A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

The WAEVE – Kill Me Again

The WAEVE are Graham Coxon (from Blur) and Rose Elinor Dougall (previously of the Pipettes and various solo guises) together in life and in this, potentially ongoing, musical liaison. They have an eponymous debut album on the way and if this taster is anything to go by, it promises to be a corker…

Dave Rowntree – Devil’s Island

I often think I did well getting into Blur, they are indisputably one of the all time great British bands and since their splintering (although they do reconfigure occasionally, such as for live shows later this year) the solo releases and new projects frequently produce work to match the sounds they made together. And so it is that drummer Dave finally makes his singing debut in 2023 and rather delightfully, he is demonstrating far more than just superb drumming…

Fatoumata Diawara featuring Damon Albarn – Nsera

That this weeks fresh juice can offer a trio of top selections all with Blur connections proves they are still very much forward thinking, creative entities (and you can’t say that about many bands or band members 35 years into their careers). The way Damon Albarn picked up the world music baton this century reminds me of the always ground breaking work my next artist did in the previous one…

Peter Gabriel – Panopticom

It may have taken him twenty years but at least when Gabriel releases an albums worth of new music, which he is due to do in 2023 as well as undertake an arena tour, it is always something worth hearing. There is a value in taking your time although it’s hard to make a strong case for two decades, that’s barely a song a year, but then this is an artist who has always doggedly done things his own way and you have to take your hat off to those individualists, they are a rare breed…

Yazmin Lacey – Late Night People

Yazmin Lacey makes soul music with feeling and a razor sharp, adventurous cutting edge. She has a new album called ‘Voice Notes’ arriving in March and it is one that I have great expectations for, this is an artist that has been producing the goods for a while now and is worth your time and attention…

Lisa O’Neill – Silver Seed

One of the most resonant voices in folk music is releasing a new album called ‘All Of This Is Chance’ in February and it promises to be one of the must hear LP’s of 2023 if the early signs are anything to go by…