CDs/DVDs
DVD: A Cat in ParisThursday, 19 July 2012
As a refreshing change from Disney-style hyper-tech 3D animated blockbusters, A Cat in Paris offers a modest story of adventure and intrigue on a pleasingly human, as well as feline, scale. The titular character is a faintly sinister black-and-... Read more... |
CD: OM – Advaitic SongsThursday, 19 July 2012
The sacred word 'om' is spoken in different ways according to its context. Elongated, it can be stretched over multiple syllables. As a musical unit, OM work with building blocks that are similarly minimal, yet drawn out for maximum effect. And like... Read more... |
CD: The Gaslight Anthem - HandwrittenWednesday, 18 July 2012
Brian Fallon, The Gaslight Anthem’s heart-on-sleeve frontman, would be the first to tell you that there’s nothing complicated to it: big songs with tons of heart; love and death and the last light of fading youth, all to the accompaniment of your... Read more... |
DVD: In DarknessTuesday, 17 July 2012
No matter how many war films come out about unbelievable suffering or astonishing heroism (and there are several around just now), there will always be more stories untold, hidden unlikely saints, overshadowed because some bigger movie did the job... Read more... |
CD: Sleepin’ Giantz – Sleepin’ GiantzMonday, 16 July 2012
Occasionally sounds from the dance underground come blasting into the wider pop world through sheer zest. It’s not that these tunes veer from the essential clubland blueprint of simply keeping the dancefloor full – as opposed to rock’n’pop’s focus... Read more... |
CD: Elton John vs Pnau - Good Morning to the NightSunday, 15 July 2012
After his über-memorable performance at Her Majesty’s jubilee concert, the next step on Sir Elton John’s journey through 2012 is just as arresting, but less likely to be dusted off at such conventional occasions. In fact, it’s hard to see how he... Read more... |
CD: Frank Ocean - Channel OrangeSaturday, 14 July 2012
There's something about Frank Ocean that sets him apart from other male R&B singers. It's not the letter he wrote on his personal blog last week revealing that his first love was a man. It's his songwriting: Ocean sketches out a scene with... Read more... |
DVD: The PlayersFriday, 13 July 2012
Massive commercial success usually buys an actor the right to bring a pet project to fruition. The Artist had not yet conquered the planet when The Players was cooked up. But its release in the UK – simultaneously in cinemas and on DVD, which says... Read more... |
CD: Meursault - Something for the WeakenedThursday, 12 July 2012
The first thing that strikes you is the voice. At once coarse and warm, like the creak of the stairs of your childhood home as it settles in at night, Meursault’s Neil Pennycook sounds like a man with more than a few stories to tell. Of course it... Read more... |
CD: Van She - Idea of HappinessWednesday, 11 July 2012
Once upon a time – six years ago - there was “nu rave” and it was immediately taken to pieces as a media construct and trashed. Fair enough, it was, but then so was Britpop and some people are still crapping on about that a decade and a half later.... Read more... |
DVD: The Discreet Charm of the BourgeoisieTuesday, 10 July 2012
The great Spanish surrealist film-maker Luis Buñuel was 72 when he made The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie but it is as madcap a piece of weirdness as ever he came up with. It also won him the 1972 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. One of the great... Read more... |
CD: Ondatrópica - OndatrópicaMonday, 09 July 2012
English producer Will "Quantic" Holland has brilliantly captured the sound of this Colombian big band who came together solely to make an album that represents the best of Colombian tropical music past and present. For capturing is all you really... Read more... |
