Rodriguez taxes our cruciverbal skills today.
Rodriguez has managed to get a musical reference into every clue. The majority of the references are music genres. Getting a musical allusion into every clue is impressive and must have made writing the clues particularly difficult. Inevitably, some of the clue surfaces are not as smooth as they might be if there was no requirement to include a musical term. However, that is probably a bit of nitpicking on my part.
It was not necessary to be a connoisseur of the various musical genres to solve the clues as there were very few musical entries. I think CARUSO (25 across) and CORNETTO (1 down) were the only musically related entries.
I think this is the first Rodriguez puzzle I have blogged. I found it quite difficult but the wordplay is quite clear once the clue has been solved. I liked the fact that some of the definitions required a bit of lateral thinking – e.g. – racing across the Atlantic for INDY, did dub for ENNOBLED and support for Stevie Wonder for GUIDE DOG. There was a good bit of misdirection in 5 down where DJs referred to dinner jackets rather than disc jockeys.
As is often the case these days, a basic knowledge of fairly common French and German words was required.
PROPERTIUS at 13 down was an individual I hadn’t comer across before.
I can’t remember the last detailed blog I wrote where none of the wordplay involves excluded letters. This blog may well be a first.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 8 | Be master of hot early swing (4,4) |
H (hot) + OLD (occurring in or characteristic of a period H OLD SWAY |
HOLD SWAY (have power or authority; be master of) |
| 9 | Jazz Tune is up for associates (6) |
Anagram of (jazz up) TUNE IS UNITES* |
UNITES (enters an alliance; associates) |
| 10 | Music genre heard racing across the Atlantic (4) |
INDY (sounds like [heard] INDIE [the genre of music produced and released by an independent record company, especially one that produces music outside the mainstream of popular music]) INDY |
INDY (reference INDY Car racing [An American {across the Atlantic} form of professional motor racing around banked oval tracks]) |
| 11 | Blues of pop singer catches finale from The Jam (10) |
DION (reference DION DiMucci [born 1939], an American singer and songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, rock and R&B styles) containing (catches) (E [last letter of {finale from}THE] + PRESS [compress; stuff; jam]) D (E PRESS) ION |
DEPRESSION (deep dejection and a pervasive feeling of helplessness, sometimes referred to as ‘the blues’) |
| 12 | Stride number about crush (4,2) |
STEP (stride) + NO (abbreviation for number) reversed (about) STEP ON< |
STEP ON (crush) |
| 14 | Single backing track about German with sin (8) |
ONE (single) reversed (backing) + (RY [railway; track] containing [about] MIT [German for ‘with’]) ENO< R (MIT) Y |
ENORMITY (great crime; sin) |
| 15 | Funk from a person by boisterous area of town (7) |
BO (body odour; FUNK can be defined in American slang as a strong unpleasant smell [from a person]) + ROUGH (boisterous) BO ROUGH |
BOROUGH (a division of a major city; area of town) |
| 17 | Rag time ally abroad welcomes, giving a wave (7) |
(T [time] + AMI [French for friend; ally abroad) containing (welcomes) SUN (red top newspaper, referred to by some people as a rag) T (SUN) AMI |
TSUNAMI (very swiftly travelling sea wave that attains great height, caused by an undersea earthquake or similar disturbance) |
| 20 | Rocking A-side he includes very tacky (8) |
Anagram of (rocking) A SIDE HE containing (includes) V (very) ADHESI (V) E* |
ADHESIVE (sticky; tacky) |
| 22 | Charm of baroque tuba: euphony in extremis! (6) |
Anagram of (baroque) TUBA and EY (first and last letters of [in extremis] EUPHONY) BEAUTY* |
BEAUTY (charm) |
| 23 | Love loud tango – what about gospel’s wrong? (3,3,4) |
O (zero; love score in tennis) + FF (fortissimo; loud) + T (tango is the international radio communication word for the letter T) + EH (what?) reversed (about) + MARK (reference the New Testament Gospel of Mark) O FF T HE< MARK |
OFF THE MARK (off target; wrong) |
| 24 | Kelvin and Duke, say, pirouetting to bop (4) |
K (Kelvin, unit of temperature) + NOB (aristocratic, a Duke for example) reversed (pirouetting) BON< K |
