Month: January 2015

“A thorough look at the week’s classical music releases, plus news and recommendations.” MORE   

Martin Chilton picks the best folk music albums of 2015. Updated weekly Please click HERE to continue reading. Thank you Neil McCauley / editor in chief

  Artists have been ditching downloads and playing whole albums for fans at listening parties and gigs. Elisa Bray reports Please click HERE to continue reading. Thank you Neil McCauley / editor in chief

“Contributions of Jewish Women to Music – and of Women to Jewish Music””The very first webpages dedicated solely to Jewish women’s contributions in music.” MORE

The American minimalist has fed bales of hay to his piano but it’s his six-hour-plus Well-Tuned Piano that has changed the way we hear music – quite literally. La Monte Young’s magnum opus will have you entranced, bewitched and will change your sensory perceptions of the phenomenon we call music. It is a work for […]

James Lachno writes: “Scholars of law will today hold an academic session examining the implications of Dylan’s social commentary in tracks such as Hurricane and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. Professor Bruce Green, one of the organisers of the conference from Fordham University, said: “We think it’s important once in a while to have […]

Joni Mitchell, Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting to  Be Danced I suppose that, being adept in so many other fields – poetry, painting, songwriting, jazz – it’s understandable that Joni Mitchell might want to explore ballet, too; although this themed 4CD collection poses more questions than it answers. Rather than the […]

Consumers are spending more than ever before on headphones. But what makes premium audio so expensive and does spending so much money make much of a difference? Smartphone manufacturer HTC is paying $309m (£190m) for a 51% stake in Beats Electronics, the company best known for its high-end headphones and partnership with rapper Dr Dre.Despite […]

PART 1: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE beginning of the story of records and recording is claimed by some to reach back to ancient China, where a prince is said to have invented a box that would carry the human voice and reproduce it to anyone receiving the box; others instance the legend of […]

Bjork has rushed her eighth album Vulnicura onto iTunes, days after the music leaked online. Continue HERE

The Full English’ will be world’s biggest digital archive of English traditional music and dance tunes. MORE

The HBO film will include dozens of Nirvana songs and performances, as well as previously unheard Cobain originals http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/13/kurt-cobain-documentary-montage-of-heck-unheard-music  

World Party’s Karl Wallinger tells Graeme Thomson what kept him afloat after a devastating brain aneurysm.  In 1997 World Party released a song called She’s the One. A simple, affecting piano ballad written by Karl Wallinger “in 10 minutes and recorded in about an hour”, it should have been a huge hit. And it was, […]

Country is among the most popular music genres in the United States, with a market share of 10.7% in 2000, compared to 24.8% for rock music, nearly 13% for rap/hip-hop, 8% for pop, and just short of 3% for jazz (Benz, 2001). Country music has an even higher popularity rating when music fans are asked […]

Tom Barnes writes: Steve Jobs, the man who invented the iPod and ignited the digital music revolution, never listened to MP3s. Instead, he only listened to vinyl. He felt there was something vacuous about listening to music in a digital form and was surprised at the success of his own product — that so many […]

“Unless you have ever had to lift one, the piano is just about the perfect instrument. A machine for hitting tuned strings with soft hammers, pedals for expression, and not much else. Since its invention in the 18th century, it has changed relatively little – until now.” MORE

Playing a musical instrument throughout your life protects your hearing in old age, a Canadian study suggests. The study, published in Psychology and Aging, carried out hearing tests on 74 adult musicians and 89 non-musicians. It found a 70-year-old musician’s hearing was as good as that of a 50-year-old who did not play. MORE

The first release on the new Vinyl-Only Flashback label is the timeless psychedelic folk classic, Morning Way by Trader Horne. • Heavyweight Embossed Gatefold Cover • 12 Inch Vinyl pressed on serious 180g • 7 Inch Single with Picture Sleeve featuring Here Comes The Rain and Mercy Kelly • 16 Page Colour Booklet• Original Postcard […]

Zeitkratzer (Time Scraper) operate at the extremes of Germany’s New Music scene: an experimental chamber ensemble with sensibilities derived as much from Noise and improvisation as ……. MORE

A very fine piece here that requires no comment from me. It comes from Downbeat Magazine. Looks like an excellently put together and vibrant magazine judging from their site. I’m certainly going to bookmark this one. Please click HERE for the whole story Find a music retailer HERE

US startup says YouTubers and media companies will be able to earn ‘20x’ more revenues from its online subscription service More HERE

Seventeen years after Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette has shaken off the title of pop’s queen of angst. Her new album, Havoc and Bright Lights, is a thing of joy, writes Mark Sutherland. “I remember touring America in a van and I’d be fielding all these calls,” Alanis Morissette says. “‘They want you on the […]

San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair) didn’t reflect the particular sound of the city itself. Not that this mattered – it was great pop and its idealism lives on. Rock history rightly celebrates the pioneers but sometimes the bandwagon jumpers get it right too. Whether anybody liked it not – […]