Music news

• Iggy Pop: Post Pop Depression review – an indifferent shrug of a 'final' album

  17-03-2016 23:30
  
  (Caroline)Related: Josh Homme on Iggy Pop: ‘Lemmy is gone. Bowie is gone. He's the last of the one-and-onlys’ Iggy Pop has said Post Pop Depression is to be his final album. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, but it feels like an odd note to go out on. There isn’t an air of finality or grand statement about it – either of his French-themed albums, Préliminaires or Aprés, would have seemed a more fitting end. Instead there’s a sense of
  
  Read more

• Robyn Sherwell: Robyn Sherwell review – intimate and confessional electro soul

  17-03-2016 23:15
  
  (Birdland)Not too many singers can survive the scrutiny of singing accompanied only by the barest of instrumentation, but for much of her debut, the Guernsey singer-songwriter Robyn Sherwell does just that. In this impressive collection of confessional electro soul, the musical backing often consists of a solitary piano note, an acoustic twang, a single echoed drum stroke or her own vocals, multi-tracked, which creates a breathy intimacy. If the minimalist music nods to Sade and James Blake, She
  
  Read more

• Baauer: Aa review – Harlem Shake hitmaker delivers up-and-down album

  17-03-2016 23:00
  
  (LuckyMe) Related: Harlem Shake: could it kill sampling? In 2013, Baauer’s track Harlem Shake triggered a dance craze of pure silliness, its flailing noise the perfect backdrop for people in morph suits to prang out to. Tens of millions of YouTube hits later, he’s released a globe-trotting debut album, one that works best when it taps into the same lunatic energy. The build of GoGo! may be predictable, but its drop is spectacular, splashing the track into the concrete so it writhes i
  
  Read more

• Cullen Omori: New Misery review – ambitious debut hints at indie mastery

  17-03-2016 22:50
  
  (Sub Pop)Cullen Omori was part of Smith Westerns, the indie band that has also spawned the high-pitched, wispy melancholy of Whitney. On his debut album, there’s a sense Omori is aiming for something more substantial than either. From opener No Big Deal onward, everything is bigger: the melodies are brazenly simple and, at times, reminiscent of Oasis; the horns provide a sense of grandeur ; and his lyrics talk confidently about various existential crises. The bells and whistles don’t
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Primal Scream: Chaosmosis review – another not entirely coherent reinvention

  17-03-2016 22:30
  
  (First International)Primal Scream’s last album, 2013’s More Light, felt like a victory lap: after reinventing their sound countless times over the preceding decades, here was Bobby Gillespie and gang showing everything off for the cameras. So it’s understandable that the band seem unsure where to go next. Chaosmosis is caught between another attempt at reinvention – this time as a slightly lightweight synth-pop outfit – and replicating More Light’s greatest h
  
  Read more

• Underworld: Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future review – dance music pioneers reach a state of bliss

  17-03-2016 22:00
  
  (Caroline International)Related: Underworld's Dubnobass ... 20 years on While Underworld’s Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have retained what was special about their greatest triumphs – Dubnobasswithmyheadman and Second Toughest in the Infants were two of the most revered dance albums of the 1990s – Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future is never weighed down by its makers’ history. Karl Hyde’s “found” lyrics (using snippets of overheard conversations) are a
  
  Read more

• 16 Shocking Superhero Hookups You Won't Believe ACTUALLY HAPPENED

  17-03-2016 21:47
  
  Deadpool and Black Widow?! Batman and Lois Lane? These hookups will either give you a new ship or make you feel a bit queasy.
  
  Read more

• 16 Crazy Superhero Hookups You Won't Believe ACTUALLY HAPPENED

  17-03-2016 21:47
  
  Batman and Lois Lane? Deadpool and Black Widow?! These hookups will either give you a new ship or make you throw up.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Readers recommend: share your songs that capture zeitgeist

  17-03-2016 21:00
  
  Reader DarceysDad picked this week’s theme: you have until Monday 21 March to post your nomination
  For this week’s readers recommend we want your nominations to be songs that capture the mood of a generation, tunes that evoke the spirit of an age, and tips that – as our setter DarceysDad says – show RR themes can mix it with the business end of the alphabet. You have until 11pm on Monday 21 March to post your nomination in the comments.Next week’s playlist will be
  
  Read more

• SXSW Music: Tony Visconti paints bleak portrait of music business

  17-03-2016 20:21
  
  David Bowie’s producer says record sales are declining because today’s pop is not adventurous enough, and the music industry needs to do more to nurture artistsDavid Bowie’s record producer Tony Visconti painted an apocalyptic portrait of today’s music industry in his keynote speech at South by Southwest on Thursday. “It can’t get any worse,” Visconti said after reading out a half-hour short story set 10 years in the future, in which there was only one w
  
  Read more

• Pop, rock, rap, whatever: who killed the music genre?