BONK (blow or thump; bop) |
| 25 | Singer‘s feature in garage thus captivates you (6) |
(CAR [something stored in a garage; feature in garage] + SO [thus]) containing (captivates) U (an abbreviation for ‘you’ in text messaging) CAR (U) SO |
CARUSO (reference Enrico CARUSO [1873 – 1921], Italian operatic tenor) |
| 26 | Did dub blend, one in an innovative style (8) |
Anagram of (in an innovative style) BLEND ONE ENNOBLED* |
ENNOBLED (conferred knighthood on; did dub) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Orchestral instrument from my supermarket (8) |
COR (gosh!; my!) + NETTO (Danish supermarket chain that has operated in Britain in the past, but no longer does so. Many of its stores in Britain were bought and rebranded by bigger supermarket chains) COR NETTO |
CORNETTO (an old woodwind instrument, now revived for performances of early music) |
| 2 | Avant-garde piece from talented gypsy (4) |
EDGY (hidden word in [piece from] TALENTED GYPSY) EDGY |
EDGY (innovative, or at the cutting edge, with the concomitant qualities of intensity and excitement; avant-garde) |
| 3 | Country song oddly about drug: moving ecstasy (6) |
SN (letters 1 and 3 [regular] of SONG) containing (about) WEED (marijuana; drug) with one of the Es [ecstasy] moving to the end to form [moving] WEDE) S (WEDE) N |
SWEDEN (country) |
| 4 | E.g. a little Calypso number turned up, keeping variable speed (7) |
TEN (a number) reversed (turned up; down entry) containing (keeping) (Y [a letter frequently used to represent an unknown in an equation] + MPH [miles per hour; speed) N (Y MPH) ET< |
NYMPHET (in Greek mythology, Calypso was the daughter of the Titan Atlas (or Oceanus or Nereus), a NYMPH of the mythical island of Ogygia, so a little Calypso would be a NYMPHET) |
| 5 | Nothing in set due to change with ten DJs (8) |
(O [zero; nothing] contained in [in] an anagram of [to change] SET DUE and [with] X [Roman numeral for ten]) TUXED (O) ES* |
TUXEDOES (dinner jackets [DJs]) |
| 6 | Maybe salsa dancing in Samoa creates addiction (10) |
DIP (a salsa is a spicy sauce/dip made with tomatoes, onions, chillis and oil ) + an anagram of (dancing) IN SAMOA DIP SOMANIA* |
DIPSOMANIA (an intermittent pathological craving for alcoholic stimulants; addiction) |
| 7 | Revive electronic R&B covers, also on the rise (6) |
RB (R and B) containing (cover) E (electronic) + TOO (also) reversed (on the rise; down entry) R (E) B OOT< |
REBOOT (restart or revive a computer by reloading the operating system) |
| 13 | Elegiac classical artist fitting clothing the wrong way (10) |
PROPER (fitting) + SUIT (clothing) reversed (the wrong way) PROPER TIUS< |
PROPERTIUS (Sextus PROPERTIUS [50 to 45BC – 15BC] was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age) |
| 16 | Member of girl group on track as support for Stevie Wonder? (5,3) |
GUIDE (reference members of the GUIDEs, part of the wider Girlguiding movement) + DOG (track) GUIDE DOG |
GUIDE DOG (Stevie Wonder is blind, so may find useful support from a GUIDE DOG) |
| 18 | Look up engaging American metal performances (8) |
SEEM (appear; look) reversed (up; down entry) containing (engaging) (A [American] + TIN [metal]) M (A TIN) EES< |
MATINEES (performances of a play, concert, or showings of a film held in the daytime, usually in the afternoon) |
| 19 | Folk star’s alarming words (7) |
MEN (folk) + ACE’S (star’s) MEN ACES |
MENACES (threatening words) |
| 21 | Thrash from French heavy metal artist’s empty (6) |
DE (French for ‘from’) + FE (iron, a metal that is heavy) + AT (letters remaining in ARTIST when the central letters RTIS are removed [empty]) DE FE AT |
DEFEAT (thrash) |
| 22 | Hot Egyptian soul piece (6) |
BA (in ancient Egyptian religion, the soul, represented as a bird with a human head.) + KING (chess piece) BA KING |
BAKING (hot) |
| 24 | Pop group from 3 bringing down a cake (4) |
ABBA (Swedish pop group) with the first letter A moving to position 2 in the word (bringing down; down entry) to form BABA BABA |
BABA (small cake, leavened with yeast) |
Found this harder than his Guardian crosswords. In the end, I failed on the crossing 13d & 15a. Seeing the answers, I’m not surprised. Thanks Duncan for these.
