Mindful April 2018

This blessed collection of unreleased demos, recorded by Prince to cassette in a single take, is enthralling. It plays like both omen and artifact of his hit-making power.

English composer Thomas Tallis witnessed dramatic changes of religion under four monarchs, and his career accordingly represents the development of polyphonic church music in Renaissance England. Along with his student and fellow Roman Catholic, William Byrd, Tallis was one of the earliest composers to publish music under royal patent in England, and his works demonstrated the shifting doctrines and styles of liturgy in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. This 2017 Obsidian release features one piece with a text by Henry VIII's sixth and last wife, Katherine Parr, which gives the album its title, though the mix of Roman Catholic and Anglican pieces on the program suggests that "songs of Reformation" may be seen as one-sided. In any case, the performances by the vocal ensemble Alamire and the viol consort Fretwork put the emphasis on Tallis and his varied output, rather than on the theological preferences of royalty. The result is a well-balanced portrait of Tallis, and his choral music is given transparent textures and clear diction by the 14-voice choir, which maintains independence of parts while offering an evenly blended tone.

Arto Lindsay returns to his no-wave roots with this 1995 collection of pithy portraits in noise. Having already forged the skronk template with DNA in the early '80s, Lindsay finds new vistas for his avant guitar musings in the company of bassist Melvin Gibbs (Defunkt, Sonny Sharrock, the Rollins Band) and drummer Dougie Bowne (Lounge Lizards, Marianne Faithfull)…

The more things change in music, the more they stay the same. The alternative rockers of the 1990s may have caused so-called corporate rockers like Poison and Bon Jovi to become less visible, but at the same time, the worship of 1970s baby boomer culture was alive and well among post-baby boomers. In 1998, one of the most memorable examples of 1970s-flavored music came from the New Radicals…