Ghostpoet: Dark Days + Canapés review – grey-sky thinking about modern life

Poet and musician Obaro Ejimiwe’s fourth album opens with a groan. So the mood is set for the rest of this exhaustingly bleak record; a grey-skied documentation of modern hot-button issues such as the refugee crisis (“No-one knows / How … Continue reading →

Chase and Status: Tribe review – drum’n’bass duo can’t decide between chart and club

London duo Chase and Status have long been a paradox. They thrash out meat-and-two-veg drum’n’bass and brostep for North Face-wearing teens, and have written for the likes of Rihanna, but also have enough cachet on the dance music scene to … Continue reading →

Matthew Bourne: Isotach review – piano at its most spartan and hypnotic

With his recent Radioland tribute to Kraftwerk and his Moogmemory projects, Yorkshire-based pianist Matthew Bourne has shown that he’s one of those rare jazz musicians who knows how to grapple with a synthesiser, rather than simply playing it like an … Continue reading →

Sunfall festival review – dance goes deep as Princess Nokia hits the heights

DJ masterclasses from Helena Hauff and Ben UFO ease the sting of entry queues, while rising hip-hop stars and techno parties create a 16-hour marathon

Oneohtrix Point Never: Good Time OST review – stunning thriller soundtrack includes standout Iggy ballad

Following seven albums of shapeshifting electronics, Daniel Lopatin is tasked with scoring a Robert Pattinson crime drama, Good Time. Divorcing film scores from their visual cues can feel alienating and pointless, and on initial listens it’s hard to stop wondering … Continue reading →

Elza Soares: End of the World Remixes review – samba legend gets an electronic victory lap

Despite being in her late 70s, the Brazilian samba legend Elza Soares had a banner 2016, putting out the triumphant and progressive album The Woman at the End of the World, and performing at the Rio Olympics opening ceremony, imperious … Continue reading →

Various artists: Re:works Piano review – tiring, tedious and boring

In 1917, Erik Satie coined the term “musique d’ameublement” – furniture music – in a radical stunt of deadpan performance art. “It’s new!” he wrote in his manuscript. “It isn’t tiring! It isn’t boring!” Satie’s rogue irony pre-empted muzak by … Continue reading →

Brian Eno reissues review – beautiful, astounding music that goes back to the future

After leaving Roxy Music, Eno created solo albums presaging everything from post-punk to My Bloody Valentine

I Feel Love review – a moving celebration of sexual freedom and LGBT rights

Will Young, Alison Moyet and others raise the rafters in a heartfelt tribute to the end of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act – with a reminder of how far there is to go

The Fall: New Facts Emerge review – bright pop riffs lift the eerie drama

The tracklist for the Fall’s 32nd album made headlines when it was first announced, thanks to a song called Victoria Train Station Massacre – a title which had unfortunate, accidental, parallels to the Manchester terror attack. The song itself turns … Continue reading →

Daphni: FabricLive 93 review – euphoric moments from Caribou’s Dan Snaith

Caribou’s Dan Snaith continues his trek from psych pop’s backwaters to the heart of the dancefloor with this mix entirely made from his Daphni project’s productions. This sort of tracklist narcissism would once have been ill-judged on club albums, but … Continue reading →

Avey Tare: Eucalyptus review – brilliant, but infuriating, beats

Avey Tare’s second solo album starts with a simple strum and ends, via reflections on the qualities of coral, with strange whirring sounds and a cry of rage. Audacious, cryptic and meandering, Eucalyptus is both brilliant and infuriating, thanks mainly … Continue reading →

Damian Marley: Stony Hill review – sweet, lamplit nothings and odes to weed

While others in the Marley family carry on Bob’s name through premium headphones, gourmet coffee and decaffeinated tea, his youngest son continues to push reggae forward. Blockbuster trap production is put to skanking service on Here We Go, but there’s … Continue reading →

Dizzee Rascal: Raskit review – the grime kingpin reclaims his crown

Returning to a pop world in which the music he pioneered is huge, Dizzee has gone back to basics with a stripped-down album that shows off his lyrical skills

Lovebox review – Solange amazes but Frank Ocean seems in a field of his own

The two US R&B stars took opposing but equally successful approaches to wowing a festival whose bill mixed the navel-gazing and the forward-thinking