John Shand | Music & Other Spheres Posts

October 11, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

ABSOLUTE BIRD (ReR MEGACORP) 9/10 Hollis Taylor is a full-blown obsessive of the best type: a musician, composer, musicologist and ornithologist who is able to revel in the aesthetics of birdsong and analyse its patterns, methodologies and motivations. Absolute Bird arrives concurrently with her enthralling book, Is Birdsong Music? (Indiana…

October 9, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

WITHIN & WITHOUT (Earshift) 7/10 Jeremy Rose isn’t going to die wondering what might have happened had he more thoroughly documented his work. After last year’s epic Iron in the Blood came a supple, slinky collaboration between the Vampires (a band he co-leads) and guitarist Lionel Loueke, and now we…

October 7, 2017 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

JSPAC, September 19 5.5/10 Perhaps it was historical. Perhaps the Great Depression falling slap-bang in the midst of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and others fashioning the golden age of popular song inclined the creators of Puttin’ on the Ritz to have deep troughs as well as highs. Otherwise…