Category Cd Reviews

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Moussu T e lei Jovents, made up of the founder and singer of Massilia Sound System, Tatou (alias Moussu T, Mister T), and his guitarist, Blu, are now a major presence on the French music scene: an uncontested figurehead of Occitan music, the group is now making a name for itself beyond the frontiers of their homeland.

It’s only natural that in a career of almost thirty years the band would have picked up a whole array of influences, and listening to the album I wouldn’t have guessed they were French – I’d have guessed at maybe North Africa where French is still the main language as the band’s sound doesn’t feel European – more in the ”World music” category. It’s very laid back music that’s perfect for chilling out to...

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Devendra Banhart’s smooth and fresh sound is back again on his new release Mala. Following the success of his last album ‘What Will We Be’, ‘Mala’ marks Banhart’s eighth album, recorded in his then hometown of Los Angeles. The album was co-produced with band-mate Noah Georgeson, with the duo playing and recording the instruments on the album themselves, allowing for the more intimate and earthy sound of the album, a sound that has very much become Banhart’s own. The album itself was recorded on a piece found in an old pawn shop, which had been used originally to record hip-hop music. ““And knowing my songs are not hip-hop whatsoever, we thought it would be interesting to see how these kinds of songs would sound on equipment that was used to record our favorite rap...

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Skarlett Riot are a young band from North Lincolnshire. The band only formed in 2010 but have already released two EPs – a self title release, and the Villain EP. Now they’re about to release their debut album – Tear me down. The band have already shared stages with bands including Heavens Basement, Reckless love, Firewind, Black Spiders, Crashdiet and many more as well as playing festivals including last year’s Bloodstock festival.

Two of the tracks on the new album will be familiar to fans who bought the band’s Villain EP – ”Villain” and ”Party hard”, so if you haven’t got the EP then buying a copy is a good way to get an early listen to two of the songs from the album.

Brief comments on a few tracks

The album starts with ”Faded memory”, the first single to be taken from the album...

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After the releasing his last studio album “Doctor Faith“, Christopher Cross embarked on one of his biggest tours in Europe in the last 15 years. His show at the Theatre Le Trianon in Paris, France was filmed by nine cameras in HD and recorded, and it is now being released as his first live album. It’s surprising that it’s taken him 34 years since the release of his first studio album to release a live album, but it’s good that he’s chosen to release one now. The album will be released on April 8th, 2013 via earMUSIC.

For the ‘Doctor Faith’ tour Christopher Cross has expanded his band to include a more classical “rock line-up“: Andy Suzuki (keyboards, sax), Dave Beyer (drums), Chazz Frichtel (bass, vocals), Kiki Ebsen (keyboards, vocals), Richie Gajate Garcia (percussion).

The...

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Latin Grammy-winning band Bajofondo release their new album, Presente at the start of April. The album’s title refers to what the band is at the present moment – ”a stirring mix of tango, milonga, folklore, rock, hip-hop, electronica, jazz, classical, and a world of sounds from the Río de la Plata, the river that separates and unites Argentina and Uruguay”. That’s certainly an unusual list of sounds to lend together, and it’s that interesting mix that made me keen to listen to and review the album.

Brief comments on a few tracks..

The album opens with ’Intro’, a gentle string instrumental. Next up comes ’Codigo de barra’ which ramps up the pace and power with a strong Tango flavour. Again this is an instremental track, one of several on the album. It’s a lovel piece of music.

’Oigo...

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Black is singer and songwriter Colin Vearncombe. Released in 1987, ’Wonderful life’ is best known for the title track which reached number 8 in the singles charts and stayed in the charts for 9 weeks – indeed it’s a song you still hear on TV or radio now. A second single, ’Sweetest smile’ had similar success – spending ten weeks in the charts and reaching number 8. The album had great success reaching number 3 in the album charts and selling well over 1.5 million copies.

This deluxe edition includes the original album on one CD plus a second CD containing 14 bonus tracks, including the original Ugly Man version of the Wonderful Life single plus a selection of B-sides and four songs from a 1986 Janice Long session.
The album’s liner notes come complete with a specially commissioned inter...

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Faustus evolved in 2006 from the band Dr Faustus and released their debut album in 2008 and following this were nominated as the Best Group in the 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The three members of Faustus have a strong folk background, having been in well known bands before – the members are Saul Rose (Waterson:Carthy, Whapweasel), Benji Kirkpatrick (Seth Lakeman Band, Bellowhead) and Paul Sartin (Bellowhead, Belshazzar’s Feast).

After a two year break, the band returned to touring in Autumn 2012 and worked on finishing their new album, Broken down gentlemen which has just been released, and the band will be on tour in April.

I’m certainly not an expert in folk music but one thing I do know is that Folk music is such a diverse range of sounds (a day at the Cambridge folk festival will...

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You know those haunting and eerily beautiful songs you need to hear during those moments in the late hours of the night when you are contemplating life? Well, I believe we have just found the perfect track for that!

Mishkin Fitzgerald, from Birdeatsbaby, is releasing her latest single ‘I Want This’ from her upcoming solo record ‘Perfect Company’ to kick off her solo career, and what an amazing start.

With a slow synth piano melody accompanied by the soft, seductive, echoing voice of Mishkin Fitzgerald, ‘I Want This’ enraptures you in an ethereal journey that invokes feelings of subjugation that need to be overcome...

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Sukh is a Manchester based singer songwriter. He plays guitar and piano as well as singing, and has long had an interest in music. In his day job he’s a Doctor, and yet has managed to find time to write and record his album – Kings.

The music is nice and simple – generally it’s just vocals and guitar that stand out, with drums and bass being more restrained, but at the same time Sukh isn’t afraid to add more instruments to give a richer sound where it is needed, so we get Cello, Viola, French Horn and Piano as well as female vocals to enhance the sound, and this does lift the album up above many of the releases from solo singer songwriters. The songs are also quite upbeat, avoiding the common tendancy on albums of this type to have more of a gloomy feel.

It’s a really enjoyable album t...

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Orianthi may be best known to many people as lead guitarist in the current lineup of Alice Cooper’s band, but this Australian musician is far more than just another guitarist. As well as being an incredibly talented guitarist who has worked with Michael Jackson, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Alice Cooper, she also has a solo career where she not only plays guitar but also sings. Her latest solo album is ’Heaven in this hell’ and it could well be her best work yet. Actually forget that – after listening to the album a large number of times it’s clear this is definitely her best work yet.

For this, her third album she’s worked with former Eurythmics star Dave Stewart, who has produced the album as well as working with her to create the songs.

Brief comments on a few tracks..

’How do you s...