Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 21 July 2023. Mahalia has released her sophomore album titled IRL, featuring the singles ‘Terms and Conditions’, ‘Cheat’ and ‘In My Bag’ with album features including Stormzy, JoJo, Joyce Wrice and Kojey Radical. Reflecting the IRL title, Mahalia is…
Of the six veteran rockers invited to play the Desert Trip concerts, dubbed “Oldchella” because of the advanced age of the artists—The Who, The Stones, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and Roger Waters— and their presumed fan-base, Neil Young is the only one who’s produced at least an album of new material every nearly every year…
Naturalistic performances mark writer-director Clio Barnard’s new film Ali & Ava. She crafts a gritty, working-class story born of pain. Ali (Adeel Akhtar) is a Pakistani-British landlord who enjoys a strong relationship with his tenants in Bradford. He also loves his music with a heavier edge. After a tragedy in their lives, Ali and his…
How do you know when it is best to end a relationship? That question is highlighted and spotlighted in the compelling and highly creative new work Cutting Onions. A young couple has just moved into fresh digs. Their home is quite spacious, with a good size kitchen and a large, if overgrown, backyard. There are still unpacked boxes…
Four disparate individuals enter a twilight zone. No, that’s not the starting point for a gag. In fact, far from it. Rather, it is the beginning of what could turn out to be a long journey back. Each of the quartet – strangers to one another – has attempted to take their own life by different methods…
Imagine you’re the last person alive and all Earth’s resources have been depleted. Autocannibal explores this premise in a confronting one-person play created and performed by the highly talented Mitch Jones. It’s performance art mashed with circus skills and clowning. Jones is agile, powerful and bold. His character adopts a survival-at-any-cost mentality, with options fast…
Recently busted back down to the rank of Constable, Mick Goodenough is the newest cop in town. Once a detective always a detective though, and it’s impossible for the experienced investigator not to speak up when it appears that his new colleagues are ignoring the sinister signs of an escalating killer. The Night Whistler takes…
The Babysitter: Killer Queen is a hybrid of gory horror, coming-of-age tale and black comedy. It’s the sequel to 2017’s cult favourite The Babysitter. In that film, teen Cole (Judah Lewis) discovered his babysitter was involved in a satanic blood cult. Two years after the events of that film the angst-ridden Cole is still traumatised,…
After the death of long-time Gang of Four leader and lead guitarist, Andy Gill, in February, the band released the posthumous EP This Heaven Gives Me Migraine. It included a few spoken words from Gibb, a new track that had been slated for their follow up to last year’s full-length Happy Now, another version of…
There is a reason that you should always listen to a record more than once before putting it aside. I have been a big fan of La Luz since their 2013 debut It’s Alive but after one spin through Floating Features I thought the band might have regressed some instead of taking all the momentum…
