CDs/DVDs
Album: Bad Boy Chiller Crew - InfluentialFriday, 10 November 2023
Bradford unit Bad Boy Chiller Crew blew up from a regional scene which combined jokey lo-fi videos, a bangin’ fusion of UK garage and hard house (“bassline house” as they termed it), and grime-style rapping in local accents.Boasting parochial slang... Read more... |
Album: Bas Jan - Back to the SwampThursday, 09 November 2023
Margaret Calvert's creations are never far. She set the rules for the design of Britain’s road signs, as well as drafting typography and graphics for national, regional and local rail signage. Back to the Swamp’s fifth track “Margaret Calvert Drives... Read more... |
Album: Cat Power Sings Dylan - The 1966 Royal Albert Hall ConcertWednesday, 08 November 2023
Cat Power, aka singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, is releasing her first live album – a recording of the faithful recreation of Bob Dylan’s infamous gig of 1966, played in November 2022 at the Royal Albert Hall.Dylan’s transformative gig actually took... Read more... |
Album: TONN3RR3 x BIKAY3 - It's a BombMonday, 06 November 2023
Bony Biyake, whose vocals grace this delicious soup of ancient and modern sounds, from Europe and the Congo, once sang in a soukous band, and then made his name in collaborations with the French musical magician, the late Hector Zazou. Their most... Read more... |
Album: David Holmes - Blind on a Galloping HorseSaturday, 04 November 2023
It’s always encouraging to a have a musical rallying call in times of political strife. A song for a better future to encourage those on the right side of history not just to march but to dance as well.As Emma Goldman, the Russian-born anarchist of... Read more... |
Blu-ray: After HoursTuesday, 31 October 2023
Not all Scorsese films are behemoths; Killers of the Flower Moon may last over three hours but After Hours, a low-budget black comedy released in 1983, packs an incredible amount into just 93 minutes.That Scorsese directed the film at all is a happy... Read more... |
Album: Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee - Los AngelesMonday, 30 October 2023
Los Angeles is a collaboration from ex-Cure man Lol Tolhurst, former Banshee, Creature and Slits’ drummer, Budgie and producer Jacknife Lee, as well as an army of musical mates from Bobby Gillespie and The Edge to LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Pandora's BoxSunday, 29 October 2023
The story has often been told of how GW Pabst cast the American starlet Louise Brooks in his Berlin-made Pandora’s Box (1929) and fashioned his version of Frank Wedekind’s “Lulu plays” around her transfixing performance as the helpless pan-sexual... Read more... |
Album: Mayssa Jallad - Marjaa: The Battle of the HotelsSaturday, 28 October 2023
Atmospherically and musically, the debut album from Lebanon’s Mayssa Jallad swiftly makes its case. It opens with a drifting, elegiac voice singing a wandering melody over a sound-bed including what sounds like a koto and a droning cello. The... Read more... |
Album: James Blunt - Who We Used to BeFriday, 27 October 2023
Who knew! James Blunt has sold 20 million records worldwide. Who to, I wonder? Back to Bedlam, his 2004 debut, was the biggest-selling album of the first decade of the 21st century. Call that progress? When pop was pap – think the Carpenters or... Read more... |
Album: The Kills - God GamesThursday, 26 October 2023
With a name like The Kills, it’s not surprising to hear that the band’s long-awaited sixth album, God Games, is suitably tuned for spooky season. This year marks two decades since the duo – made up of songwriter and vocalist Alison Mosshart and... Read more... |
Album: Duran Duran - Danse MacabreMonday, 23 October 2023
Simon Le Bon has described Duran Duran’s new album as being “about a crazy Halloween party” that is “supposed to be fun”. In fact, it’s a fair bit thinner than even that might suggest.Danse Macabre consists of mainly inadvisable cover versions of... Read more... |
