Impact 13 May 2018

Of all the multitudinous highways and byways down which the enterprising Deep Purple collector can travel, none, perhaps, is so surprising as The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, Purple bassist Roger Glover's first "solo" album, and – almost incidentally – one of the most delightful children's records ever made. Yes, a children's record. In 1973, Glover was approached about creating a musical adaptation of artist Alan Aldridge and poet William Plomer's book of the same name – a commission that surprised him, but which he nevertheless accepted…

Paul Weller releases his fourteenth solo album in September, the twenty sixth studio album of his entire career. True Meanings is a record unlike any he has ever made before. It is not “a departure”, in the sense that soul bearing, melancholic songs have always been an important part of what he does: from English Rose, to Brand New Start, right up to The Ballad Of Jimmy McCabe from last year’s Jawbone soundtrack. But never, ever before has he allowed himself an entire album to exhibit this side of his song-writing, or presented them quite like this.

When Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb arrived in Mogadishu in November of 2016, he was informed by his host that he would have to be accompanied at all times by an armed escort while in the country. The next morning, a neighbour and former security guard put on a military uniform, borrowed an AK-47 from somewhere and escorted him to Via Roma, an historical street in the heart of Hamar-Weyne, the city's oldest district. Although previous Analog Africa releases have demonstrated a willingness to go more than the extra air-mile to track down the stories behind the music, the trip to Mogadishu was a musical journey of a different kind. It was the culmination of an odyssey that had started many years earlier.

Mickey Baker was one of the most versatile and technically proficient players of the 1950s New York studio scene where he made his initial impact. He is best known though for his pop/R&B outings as one half of the duo, Mickey & Sylvia whose recordings can be found on the Jasmine collection 'Love Is Strange' (JASMCD3093).

It is not certain that all the music on this disc is by Scarlatti; the manuscript that contains the nine Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday and four Lenten motets is unsigned and in places incomplete. Conductor Sergio Balestracci is confident of their authorship, however, on stylistic grounds and because Scarlatti is reported to have composed settings of these Passiontide meditations in ‘the solid style of Palestrina’ for the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1708.

Over the course of 11 previous albums, The Pineapple Thief have established a body of work that straddles the line between stirring, accessible indie rock and musically adventurous prog. Led by chief songwriter/guitarist/frontman Bruce Soord, TPT almost always work conceptually, framing albums in thematically linked compositions that never fall prey to excess or reckless self-indulgence…