Favourite Five Recent Releases
Five of the best albums from the recent postings at Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you're looking for a quick fix.
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Katie Thompson: Bittersweet (Quirky)
2 Sep 2019 | 1 min read
It's been a while since we've heard the aching soul-folk and chiming country-rock of Katie Thompson, not since 2011's impressive Impossible in fact. And like that album, this seems to have been crowdfunded (with some well known musicians in the list) which confirms she is a self-starter with a wide and deep support base. As she deserves. Co-produced with Ben Edwards in his homely... > Read more
West Coast
Nerija: Blume (Domino/digital outlets)
12 Aug 2019 | <1 min read
While attention of the contemporary jazz scene hasn't completely shifted to London, there is no doubt that the new music coming out of there – which sometimes mixes everything from Ellington and Coltrane to elements of African and Indian musics, hip-hop and grime – is commanding . . . and commanding serious consideration. In many ways it is a reflection of multi-culti London in... > Read more
PAUL McCARTNEY, AMOEBA GIG CONSIDERED (2019): That was him standing there
5 Aug 2019 | 5 min read
In the decade after he disbanded Wings at the end of the Seventies, Paul McCartney's recording career on albums offered diminishing returns outside of a string of mostly vacuous chart hits. It wasn't until Flowers in the Dirt in '89 – and even that pulled its punches too much – you felt he still had something serious to offer. The Eighties were tough times for Sixties stars... > Read more
75 Dollar Bill: I Was Real (Glitterbeat/Southbound)
12 Jul 2019 | 2 min read
Anyone who saw the extraordinary Noura Mint Seymali from Mauritania at Womad Taranaki in 2018 couldn't help but be impressed by her husband on guitar whose playing was fluid, mercurial, seemingly effortless and shapeshifting of melodies and chords. Unfortunately that playing by Jeiche Ould Chigaly was only hinted at on the album Arbina . . . but his name alone made such a deep impression... > Read more
WZN4
Mdou Moctar: Ilana; The Creator (Sahel Sounds)
6 May 2019 | 1 min read | 2
These days with so many artists trickling out singles and then maybe an album every few years, this Tuareg singer/guitarist from Niger has an admirable work ethic. Although this is his first studio album he's clocked off a handful of live album including the soundtrack to a movie he was in which paid homage to Prince's Purple Rain and Perry Henzell's struggling central character Ivan... > Read more