85 m. ago Benedicte Maurseth: Mirra review | Jude Rogers' folk album of the month

(Hubro)Rhythmic repetitions and rustling textures evoke the traditional music and ecological harmony of Maurseth’s native NorwayA hardanger fiddle player from the fjord-and-mountain-filled region of Norway, where the instrument comes from, Benedicte Maurseth explores traditional music, nature and landscape influenced by the idea of ecosophy, a philosophy of ecological harmony. From childhood, she studied under master hardanger fiddler Knut Hamre, exploring the tunes, styles and effects associated with her instrument: its sympathetic strings, funnelled under the fingerboard, are particularly hypnotic, vibrating in response to the notes resonating above, as they do on the sitar and sarangi.A follow-up to Maurseth’s 2022 Nordic music prize-winning Hárr, Mirra is named after an old dialect word describing wild reindeer running together in a circling pattern. Norwegian folk’s rhythmic repetitions feed Maurseth’s intricate compositions (as do the influences of minimalism and Krautrock), b...

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85 m. ago ‘The idea was for a Black James Bond’: the making of 50 Cent: Bulletproof

The game’s launch 20 years ago coincided with the rapper’s meteoric success with his album The Massacre. Here, the team that made the shooter reflect on how it all happened The rapper 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) was inescapable back in 2005. There wasn’t a British classroom without a teenager wearing Jackson’s G-Unit clothing, while his catchy hits Candy Shop and In Da Club dominated the radio. The backstory of this Queens-born New Yorker – how he survived being shot nine times only to become one of the world’s biggest rappers – also made for compelling lore.That year, 50 Cent sold more than a million copies in one week with his sophomore studio album, The Massacre. In a bid to cash in on this superstardom, his label Interscope Records planned a twin strategy: a Hollywood biopic (Get Rich or Die Tryin’) and a licensed video game, 50 Cent: Bulletproof – both to be released by November 2005. “I think the general public are going to be blown away by my game,” 50 Cent told the we...

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1 hour ago Urgent warning for anyone going to Spain as there will be severe delays

Disruption will hit those travelling to places including Barcelona, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante, Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife

Events

1 hour ago Rise Against: Ricochet review – slick shift doesn’t skimp on righteous anger

(Loma Vista)Blood-and-guts emotion with the energy of the punk veterans’ early years meets high-sheen recording craft in a hulking 10th albumRise Against are not the first punk band to embrace the trappings of arena rock, but few of their forerunners can say they moved between those opposing states with the confidence and style displayed here. Having spent two decades retrofitting the breakneck melodic hardcore of their early work with rafter-shaking hooks and gleaming production, the Chicago veterans’ 10th album is a hulking thing, its bombast and righteous anger fed by vocalist Tim McIlrath, who finds the middle ground between Strike Anywhere and Creedence Clearwater Revival more often than you might think possible.Working in tandem with producer Catherine Marks, fresh from Grammy wins for her work on Boygenius’s The Record, and mixer-to-the-stars Alan Moulder, they regularly square the circle between blood-and-guts emotion and high-sheen recording craft. McIlrath’s community-mind...

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3 h. ago So, where is the Lana Del Rey album? Oh, she’s just...vibing

The most mysterious album of the year has been renamed, delayed multiple times and is yet to drop. Our patron saint of romantic love is only on the schedule of her own intuition, argues Hannah Ewens

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9 h. ago Megadeth announce they are retiring: ‘Don’t be sad, be happy for us all’

Frontman Dave Mustaine says he is writing the thrash metal band’s final album and they will embark on a farewell tour in 2026Call it a symphony for dissolution. American thrash metal giants Megadeth have announced they are retiring and that their forthcoming album will be their last. They will also embark on a farewell tour in 2026.“There’s so many musicians that have come to the end of their career, whether accidental or intentional,” Megadeth founder and frontman Dave Mustaine shared in a statement on Thursday. “Most of them don’t get to go out on their own terms on top, and that’s where I’m at in my life right now. Continue reading...

