CDs/DVDs
DVD: Behind the CandelabraThursday, 10 October 2013
When piano-playing Vegas sensation and all round American entertainer Liberace (Michael Douglas) finds that his new live-in lover, Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), is bisexual, he responds by saying, “Good for you – I wish I could be that flexible.” For... Read more... |
CD: Morcheeba - Head Up HighThursday, 10 October 2013
Morcheeba are sometimes dismissed as makers of dinner party music, of being the trio who drove the triphop juggernaut started by Massive Attack down an easy-listening dead end. Such a view, however, ignores the quality of their songwriting,... Read more... |
CD: Jonathan Wilson - FanfareWednesday, 09 October 2013
If there’s a problem with Jonathan Wilson’s astonishing second album, it’s the potentially distracting presence of the stunningly heavy list of contributors. Those mucking in to help out include Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Graham Nash who... Read more... |
DVD: Much Ado About NothingTuesday, 08 October 2013
What would happen if a top Hollywood and TV director decided to take actors familiar to him to make a Shakespearean comedy? Something very interesting, especially to those enamoured of The Bard.Joss Whedon, creator of TV series like Buffy The... Read more... |
CD: RM Hubbert - Breaks & BoneSunday, 06 October 2013
The debates that come with music awards tend to be more interesting than the institutions themselves, which is why it was so novel to see this year’s SAY Award - the Creative Scotland-backed equivalent of the Mercury Prize - go to a work that was... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: National Wake, DrugstoreSunday, 06 October 2013
National Wake: A Walk in Africa 1979–81South Africa’s National Wake would be noteworthy enough even if their music wasn’t. The mixed-race group emerged in 1978 in a country where the establishment and institutions were directly opposed to what... Read more... |
CD: Miley Cyrus - BangerzFriday, 04 October 2013
I am increasingly finding it almost impossible to express just how bored I am by Miley Cyrus. I mean, seriously, are we really in such a fix that this guff is a serious talking point? A second-generation celebrity and former child star seems to be... Read more... |
DVD: The Breaking of BumboFriday, 04 October 2013
Although it’s impossible to make a case for The Breaking of Bumbo as a great film, it is a bizarre, compelling, hyper-real slice of Swinging Sixties nonsense as essential to the era as Privilege, What’s Good For the Goose and The Beatles’ Magical... Read more... |
CD: The Full EnglishThursday, 03 October 2013
The Full English album and live tour is the stage and studio result of an ambitious project from the EFDSS (English Folk Dance and Song Society), drawing together songs from the early 20th-century collections of songhunters including Lucy Broadwood... Read more... |
CD: Chase & Status - Brand New MachineWednesday, 02 October 2013
“How does drum’n’bass fare when taken out from the underground?” asked Joe Muggs on Monday on theartsdesk, reviewing the new Sub Focus album. He went on to refer to “a fizzy youth-friendly strain of the genre” and “rictus grin euphoria”, making... Read more... |
DVD: Riddles of the SphinxTuesday, 01 October 2013
The new BFI release takes its title from the 1977 essay movie directed by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen; the package includes its more speculative predecessor, 1974's Penthiselea: Queen of the Amazons. Each is a demanding feminist work that... Read more... |
CD: Sub Focus - TorusMonday, 30 September 2013
When drum'n'bass emerged from hardcore rave's interactions with London's pirate radio culture, 20-odd years ago, it created some of the most radical grassroots music ever to come out of the British Isles. It came in such a white heat explosion of... Read more... |
