CDs/DVDs
CD: The Smashing Pumpkins - OceaniaSaturday, 16 June 2012
Naturally it couldn't be anything as straightforward as a mere album. Rather, Smashing Pumpkins supremo Billy Corgan would have it that Oceania is "an album within an album", and that its 13 songs form a subset of the ongoing Teargarden by... Read more... |
DVD: The Woman in the FifthFriday, 15 June 2012
The press release for The Woman in the Fifth says it’s “a twisted and intense love story” that's about a “passionate and intense relationship”. It is, to a degree. But that undersells the film. As an oblique examination of mental breakdown, director... Read more... |
CD: Neneh Cherry & The Thing - The Cherry ThingThursday, 14 June 2012
As all the background information to this new release can be found in Nick Levine’s recent interview with Neneh Cherry for theartsdesk, let's get straight down to scrutinising the music. For this serious contender for album of the year deserves more... Read more... |
CD: Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...Wednesday, 13 June 2012
When your albums tend to drop into a frenzy of anticipation after gaps of six or seven years, the creation of a certain mythology becomes inevitable. So much has been written in certain circles about Fiona Apple since the release of 2005’s... Read more... |
DVD: Mother Joan of the AngelsTuesday, 12 June 2012
In the English-speaking world we know most about France's Ursuline possessions of the 1630s through Aldous Huxley’s 1952 The Devils of Loudun, and of course through Ken Russell’s 1971 film The Devils. But a decade before Russell’s scandalous work,... Read more... |
CD: Lorn - Ask the DustMonday, 11 June 2012
Though he first came to public attention via the Los Angeles-based Brainfeeder psychedelic electronic hip hop collective led by Flying Lotus, 25-year-old producer Lorn comes from “the middle of nowhere in Illinois”, and it's easy to see in his music... Read more... |
CD: Bobby Womack - The Bravest Man in the UniverseSunday, 10 June 2012
The formula is well established now. Take a hard-living, lately under-appreciated legend of music approaching the end of their life, give them a modern production sheen to highlight every crack and bit of grit in their careworn voice, stir in some... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: David Bowie, The Association, Boban I Marko Marković OrkestarSunday, 10 June 2012
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars 40th Anniversary EditionHoward MaleLet’s start with the bombshell. Yes, Ziggy is a landmark Seventies album but it’s not the masterpiece it should or even could have been,... Read more... |
CD: Hot Chip - In Our HeadsFriday, 08 June 2012
It has occasionally worked against Hot Chip that their first single – or, at least, the first to make any impact – was “Over and Over”. This 2006 song is such a perfect pop nugget, brutally reducing the appeal of club culture to a snappy yet... Read more... |
DVD: Roll Out The Barrel - The British Pub on FilmFriday, 08 June 2012
Five and a half hours of documentaries about beer and pubs. The temptation is to stock up on pork scratchings and consume the whole lot in one session, but this wonderful, handsomely-restored two-disc set is best savoured in several sittings. There’... Read more... |
DVD: Classic BergmanThursday, 07 June 2012
Only one of the five films in Artificial Eye’s selection is palpably a classic, a turning point in Ingmar Bergman’s early career. It’s flanked by curiosities spanning 11 of the master’s 59 years as a film-maker – two of them flaunting the beginner’s... Read more... |
CD: The Beach Boys – That’s Why God Made the RadioWednesday, 06 June 2012
“We’re back together, easy money”. For anyone feeling a wee bit cynical about The Beach Boys' reunion, that lyric – from “Spring Vacation” – is likely to push them towards full-blown contempt. Although That’s Why God Made the Radio is defined by... Read more... |
