A Four Star review from the Guardian for Steve Tilston‘s album ‘The Reckoning‘ This article titled “Steve Tilston: The Reckoning – review” was written by Robin Denselow, for The Guardian on Thursday 21st July 2011 21.31 UTCIn the Pennine hills in Yorkshire there lives a singer-songwriter and guitarist who has never achieved the public attention he deserves, but has always been praised by fellow musicians. Steve Tilston writes thoughtful, highly personal songs and is one of the finest instrumentalists on the folk scene, with a style that echoes the elaborate, rhythmic “folk baroque” guitar work of Bert Jansch and Davy Graham. He writes about anything that takes his interest, and the songs here range from unashamedly lyrical pieces about the countryside to others concerned with memory, nuclear waste, or a cheering story from the Spanish civil war, given a flamenco edge. There’s even a thoughtful meditation on the existence of God, Doubting Thomas, given a slinky, bluesy backing, and an update of the traditional Nottamun Town, now treated as a contemporary political nightmare. There’s occasional backing from accordion, harmonica and even a string section, but the album is dominated by Tilston’s exquisite guitar work, and features two spirited solo instrumental tracks, including a suitably virtuosic tribute to Graham.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogSteve Tilston: The Reckoning – reviewRelated posts:The Unthanks: Last – reviewRadiohead: The King of Limbs – reviewGolden rower Tom James forces his way back into Olympic reckoning
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Steve Tilston: The Reckoning – review
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/07/22/steve-tilston-the-reckoning-%E2%80%93-review
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July 22 2011, 5:46am | Comments »
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The Unthanks: Last – review
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/10/the-unthanks-last-review
Review of the Unthanks folk music album.
This article titled “The Unthanks: Last – review” was written by Robin Denselow, for The Guardian on Thursday 10th March 2011 23.07 UTC The Unthanks experiment continues, with an album of gentle melancholia that matches their most elaborate instrumental arrangements to date with a reworking of a startling variety of songs. As ever, their music centres around the delicate, haunting vocals of the Unthank sisters, Rachel and Becky, but Rachel’s husband Adrian McNally is playing an increasingly important role as producer, pianist, co-arranger and composer of the gently epic title track. Based around a sturdy, drifting piano theme, it’s a thoughtful, sad and lyrical meditation on “why the future doesn’t look so great”. Elsewhere, there’s more epic gloom with an unlikely revival of King Crimson’s Starless, now based around trumpet and strings, while other cover versions include a breathy treatment of Tom Waits’s No One Knows I’m Gone, and Jon Redfern’s slow, sad reflection on the Iraq war, Give Away Your Heart. The traditional songs do little to change the mood, but include some fine harmony singing and violin work on Canny Hobbie Elliot, a quietly eerie Gan to the Kye, and impressive piano work on The Galloway Lad. There’s not the emotional range of the last Unthanks album, Here’s the Tender Coming, but it’s a bold and highly original set.
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March 10 2011, 5:14pm | Comments »
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Radiohead: The King of Limbs – reviews
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/20/radiohead-thekingoflimbs-reviews
The release strategy and format of Radiohead’s albums have been talked about endessly but what do the reviews of the music have to day about it? independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/radiohead-the-king-of-limbs telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/8334723/Radiohead-The-King-Of-Limbs-review
Here’s my review: I like it. This article titled “Radiohead: The King of Limbs – review” was written by Kitty Empire, for The Observer on Sunday 20th February 2011 00.06 UTC In the end, it arrived early. Announced on Valentine’s Day – and, perhaps not uncoincidentally, the eve of the Brits – the eighth Radiohead album was eventually sprung on the world a day before anyone was expecting it. That was an act of mischievous digital benevolence so typical of Radiohead, a band rewriting the rules of pop engagement on the fly. Judging from their most recent black-and-white portrait, in which the band slope awkwardly at the bottom of an ancient tree, The King Of Limbs could, by rights, have been their acid folk album – one informed by the writing of Roger Deakin, perhaps. Indeed, seven tracks in, Give Up the Ghost – a mellow and mantric song strung on acoustic guitars and announced by birdsong – gives a hint of what might have been. By contrast, anyone following Thom Yorke’s recent Office Chart blog posts might have been expecting a record in thrall to dubstep, or even more obscure electronic micro-genres. Fulfilling that brief is Feral, a sinuous bass shakedown at the heart of this typically contrary, intermittently stunning, album. Yorke’s deep affinity with musical outriders such as LA’s Flying Lotus – upon whose album Cosmogramma he guested last year – is manifest. Bloom, the album’s opening track, is underscored by wild jazz polyrhythms. Well, this is a 21st-century Radiohead album; it was never going to be easy listening. In truth, The King of Limbs sounds a little predictable, certainly at first. It is very much the heir to 2007′s In Rainbows, imbued with some of the spirit of Yorke’s solo outing, 2006′s The Eraser. Which is to say, it sounds another death knell for fans of The Bends and OK Computer still hoping for a late recantation and a return to anthemic guitar rock. Guitars are very thin on the ground in Radiohead’s dark wood. The most traditional sounds here occur on the splendid Codex, in which a stately, distant piano bongs mournfully. Restless rhythms abound. But they never quite resolve into dance beats – despite Yorke’s brave moves in the video that accompanies Lotus Flower. It should have stopped traffic in Tokyo last Friday at rush hour, but because of crowd concerns, the screening on Hachiko Square’s giant video screens was pulled. Radiohead’s works reward close and long listening; this dense and knotted eight-track album is no exception. But one of its most instant delights was the sense of giddy communion last Friday, as fans and observers awaited, then savoured, the record in real time.
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February 20 2011, 6:07am | Comments »
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