Synth-pop pioneers OMD were one of most innovative bands of the Eighties. They're still on a quest for originality, they tell Elisa Bray
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Album: Colorama, Good Music (AED)
Saturday 25 August 2012
The most rewarding factor on this album is the involvement of Edwyn Collins as producer (and label boss).
Album: Dylan LeBlanc, cast the Same Old Shadow (Rough Trade)
Sunday 19 August 2012
A suite of songs (ie, the mood is consistent throughout) of love and loss that aims for the austere mood of Gene Clark's No Other and falls short only because it reaches so high.
Album: Simone Kermes, Dramma (Sony Classical)
Saturday 18 August 2012
Named after the inscription “dramma per musica” to be found on 18th-century opera librettos, Dramma offers a remarkable collection of arias mostly drawn from longforgotten works by (now) unperformed composers.
Amol Rajan: How about a reggae anthem to inspire the nation?
Friday 10 August 2012
FreeView from the editors at i
A Killer game of chicken between a horse and a car. Thanks for that, Brandon
Friday 27 July 2012
Brandon Flowers & Co's previous album brought forth the famous (infamous) lyric: "Are we human, or are we dancer?" But the artwork for the Nevadans' new LP Battle Born ups the ante. It features not only a lovely cod-metal lightning strike but a horse and a car (a mustang and a Mustang!) playing a game of chicken.
Album: Chris Smither, Hundred Dollar Valentine (CRS/ Signature Sounds)
Sunday 22 July 2012
A first wholly self-composed album by the white-country-bluesman and his furred-over smear of a voice. How big was that bushel?
Nile Rodgers and Mark Ronson, Montreux Jazz Festival
Friday 20 July 2012
Billed as Freak Out Night: the Evolution of Disco to Dance Music and curated by Chic mainman and überproducer Nile Rodgers, and his “little baby brother” Mark Ronson, the penultimate event of the 46th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival lived up to its promise.
On screen Status Quo
Thursday 19 July 2012
Rock veterans Status Quo are to be rockin' all over the screen - with two films in production in which they star.
Dylan marks 50 years of recording with new album 'Tempest'
Tuesday 17 July 2012
Exactly 50 years after Bob Dylan's debut album hit record stores the American folk rock legend is to release his 35th studio album.
Mumford & Sons release details of their new album 'Babel'
Monday 16 July 2012
The follow-up to Mumford & Son's hugely successful debut album will hit record stores on 25 September.
Album: Jimmy Cliff, Rebirth (Trojan/UMC)
Sunday 15 July 2012
Well, yes. Rebirth. Jimmy Cliff has been reborn as exactly the same person he was 40 years ago, when his high-energy skank and wail adumbrated the Marley breakthrough into mainstream tastes: Cliff was a sort of reggae John the Baptist.
Album: Samuel Yirga, Guzo (Real World)
Sunday 15 July 2012
Dub Colossus's young Ethiopian pianist is an incandescent talent.
Album: Ensemble Al Kindi, Le Salon de Musique d'Alep (Chant du Monde)
Sunday 08 July 2012
Forget the Aleppo on your TV screen: this Syrian city is also home to an ancient musical tradition.
The Big Music, By Kirsty Gunn
Saturday 07 July 2012
This masterly work of fiction illuminates the music, and magic, of the bagpipes
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Is the Muslim call to prayer really such a menace?
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Channel 4 to 'provoke' viewers who associate Islam with terrorism with live call to prayer during Ramadan
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US army doctor returns arm to Vietnamese soldier fifty years after he took it as a souvenir
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Police seize possessions of rough sleepers in crackdown on homelessness
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Demand for food banks has nothing to do with benefits squeeze, says Work minister Lord Freud
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