  17-03-2016 20:00
  
  Skrillex produces Bieber, Rihanna covers Tame Impala, and the genre-bending 1975 top the charts. The people making and consuming music are more stylistically promiscuous than ever. How did we get here?Pitchfork, widely viewed as the world’s leading alternative music website, relaunched this week. Along with a rather pleasant new look, it announced “a significant new feature”, the ability to view the site according to genre.At first glance this might suggest that genre boundarie
  
  Read more

• Empirical: Connection review – uninhibited freedom from jazz innovators

  17-03-2016 20:00
  
  (Cuneiform)Mobo winners Empirical continue on the upward path their first lineup embarked on eight years ago. The long-running UK band remains enthusiastically devoted to remaking jazz for a contemporary audience, and Connection – recorded for the adventurous American label Cuneiform – is a break from the group’s recent pattern of genre-bridging collaborations with guests. Alto saxist Nathaniel Facey’s vocalised sound and respect for Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, cou
  
  Read more

• Yundi: Chopin Ballades CD review – plenty of thrilling moments

  17-03-2016 19:45
  
  Yundi
  (Deutsche Grammaphon)Following on from his Chopin Preludes disc comes Li Yundi’s first recording of what are arguably the composer’s biggest challenges: the four Ballades. They are coolly but compellingly dispatched, with Yundi generally passing up opportunities to score easy dramatic points in favour of taking the long view, shaping the pieces into a single span. There are plenty of thrilling moments, however – the ending of the Ballade No 1, for example, which is almost
  
  Read more

• Ralph Alessi Quartet: Quiver review – phlegmatic melancholy from New York jazz trumpeter

  17-03-2016 19:45
  
  (ECM) New York trumpeter Ralph Alessi’s flawless technique and ability to draw on the jazz tradition while avoiding its cliches won him admiration long before his ECM debut with Baida – but that quietly biting album, released in 2013, was a step-change. Drew Gress and Nasheet Waits remain on bass and drums, with pianist Gary Versace replacing the original group’s Jason Moran. Versace’s creativity as a harmonic stimulus and a spinner of dramatic solos is different to Moran
  
  Read more

• Vijay Iyer/Wadada Leo Smith: A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke review – charismatic and subtle

  17-03-2016 19:30
  
  (ECM) In his eighth decade, the pioneering US trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith is stepping even harder on the gas: he has released 10 very different albums since he hit 70, including the completion of his civil rights epic, Ten Freedom Summers, and has built a creative relationship with a much younger pioneer, the pianist Vijay Iyer. A trumpet/piano duo is a tough call, but the two operate with a charismatic delicacy and subtle force. The centrepiece is a largely improvised seven-part suite d
  
  Read more

• Schumann: Konzertstücke; Fantasies CD review – questing and luxuriant

  17-03-2016 19:30
  
  Kopatchinskaja/Lonquich/WDR SO Köln/Holliger
  (Audite)With the symphonies and full-scale concertos already released, Heinz Holliger’s survey of Schumann’s orchestral music is almost complete. The current release rounds up the smaller-scale concertante pieces, most from the final years of Schumann’s creative life. There are three Konzertstücke: two for piano and orchestra, Op 92 and 134; the third, Op 86 for four horns; along with the Fantasy for violin, Op 131. No one
  
  Read more

• Meilyr Jones: ‘Rome is a place of faith and blood and lust’

  17-03-2016 19:20
  
  When his band Race Horse split up three years ago, Meilyr Jones’s search for a new musical direction led him to Byron, churches and Rome. He talks about the Eternal City’s magic and his new album 2013Meilyr Jones stands on a street corner not far from Pigneto, wearing gold trainers and a long belted overcoat, his face lit up by the day. It has been, he explains, quite an experience: shooting a video for his next single, watching the sun rise, kissing a stranger and riding shotgun on
  
