CDs/DVDs
Reissue CDs Weekly: Radio BirdmanSunday, 18 January 2015
Radio Birdman: Radio BirdmanLike Magma, last week’s stars of theartsdesk’s reissues weekly, Australia’s similarly black-clad Radio Birdman favoured a uniform look. And also in common with the idiosyncratic French combo, they had a logo – an... Read more... |
CD: Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to LoveSaturday, 17 January 2015
In interviews, Sleater-Kinney have been at pains to point out that their first album in nigh-on a decade is not a “reunion”. It’s certainly not a word I’d reach for to describe No Cities to Love: it’s too cosy a word – one that conjures buried... Read more... |
DVD: Ganja & HessFriday, 16 January 2015
If coming to Ganja & Hess under the impression it’s Seventies’ Blaxploitation along the lines of Blacula, beware. It does feature an immortal character as its lead. And there is the drinking of blood as well as violence. Instead of doing what he... Read more... |
CD: BC Camplight – How to Die in the NorthThursday, 15 January 2015
Decamping to Manchester from Philadelphia after a personal crisis seems an unlikely move. But this is what Brian Christinzio – who is BC Camplight – did in 2012. How to Die in the North was recorded in Bredbury, near Stockport.As cross-continental... Read more... |
CD: The Waterboys - Modern BluesTuesday, 13 January 2015
The Waterboys’ lynchpin, singer, guitarist and main song-writer, Mike Scott clearly has no interest in pretending that he’s still a young man. Modern Blues, the band’s first set of new material following 2013’s 25th anniversary celebration of... Read more... |
DVD: A Most Wanted ManTuesday, 13 January 2015
No one could have known it would be one of his final screen appearances – there’s another still to come in a further installment of Hunger Games – but Philip Seymour Hoffman’s role in Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man proved, with hindsight, a... Read more... |
CD: Enter Shikari – The MindsweepMonday, 12 January 2015
Certain bands pre-empt dramatic sea-changes in popular music. The ones that almost get there first. These outfits arrive a smidgeon too early and create sounds that are nearly – but not quite – what's just round the corner. Think of the pub-rockers... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: MagmaSunday, 11 January 2015
Magma: Köhntarkösz, Köhntarkösz Anteria, Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré“They were a Seventies phenomenon,” said snooker ace Steve Davies of Magma. “But they were a bit too far out there for most people, even if you liked progressive music. I didn't dare put... Read more... |
CD: Belle And Sebastian - Girls in Peacetime Want to DanceSaturday, 10 January 2015
With this likeable and quietly adventurous release, fears that Belle and Sebastian were losing momentum, amid the distractions of Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl project, and the appearance of only two albums in nine years, can now be allayed. If... Read more... |
DVD: The Battles of Coronel and Falkland IslandsSaturday, 10 January 2015
Walter Summers (1892-1973), formerly Lt. Summers of the East Surreys and a highly decorated veteran of the Western Front, had already directed the Great War reconstruction films Ypres (1925) and Mons (1926) for Harry Bruce Woolf’s British... Read more... |
CD: Theo Parrish – American IntelligenceFriday, 09 January 2015
Last month, Theo Parrish released his album, American Intelligence, on vinyl and CD. Now it’s available on digital, but make sure you’ve got room on your hard drive – it’s long. Seriously, marathons have been run quicker than the two hours and three... Read more... |
CD: The Callstore – Save No OneThursday, 08 January 2015
At first it seems akin to entering a world conjured by Efterlkang at their most elegiac. Strings swell and what sounds like a cimbalom chimes. A wordless vocal sighs. After the opening instrumental – titled “Intro” – “Lovers Lane” (sic) surges... Read more... |
