Krept & Konan, On tour
While their fellow Croydon MC Stormzy looks explicitly to grime’s roots – rhyming in the park, filming videos outside his house – Krept & Konan have delighted in US hip-hop collaborations and private jets. Krept & Konan’s MCing is as raw as their upbringing (the fatal shooting of Krept’s stepfather forms the topic of one song), but their aspirations are clearly international, not hyperlocal. The pair’s debut album The Long Way Home, released in July, features glossy production and guests such as Rick Ross and Wiz Khalifa. Live, the pair present a rawer side, and are happy to be out grinding hard on tour.
Plug, Sheffield, Wed; Academy 2, Manchester, Thu; The Institute, Birmingham, Fri, touring to 27 Nov
JR
Chvrches, On tour
From indie ducklings came a successful dance pop swan. That, in the loosest terms, is the story of Chvrches, a group formed by Iain Cook as a side project to his lachrymose post-rockers Aereogramme, and Martin Doherty, a guitarist in the Twilight Sad, conceivably the indiest band of their day. That’s not to say, however, that with the arrival of singer Lauren Mayberry they all suddenly cheered up and got their dance on. Chvrches make an agreeably upbeat synth-pop, not a million miles from the way hipper Disclosure and Rudimental, but Mayberry isn’t simply belting out platitudes. Catchy as their songs are, they have been a vehicle for barbed – and occasionally sweary – observations on modern relationships, which on their latest album Open Every Eye occasionally takes them into the territory of Depeche Mode.
Brighton Dome, Mon; O2 Academy Bristol, Tue; Albert Hall, Manchester, Thu & Fri; touring to 27 Nov
JR
Sheer Mag, Brighton
Southern rock meets riot grrrl? Redneck meets punk? We’re either talking about the world’s most disorganised record shop or Sheer Mag. From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sheer Mag (meaning “sheer magnitude”, apparently) emerged from the city’s DIY scene – small-run seven inches, shows in spaces with no stages – but playing music from a different tradition altogether. The focus is singer Tina Halladay, whose voice calls to mind Beth Ditto, but with a less theatrical presence. The music, though, is something else again. Sheer Mag’s two EPs bring accomplished song structure to bear on their strong emotions, creating order from chaos. When they play live, that chaos is let loose again.
JR
Annette Peacock, London
In the late 1960s, Annette Peacock went to inventor Robert Moog’s house to convince him to sell her a synthesizer. She worked out how to use it with no manual or mentor, developing her own techniques to process her voice live, which resulted in the epic I’m The One, a towering, emotionally driven record that broke the mould for what could be done with songwriting and a synth. When David Bowie asked her to tour and record with him, she told him to buy his own synth and learn to play it. A true pioneer of electronic music, she now exists comfortably in semi-obscurity and performs very rarely, with these two dates marking an unmissable pair of appearances from someone crucial, and sometimes forgotten.
JA
Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, London & Birmingham
Maria Schneider’s beautifully crafted, gracefully mobile music is one of the delights of contemporary jazz, and the American’s British gigs with her orchestra are a highlight of the London jazz festival, as well as a coup for the vibrant Birmingham jazz scene. Schneider was assistant arranger for the ethereal jazz-composing genius Gil Evans, and she continues to reflect his influence in the glowing subtleties of her tonal palette, the way her pieces frequently develop without explicit dependence on rammed-home repetitions. Schneider and her band worked with David Bowie on last year’s Sue (Or In A Season of Crime), and this summer she released The Thompson Fields, a 10-year project devoted to a musical evocation of the landscape, wildlife and memories of her Minnesota childhood.
Cadogan Hall, SW1, Tue; Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Thu; CBSO Centre, Birmingham, Fri (quintet performance)
JF
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
Under Graham McKenzie, the Huddersfield contemporary music festival has illuminated areas of new music that otherwise go unexplored in Britain. While year-round organisations in the UK tend to focus on a narrower range of living composers, McKenzie spreads his net wider. So, this year, the composer-in-residence is the Swiss Jürg Frey, whose installations and intensely quiet, silence-dominated works are contrasted with the equally extreme but utterly different music of Polish noise artist Zbigniew Karkowski. (Bates Mill Photographic Studio, 23 Nov). From the other side of the Atlantic, and the other end of the musical spectrum, there’s US experimental music from George Lewis (St Paul’s Hall, 27 Nov), and the minimalist pioneer LaMonte Young (St Paul’s Hall, 22 Nov
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