearby will vibrate a little differently. Sometimes, though, these glad events don’t quite register. Madonna’s first-ever UK gig at Manchester’s Hacienda in 1984 by some accounts had very little of the play of electron activity; she just danced and mimed.Ryn Weaver’s UK
  
  Read more

• Antonio Caldara: Trio Sonatas CD review – full of colour and sonority

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  Amandine Beyer, Leila Schayegh (violin), Jonathan Pešek (cello), Jörg-Andreas Bötticher (harpsichord & organ), Matthias Spaeter (liuto attiorbato)
  (Glossa)The Italian baroque composer Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) is known for his rather bland sacred music (when I played some in a lecture, a well-known conductor said afterwards: “If I ever try to programme some of his music, remind me not to”). But these trio sonatas are full of colour and sonority, even though the scoring is for just t
  
  Read more

• Spotlight on… Anne-Marie

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  Meet the karate-loving Rudimental associate who’s now ready for the big timeWho is she?
  An Essex-born, karate-loving (she’s a triple world champion in shotokan), former West End musical child star (she was in Whistle Down the Wind with Jessie J when she was 12) who’s progressed to pop’s waiting list thanks to two years of touring the world with dance collective Rudimental (she also appears on their forthcoming second album, We the Generation). In fact, Anne-Marie’s got form when it com
  
  Read more

• Dick Hyman: House of Pianos review – a master of jazz

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  (Arbors)It’s a mystery how Dick Hyman can have reached the age of 88 and still be “Dick who?”, even in some jazz circles. A pianist of genius, master of many jazz styles and a prolific composer (including the music for 11 Woody Allen films), he’s still busily playing solo recitals. This one was recorded live just a year ago, covering everything from Send in the Clowns to Blue Monk, with significant nods to Duke Ellington and Jerome Kern, and it’s as sparkling as ever. For ingenuity and
  
  Read more

• Pins: Wild Nights review – an appealing mix of spikiness and swoon

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  (Bella Union)The hype that accompanied Pins’ early career, based chiefly on the lo-fi cool of their live shows, made you fear for their future. But the Manchester female quartet’s second record feels like a confident step forward. There’s an appealing mix of spikiness and swoon to their blend of distorted guitars, dazed harmonies and 80s-indebted indie jangle, and although derivative, they bring energy and drama to their source material. Dazed By You makes heavy-lidded doe eyes before buil
  
  Read more

• Jenny Hval: Apolcalypse, Girl review – ironic, funny and frequently brilliant

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  (Sacred Bones)“What is it to take care of yourself?” Jenny Hval wonders near the start of her curious, frequently brilliant new album, the third she’s put out under her own name. The answers she wryly proposes range from the capitalistic (“fighting for visibility in your market”) to the abject (“not making a fool of yourself”) to the autoerotic: a familiar progression in the Norwegian’s work, which is nothing if not frank about sex. Apocalypse, Girl is at once plaintive, savagely
  
  Read more

• FFS: FFS review – art rockers unite

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  (Domino)From their chosen acronym on in, wit abounds on this collaboration between Scots art rock outfit Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, the duo of brothers best known for their arch, pioneering synth-pop of the 70s. FFS even features a song called Collaborations Don’t Work for one. The fit between bands is seamless, though, with songs such as Dictator’s Son sounding rather like 1974 Sparks hit This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us crossed with any number of Franz Ferdinand offerings. Dodg
  
  Read more

• Cheikh Lô: Balbalou review – back on form with a sleek and sultry set

  07-06-2015 09:00
  
  (Chapter Two)The Senegalese singer’s star has waned since his startling arrival a decade ago, but this lavishly produced fifth album finds him back on form. Recorded in Sweden and Paris, it’s packed with sleek mbalax grooves, mixing funk horns and talking drums, and fronted by Lô’s sweet, dancing vocals, at times falsetto, at others husky. There’s a lovely cross-Atlantic fusion on Degg Gui, with Brazilian chanteuse Flavia Coelho, a duet with Mali’s Oumou Sangaré, and a sul
  
  Read more

• Going for a song: the hidden history of music piracy

  07-06-2015 08:00
  
  Starting in the late 90s, illegal filesharing gradually brought the music industry to its knees. In these exclusive extracts from his compelling new book, Stephen Witt explains how – and reveals the story of ‘Oink’, the unassuming student who became Britain’s most notorious filesharerStephen Witt interview: ‘Music piracy is illegal – but morally, is it wrong?’I am a member of the pirate generation. When I arrived at college in 1997, I had never heard of an MP3. By the end of my fir
  
  Read more

• Nick Cave: ‘The idea of censoring things as you write, it’s something I don’t do’

  07-06-2015 07:00
  
  The songwriter and author on finding fresh inspiration, oversharing and hanging out by Bryan Ferry’s poolSee an exclusive video of Nick Cave reading from The Sick Bag SongYour new book, The Sick Bag Song, started from writing down ideas, observations, memories – on actual sick bags – on a US tour to promote your 2013 album Push the Sky Away. When did you realise that these jottings could be a book?
  There was certainly a point where I had to let go of the idea that it was just a really long
  
  Read more

• 69% of Spotify Subscribers Make Their Decision Within 90 Days

  07-06-2015 02:51
  
  Major labels Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment are putting heavy pressure on Spotify to limit their free access window to...
  The post 69% of Spotify Subscribers Make Their Decision Within 90 Days appeared first on Digital Music News.
  
  Read more

• Schulhoff, Dvorák: Česko CD review –an exhilarating Bohemian double bill

  07-06-2015 01:05
  
  Ragazze Quartet
  (Channel Classics)The playing of the wittily named all-female Ragazze Quartet is fresh, light in texture, nimble and just occasionally a little ragged, but always spirited. This young British/Dutch group has collaborated with composers and artists, as well as with other musicians. Here the emphasis is on Bohemia – colloquially known as Česko (Czech) – the homeland of both Dvorák and his one-time pupil Erwin Schulhoff, who died in a concentration camp in 1942. In addit
  
  Read more

Follow @MusicUKnws on Twitter!