John Shand Posts

June 17, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

URGENCY! (Kimnara) 8/10 Most people use language lazily, in pre-fabricated modules, whether speaking or writing. Musicians can also be snared, regurgitating pre-digested patterns, whether composing or improvising. Rare ones devise the actual language: its syntax, vocabulary and potential for expressing the new. This is what drummer Simon Barker does on…

June 16, 2018 / Features - Archive

The purists were probably sharpening their knives. Here, after all, was Jim White, famed Australian rock drummer, taking the traditional music of Crete back to Greece, and, being one half of just a duo with George Xylouris’s laouto and baritone voice, there was nowhere to hide. “I was apprehensive,” White…

June 15, 2018 / Concert Reviews - Archive

City Recital Hall, June 2 8.5/10 They begin at such a whisper they almost have you leaning forward in your seat, and then suddenly spin into the thrills and spills of bassist Eric Revis’s Dance of the Evil Toys – aptly named, given its wicked syncopations. The energy level is…