Reviews & features: Music

Pantha du Prince at Sneaky Pete's and Oran Mor

Minimal techno joins dots between alpine forest and the dancefloor

‘A girl once crawled onstage behind me, and was constantly holding my trouser,’ shudders Germany’s Hendrik Weber, alias techno forager Pantha du Prince. What fate befell this tactile fan? ‘I explained it would be better for her to leave because I could…

Jonathan Biss opens EIF Queen's Hall series

Young American talent will bring passion to EIF launch

Whether volunteering for Barack Obama in the Primaries or traversing the globe with his intimate piano recitals, the young Jonathan Biss has long proved he’s no run-of-the-mill talent. Light on pomp and heavy in enthusiasm, the Indiana-raised pianist…

The Wire's Clarke Peters in Fringe run of Five Guys Named Moe

The Wire's Lester Freamon stars in the musical he wrote

Clarke Peters, best known for his role in US cop show The Wire, talks to Kelly Apter about taking time out to appear in the hit musical he wrote himself

Meow Meow interview

Avant-garde cabaret star ready for Edinburgh 2010

1 rumour you'd like to start about yourself. I don’t need to. I'm much too busy cultivating the ones other people have concocted on the topic of me. They are much more inventive, thankfully. Life should always be that sensational! 2 things we…

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Sibling rock ‘n’ rollers with retro leanings

‘I’m really looking forward to it, because we haven’t done Scotland yet,’ 17-year-old Kitty Durham says about playing Edinburgh. Durham fronts the youthful retro three-piece, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, with her brother and sister. The north London trio have…

Festival Briefing 2010

Some things we think might help you at this year's festivals

Here's a short briefing about some things to look forward to during the Book Festival, the Fringe, in Music events, and Shopping opportunities in Edinburgh

Lady Carol - Malady

We asked the singing, ukelele playing, dark-humorist five questions

This ukelele lady has an inky-black sense of humour, and can turn the sweetest of love songs into a creepy stalker anthem. Just, please, keep her away from bright light and cakes. Five words you’d use to describe your show Sad songs, silly…

Mitchell Museum at the Edge Festival

Jangly, indie-pop by Weegie flatmates

Mitchell Museum, so legend has it, live, write and record together in a flat in the centre of Glasgow, Monkees-style. ‘It’s true,’ reveals their singer, Cammy MacFarlane. ‘It’s on Sauchiehall Street, just above Nice ‘n’ Sleazy. Well, above and to the…

Lach’s Antihoot - anti-folk night imported from NYC

Birthplace of Beck, Regina Spekto and Jeffrey Lewis comes to Fringe

‘The Antihoot is the heartbeat of the anti-folk revolution,’ explains its infamous founder, Lach. ‘It produced US acts like Regina Spektor, Beck and Jeffrey Lewis, and inspired UK practitioners like Kate Nash and Laura Marling.’ It also prompted…

Villagers at the Edge Festival

Tender, poetic pop, now with added Mercury nomination

‘I usually have a picture or a colour in my head as I’m making a song,’ says Dublin’s Conor O’Brien – the dulcet bard and multi-instrumentalist behind Villagers’ picturesque rock. And so it was with Becoming a Jackal (Domino), the dramatic…

NeWt play Led Zeppelin at the Jazz Bar

Hyper-imaginative and unconvential jazz trio

What Is It? A hyper-imaginative and unconventional jazz trio formed by Australian trombonist Chris Greive, Aberdonian guitarist Graeme Stephens and American drummer Chris Wallace, all Edinburgh residents. Who are these guys? Three of the best…

Edinburgh Mela 2010

An international and ceremonial start to the Festivals

These days the Mela is just as much of a ceremonial start to Edinburgh’s Festivals as the (often far less exciting) Fringe Cavalcade. This year, alongside Bollywood dance shows, multi-artform companies from China, traditional Sufi music from Rizwan…

Norrington to step in for EIF concert

Conductor to replace Sir Charles Mackeras for Idommeneo performance

Following the sad news last month that Sir Charles Mackerras had passed away, the Edinburgh International Festival has announced that Sir Roger Norrington will now conduct the performance of Idomeneo with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on Fri 20 Aug.

