It was only five months ago that Thom and his band first appeared at the Troubadour, but their show has changed a lot in that time. They included five songs from their latest CD All I Know but there were also a number of new ones, as well as three covers. The last time they were…
| 14/05/2019
The Riga indie trio Carnival Youth comprises twins Edgars and Emils Kaupers on guitar and drums respectively and Roberts Vanags on keyboards, while they all contribute vocals. They appear to have parted company with their bassist Alexsis in recent years. They’ve been together since 2012 and have so far released two albums, No Clouds Allowed (2014)…
| 30/04/2019
Ninotchka play a wide mix of Irish, Gypsy, Klezmer and East European folk music, but the duo comes from Midsomer Norton in Somerset. Violinist Nik does have a Hungarian grandma, though. The group’s name means ‘Little Nina’ in Russian and refers to Nik’s late violin teacher. With Nik on violin and vocals and Syd on…
| 09/04/2019
This new single by Gdansk-based four-piece Trupa Trupa bears all the hallmarks of their distinctive style – repetition, a tightness of arrangement, searing guitar, haunting vocals and enigmatic lyrics. Starting with a simple drum beat that’s soon joined by a fluent bass line before the vocals come in, it’s very repetitive but this is part…
| 14/03/2019
‘Jump My Bones’ is The Saturday Tea’s second single from the soon to be released album Quicksilver Dreams. The lyrics are sung in English and with lines like ‘I think I’m gonna die/ We always wave goodbye/ I think I’m gonna try and I dunno why’, it seems to be about the break-up of a…
| 17/01/2019
Instead of the solo singer-songwriter I’d been expecting, a four-piece band took the stage and performed twelve songs in just over an hour. They were all sung in English, and all but one of them were originals with half being from their new album ‘All I Know’. The band comprises: Tomáš Maček a.k.a. Thom Artway…
| 18/12/2018
As he introduced their fourth tune in his refined Scots tones, front-man Magnus said ‘As you may’ve guessed, we’re not Serbian’, but this young London-based octet, inspired by the Boban Markovic Orkestrar and Kocani Orkestar, went on to win over the small but responsive audience at the Green Note. They just about managed to fit…
| 23/11/2018
You know when it’s just been raining very heavily and suddenly the clouds break and the sun shines through? That’s what Trupa Trupa’s music sounds like as intense loud passages give way to gentle quiet interludes. This four-piece from Gdansk were making only their second U.K. appearance but they held the attention of the audience…
| 09/09/2017
When we were admitted to the venue, the mere five tables arranged in the sizeable room made it clear some dancing was expected. The audience was only small, about thirty, but ten of these were up dancing for most of the show and that’s a decent ratio. This duo from St Petersburg performed almost non-stop…
| 07/06/2017
Mariana Sadovska and Abraham Brody are both ethnomusicologists and between songs they talked about their travels in country areas. They also spoke of their many meetings with elderly women, for whom traditional songs have been an intrinsic part of their daily lives. Mariana was born in Lviv, Ukraine while Abraham was raised in the U.S.…
| 02/05/2017