Underworld review – born-again dance legends show no sign of slipping
Karl Hyde and Rick Smith level the Opera House with a relentless two-hour set that doesn’t stop to draw breath
The Can Project review – warm tribute to avant-rock innovators
The London Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Can founder Irwin Schmidt, before Thurston Moore led a more freestyle rock jam in an amiable homage
Arca: Arca review – strange worlds to enjoy, if not fully understand
A working knowledge of Spanish will illuminate the Venezuelan-born, London-based digital auteur’s self-titled third album. His previous work, influenced by hip-hop and club culture, occasionally featured Arca’s treated voice. But Björk and Kanye contributor Alejandro Ghersi has now begun singing … Continue reading
Arca: Arca review – ecclesiastical grandeur meets bleeding-edge dissonance
Related: How cruising, graveyards and swan songs inspired Arca’s new album With its eerie silences, foreboding chords and hymnal chanting, Arca’s third record really does manage to erect a sonic cathedral around your ears. This ceaselessly pioneering producer – who … Continue reading
Jamiroquai review – Jay Kay reclaims his crown as prince of flamboyant funk
Could Jay Kay and co’s party grooves, laser-beam energy and daft headgear have any relevance in 2017? Well, if the hat still fits …
Soulwax: From Deewee review – impressive, seamless art experiment
Hearing that Soulwax’s latest was recorded in one take – a process that must, then, have taken them a whopping 49 minutes and 5 seconds – makes you wonder what took them so long. It has been more than a … Continue reading
The Moonlandingz: Interplanetary Class Classics review – gleefully untamed pop
As an increasingly homogenised pop landscape reaches peak Sheeran, this collaboration between part of the Fat White Family and Sheffield electronic oddballs Eccentronic Research Council adopts a gleefully untamed, bull-in-a-record-shop approach. It’s an inspired mish-mash of Glitter Band tribal drumming, … Continue reading
Tove Lo review – pop’s queen of candour bares more than just her soul
The Swedish singer sets herself apart from the Scandipop rank and file with a set of hazy hedonism and brooding minor-chords
Yasmine Hamdan: Al Jamilat review – dreamy Arabic electronica by an underground hero
Once a member of the Beirut duo Soapkills, Yasmine Hamdan enjoys cult status in the Middle East, thanks to her cool, electropop songs with Arabic lyrics. In the west she is less well known, despite her contribution to the Jim … Continue reading
Ibibio Sound Machine: Uyai review – an exhilarating second album
Fronted by British-Nigerian vocalist Eno Williams, the eight-piece band deliver a bold, exhilarating follow-up to their self-titled debut album. Lyrics are sung in part-English, part-Nigerian language Ibibio over a high-spirited mix of afrobeat, electro, rock, funk and disco. Overall the … Continue reading
Blanck Mass: World Eater review – brutal noise with frequent sweet spots
Fuck Buttons’s Ben Power certainly doesn’t appear to think that what the world needs now is love, sweet love. His third album as Blanck Mass, we learn, is intended to represent “a previous year teeming with anger, violence, confusion and … Continue reading
Vermont: II review – vintage synths in a candlelit mancave
As Motor City Drum Ensemble, Danilo Plessow plays euphoric house and disco DJ sets that prompt strangers to write their numbers on each other in sweaty eyebrow pencil; Marcus Worgull, meanwhile, produces perkily melodic techno. But for their collaborative project, … Continue reading
Thundercat: Drunk review – a lopsided wonderland of stoned soul
Now that sun-squelched jazz is having a mainstream moment – thanks in part to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly – Flying Lotus’s cosmic sidekick sets out his stall in vivid high-definition. Thundercat’s 23-track third album, Drunk, takes you down … Continue reading
Pet Shop Boys review – wistful veterans perform like peerless pop kids
SEC Armadillo, GlasgowDecked out like dystopian gameshow hosts, the duo put on a gloriously overblown show that recaptured the triumph and optimism of their heyday