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11 h. ago Elizabeth Taylor's son reveals how he REALLY feels about Taylor Swift name

The 35-year-old billionaire pop star previously name-dropped the late Hollywood screen siren in her 2017 hit song, ...Ready for It

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12 h. ago Taylor Swift fans cringe as Jack Antonoff's wife Margaret Qualley asked awkward question

The Life of a Showgirl was announced by Taylor Swift earlier this week but she's revealed that frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff isn't one of the producers for this album

Sport

14 h. ago The end is near: Megadeth to release final album and embark on farewell tour

Call it a symphony for dissolution

Economics

16 h. ago Megadeth announce retirement with final album and farewell tour

Influential metal band was formed in 1983

Politics

17 h. ago Lana Del Rey namechecks Ethel Cain in new track as public feud flares up

‘Summertime Sadness’ singer-songwriter claimed Cain used to body shame her

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18 h. ago Hunt for Hogmanay kiss couple who inspired Deacon Blue's most famous album cover

The unknown couple whose Hogmanay clinch inspired a famous album cover and helped put the work of a Glasgow housing scheme’s residents on the international map.

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18 h. ago Taylor Swift's new album has everyone seeing orange: An exploration of the color

Taylor Swift's new album announcement has everybody seeing orange

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18 h. ago Petrassi: Concertos for Orchestra Nos 7 & 8 album review – dramatic power from rarely heard Italian master

Tonda/Rome SO/La Vecchia(Naxos)Francesco La Vecchia draws out the fierce contrasts of Goffredo Petrassi’s later music in this new recording of his final two concertos.Though his music is rarely heard in the UK these days, Goffredo Petrassi was one of the most significant and influential Italian composers of the mid 20th century. Born in 1904, just a few months after Luigi Dallapiccola, Petrassi’s early works were firmly neoclassical, but after 1945 he began to incorporate elements from his younger contemporaries in the European avant garde. He was also a distinguished teacher; among the many who studied with him were Ennio Morricone, Peter Maxwell Davies and Cornelius Cardew.Petrassi’s eight concertos for orchestra are at the core of his orchestral output, and Naxos has now released recordings of all of them. The pairing of the last two, composed in 1964 and 1972, are typical of his later music, trenchantly argued, with fierce contrasts between strings and wind. It’s music of great ...

Events

20 h. ago Everything we learned about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce from podcast

The pop superstar appeared on the New Heights sports podcast to announce her latest album.

Politics

20 h. ago Is Taylor Swift the modern day William Shakespeare? Pop star makes multiple references to iconic playwright on new album

Taylor Swift has made a number of references to iconic playwright William Shakespeare on her upcoming album, The Life Of A Showgirl.

Politics

20 h. ago Taylor Swift’s New Heights podcast audience dwarfs Joe Rogan’s Trump interview

Swift unveiled her new album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ on the Kelce brothers’ podcast

Events

20 h. ago Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works II album review – Mallarmé miniatures shine brightly

Barron/Duhamel/OBC Barcelona/Morlot(L’Auditori)Ludovic Morlot creates a shimmering web around soprano Fleur Barron’s lucid vocals in Trois Poèmes, on an album that also showcases Shéhérazade and Don QuichotteThe first disc of Ludovic Morlot’s Ravel survey with the Barcelona orchestra of which he’s been music director since 2022 appeared last year. That included two of Ravel’s best known scores: the suite Le Tombeau de Couperin and the ballet Mother Goose. At the heart of this latest instalment are Ravel’s three orchestral song cycles: the mezzo soprano Fleur Barron sings Shéhérazade, the 1904 settings of poems by Tristan Klingsor, and the 1913 Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, while between them the baritone Alexandre Duhamel is the soloist in the charming product of Ravel’s old age, which was originally intended as a film score, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, from 1933.For all the oriental beauty of Shéhérazade, delivered with suitably seductive warmth by Barron, it is the Mallarmé min...

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20 h. ago The best rooftop bars in London, from Frank’s to the Culpeper

The sun is out. Here’s where to go for al fresco vibes, cocktails and views

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20 h. ago Sabrina Carpenter reacts to being on title track for Taylor Swift's new album after idolizing her as a child

Sabrina Carpenter offered her reaction to being a feature on the titular track for Taylor Swift's upcoming album The Life Of A Showgirl.

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