  Read more

• Vołosi: Nomadism review – rousing folk-classical instrumentals

  17-03-2016 19:15
  
  (Unzipped Fly) Vołosi are a gutsy Polish folk-classical string band who met at a wedding. When classical violinist Krzysztof Lasoń got married, he invited three traditional musicians from the Silesian Beskids mountains to play at the party. He liked what he heard, as did his brother Stanislaw, a classically trained cellist who had “always dreamed of improvisation and loved folklore”. Together, the five very different players have developed a fusion style in which two violin
  
  Read more

• Honegger/Ibert: L’Aiglon CD review – convincing version of a stirring opera

  17-03-2016 19:15
  
  Gillet/Barrard/Dupuis/Sly/Guilmette/Lemieux/Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal/Nagano
  (Decca)Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert happily shared composition credits for L’Aiglon, though they were cagey about exactly how they divvied it up – perhaps both realised this stirring and often jolly little opera wasn’t a masterpiece. “The Eaglet” was Napoleon Bonaparte’s son, brought up in exile in Austria, and a reminiscence on his brief life was, in 1937, somethi
  
  Read more

• Reg Meuross: December review – a very English kind of Americana

  17-03-2016 19:00
  
  (Proper) Reg Meuross is one of the more versatile, under-sung survivors of the English acoustic scene. In the mid-1980s he formed the Panic Brothers with Richard Morton, mixing Americana with humour and slick harmonies. Then came the Flamingos, Hank Wangford, and solo albums that included the quietly angry England Green & England Grey. Now, following a Panic Brothers reunion (and rereleases of their 80s recordings) comes his first “completely solo album” of new songs. They are pa
  
  Read more

• James Ehnes: Debussy, Elgar etc sonatas CD review – warm and purposeful

  17-03-2016 19:00
  
  Ehnes/Armstrong
  (Onyx)Debussy, Elgar and Respighi don’t usually come up in the same sentence, but all wrote their violin sonatas during or immediately following the first world war. James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong make of them a satisfying recital disc that showcases Ehnes’s warm tone and purposeful phrasing. These are serious pieces, and while some performers have brought a lighter touch to passages in both the Debussy and Elgar, Ehnes and Armstrong make their heavyweight interpret
  
  Read more

• Frank Sinatra Jr obituary

  17-03-2016 18:39
  
  Singer who pursued a musical career in the shadow of his superstar fatherFrank Sinatra Jr, who has died aged 72, did not make things easy for himself when he decided to forge a career as a singer, performing in the style of the most famous entertainer of the 20th century, who happened to be his father. Although the name opened many doors, the comparison could never be in his favour.Not surprisingly, he lacked distinctiveness. Without the name, he would have been just another of the thousands of
  
  Read more

• Nicole Appleton claims ex-husband Liam Gallagher's favourite song is her new track about his affair

  17-03-2016 18:34
  
  The lyrics and music video might unsubtly slam the Oasis singer, but Liam is apparently fond of the track.
  
  Read more

• Why The 1975’s Matt Healy Calling Dating Taylor Swift ‘Emasculating’ Is Beyond Problematic

  17-03-2016 18:11
  
  Yeah, no.
  
  Read more

• Dance yourself happy: the rise of the sober rave

  17-03-2016 18:01
  
  Out with overpriced booze and 5am taxi rides, in with early morning shape-throwing, yoga spaces and ‘greeting angels’. With advocates in Boy George and Fatboy Slim, is the sober rave here to stay?A drink called a summer love cup is shoved into my hand. Containing a colourful spectrum of orange, strawberry, apple, mint, lemonade and orange blossom, this sugary concoction could have been served at a school disco. In reality, I’m at something just a little more adult: a sober rave
  
  Read more

• 15 Lazy Girl Beauty Hacks That Will Save You ALL Of The Time

  17-03-2016 17:54
  
  Because why would you get out of bed any earlier than you have to?
  
