Thursday, April 12, 2007

get your revolution at a lower price

I've just seen the lineup for the Cambridge Folk Festival, and I'm really excited. I was flicking through the festival froots this earlier this month, trying to work out a dream lineup from all the artists playing at various other festivals this summer, and a few of my dreams have come true, not least the return of Steve Earle to Cambridge. I'm also looking forward to Sharon Shannon - one of the best acts I've seen at Cambridge, and Bellowhead and Bruce Cockburn, neither of whom I have seen before. Shooglenifty should also be good. The highlight will almost certainly be Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra. His Boulevard de L'Independance was one of my favourite albums of last year. On a hot summers night, that will be just about perfect. Only problem is - not for the first time - I will probably be at Cambridge alone. Tom is at the Trent Bridge Test on the Saturday, though he's talking about coming down to Cambridge for the Sunday, and the family will be on the other side of the world.

Recent acquisitions include: Back to Mine - Röyksopp - which has done little to overcome my recent disappointments with either the Back to Mine franchise, or, indeed with Röyksopp and Bright Eyes' Cassadaga - another excellent CD from Conor Oberst, closer to I'm Wide Awake It's Morning than to Digital ash in a Digital Urn - with a lot of guest appearances from alt country's finest. AV Club alerted me to the fact that the Four Winds EP is probably better than the album - which I tend to agree with. Given the eternal curse of the overlong album, I have a great deal of affection for a well crafted 5 or 6 song EP.

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