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Music
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Whether as simple consolation, celebration or to gird nerves for battle, musicians in Kyiv have found an important role in the war. Six of them tell us how they fight
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How Weekender by Flowered Up encapsulated the drug-fuelled rave era‘Were we cursed?’How Weekender by Flowered Up encapsulated the drug-fuelled rave eraThe band’s prime movers went out every night for two years, wrote a 13-minute anthem about it, then celebrated its release with a wild illegal party that lasted a week – though they would finally be overcome by tragedy
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Started from an illegal market stall, Mixed By Erry became Italy’s third biggest record label – until police cracked down. A new film asks whether the founders were heroes or criminals
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Ioanis Patsias plays pop star himself, replicating performance down to costume changes and dance numbers for 3,500 in Lima
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The Mancunians spliced Donna Summer with Ennio Morricone to make a futurist dance smash – and ended up influencing Rihanna, Pet Shop Boys and Detroit techno
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The London R&B trio are building a fanbase through an intriguing mix of 90s hothousing, a 00s-style ‘journey’ and modern-day social media intimacy
The best music of 2022
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From Kendrick Lamar to Beyoncé and Arctic Monkeys, artists lent into opulence and maximalism this year, inviting listeners to escape – and asserting their disregard for pop’s rules
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In an unprecedented year of change in music, albums of all genres confounded expectations – from vulnerable rap to pop with gravitas. Listen your way to our No 1 album of the year
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The Nottingham post-punk duo’s Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn do not hold back – on the state of the nation or their new album, UK Grim
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The U2 guitarist on the scientific theory that connects us all, drawing on walls and the resurgence of Irish folk music
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Marley Munroe spent decades toiling away in hotel bars and on a Christian label. But now, as Lady Blackbird, her powerful soul vocals have caught the mood of the times – and the attention of Taylor Swift
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As the film Meet Me in the Bathroom relives the glory days of the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, fans and musicians recall the sweat, swagger and skinny jeans that made the British scene they inspired even wilder
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5 out of 5 stars.
5 out of 5 stars.Alexis Petridis's album of the weekSlowthai: Ugly – the unravelling psyche of a true British greatFusing rap, alt-rock and abrasive electronics, the Northampton rapper mints a sound all his own on his third album -
4 out of 5 stars.
4 out of 5 stars.Kali UchisRed Moon in Venus – elegant exposé of a troubled heartThe Colombian-American pop star’s third LP is a lush, emotive confection of soft-focus R&B that delves into the 28-year-old’s love life -
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4 out of 5 stars.
4 out of 5 stars.The Observer's artist of the weekThe Comet Is Coming review – a blast of jazz from another worldHang on to your internal organs as saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and friends whip up the loudest free jazz frenzy you’ll hear all year -
4 out of 5 stars.
4 out of 5 stars.Kitty Empire's artist of the weekDry Cleaning – left-field art rockers are a deadpan delightInvisible Wind Factory, Liverpool
The post-punk band led with impassive cool by hypnotic frontwoman Florence Shaw are a genuinely radical band -
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4 out of 5 stars.
4 out of 5 stars.AteezHard not to be wowed by this 22-song K-pop endurance test -
4 out of 5 stars.
4 out of 5 stars.Hannah PeelElegiac synths weave a dreamy electronic spell -
4 out of 5 stars.
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Obituaries
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The band’s former bass player, who collaborated with the late Pulp musician on 2017 album Everything Now, pays homage to his generous, engaged friend
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Saxophonist and master improviser with artists ranging from Miles Davis to Joni Mitchell, and with lineups including Weather Report
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While the group will always be defined by 3 Feet High and Rising, Trugoy and his fellow bandmates were constantly pushing the boundaries of rap throughout their stellar career
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Recording with Hal David, Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin, the late songwriter’s discog includes some of the best pop songs ever written
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As her song Wise Up – from the Magnolia OST – finds new life on screen in Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker and Fleishman Is in Trouble, revisit our 2021 profile of the US songwriter
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The emo scene hasn’t always felt welcoming to people of color. Bipoc Emo Night is changing that
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The Escolania de Montserrat rarely leaves its Catalan mountain monastery, where it performs 365 days a year – but now it is in Australia
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Who will fill Britain’s eight new arenas now ticket prices are soaring? Is it true many bands would earn more stacking shelves? And how can official Taylor Swift tickets cost £4,000? Our writer investigates
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Cate Blanchett film Tár shows how damaging a maniacal conductor can be – but, as musicians explain, orchestras are riven with other serious structural issues
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Baz Luhrmann’s dreamlike, alien biopic takes profound liberties with the truths of Elvis’s life to instead capture his messianic status in American culture
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Influenced by the music of Billy Bragg, Bonnie Tyler and Meatloaf, After the Act explores the culture of fear and self-censorship caused by the law, voted through by the Tories during moral panic about Aids
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