CDs/DVDs
Album: Damien Jurado - What's New, Tomboy?Monday, 27 April 2020
He's only in his mid-20s, but this is Seattle singer-songwriter Damien Jurado’s 15th album. Veering away from a predictable path, his career is dotted with sonic experimentalism alongside a tendency to try abstract lyrical forms. He also appears on... Read more... |
DVD: Babylon Berlin Series 1-3Sunday, 26 April 2020
There are bad times just around the corner for the characters of Babylon Berlin, though 1929 is grim enough. Focusing on the moment to take away the easy option of hindsight for the viewer and making its vast line-up, played by actors of supreme... Read more... |
Album: Tom Kitching – Seasons of ChangeSaturday, 25 April 2020
Back in April 2018, English fiddler player and member of BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-nominated folk band Pilgrim’s Way embarked on an 18-month busking tour of England. He walked out of his home in Manchester to explore the country, from Berwick to... Read more... |
Album: Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes - What Kinda MusicFriday, 24 April 2020
We can all do with a dopamine hit right now, given the current lockdown, and those feel-good hormones kick in the instant you hear Yussef Dayes’ tight backbeat on the opening title track of What Kinda Music. A collaboration between drummer and... Read more... |
Album: Ezra Furman - Sex Education OSTThursday, 23 April 2020
Netflix’s sweet but slightly strange drama Sex Education is already two series into its tale of teenage awkwardness in the face of growing up, with a third planned for when the Covid-19 plague is over. Yet it is only now that the soundtrack is being... Read more... |
Album: Lucinda Williams - Good Souls Better AngelsWednesday, 22 April 2020
Few singers can channel bitterness, anger and pain as well as Lucinda Williams: she moves with ease from a fierce snarl to a sensual drawl, and from a naked show of vulnerability to a rocker’s raunch. As with Tom Waits, with whom she has sometimes... Read more... |
DVD: The Year of the Sex OlympicsTuesday, 21 April 2020
Originally aired in BBC2’s “Theatre 625” slot in July 1968, Nigel Kneale’s The Year of the Sex Olympics has gathered a reputation as a groundbreaking piece of TV drama which uncannily anticipated the broadcasting future. Its depiction of a society... Read more... |
Album: BC Camplight - Shortly After TakeoffMonday, 20 April 2020
The out-of-control missile on the cover is emblematic. The actual takeoff in question is the flight Brian Christinzio was forced to board in 2015 following his deportation from the UK. What came next is the album title's "shortly after": an enforced... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Cinema of Conflict: Four Films by Krzysztof KieślowskiSunday, 19 April 2020
Early in The Scar (1976), the opening film in Arrow Academy’s Cinema of Conflict limited edition quartet, Stefan Bednarz (Franciszek Pieczka) requests a partial reshoot of what is to be his first interview as the newly appointed director of a large... Read more... |
Album: Fra Fra - Funeral SongsSaturday, 18 April 2020
Rituals of death call for music: to see the spirits of the dead off on their journey to the other side, to express the grief of those left behind or to celebrate the cycle of life and death. Fra Fra are a quartet from the predominantly Muslim... Read more... |
Album: Twinnie - Hollywood GypsyFriday, 17 April 2020
One thing with this whole lockdown business is that we’re all trying to be as nice as possible to each other. At the moment, we music writers aim to recommend material people can enjoy while stuck at home. Our knives are staying sheathed. What, then... Read more... |
Album: Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt CuttersThursday, 16 April 2020
Fiona Apple simmered in the LA sun for eight years to make this record, mostly holed up at home since her beloved dog died and she stopped drinking. Rather than polish the result to a sleek gleam, this is an album of trailing threads and percussive... Read more... |
