New releases on CD & DVD
Blu-Ray: Le Samouraï
Sunday, 05 December 2021
Jef Costello, the lone contract killer in Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), carries out the murder of the boss of a night club. We see how meticulously he has prepared for it, including the construction of an airtight alibi involving precise times – which others will corroborate – for his arrivals and departures at locations other than the scene of the crime.
Album: Madmess - Rebirth
Saturday, 04 December 2021
Madmess are a Portuguese power trio who are based in London. Muscular and (mostly) instrumental stoner rock is their thing, which may not be particularly original but with the volume turned up appropriately, their schtick is pretty transcendental stuff that feels like being caught in a wind tunnel with a jet engine.
Album: Paul Weller - An Orchestrated Songbook
Thursday, 02 December 2021
It’s a far cry from his beginnings in a tight, no-frills power-pop-post-punk three piece, that’s for sure. Last May, Paul Weller took to the...
Album: DJ Harrison - Tales From the Old Dominion
Thursday, 02 December 2021
The Californian label Stones Throw has long specialised in inseparably folding together the most profound and most wilfully foolish Black American...
Album: Deep Throat Choir - In Order To Know You
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Although it’s indirect, the overall feel of In Order To Know You points to where jazz and soul meet – a space analogous to that occupied by The...
Blu-ray: Out of the Blue
Beautiful restoration of Dennis Hopper's dark portrait of a family mired in abuse |
Album: Arca - KICK ii / KICK iii / KICK iiii
Gothic darkness, ultrapop, high art, street music and haughty aloofness collide |
Album: Justin Adams & Mauro Durante - Still Moving
A genre-crossing duo combine the blues, African and Taranta vibes on a breakout set |
Album: Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit - Georgia Blue
Feted southern US singer fires out an often tasty fund-raiser of cover versions |
Album: Nell & The Flaming Lips - Where The Viaduct Looms
Never mind the Nick Cave songs, audience member hook-up with Wayne Coyne’s mavericks invites further collaboration |
DVD/Blu-ray: Belleville Rendezvous
Idiosyncratic, lovable French animation, newly reissued |
Album: Sunn O))) - Metta, Benevolence - BBC 6 Music: Live on the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs
The Kings of Drone Metal reconfigure and reinterpret for the Beeb |
Album: Adele - 30
An authentic journey of emotional vulnerability |
Album: Elbow - Flying Dream 1
Eschewing big-arena balladeering, Guy Garvey and co have staged a revolution for no 9 |
Album: Deap Vally - Marriage
Heavy blues rockers are back with a bang |
Album: Willie Nelson - The Willie Nelson Family
God's own country music |
Blu-ray: One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
The tense 1942 Powell and Pressburger RAF drama that salutes the Dutch Resistance |
Album: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raise the Roof
Brilliant formula still makes for gold |
Album: Rod Stewart - The Tears of Hercules
They can smell Rod's latest set of stadium whiffers on Mars |
Album: Damon Albarn - The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows
A great English pop musician in insular, melancholy solo mode |
Album: Idles - Crawler
Fourth album from Bristol alt-rock pummellers lets the shade bleed through |
Blu-ray: Sweet Thing
A stirring comeback for writer-director Alexandre Rockwell |
Album: Jon Hopkins - Music for Psychedelic Therapy
Music to get well with |
Album: Susanna Hoffs - Bright Lights
Another pleasant collection of covers from the Bangles’ front woman |
Album: ABBA - Voyage
After 40 years of silence, pop’s great quartet makes a welcome and convincing return |
Album: Diana Ross - Thank You
Ross's album lives up to expectations. Except when it doesn't |
Album: Electric Eye - Horizons
Norwegian psych-rock with jazz and Krautrock leanings is a trip |
Blu-ray: Celia
Death, rabbits and communism in a superb Australian drama |
Album: Ed Sheeran - =
The diary of an ordinary pop star, aged 30 |
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Jef Costello, the lone contract killer in Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), carries out the murder of the boss of a night club....
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