Ali McGuirk - Watertop - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

On her Signature Sounds debut Til It's Gone, Ali McGuirk delivers a sublime set of songs that pairs her trademark soul sound with rootsy turns and raw rock 'n' roll detours. McGuirk co-produced Til It's Gone with Jonah Tolchin (a star singer-songwriter in his own right) and a set of session legends Little Feat guitarist/mandolinist Fred Tackett, organist Larry Goldings (James Taylor, Norah Jones), singer Valerie Pinkston (Ray Charles, Luther Vandross), percussionist Lenny Castro (Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder). They provided the astounding chops, but the true magic of the album comes from McGuirk's singular voice as both singer and songwriter. The nine tracks run from intimate introspection to wider meditations on oppression and justice, from tough r&b and tender soul to big rock guitar and twangy folk. And McGuirk's voice - bold, buttery, spellbinding - carries each song to the next til they're gone.1. X Boyfriends2. Evelyn3. The Work4. Empty Vase5. Let It Be You6. All Back7. Til It's Gone8. Leave Me9. Milk

For Mandy, Indiana, the truth is the only way through. On their Sacred Bones debut URGH, the four-piece - vocalist Valentine Caulfield, guitarist and producer Scott Fair, synth player Simon Catling, and drummer Alex Macdougall - are a force of uncanny nature, grafting together a record that is as much a call to action as a parlay into oblivion and transcendence. Across the ten tracks, the band interpolate their own unconventional language into a mantra for self-determination and resilience, forging a template for a brighter future before it fades to black.Much of the album was written during a residency at an eerie studio house in the outskirts of Leeds, then recorded across Berlin and Greater Manchester. It was an intense environment partially due to the health issues faced by Caulfield and Macdougall during the writing and recording process.Yet Mandy, Indiana remain uncompromising. Caulfield uses her voice as a distorted instrument and a weapon, oscillating between playful and eviscerating. The throbbing siren-sound of InchMagazineInch stands alongside the cut-up vocal fry of Inchtry sayingInch and the shapeshifting ferocity of Inchist halt so,Inch which channels the urgency of protest movements, referencing resistance to the genocide in Gaza while speaking to struggles more broadly, while final track InchI'll Ask HerInch is a deliberate directness calling out toxic boy's club culture and a tenacious reckoning that hangs over the album at large.Although there are still undeniable InchbangersInch (like the frazzled rap of InchSicko!Inch featuring billy woods), URGH often feels hewn with precise cinema. From the bristling techno of InchCursiveInch to the deconstructed feedback loops of InchLife Hex,Inch the album moves between industrial catharsis and cinematic unease, threading a tension that Fair describes as Incha remix of itself.Inch This contrasting palette is bo

Jean-Marie Leclair's violin sonatas were published in four volumes between 1723 and 1743. David Plantier here presents a selection of sonatas from the final three opus numbers of the collection. The consistent quality of Leclair's forty-eight sonatas, collected in four volumes, is admirable, whilst the collection as a whole is a monumental contribution to the repertoire and to posterity; few of Leclair's followers were able to combine innovation in violin technique and wealth of inspiration with so much talent. Leclair's taste, refinement, skill and refusal of all artifice enabled him to make his mark not merely on his own time but on the history of music as a whole.