The political skill to turn situations to his advantage, rather than any ability to mobilise people, made Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Lennon and McCartney go head-to-head yet again.
Ram was McCartney’s second solo album, released in 1971, and is a prime example of how popular music, on its release, is adjudged by so many factors other than music. Macca was in disfavour in 1971, regarded, wrongly, as the man who broke up The Beatles and also as the politico-spiritual lightweight of the quartet (Ringo has always been given a pass on these matters!). 50 years later, disconnected from all such blather,
Ram is a jolly thing, scrappy but fun, with an unpretentious thrown-together quality, songs such as lo-fi Beach Boys pastiche “Dear Boy” rubbing up against the entertainingly silly, music hall rockin’ ode to marjuana “Monkberry Moon Delight”. It does, indeed, sound like a man decompressing after the monumental, generational expectations placed on his previous band. In gatefold, it also comes half-speed mastered so sounds great. Lennon’s first solo effort, the
IKOQWE’s ‘The Beginning, the Medium, the End and the Infinite’ Is a Sublime Debut
IKOQWE’s The Beginning is a compact yet and complete package, a fearless debut that promises to keep finding new and imaginative ways to assemble fascinating sonic stories with unique aplomb.
The Beginning, the Medium, the End and the Infinite
IKOQWE
5 March 2021
IKOQWE welcome us into their debut album by introducing “three beings from a distant time and space / Or not.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek invocation of liminality that sets a knowingly eccentric tone at the very start of the duo’s debut album
The duo is comprised of producer Batida (Pedro Coquenão) and rapper and activist Ikonoklasta (Luaty Beirão), both Angola-born and influential throughout the Lusophone world. IKOQWE make electronic hip-hop with DIY vibes and nimble lyrics in Umbundu, Portuguese, English, and Angolan slang that give
New Music Reviews (3/1) KEXP
Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJs Alex and Gabriel Teodros) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what s coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from
Julien Baker,
Cloud Nothings, and more.
Little Oblivions (Matador)
This Memphis-based artist’s powerful third album recasts her introspective folk-pop with a more expansive and muscular sound. With Baker playing every instrument herself, the album combines ringing guitars, piano, organ, synths, bass and drums for a full-band sound that brings additional anthemic heft to Baker’s confessional, sometimes self-lacerating lyrics revolving around addiction, loss, heartache and the limits of faith. DY