My favourite today was NYMPHET. For 11a, I went for the more well-known Celine Dion. Thanks also to Rodriguez.
Meant to ask whether “loud”, rather than “very loud” is ok in 23a.
Tremendous puzzle and great blog, Like Pickers with DRS.
I was beaten by BONK as I’m used to its modern meaning and BOP is usually jazz or dance.
But VAR(I mean Chambers) confirmed the goal, wicket whatever.
NYMPHET a beauty but so was the rest
Thanks JB and Dunc.
I’m aligned with both commenters (so far): I agree with Hovis this was tricky, I failed on the same two and dnk PROPERTIUS, I suspect Celine was the Dion and I was particularly proud of teasing out NYMPHET. And I did wonder about F/FF in 23a. I also agree with Duncan’s overall praise for the clueing achievement and the lateral thinking. I twigged “did dub” but, as dub can mean several things, it didn’t help me until the very end. INDY was a tea tray moment and TUXEDOES very rewarding when the penny dropped. I needed Duncan’s help in parsing both TSUNAMI and BAKING – failed to spot the Sun for once and Ba was unknown to me. Overall, a satisfying solve with that linked frustration in the middle!
Thanks Rodriguez and Duncan
This was pretty tough and I didn’t enjoy it anything like as much as this setter’s two previous offerings, not becuase of the difficultly but it felt to me much less smooth possibly due to the constraints of the theme.
“Up” is often used as an anagram indicator so, notwithstanding the theme, “jazz” is padding in 9a. I don’t much like “you” = “u” but I suppose it’s something I’ll have to learn to live with, and, as Hovis has already commented, FF not F = “very loud”.
There were lots of good clues among which NYMPHET was my favourite.
Many thanks to Rodriguez and to Duncan.
I’m with copmus – ‘tremendous puzzle and great blog’.
I was lucky in having studied Propertius – one of the less well known Roman poets but Rodriguez followed the generally accepted convention of cluing him very straightforwardly.
Like others, I’d pick NYMPHET as the stand-out but there was so much else to admire, including ENORMITY, TSUNAMI, SWEDEN, DIPSOMANIA and GUIDE DOG. I loved all the lateral thinking.
I’m with others, too, in going for Celine Dion.
Huge thanks to Rodriguez and Duncan.
[And, after Nutmeg in the Guardian, there’s still Julius in the FT to come – a great crossword day to counter the foul weather.]
enjoyable would be way too strong… more like survival through guesswork… as usual straightforward enough once guessed correctly!
thanks to Rodriguez n Duncanshiell
I found this really hard going, with almost nothing in after the first run through. Eventually made it, in a couple of sessions, with a few unknowns including the ‘supermarket’ at 1d, and my last in PROPERTIUS who went in on the basis of theoretically plausible wordplay alone.
Definitely a sense of achievement on completion of one of the hardest this year so far.
Thanks to Rodriguez – look forward to your next – and to Duncan
Found this one tough and not particularly enjoyable. Failed to parse NYMPHET and couldn’t find the classical artist in 13d. Thought 16d was in rather poor taste.
Sorry, Rodriguez, a disappointment after your previous two outings. Thanks to Duncan especially for the explanations of 4&13d.
