New releases on CD & DVD
Album: High Contrast - Notes From the Underground
Thursday, 03 December 2020
Dance music has a notably different relationship to its past than other kinds of music. This has a real, material basis: because its core experience is that of the mixed DJ set, in principle nothing is ever the same twice, elements are constantly combined and recombined, so past and present are constantly churned together in new contexts.
Album: Nick Cave & Nicholas Lens - L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S.
Wednesday, 02 December 2020
The Covid pandemic has meant, with both performance and recording opportunities at a minimum, that many musicians have had to apply a bit of lateral thinking to keep their creative juices flowing.
Blu-ray: Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Tuesday, 01 December 2020
In his exclusive half-hour-plus interview for distributor Second Run, the affable Tsai Ming-Liang makes a striking admission: “I make very...
Album: Sigur Rós - Odin's Raven Magic
Monday, 30 November 2020
Odin’s ravens Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) are the great Norse god’s messengers, at the heart of a myth that was borrowed in watered-down...
Blu-Ray: La Haine
Sunday, 29 November 2020
The BFI has done an excellent job of giving La Haine the 4k restoration treatment under the vigilant eye of the film’s cinematographer,...
Album: Tankus the Henge - Luna Park!
Festival favourites' third album delivers an exuberant selection of stompers |
Album: Miley Cyrus - Plastic Hearts
Miley's ever-shifting sound alights on a Big Eighties aesthetic |
Album: Gary Barlow - Music Played By Humans
The Take That frontman's latest is a tiresome cue-call for spontaneous fun |
Album: Billie Joe Armstrong - No Fun Mondays
The Green Day singer offers up his collection of lockdown cover versions |
Blu-ray: Waxworks (1924)
The sum is more than the parts of Paul Leni's German Expressionist horror comedy |
Album: BTS - Be
K-pop perfection from the South Korean septet |
Blu-ray: Girlfriends
A pioneering comedy-drama about two young women trying to make it in 1970s New York |
Album: Kitchman/Schmidt - As Long As Songbirds Sing
Talented musicians, but trying too hard |
Album: Smashing Pumpkins – Cyr
Grunge veterans pump out a joyless dirge |
Album: Kali Uchis - Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) ∞
Rising Colombian-American star takes a likeable turn into beats-laden easy listening |
Album: Charles Webster - Decision Time
An extraordinary comeback - and hopefully overdue recognition - for a British underground music legend |
Blu-ray: The Painted Bird
Harrowing tale of wartime life on the margins |
Album: Cabaret Voltaire - Shadow of Fear
Dark and disorientating electronica at its best |
Album: AC/DC - Power Up
Veteran Aussie rockers rise, phoenix-like, to banish the 2020 blues |
Album: Paloma Faith - Infinite Things
A re-versioning of the self into more serious, sombre realms |
Album: Kruder & Dorfmeister - 1995
Horizontal herbal music from 1990s trip hop pairing is pleasantly zonked |
DVD/Blu-ray: Breathless
Avant-garde with a sense of history |
Album: Little Mix - Confetti
Sixth album from all-girl pop juggernaut breaks no new ground but has its moments |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Ladykillers
The last great Ealing Comedy, in a pristine restored print |
Album: Balothizer - Cretan Smash
Between rock and a roots place |
Album: Kylie - DISCO
Much-needed escapism from Australia's finest export |
Album: Dame Shirley Bassey - I Owe It All to You
The musical monolith bows out |
DVD/Blu-ray: Dementia
A short, sharp, sick Hollywood horror noir |
CD: Cunning Folk - A Casual Invocation
Thrilling album of spells, hexes and the great god Pan |
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