News featuring Nick Drake

Thursday 9th May

• “Gabrielle Aplin: English Rain – review”

  (Parlophone)

  To all intents, Wiltshire's Gabrielle Aplin came out of nowhere – at the start of 2012, she was self-releasing feathery relationship ballads; by December, she was at No 1 with a cover of The Power of Love, as heard in the John Lewis Christmas ad. But before her breakthrough, this 20-year-old had spent years making her music market-ready. Thus, while her debut album tips its hat to her heroes (Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake et al), Aplin has funnelled most of her energies into pretty, pastel melodies and lyrics that will ping their way into the hearts of poetic 14-year-olds. At its best, English Rain (note that Drakeian title) works up a decent head of acoustic steam while dispensing perceptive relationship wisdom (the country-rocking Please Don't Say You Love Me counsels against saying the L-word too early because "under pressure precious things can break"). Sometimes, too, the purity of her…

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Thursday 2nd May

• “Natacha Atlas: Expressions: Live in Toulouse – review”

  (Mazeeka)

  Natacha Atlas has changed direction again. In her days with Transglobal Underground she mixed furious Arabic pop, beats and belly-dancing, then switched to acoustic styles with the subtle and magnificent Ana Hina. Her last album, Mounqaliba, was languid and forgettable, but here's another reminder of what an exquisite singer she can be. She's a major star in France, but it was still a brave move for her and her band to record live with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, especially as the set includes several new songs. They open with Rise To Freedom, an easy-going "salute to the 2011 Egyptian revolution" in which piano and strings are matched against hand percussion, but she's at her best with Fayeq Walla Nassi, a slinky and charming tribute to the Lebanese legend Fairuz, while the cool, North African/jazzy treatment of Nick Drake's Riverman is far more compelling than her studio version.

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Thursday 18th April

• “What Nick Drake Taught Me About Art And Love”

  Some music feels so personal, it's hard to think about sharing it with anyone else. A new tribute album of songs by the folk singer Nick Drake (featuring many musicians who themselves hold Drake dear) tests the limits of one critic's ability to share that love.

  Read the complete article at www.npr.org

Wednesday 10th April

• “New band of the day (Dungeonesse No 1,489)”

  In thrall to 90s and noughties R&B, this synth-pop duo want to breathe life into throwaway soul

  Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland.

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

• “James Blake – review”

  Heaven, London

  James Blake is not the first artist to marry a confessional singer-songwriter sensibility to the more outré tropes of cutting-edge electronica. However, he is close to unique in managing to straddle those two musical worlds in a manner that appears organic, inventive and not even remotely contrived.

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Sunday 7th April

• “James Blake: Overgrown – review”

  (Atlas)

  As album number two begins to trickles in, it seems little has changed since James Blake's first, eponymous album joined the dots between dubstep and Nick Drake. The London producer with the voice like a bruise remains perennially inconsolable here. On painterly soul tracks such as DLM, the clock is always stuck at 4am; the aim: going one more desolate than the xx. But Blake has been breathing rarefied air, taking inspiration from Brian Eno, Kanye West and Joni Mitchell throughout the recording process. When a loved-up RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan contributes verses to Take a Fall for Me, the disconnect makes for great punctuation. Tracks such as Retrograde, meanwhile, could almost be described as "banging".

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Friday 22nd March

• “Sleeve notes: David Bowie hits No 1”

  Catch up with the last seven days in the world of music

  Must read

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

• “Luxury Liners (Carter from Lower Dens) releasing LP (streams), playing NYC tonight”

  by Bill Pearis

  Carten Tanton spent time touring with The War on Drugs and was later a full-on member of Lower Dens. While in the van, Tanton spent time on electronic music, releasing Freeclouds in 2011. On April 2 via Western Vinly, he'll release They're Flowers, his first record under the Luxury Liners moniker. (He's no longer in Lower Dens.) Says Tanton:

  Read the complete article at www.brooklynvegan.com

• “Nick Drake: in search of his mother, Molly”

  The collected songs of the legendary musician's mother offer a poignant insight into his early life and influences, as Nick's sister Gabrielle explains

  A dozen impeccably coutured sixtysomething women are sipping their cappuccinos in west London's Café Richoux, but only one of them is Gabrielle Drake. The last time we met here, she had to rush from our interview to an audition for an acting role – a journey complicated by the fact that the sole of her shoe had just snapped in half. As she kept a taxi waiting, I found myself running around the Mayfair streets that Gabrielle's brother Nick once hymned on an eponymous early song, searching for superglue. In the event, glue was found, but it didn't dry in time. Gabrielle recalls that her limping entrance – "like an aged Cinderella" – provided "a good talking point" at the audition.

  Read the complete article at www.guardian.co.uk

Friday 15th March

• “Nick Drake Honoured with Box Set Reissue of 'Bryter Layter,' Live Tribute Album Featuring Vashti Bunyan, Robyn Hitchcock”

  In recent years, late folk great Nick Drake has been celebrated with various retrospectives and tribute projects, and the trend will continue this spring with a live covers album and a box set reissue. Following a previous box set edition of Pink Moon in 2012, Drake's 1970 album Bryter Layter will get a similar reissue. This set is out April 29 in the UK through Universal Music Catalogue, while an Amazon listing points to a May 7 release here in North America. The album is being pressed on heavyweight vinyl with remastering overseen by the album's original engineer,...Read More

  Read the complete article at exclaim.ca