A$AP Mob, Manchester & London
In hip-hop there’s historically been a thin line between band and entourage. A$AP Mob, the half-dozen or so Harlem-based artists gathered around A$AP Rocky, seem a more evenly balanced team than, say, D12. No one’s saying they all rap quite as well as Rocky – who quickly became the flag-planter for the group – but the independent emergence of A$APs Ferg, Nast and Twelvyy with their own strong singles suggests there’s a lot more to their team than star players. They play Manchester’s Warehouse Project then a special soundclash-style event, facing off against the UK grime crew Boy Better Know.
Store Street, Manchester, Tue; Earls Court, SW5, Thu
JR
Royal Blood, On tour
Very much a hairy rock wolf in more fashionable sheep’s clothing, Royal Blood are successfully selling nu-metal dynamics under cover of a White Stripes format. It might sound unworkable, but the pair have pulled it off. When Arctic Monkeys play live, they interpolate a good chunk of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs into their own song Arabella. Royal Blood, themselves a recent Arctic Monkeys support act, aren’t anywhere near so subtle. All whomping riffs and barechested yearning, Mike Kerr (bass and vocals) and Ben Thatcher (drums) are proving that even a genre synonymous with excess can economise on lineup. It remains to be seen how far they can push the template, but since it’s only taken them a year to have a No 1 album, time is on their side.
The Academy, Dublin, Mon; Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tue; O2 ABC, Glasgow, Thu; The Leadmill, Sheffield, Fri; touring to 12 Nov
JR
Foxygen, On tour
From California, Foxygen adhere to the visualisation philosophy: “If you build it, they will come.” A duo comprising Jonathan Rado and Sam France, Foxygen play a middling indie-rock, but dream much bigger: private jets, rock operas, perhaps a dissolute and legendary death in the presidential suite. That’s the beat of their current album …And Star Power, a work in four subtitled parts, and of the band onstage, where France is his own Ziggy Stardust, an avatar for a fatal crowd adoration. It’s an impressive idea: classic conceptual rock that is somehow more interesting for having much of the actual rock left out. That’s the bit they’ve not mastered yet, their mixture of interesting textures and pilfered melodies is never quite convincing on its own. Still, what with their whole concept being about the trials of fame, they know rock can probably stand a few false idols.
Komedia, Brighton, Wed; Ruby Lounge, Manchester, Thu; Village Underground, EC1, Fri
JR
Lady Godiva’s Operation, Coventry
Q: What ties together the Velvet Underground and Coventry? A: Trembling Bells founder Alex Neilson, whose new events series, Lady Godiva’s Operation, is named after the Velvet Underground song. The lineup for the first edition features three groups with blurred edges, starting with Ben Chasny’s longstanding acoustic guitar and drone project Six Organs Of Admittance, followed by folk trio the Family Elan, who play Greek bouzouki, drums and bass (among other instruments). The night will also act as an album launch of sorts for Neilson’s the Crying Lion, an unaccompanied polyphonic vocal group who are releasing an album via Honest Jon’s imminently.
Drapers’ Hall, Sun
JA
Gregory Porter, On tour
The dramatic baritone voice of Gregory Porter, the Grammy-winning American R&B, gospel and jazz singer, has swept him from the club circuit to the world’s great concert halls in four packed years. LA-raised Porter has widened his appeal beyond jazz through the powerful authenticity he’s brought to soul songs, yet he’s always had formidable jazz-improv powers. Last year’s Liquid Spirit album, Porter’s debut for the Blue Note label, mixed all the signature ingredients of his charismatic stage shows: handclapping swingers, mid-tempo soul-jazzy groovers, plus frank and revealing ballads. Porter has also been elevated to a podium occupied by the likes of Gil Scott-Heron as an artist mixing soul, passion and intelligence. His London gig is one of the standout turns in a 2014 BluesFest programme that also features Van Morrison (Tue), Elvis Costello (Wed) and Sheryl Crow (Fri).
Royal Albert Hall, SW7, Mon; York Barbican, Tue; Sage, Gateshead, Thu; Corn Exchange, Cambridge, Fri
JF
My Friend Dylan Thomas, Bangor
This year’s Dylan Thomas centenary has been celebrated throughout Wales and across the artforms. There have already been a number of musical tributes: earlier this month his home town of Swansea saw the first British performances of the Dylan Thomas Trilogy, a major work by the New York composer John Corigliano, for instance. This week Bangor University is putting on its own week of concerts, recitals and multimedia events which centre on Thomas’s association with the composer Daniel Jones, who wrote a memoir of their friendship that gives the series its title. It all ends with a concert (Thu) by the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales conducted by Grant Llewellyn, with Mark-Anthony Turnage’s setting of Thomas’s When I Woke, sung by baritone Roderick Williams, and Jones’s own Fourth Symphony, In Memory Of Dylan Thomas.
Bangor University School of Music, Sat to Thu
AC
