Reviews & features: Music

Amanda Palmer

Songs and stories from the former Dresden Doll

With spectacular support from Zen Zen Zo, a unique and terrifying part of the five-star dance spectacle, Zeitgeist, Amanda Palmer gives herself a lot to live up to. A proper cabaret entrance though, slowly stepping down the stairs of the Picture House…

Camille O’Sullivan: The Dark Angel

For every fly-by-night that comes to Edinburgh in August one month and picks up the awards, TV contracts, films scripts and buggers off to their newly purchased castle on a tax haven Caribbean island. Others do some sweating for their rep and Camille…

Tragic endeavours: Staatsoper Stuttgart’s Actus Tragicus

Lifting the lid on one of the EIF's must-sees

Actus Tragicus. A presentation of tragedy. With that title, Stuttgart Opera’s production is hardly going to be a bundle of laughs. Yet, the sheer beauty of the Bach cantatas, which lie at the heart of this highly unusual synthesis of music and drama…

Magazine - Second Life

On their return earlier this year, Magazine received ecstatic words. Now, Neil Cooper is convinced lighting can strike twice. Valentine’s Day is the perfect time for reigniting love affairs. This year, in a concrete hall close to Manchester University…

Sporadical

Sea shanties and your long-lost auntie

You thought your family reunions were bad? They’ve got nothing on the Wellesferry’s. Except that it turns out you are part of the extended Wellesferry clan, which is made clear in this interactive musical with name badges all round, enthusiastic…

Hitlist: Festival music

What to see this week

Pokey La Farge, Actus Tragicus, Magazine, Maria Tecce, Malinky, Camille O'Sullivan, Air Alba

The List Festival Awards: 2009

From chicken sex to naked puppets

Our annual awards for the most interesting and unique shows out there.

Frightened Rabbit

New material promises great things

From the moment Frightened Rabbit take the stage, the capacity crowd at the Queen’s Hall gives them a warm welcome - roaring their approval before a note has been played. They open with the first track from their Midnight Organ Fight album, ‘The Modern…

Sparrow and the Workshop

Pure to the core and pure class

It's a sign of their sweet nature that Sparrow and the Workshop feel the need to apologise for the sweat dripping down most people's backs in the bunker that is Sneaky Pete's. They must surely be the ones most feeling the heat, if the sodden t-shirt of…

Pokey LaFarge

Being totally honest, it was the tremendous name that first caught our eye with Mr LaFarge, but when you hear the ragged glories he knocks out on his acoustic six-string you know there’s more than just showbiz glitz to this critter. Like all genii…

Admeto Re’di Tessaglia

Getting a handle on Handel

Scorned lovers, jealous tantrums and furious outbursts are all in a day’s work for conductor Nicholas McGegan. As he explains, ‘There’s not a great deal of difference between opera and soap opera – they are all about love, jealously and ambition.…

Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich

American soprano is mobbed, but not in the mob

Dawn Upshaw is up to her elbows in batter. She’s in the kitchen of her New York home, making pancakes with her son. It’s a very domestic scene, but then the American soprano couldn’t be further from the diva-ish stereotype. She’s just returned from the…

David Levin talks The Testament of Cresseid

The Israeli director discusses adapting Burns for the stage

Robert Burns might be the subject of many Homecoming events this year, but Jonathan Mills’ decision to focus on the lesser-known Scottish poet Robert Henryson as part of the Edinburgh International Festival’s 2009 programme could prove a rewarding one.

Maria Tecce In Viva!

Seductive Spanish songs from Italian-American chanteuse

The surname of this sultry chanteuse might give her origins away, but otherwise until she switches from Spanish to English there’s no way you’d know this apparently southern European is actually a Boston-born Italian-American who currently makes her…

Malinky

Facing up to change

Malinky have been around on the Scottish folk scene for over a decade now, and went through a scenario that many young bands face – the loss of a particularly prominent member to a solo career. The band initially got together to allow singer Karine…

Preston Reed

Under the hammer

Guitarist Preston Reed is a dazzling exponent of the guitar technique broadly known as ‘hammering-on’, a percussive method of playing on the neck that looks as impressive as it sounds. You can get a flavour from his CDs, but there is no substitute for…

Tam White and the Sermon Orchestra

Preaching a funky lesson

Tam White is Scotland’s best-known blues voice, but he has a lot more than a 12-bar in his locker. His baptism as a pop singer in the 60s eventually led to the jazz-tinged blues of The Dexters, and on to settings that ranged from a celebrated duo with…

5 Questions: Antonio Forcione

The outstanding guitarist answers our questions

5 words to describe your show Funky, evocative, personal, dynamic and humorous. 4 shows you’re looking forward to during August Boothby Graffoe (even when he is not here) Adriano Adewale, Stewart Lee and Nick Pynn. 3 things you love about…

Broken Records

A dry atmosphere and a workmanlike performance

Promoted to the Queen's Hall after last year's Edge festival performance at the Liquid, and following a year of showing the world just how beautiful music can be, you'd think this old cacophonous church would be the ideal place to show off the…

The Juan Maclean

A reminder of just how exhilarating live music can be

This was always going to be good one. ‘Jesus, this place is small’ says production lynchpin John Maclean confronted by a wall of 100 bodies in a packed-out Sneaky’s. With four people, a drumkit and half a dozen synths crammed onto a tiny stage, and…

Geraldine Quinn

Cleverly bitter material

Suffering from the unholy trinity of being ginger, old and childless, Quinn believes she’s being hunted down as a witch. Singing Beyoncé-style pop ditties and 50s jukebox and jazz numbers, the angst-ridden Aussie nutjob retaliates with quirky material…

Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen

Diabolically good comic gypsy cabaret

The gypsy cabaret troupe returns to the Fringe once more to assault audiences with their riotous mix of songs, storytelling and sinful behaviour. This year, the Balkan-styled, Australia-based five-piece have pitched up to promote their new album, Dead…

Festival Music hitlist

Amanda Palmer, Trembling Bells, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, Benbecula Records, The Caledonia Sessions, Biffy Clyro, Orchestra in the Age of Enlightenment

David Ferrard: Scottish Folk Roots & Offshoots

A homecoming Transatlantic session

One thing you notice when you meet young David is his cheery, cherub-faced features, positively unraveled by his folklore tales of poet Burns, slavery and the Highland Clearances – oh, and he’s the youngest in a tight pub room of 20. Born in Edinburgh…

The Magnets - Gobsmacked

Take it to the Fringe

A multi-talented ‘six-pack’ ensemble from England, The Magnets breath fresh air into a cappella singing, while adding their cheeky confidence, dancing and interplay theatrics. With both combination singing and each individual taking a turn under the…