The New Yorker 2019 3 June 2019

New York City figured so prominently in Lou Reed's music for so long that it's surprising it took him until 1989 to make an album simply called New York, a set of 14 scenes and sketches that represents the strongest, best-realized set of songs of Reed's solo career. While Reed's 1982 comeback, The Blue Mask, sometimes found him reaching for effects, New York's accumulated details and deft caricatures hit bull's-eye after bull's-eye for 57 minutes, and do so with an easy stride and striking lyrical facility.

Nonesuch Records releases the first recording of Steve Reich’s Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, on June 10, 2022, with the vinyl due August 5. The composition was originally written to be performed with German visual artist Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s film Moving Picture (946-3).

Like Blind Pig labelmate Jimmy Thackery, New Yorker Bill Perry churns out a rugged blend of electric blues-rock and the occasional ballad, infused with authority, class, and dogged dedication to his craft. While he's not breaking any stylistic barriers, Perry and his band – led by the Conan O'Brien Show's music director Jimmy Vivino (who also co-produced) – grind out a satisfying set of rough originals with a few obscure covers. As an adequate representation of his style, neither the songs nor Perry's gruffly serviceable vocals on his third studio album will shoot him into the blues-rock stratosphere. But Fire It Up is the souvenir you'll take home after experiencing his notoriously electrifying live act.