  Read more

• Meilyr Jones: 2013 review – beautiful chamber pop from Wales via Rome

  17-03-2016 17:30
  
  (Moshi Moshi)In 2013, after the breakup of both his relationship and his band, Race Horses, Meilyr Jones went to Rome. That visit helped inspire his first solo album, in which euphoria and despair sit side by side. 2013 It fits snugly into the line of cosmic Welsh music, alongside the work of Gruff Rhys and Euros Childs, although its weirdness comes not from it being mindbendingly psychedelic, so much as it being completely unexpected.Related: Meilyr Jones: ‘Rome is a place of faith and bl
  
  Read more

• Bonfire of vanity: 10 ways Joe Corré could use his £5m of punk memorabilia

  17-03-2016 16:50
  
  The son of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood is so angered by punk having gone mainstream that he plans to torch his artefacts. Here’s some ideas on how he could channel his rage more constructively …It is, of course, entirely down to Joe Corré how he chooses to spend his own money, and mark the 40thanniversary of punk. Set fire to £5m worth of punk memorabilia in response to the way the mainstream has “co-opted” punk rock since its heyday? Admittedly it
  
  Read more

• The 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Trailer Is Here & There Are So Many Stars We Don't Know Where To Look

  17-03-2016 16:49
  
  J-Law is back! Oscar Isaac is a God! Sophie Turner’s kicking ass!
  
  Read more

• Zayn Malik debuts new single BeFour: Is he dissing former One Direction bandmates?

  17-03-2016 16:44
  
  Zayn Malik has caused a stir with his new song BeFour which fans are speculating was written to hit out at his former One Direction bandmates. BeFour, which boasts an r'n'b medley with production from Malay, has been well received by fans with many complimenting Malik's musical direction. The Pillow Talk singer has previously spoken about his unhappiness as part of the boy band and how he felt it restricted his ability to be musically creative.
  
  Read more

• Model Leomie Anderson Speaks Out About Race And Diversity In The Fashion Industry

  17-03-2016 16:04
  
  "As a black model you always feel like you have to be prepared that you're maybe going to be spoken to in a certain way at a casting or at a job"
  
  Read more

• Various Artists: Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music review – beautiful country rock from the fringes

  17-03-2016 16:00
  
  This terrific collection of country-rock obscurities shows another side to the sound that dominated 1970s American rock It’s one of the great ironies of 20th-century pop that the man who almost singlehandedly invented country rock hated country rock. The artists who sprang up in the wake of the pioneering albums Gram Parsons made with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers were, he protested in 1972, “a plastic dry-fuck”. He apparently reser
  
  Read more

• Natalie Merchant review – lush, poetic, orchestral indie pop

  17-03-2016 15:49
  
  Royal Albert Hall, London
  Merchant’s lush acoustic, orchestral set is dramatic, intimate and impressive to witnessRather like the music of her good friend Michael Stipe, Natalie Merchant’s songs have always conjured up visions of a bucolic, semi-rural American gothic. Unlike Stipe, however, Merchant has spent the past 20 years uncoupling herself from the world of rock’n’roll, borrowing from classic poetry, children’s songs, Shakespearean sonnets, folksong and the te
  
  Read more

• LSO/Adès review – big in scale and emotionally confrontational

  17-03-2016 15:47
  
  Barbican, London
  Thomas Adès conducted his own Asyla with effortless authority, violinist Christian Tetzlaff’s Sibelius was occasionally wayward howeverLast week, the multi-talented Thomas Adès was appointed artistic partner with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a newly created post that allows him to showcase and premiere his own music, and expand on his work as conductor, chamber musician and lieder accompanist. The announcement came between his two Composer Focus concerts wi
  
  Read more

• Marnie Simpson Looks Like A Proper Worldie As She Strips Off For Kim Kardashian Style Naked Selfie

  17-03-2016 15:46
  
  HELLO.
  
  Read more

• Perrie Edwards Weighs In On Cheryl's Romance With Liam Payne: "I'm Happy For Her"

  17-03-2016 15:45
  
  Well isn't that nice.
  
  Read more

• Ludovico Einaudi review – a Thomas Kinkade painting in sound

  17-03-2016 15:40
  
  Hammersmith Apollo, London
  The sentimental pianist’s billing as an antidote to the old guard is wildly at odds with this dishonest, disconnected and desperately unadventerous showCrossover classical superstars are rare birds these days but Italian pianist-composer Ludovico Einaudi is just that: his 2015 album Elements became the first classical release in 23 years to reach the top 15 of the charts. But it’s tough to enjoy his success during this witless sold-out show.Joined in a rock
  
  Read more

• Legendary David Bowie and Coldplay studio The Magic Shop in New York closes its doors

  17-03-2016 15:31
  The music studio where David Bowie recorded his final album closed on 16 March after nearly three decades in New York City. The Magic Shop, in New York City, where David Bowie, Coldplay and The Foo Fighters recorded music over the years, was forced to close its doors after rising costs became too much for owner Steve Rosenthal to endure, according to reports.
  
