Charli XCX teams up with John Cale on an extraordinary spoken-word collaboration between two musicians born half a century apart.

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Here is a beautiful melange of interesting jazz-adjacent sounds by Romanian pianist Mischa Blanos, a new name to me.

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Lucinda Williams returns at the age of 72 with another state of the nation critique, The World’s Gone Wrong.

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To celebrate Samhain – or Hallowe’en if you prefer – here is my latest autumnal playlist. We start and finish with radically different versions of Ghost Town, from almost 45 years apart. In between there’s something old-but-new by T.Rex and more Glam from Sparks and Suzi Quatro. Plus a lot of steamy early-’70s funk and jazz-funk, and some Soft Cell in tribute to my old pal Dave. 

Lankum transform The Specials’ Ghost Town into an otherworldly Irish folk-drone-techno banger for a new generation. (more…)

Siouxsie Sioux channels her inner Shirley Bassey to sing the best Bond theme never to appear in a Bond movie.

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Dave Ball was one of the least starry rock stars I ever met. It’s probably why we became mates.

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Ace Frehley, aka Space Ace, aka The Spaceman, was the creator of countless heavy rock riffs – and solos – in his role as lead guitarist of Kiss.

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I have to confess I never really paid much attention to the rise of D’Angelo, wrongly filing him away as a smooth R&B crooner of bedroom ballads.

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Midlake made their breakthrough in 2006 with Roscoe, the lead tune from the Texas band’s second album The Trials Of Van Occupanther.

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