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October 16, 2020 by Simon Sweetman

Michael Hoppé: Peace & Reconciliation – Choral Music

Michael Hoppé

Peace & Reconciliation: Choral Music

Spring Hill

Michael Hoppé has one of those fascinating backstories; a behind-the-scenes guy in the 70s responsible for signing a lot of the great new age talent (Vangelis, Kitaro, Jarre) he then went out under his own name as a composer and started to create what he calls “heart music”, a mix of new age and contemporary classical. He’s made dozens of albums across the last 35 years, many of them quite hauntingly beautiful. Read More »

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July 25, 2020 by Simon Sweetman

R.I.P. Peter Green

Peter Green has died. He was 73. The creator of Fleetwood Mac. One of the fathers of the British blues boom – and sound – a tormented soul, a talented player, by default a brilliant bandleader, it wasn’t an easy road at all for Green and he was one of the first prominent “casualties” of music and the music business. Alcoholism and drug use combined with depression to trigger schizophrenia. In 1970 he left his own band. A band that was up there with all of the big names of the day and was one of the only true (pure) examples of a distinctly English blues; drawing from the American sources (he had some of B.B. King to his sound, better than many that tried to evoke that feel) but offering it with the pastoral shades of glum and weary England. Read More »

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June 2, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

Brian Eno: The Drums Between The Bells

downloadBrian Eno

The Drums Between The Bells

Beat Records

The name Brian Eno hovers large above any form of pop or dance music that attempts to think outside the square. There is the mainstream Brian Eno (producer for U2 and now Coldplay) and there is the artist Brian Eno, as busy creating installations and exhibiting photos as he is making albums. Read More »

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May 27, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

V/A: O Brother Where Art Thou? – Deluxe Edition

O Brother DeluxeVarious Artists

O Brother Where Art Thou? – Deluxe Edition

Universal

Hard to believe it’s been a decade since the O Brother Where Art Thou? movie and accompanying soundtrack. The music was arguably more important than the film – it certainly went off to create its own life; a powerful introduction to country music and mountain soul music for so many people. Read More »

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May 27, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

Active Child: You Are All I See

Active ChildActive Child

You Are All I See

Vagrant Records

Pat Grossi records as Active Child and where I have found Kanye West and Bon Iver’s versions of confessional songwriting to be overhyped and underwhelming I love the hypnotic spell cast by Grossi as both singer and songwriter. Beguiling song constructions – think Sigur Ros and The Album Leaf – and a tremulous tenor that will polarise audiences has me absolutely hooked. Read More »

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May 26, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

Bo Diddley: I’m A Man – The Singles As & Bs (1955-1959)

BoBo Diddley

I’m A Man: The Singles As & Bs (1955-1959)

Jasmine Music

This budget-price compilation is all the Bo Diddley you’ll ever need; 26 tracks of rhythm’n’blues magic.

Considering he created one of the most important and influential sounds, The Bo Diddley Beat, it feels like the man born Ellas McDaniel hasn’t quite got his dues – he created a sound and so many great songs that still have grit and soul oozing from them. Read More »

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May 26, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

St. Vincent: Strange Mercy

St Vincent Strange MercySt. Vincent

Strange Mercy

4ad Records

Annie Clark records and tours under the name St. Vincent and Strange Mercy is the American singer/guitarist’s third album of original compositions.

Clark has previously worked as part of Sufjan Stevens’ live band and as a member of The Polyphonic Spree. Her breathy voice caresses dark pop songs and she strangles notes from the neck of her guitar, whipping solos in to place to provide punctuation for her quirky short-story songs. Read More »

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May 26, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

Pajama Club: Pajama Club

PJ CLubPajama Club

Pajama Club

Lester Records

Neil Finn’s new album is a project that he and wife Sharon started – to combat Empty Nest syndrome.

A few bottles of wine and into the studio to have some fun; Neil fancied himself a bash on the drums for a change. The result – fleshed out with the help of Sean Donnelly (SJD) – is the best album Finn has produced in at least a decade. Read More »

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October 23, 2013 by Simon Sweetman

Incubus: If Now Now, When?

incubus if notIncubus

If Not Now, When?

Sony

I like to believe that Incubus has named its new album after the Tracy Chapman song. It’s so very unlikely but it would almost excuse the contents. Now, I’m not picking a fight with Chapman or her fans – I was a card-carrying, paid up member of her crowd for the first four albums but a rock band, or whatever Incubus is, shouldn’t be trying to trace around a political folkie-pop singer from two decades earlier, right? Read More »

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October 23, 2013 by Simon Sweetman

Gold Leaves: The Ornament

Gold leaves ornamentGold Leaves

The Ornament

Hardly Art

Grant Olsen was making music as one half of Seattle folk-pop duo, Arthur & Yu. With that project on hiatus he’s created Gold Leaves – it’s a sound that fans of Fleet Foxes should lap up; comfy and relaxed, not quite country, not quite folk but with enough yearning and great vocal harmonies to create a nostalgia for a sound that never actually quite existed before this but seems like it should have. Read More »

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