  Read more

• Josh Hutcherson Is The World's Saddest Superhero In DJ Snake's 'Middle' Music Video

  17-03-2016 15:22
  
  PEEEETA!
  
  Read more

• Simon Rattle on Peter Maxwell Davies: 'He was a hero to me'

  17-03-2016 14:55
  
  The conductor pays tribute to the composer who died earlier this week, and reveals the surprising extent of his influence on the teenage SimonIt is clear to everyone that we have lost a wonderful composer and one of our most important artistic figures, a man who embodied music, and who wanted it to be part of everybody’s life, from the youngest to the oldest. He wrote for every possible type of ability, from some of the thorniest orchestral scores of their time to music for young people th
  
  Read more

• Jammz Releases Brand New Visuals For ‘Mr Wait’

  17-03-2016 14:40
  
  Jammz has been hot property for a while and especially now he’s joined Kano on tour
  
  Read more

• Max Richter's Sleep lulls slumbering concert-goers in Berlin

  17-03-2016 14:35
  
  The composer performed the public world premiere of his eight-hour lullaby as the 400-strong pyjama-clad audience settled into camp beds for the nightRichter and his musicians are performing for three nights as part of the Berliner Festspiele’s Maerz Musik Festival. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• DJ Carnage and Section Boyz Team Up On New Banger ‘BIMMA’

  17-03-2016 14:15
  
  With Section Boyz already getting regular plays on OVO Radio, they really only just need one track to secure their international fan base and this track could just be it.
  
  Read more

• Nicki Minaj Talks Meek Mill Engagement & Says She's Going For Happy Vibes On Her New Album

  17-03-2016 13:55
  
  "We’re just taking it one step at a time."
  
  Read more

• Harry Styles Has Worn Willy Wonka Sunglasses, So Now We Want Willy Wonka Sunglasses

  17-03-2016 13:45
  
  Willy Wonka Willy Wonka Willy Wonka Willy Wonka Willy Wonka Willy Wonka Willy Wonka.
  
  Read more

• Premiere: Johnson Orchid Teams Up With Mr Bigz For Smooth New Track ‘I Wanna Love’

  17-03-2016 13:42
  
  ‘I Wanna Love’ is taken from Johnson Orchid’s forthcoming debut EP, which is due out shortly and will feature collaborations with the likes of Scorcher and Youngs Teflon
  
  Read more

• Ben Watt's playlist: Elmer Bernstein, Jim Sullivan, Ed Askew and more

  17-03-2016 13:37
  
  The musician’s choices include a master of the film soundtrack and a singer-songwriter who drove into the desert and disappearedA late-60s, LA-based singer-songwriter who never made it. He recorded one great lost album, the recently reissued UFO, which was first released in 1969, before he quit the west coast to move to Nashville. In one of rock’s great mysteries, his abandoned car was found on a desert road near Santa Rosa; he was never seen again. I love his voice – a kind of
  
  Read more

• Readers recommend playlist: songs about Ireland

  17-03-2016 13:00
  
  Our regular series visits the theme picked by DarceysDad, who takes us on a musical journey around the island, just in time for St Patrick’s DayBelow is this week’s playlist – results picked by a reader from the comments on last week’s blog. Thanks for all your suggestions. You can read more details of the weekly format of Readers Recommend at the end of the piece.Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhaoibh! (Happy St Patrick’s Day!) Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Frank Sinatra Jr dies aged 72 – video report

  17-03-2016 12:37
  
  Singer and arranger Frank Sinatra Jr has died after a cardiac arrest, his sister said on Thursday. The 72-year-old had been about to perform several of his father’s songs on Wednesday night. The event, at the Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, was cancelled after he fell ill
  Frank Sinatra Jr dies unexpectedly on singing tour
  Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Police confirm death of missing DJ Derek

  17-03-2016 12:16
  
  DNA tests show remains found in Bristol woodland are those of 73-year-old Derek Serpell-Morris, Britain’s oldest DJPolice have confirmed the death of Derek Serpell-Morris, the veteran DJ from Bristol who went missing in July 2015. A nationwide search to find the 73-year-old was halted earlier this month when a member of the public found human remains near Cribbs Causeway shopping centre in Patchway, Bristol. DNA tests have confirmed his death.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @MusicUKnws on Twitter!