Meow Meow – Feline Intimate

The post modern showgirl delivers a unique type of cabaret

With more purr than a panther, divine diva Meow Meow slinks back to this year’s Fringe with her unique brand of kamikaze cabaret kitsch. With sell-out shows around the world and the likes of David Bowie on her fan list, Meow Meow’s hypnotic performance…

Ali McGregor – Jazz Cigarette

A sexy soulful rendition of songs that inspire

It’s a fine woman who can wrap her vocal chords round Ella, Billie and, er, Britney, with suitable pizzazz. This is sexy soulfulness at its finest, with a harp thrown in. Having warmed up with stints in La Clique and Variety-Nite, here she keeps it real…

Helen Arney delivers Songs of Modern Loving on the ukulele

Ukulele-wielding comic with one eye on the future

When comic musician Helen Arney debuted at the 2009 Fringe with 81/2 Songs About Love (and other myths), she’d already named her 2010 follow-up. ‘Songs for Modern Loving sounds like a lot of things,’ she says. ‘A David Bowie song, a Jonathan Richman…

Five of the best interactive musical shows at the Fringe

Baby Wants Candy: The Full Band Improvised Musical A veteran of four sell-out seasons at the Fringe Baby Wants Candy returns to show the young musical pretenders how it’s done. The premise is simple: the audience shout out potential titles and the…

Hairy Maclary and Friends brings classic children's book to the stage

Musical doggy mayhem based on Lynley Dodd's book

With their cast of colourful canines, Lynley Dodd’s Hairy Maclary books have garnered many fans the world over. Having secured the rights to perform them, Nonsenseroom Productions have been hard at work bringing the eponymous scruffy mutt and his…

Abandoman - Pic ‘n’ Mixtape

Destined to be among the Fringe’s most popular draws, rapping improvisers Abandoman have to be seen

‘It’s lovely when a hip hop audience sees us,’ says genial frontman Rob Broderick. ‘Two lads wander out, one with a guitar, the other with an Irish accent, and you can tell they’re thinking, “this is going to be a disaster”. But then we start and they…

Drunken and semi-psychotic singer Loretta Maine set for Edinburgh

Dark musical comedy with sick bags not included

You certainly wouldn’t invite Loretta Maine round to dinner with the folks. The hilariously drunken and semi-psychotic singer/songwriter left school in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 15, and now tours a repertoire which includes such colourful…

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2010 - Curtis Stigers interview

The 'jazz warbler' on sex, lies and ballet recitals

In Edinburgh for the Jazz & Blues Festival, Curtis Stigers talks to The List about sex, lies and ballet recitals First record you ever bought ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, by Elton John. First film you saw that really moved you I remember…

Fringe performers: How to bribe your way to success in Edinburgh 2010

Bizarre promotional merchandise (or nice food) ensures coverage

Chances are you’ll do just about anything to publicise your show. Luckily for you, The List isn’t interested in sexual favours or cash incentives (non-sequential bills in an unmarked envelope, ta). Instead, we’re jonesing for some bizarre promotional…

Orkestra Del Sol and Julie Fowlis visit Fringe by the Sea

Fun-for-all-the-family events come to North Berwick

There are many things that come to mind when you hear the words ‘North Berwick’. Maybe golfing, maybe the seaside, maybe that brilliant sweet shop, The Sugar Mountain, on the High Street. But for five days in August, an added incentive to visit is the…

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2010 begins

China Moses, Niki King and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble among highlights

The ten-day fest kicks off again, and among our recommendations, we would include China Moses, an American singer based in Paris, with a soul background and a near obsession for the troubled diva, Dinah Washington; Niki King, Scotland’s own smoky-voiced…

Porgy and Bess takes centre stage at Edinburgh International Festival

Opéra de Lyon's production of Gershwins' crossover classic

As operas go, it’s fair to say that Porgy and Bess blew in like a hurricane. When George and Ira Gershwin’s self-styled ‘American folk opera’ featuring a libretto by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward appeared on the New York stage in 1935, its cast of…