CDs/DVDs
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... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dino Valenti, Monterey FestivalSunday, 29 September 2013
Dino Valente: Dino ValenteDino Valenti’s reaction to his sole solo album being credited to Dino Valente isn’t recorded, but any confusion probably wouldn’t have mattered as he had such high-profile cheerleaders. Before its release in October... Read more... |
CD: Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2Sunday, 29 September 2013
Justin Timberlake continues his global charm assault with the second in his 20/20 Experience project. Teaming with long-term collaborator Timbaland, the duo turn the taut funk and chart-busting hits of the first instalment in the series on... Read more... |
DVD: Ikarie XB 1Friday, 27 September 2013
Czech director Jindřich Polák’s 1963 science fiction epic Ikarie XB 1 was known in the West for many years only in a recut dubbed version. Happily, Second Run’s restored print looks and sounds marvellous. There is a slowly unfolding narrative,... Read more... |
CD: Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi MoonchileThursday, 26 September 2013
It's only the truly great albums that usher you into a sound-world that is entirely sui generis. And so it is with this second chapter of jazz sax player and composer Matana Roberts's Coin Coin project, a vast musical work-in-progress exploring... Read more... |