I did wonder if 16dn might be considered by some to be in poor taste, however for me there should be no sensitivity – that some visually impaired people use a guide dog is fact; there is no hint of the reference being jocular or insulting. Thanks both
As Eileen said, 3 cracking puzzles in the one day. I was also left with 13d and 15a, and my word wizard only gave me 2 possibilities for 13d, so I googled PROPERTIUS, knowing he had to be a poet from long ago. Then I managed to spot BO ROUGH and I was finished.
Very chewy. Music being pretty much my specialist subject didn’t help one bit (I’d have been better off if the answers had been the musical terms!) Got several without parsing so thanks and respect to Duncan and thanks to Rodriguez for the working over!
Found it very hard but persisted over several sessions and got there. Had an issue with 1d – is the Cornetto an orchestral instrument (or Netto a current supermarket)? Assumed it was Dion of ” The Wanderer” fame.
This took us quite some time, as well as requiring some help from wordfinders, thesaurus, google etc. It was all worth while, though, for such an ingenious puzzle. There were a few answers we couldn’t parse, but of those we could NYMPHET was our favourite.
Thanks, Rodriguez and Duncan.
Johnnybgoode @ 13
NETTO is the supermarket and CORNETTO is the instrument.
I’m pleased you rembered the same DION as I did – I must admit Celine DION didn’t cross my mind when I wrote theblog but I can understand why most people associated the clue with her. I was a bit surprised when I discovered that DION who sang The Wanderer was born in 1939.
Didn’t manage 15A and 13 D and not surprised when I saw them.
Didn’t help that they intersected.
FUNK=BO? Not known or ever heard of where I live – much like Propertius.
Not keen on MENACE as a noun meaning ALARMING WORDS either so a bit of a mixed bag FOR me
reddevil @ 19
If someone came up to you ‘demanding money with menaces’ I suspect the words would alarm you.
reddevil @ 16, even
Thanks for the blog. A rare day when I got to the Independent crossword–I’ll spare you the details but I have time on my hands today.
I am surprised to learn that “funk” to mean “stink” (noun) is an Americanism. I guess when you grow up speaking U.S. English, the differences aren’t obvious until pointed out to you.
I admit that I thought of Dion from the 60s rather than Celine Dion of the 90s-00s, even though the latter is more of my own time (I’m 46, so too young to remember Dion during his hitmaking days). I suspect he’s the one the setter had in mind, since Dion’s stage name is just his first name; like Cher(ilyn Sarkisian), Adele (Adkins), or Madonna (Ciccone), it’s a mononym, so the reference is clearer.
I found this puzzle rather hard; the grid, which has the four central entries less than 50% checked, didn’t help matters. DJ for “dinner jacket” was new to me, so I had to cheat on that one.
duncanshiell @ 15
Sorry, didn’t make myself clear. I know Cornetto is an instrument but is it one found in an orchestra?
Thanks Rodriguez (is that the footballer, a la Don Manley?), Duncan
Pretty tricky, a good thing.
The clue for Propertius is a good example of too much information. If only classical artist had been at the front of the clue I think he might have come to mind rather more quickly. I spent ages trying to come up with words for elegiac.
Cornettoes are funny looking things, basically a bent stick, but one that doesn’t come back. I’ve never seen one, but don’t pay much attention to period music. I guess ‘orchestral’ makes the clue more obviously musical.
Though 16d’s not a jokey clue, all clues are jokes of some sort, so I did get a funny feeling from Stevie Wonder > blind man > guide dog > boom boom tsh. I tried to google if he actually has a guide dog. There was one quote from 1986 about not needing a cane or a guide dog, and apart from that, just a load of jokes based on his blindness.
Failed on Propertius, not a poet I had encountered before. I wondered about SUIT going up but I was stuck on ELEGIAC being the definition. I’m actually not sure what that word is doing in the clue at all. Apart from that clue I really enjoyed the puzzle. Similar experience to solving this setter in the Guardian, where everything falls into place beautifully, but not without a struggle.
Dry hard. Didn’t enjoy at all