Deradoorian, On tour
After five years spent in Dirty Projectors – the highly controlled creative space of Brooklyn’s Dave Longstreth – a solo project must feel like something of a relief for Angel Deradoorian. Certainly, after Longstreth’s busy indie R&B, the music contained on her debut album, The Expanding Flower Planet, feels wonderfully uncluttered – the singer’s voice drifting atop a medieval krautrock jam or layered in the kind of mesmerising way that we associate with Julia Holter or Panda Bear. It’s taken a while for this album to arrive, and Deradoorian’s live performance is not without its moments of hesitancy. She works with her sister Arlene, and builds the music from the ground up – Angel sampling Arlene’s drums, and then making a track over which they sing. It’s tentative, but slowly beguiling and ultimately compelling.
Moth Club, E9, Tue; The Rainbow Venues, Birmingham, Wed; Soup Kitchen, Manchester, Fri
JR
Misty Miller, On tour
Misty Miller is growing young disgracefully. Launching five years ago with music appropriate for strumming barefoot in a sun-dappled glade, she slipped effortlessly into a folky market that was at the point of becoming oversubscribed. Of late, her outlook and presentation have changed completely – goodbye Topshop hippy waif, hello gothy scourge of easily shocked parents. If she was late to one stylistic party, she seems determined to be early for another, and with her most recent music she has performed the musical equivalent of getting an ankle tattoo and painting her bedroom black. New songs such as Happy and Next To You find her fronting a clangorous indie-pop in the district of Drenge, singing songs about being young and mildly outrageous. The one constant is Miller’s voice, which remains effortlessly strong.
Night & Day, Manchester, Thu; The Garage, Glasgow, Fri; touring to 12 Nov
JR
Catfish And The Bottlemen, On tour
If you listen closely, you’ll hear an odd noise around Catfish And The Bottlemen. It isn’t the group, who deal exclusively in windy and anthemic indie rock, but the sound of pop critics experiencing discomfort as they sit on the fence. The band present a problem: they’re very successful but not awfully good. Who would demean popular opinion by suggesting their many fans are being deluded? While it’s possible to admire the band’s strong work ethic, it’s harder to get behind their music – a blend of Pavlovian dynamics and emo-drama. The best bits sound like the Strokes, the worst like a faster Oasis.
JR
Joanna Newsom, On tour
The release of a new Joanna Newsom album is an event of some significance. Her pace is that of the tortoise: slow, steady, but triumphant: she’s touring Divers, her first release in half a decade. Four albums in she remains peerless, her watermarked vocals impossible to counterfeit. There are splashes of mock-Renaissance bard in brief harmonic curlicues, as well as frontier pioneer-like songs with strangely twisting lyrics. Her voice swoops and rises like a flock of birds, careening unpredictably around the hills and valleys of her songs. Don’t miss folk singer Alasdair Roberts in support.
Albert Hall, Manchester, Sat; Brighton Dome, Sun; Colston Hall, Bristol, Mon; touring to 9 Nov
JA
Julian Argüelles: Tetra, On tour
A master of muscle-stretching contemporary jazz sprung out of distinctive composing, saxophonist and Loose Tubes co-founder Julian Argüelles has built a reputation for world-standard small-band postbop across more than two decades. His new venture is the Tetra quartet, with the A-list younger generation trio of 2010 Mercury Prize contender Kit Downes on piano and Sam Lasserson and James Maddren on bass and drums. Tetra’s repertoire mixes agile uptempo sax invention, lullaby-like reveries and pieces that sound like songs for absent singers – a reflection of Argüelles’s enthusiasm for the vocal traditions of Spain. It’s engrossing music, possessed of both muscle and empathy.
JF
Arditti Quartet, London
With the continuing decline of the Southbank Centre as a serious focus for contemporary classical music, it’s just as well that elsewhere in the capital others are ready to take up the slack. Under the directorship of John Gilhooly, the Wigmore Hall has been steadily consolidating its commitment to new work, and a venue that for many years was known for the superlative quality of its song recitals and chamber music now also boasts an enterprising programme of contemporary works. The Arditti Quartet now regularly give concerts there, and their latest programme is a typical mix of brand new works with pieces that are on their way to becoming contemporary classics. Early works by Luciano Berio (Sincronie) and Morton Feldman (Structures) are near classics, while novelties come from the Swiss composer Michael Jarrell and Brit favourite Harrison Birtwistle.
AC
