CDs/DVDs
CD: Bob Dylan - TempestSunday, 09 September 2012
Like Orpheus, Bob Dylan is familiar with the underworld. As he gets closer to meeting his maker, the tone of his work has become less baroque, increasingly stripped down and almost naïve in its simplicity. His latest album marks another episode,... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Lee "Scratch" Perry, Cud, Taj Mahal, David CassidySunday, 09 September 2012
Lee “Scratch” Perry and Friends: Disco Devil - The Jamaican DiscomixesThomas H GreenAs bass culture conquers the musical universe, with even Justin Bieber diving into dubstep waters and gnarly electro-goth Skrillex one of the biggest earning new... Read more... |
DVD: Goodbye, First LoveSaturday, 08 September 2012
The third sensitive feature written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve is a semi-autobiographical realist drama about a young woman making the agonising emotional transition many endure after their initial romance. It gives little away to disclose that... Read more... |
CD: Pet Shop Boys - ElysiumFriday, 07 September 2012
Pet Shop Boys eleventh album leaps sideways into smooth, opulent US FM radio production in a way that will initially give long term fans palpitations. The duo sound… different. They recorded Elysium in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning Kanye West... Read more... |
CD: The xx – CoexistThursday, 06 September 2012
One of the current tropes in stand-up comedy is the way that television appropriates music to manipulate emotions. Sean Hughes employs a flurry of Snow Patrol when he acts out buying some bread, while newcomer David Trent has Sigur Rós on his... Read more... |
CD: David Byrne & St. Vincent - Love This GiantWednesday, 05 September 2012
There's a lot that's right with this album. Love This Giant sounds like Talking Heads for one, suggesting that David Byrne has made his peace with what made him great in the first place, and has seemingly stopped his slide into becoming a... Read more... |
DVD: The Hunger GamesTuesday, 04 September 2012
Being such a massive phenomenon has made The Hunger Games an easy target to tilt at but the truth is that, staying close to the Suzanne Collins novel, this film adaptation is a lean, smart science fiction thriller that there’s much to like about.... Read more... |
CD: kNIFE and fORK - The Higher You Get the Rarer the VegetationMonday, 03 September 2012
If the name is both banal and irritating – seemingly you are expected to spell it kNIFE and fORK – this album is a triumph on its own terms. Despite it being at times overly self-conscious, there are occasional flashes of dark genius.The band are a... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Lee Hazlewood, T-Coy, Laibach, Boppin’ by the BayouSunday, 02 September 2012
Lee Hazlewood: A House Safe for TigersGraham RicksonLee Hazlewood’s voice can still invoke awe. It's gravelly, sonorous, rasping, but incredibly affecting – even when he’s scraping around in the depths it always sounds musical. A reissue of a... Read more... |
DVD: RoGoPaGSunday, 02 September 2012
Even though their names are bound together in the portmanteau title, the directors of the four short films that make up RoGoPaG - Rossellini, Godard, Pasolini and Gregoretti - don't go for any sort of narrative tie-ins. The only thing that links the... Read more... |
CD: The Vaccines – Come of AgeSaturday, 01 September 2012
Growing up in public is never easy. After all the attention that The Vaccines attracted with their post-Strokes smash-and-grab debut What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? they have plenty to prove with their follow-up. Do they duplicate the Ramones... Read more... |
CD: Animal Collective - Centipede HzFriday, 31 August 2012
Nine albums and almost 10 years in, Animal Collective show no signs of smoothing the edges from their herky-jerk, ADHD psyche-pop. Vocals carry a melody, but everything else in the mix counters that – pinging sounds, Afro-inspired percussion, bloops... Read more... |
