Steve Smith
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Braids The ticket: Pop musicSunday, May 29, 2016 BRAIDS There likely was no song issued in 2015 that was more intimate or painful than “Miniskirt,” an unflinching account of abuse, resilience, and healing on “Deep in the Iris,” the third LP from a Canadian trio best known for dizzy, dreamy electropop. The story continues with…
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Brian Church and Aliana de la Guardia in 'Beowulf,' by Liz Linder Photography "In Hannah Lash's 'Beowulf,' an unconventional monster to grapple"Boston Globe, May 22, 2016 My review of Beowulf, the melancholy, moving new 80-minute chamber opera by composer Hannah Lash, presented by Guerilla Opera in its world premiere last Friday, ran in Sunday's Globe.…
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Middle Of Nothing by Kevin Drumm Kevin Drumm – Middle of Nothing (Hospital Productions) Irradiate by Kevin Drumm Kevin Drumm – Irradiate (Bandcamp) Francis Poulenc – Works for Piano Solo and Duo – Lucille Chung, Alessio Bax (Signum)> 15 Improvisations; 3 Novelettes; Sonata for Four Hands; Concerto in D minor for Two Pianos Sergei Rachmaninoff…
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Rhys Chatham, by Roland Owsnitzki The week ahead: Pop & rockThursday, May 26, 2016 RHYS CHATHAM The 2nd SHIFT Music Series welcomes the punk-minimalist visionary, an auteur of symphonies for armies of electric guitars. Paradoxically, in his first local appearance since 2007 he’ll play enhanced solo-guitar music of the sort found on his entrancing new…
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Bent Knee – Say So (Cuneiform) Christopher Rouse – Odna Zhizn; Symphony No. 3; Symphony No. 4; Prospero's Rooms – New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert (Dacapo) Hilda Paredes – Señales (Mode Records)> Señales (“Homenaje a Jonathan Harvey”) – Irvine Arditti, Ensemble Signal/Brad Lubman; Páramo de voces – Alberto Rosado; Homenaje a Remedios Varo – ensemble recherche;…
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Four Tet The ticket: Pop MusicSunday, May 22, 2016 WEAKENED FRIENDS This snappy Portland, Maine, trio came in second place at this year’s Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble, earning a spot in the competition’s not-winners pantheon alongside Mission of Burma, the Lemonheads, and Morphine. An addictive new EP, “95,” arrives in July, but is worth celebrating…
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Bent Knee, by Chris Anderson Say So by Bent Knee My brief review of Say So, the much-anticipated third album by Boston prog-rock-only-not-like-that sextet Bent Knee, is live on the Globe website and out in print today, too. The band already put on its record-release concert last night in Somerville; keep an eye out, because…
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Weakened Friends The week ahead: Pop & rockThursday, May 19, 2016 BENT KNEE “Say So,” the third album from this young Boston art-rock sextet, is due on Friday; one night earlier, the wise, witty, and skillful group heralds the landing of a record that confirms its eloquence and ebullience, while also breaking new stylistic and…
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Mashrou'Leila – Ibn En Leil (Mashrou'Leila) Venom – From the Very Depths (Spinefarm) Martha Argerich – The Legendary 1965 Recording (EMI Classics)> Frederic Chopin – Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor (Op. 58); 3 Mazurkas (Op. 59); Nocturne in F (Op. 15, No. 1); Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor (Op. 39); Polonaise in…
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The Kills The ticket: Pop musicSunday, May 15, 2016 TOGETHER BOSTON This weeklong festival of technology, art, and music opens with a live set from Floating Points (May 15, 8 p.m. The Sinclair, Cambridge), launching a don’t-miss series that includes the Black Madonna (May 17, 8 p.m. Middlesex Lounge, Cambridge), France Jobin and Tim Feeney…
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Stork Bite by Quiet Evenings Quiet Evenings – Stork Bite (Adversary Electronics) Yeasayer – Amen & Goodbye (Mute) Hawkwind – Quark, Strangeness & Charm (Atomhenge) Belly – King (4AD) Doubt by King Woman King Woman – Doubt (The Flenser) May 1 by Kevin Drumm Kevin Drumm – May 1 (Bandcamp) Paul Simon – Stranger to…
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The week ahead: Pop & rockThursday, May 12, 2016 HALLELUJAH THE HILLS Boston’s favorite rocker-litterateurs have a lot to celebrate right now: 10 years of making friends and influencing people; five fine albums, including the newest, “A Band Is Something to Figure Out”; and at last a drummer who’s stuck around for two straight LPs.…
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Robert Schumann – Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 1 in B-flat ("Spring"); Phantasy for Violin and Orchestra – Thomas Zehetmair, Orchestre de chambre de Paris (ECM New Series) Goldsmiths – Goldsmiths (Another Timbre)> Sarah Hughes – A Reward is given for the Best Inframammary Fold No. 4; John Lely – First Page for Five; Goldsmiths –…
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Justin Bieber, by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP The ticket: Pop musicSunday, May 8, 2016 JUSTIN BIEBER The process of a juvenile pop phenom’s maturation into an artist of staying power (or not) is never less than fascinating. If the jury’s out on where Bieber will land after his occasionally too-public growing pains, there’s no denying his 2015…
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Anohni, by Alice O'Malley HOPELESSNESS by ANOHNI A very, very brief post this Friday evening, simply to call attention to my review of Hopelessness, the surprising, seductive, and harsh new album released today by Anohni – best known as the lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons, and recently in the news for an Oscar-related…
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Mr. Lif, by Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe The week ahead: Pop & rockThursday, May 5, 2016 MR. LIF Storming back from a lengthy, unplanned hiatus, Boston MC and Def Jux survivor Mr. Lif celebrates the release of “Don’t Look Down,” his first solo album in seven years and a compelling testament to his artistic resilience. May…
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Tony Oxley & Derek Bailey – The Advocate (Tzadik) Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Warp) Dead & Company – DCU Center, Worcester, MA, November 10, 2015 (Archive.org) The Tree of Life by CECIL TAYLOR Cecil Taylor – The Tree of Life (FMP) Peter Brötzmann, Albert Mangelsdorff & Günter "Baby" Sommer – Pica…
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"Jack Quartet, IRCAM prove electric company at ICA"Boston Globe, May 3, 2016 It's always good to catch up with the JACK Quartet, whose name I'll render here in its preferred all-caps-as-acronym form even if the newspaper declined to do so. (The group's fans know "JACK" = John Pickford Richards, Ari Streisfeld, Christopher Otto, and Kevin…
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Santigold, by Donald Bowers/Getty Images The ticket: Pop music Sunday, May 1, 2016 BOB MOULD “Patch the Sky,” released in March, finds this punk-rock veteran swinging for the fences with his customary mix of buzzy guitars, bubblegum melodies, and ferocious drive. Ted Leo, another indie-rock perennial, raises the curtain. May 1, 7 p.m. $25. Paradise…
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Lea Bertucci & Leila Bordreuil – L'Onde Souterraine (Telegraph Harp) Anthony Braxton – Composition No. 56 – Wet Ink Ensemble (Vimeo) Resonance Shapes by Lea Bertucci Lea Bertucci – Resonance Shapes (Obsolete Units) Steve Lacy – Morning Joy (hatOLOGY) Mechanisms of Omniscience by Abnormality Abnormality – Mechanisms of Omniscience (Metal Blade; due April 29) Timothy…
Night After Night 