CDs/DVDs
CD: Gogol Bordello - Seekers and FindersWednesday, 16 August 2017
As a live phenomenon Gogol Bordello are unstoppable, a crowd-whipping Balkan-punk storm that sweeps venues away with them. For some years this blinded me to their recorded output. Their albums sent shivers up my spine, a tinctured version of their... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The 5000 Fingers of Dr TTuesday, 15 August 2017
There are lots of ideas bubbling away under the surface of The 5000 Fingers of Dr T. There would have been even more had the studio not panicked after a disastrous preview screening. Half the musical numbers were scrapped, subplots ditched and a new... Read more... |
CD: Dent May - Across the MultiverseMonday, 14 August 2017
As the title and Seventies-style cover image indicate, Across the Multiverse is knowing. Though the “Across the Universe” reference nods to The Beatles, it is the spirit of the Alessi Brothers, Hall & Oates, Harry Nilsson, Van Dyke Parks and... Read more... |
CD: Lucky Soul – Hard LinesSunday, 13 August 2017
We are living, I think it’s fair to say, in troubled times. That is, if we’re living at all by the time of publication. Putting aside, for a second, the sabre-rattling of two monstrous egos, there is a need, in such dark days, of some light.... Read more... |
CD: Kesha - RainbowSaturday, 12 August 2017
For the last four years US pop superstar Kesha has had a huge but miserable media presence. Her bitterly fought court battle to be released from her contract with producer/alleged Svengali Dr Luke, which involved allegations of abuse and sexual... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: American GodsFriday, 11 August 2017
Neil Gaiman understood the country where he’d landed as an immigrant in the Nineties by writing American Gods. His first substantial novel after his crowning comics achievement, The Sandman, mined an idea of infinite plenitude: if every immigrant... Read more... |
CD: Richard Thompson - Acoustic Classics IIThursday, 10 August 2017
Alternative versions of familiar songs, it seems, have never been more popular: the better the composition, the more they reveal new depths. That was how fans and critics saw Richard Thompson's first volume of Acoustic Classics - a kind of unplugged... Read more... |
CD: The Duke Spirit - Sky is MineWednesday, 09 August 2017
The Duke Spirit’s newest album, Sky Is Mine, comes quickly on the heels of 2016’s well-received Kin LP and Serenade EP. Produced by the band themselves, and featuring vocal contributions from the likes of Josh T. Pearson and Duke Garwood, it shows a... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Tree of Wooden ClogsTuesday, 08 August 2017
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1978, Ermanno Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L’albero deli zoccoli) is a glorious fresco that reveals, over the course of an unhurried three hours and with a pronounced documentary element that virtually... Read more... |
CD: ZGTO - A Piece of the GetoMonday, 07 August 2017
The term “hip hop” has become a catch-all that now includes a multitude of autotuned chart-pop rubbish which bears no relation to the genre’s origins, central tenets or recognised sonic imprint. Is Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen” hip hop? Many would... Read more... |
CD: Offa Rex - The Queen of HeartsSunday, 06 August 2017
Offa was an Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia, and now his name is attached to this outstanding collaboration between English singer and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney and Portland indie band The Decemberists. The record draws on Seventies English... Read more... |
CD: Rat Boy - SCUMSaturday, 05 August 2017
At the start of 2016 shouty Essex bedroom musician Jordan Cardy – AKA Rat Boy – was on all those media tastemaker lists of stars about to imminently explode. Maybe he’s been in major label development hell since. His debut album’s been a long time... Read more... |
