CDs/DVDs
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... |
Album: OMD - Bauhaus StaircaseSaturday, 21 October 2023
The three previous albums that Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark have released since reforming in 2010 have all, to varying degrees, adhered to their early sound. The band were part of the post-punk, post-Kraftwerk, 1979-82 synth-pop boom, alongside... Read more... |
Album: Sampha - LahaiFriday, 20 October 2023
In 2011 the BBC aired Wonders of the Universe, a documentary presented by physicist Brian Cox about the origins of the universe divided into four parts: “Destiny”, “Stardust”, “Falling” and “Messengers”. These episodes could easily have been titles... Read more... |
Album: Emma Anderson - PearliesWednesday, 18 October 2023
Well, this is lovely. Pearlies opens with “I Was Miles Away”, a puffball of a sonic cloud which marries twinkling electronica with guitar-led shoegazing. It has a familial resemblance with the sort of thing perfected by Sweden’s I Break Horses, but... Read more... |
Blu-ray: BranniganTuesday, 17 October 2023
Brannigan begins in arresting fashion, Dominic Frontiere’s funky theme playing over leery close ups of the titular hero’s Colt revolver. Directed by Douglas Hickox and released in 1973, this was the only film starring John Wayne which wasn’t shot in... Read more... |
