Music

For significant portions of Making Colors the trio of Dave Harrington, Max Jaffe and Patrick Shiroishi seem more interested in texture and a kind of vaporous or cumulative harmony than anything more sinuously melodic. That is especially true over the early tracks of the album, with the first side - from 'open (4-a)' to 'sweat street 7-QS:ZBN9_' - unfolding...

If the flautist Juli Deák boasts an impressive tone in the opening moments of the title song to her new album Brisk what becomes truly startling is that her sounds never cease. Already on the hugely propulsive 'Brisk' we get a steady patter of whittling gestures, short breathy pulses and the percussive toing and froing of her fingerings as...

M.I.A. has always elicited her share of controversy in a way that much like her music cuts across fields or genres or zones and resolutely subverts all expectations. That might involve the trenchant support for the Sri Lankan Tamils which is part of her heritage, her daring evocations of the immigrant experience which suggest a capacity to engage and...