John Shand Posts

April 26, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

ORGANICO (http://www.muchomambo.com/) 7/10 It’s a quite particular form of excitement generated at the intersection where the precision and energy of multi-member percussion sections collide. Multiple percussionists are found in spectacularly diverse contexts, from the minimalism of Steve Reich to South India’s Carnatic music; from the Middle-East to the profusion of…

April 24, 2018 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Foundry 616, April 6 8/10 In 1972 Dave MacRae was in one of the most endearingly quirky and innovative jazz-rock bands of them all, Matching Mole. A particular gem on the British band’s indispensable Little Red Record was MacRae’s Smoke Signal, and here, to the infinite delight of a critic…

April 22, 2018 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Eternity Playhouse, April 4, until April 22 5.5/10 Dehumanising them was the political masterstroke. If the people rotting in offshore detention had no names and no stories, how could we begin to care about them? Depoliticising her play was Mary Anne Butler’s masterstroke. Had her protagonist, Hamed Mokri, been subjected…