CDs/DVDs
Album: Maven Grace - Sleep Standing UpSaturday, 25 February 2023
Sleep Standing Up is the debut album by a trio who, according to their press release, absolutely came together due to a mutual love of Roxy Music. This connection extends to an early performance being enjoyed by Bryan Ferry at a festival, resulting... Read more... |
Album: Steve Mason - Brothers & SistersFriday, 24 February 2023
Steve Mason has been impressively blunt about the inspiration behind his fifth solo album. “To me, this record is a massive “Fuck you” to Brexit and a giant “Fuck you” to anyone that is terrified of immigration,” he’s said, “Because there is nothing... Read more... |
Album: Gina Birch - I Play My Bass LoudThursday, 23 February 2023
The Raincoats are one of those revered names that I never believed I would witness live. (See also: Hole, Elastica and, until their last UK tour, extraterrestrial kooks the B52s). But in late 2019, there was a surge of activity from the godmothers... Read more... |
Album: Death Valley Girls - Islands in the SkyWednesday, 22 February 2023
“What are the odds that we live in a simulated world where nothing is real?” ask the Death Valley Girls on their new album, Islands in the Sky. It’s a question that a fair few other people are probably asking themselves these days – and, with the... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Ingmar Bergman Vol 4Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Another box-set from the BFI full of Bergman treasures, from core catalogue classics such as Fanny and Alexander (1982), Cries and Whispers (1972), Autumn Sonata (1978) and Scenes from a Marriage (1973) to less well-known films such as After the... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Adventures of Baron MunchausenSunday, 19 February 2023
“He won’t get far on hot air and fantasy,” Jonathan Pryce’s cruel bureaucrat huffs, as Baron Munchausen (John Neville) bests besieged city walls in a balloon sewn from a half-ton of knickers. “I hope this movie expands people’s ideas of what is... Read more... |
Album: Skrillex - Quest for FireFriday, 17 February 2023
Ageing boppers may bristle at the idea of a dance album where the average track length is three minutes. Yet this, Sonny “Skrillex” Moore’s first solo album since his debut nine years ago, is the most groove-based thing he’s done. It’s certainly a... Read more... |
Album: Orbital - Optical DelusionWednesday, 15 February 2023
Orbital, one of the great electronic dance acts, had a run of albums during the 1990s that encapsulate that decade in the UK (at least, for those willing to ignore the historical revisionism around tired, retro-tastic Britpop by the same media "... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Queen of SpadesTuesday, 14 February 2023
If post-war baroque cinema had been a school or movement rather than a style, its male icon would have been Anton Walbrook. Before Max Ophüls cast the suavely menacing Austrian actor as the master of ceremonies in La Ronde (1950) and as King Ludwig... Read more... |
Album: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Land of SleeperMonday, 13 February 2023
During the Dark Ages, it wasn’t unusual for people throughout England to raise the prayer “From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord!”. Over a thousand years later, with the release of Geordie rockers Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs’ new... Read more... |
Album: dEUS - How to Replace ItSaturday, 11 February 2023
Antwerp band dEUS – built around the core of Tom Barman and Klaas Janzoons – started out as a very interesting band. They fully leaned into the anything-goes sector of 90s music where the likes of Beck, Beastie Boys, Björk, Moloko and Super Furry... Read more... |
Album: Paramore - This is WhyFriday, 10 February 2023
I’ll admit it. When I first saw that noughties indie rockers Bloc Party would be supporting Grammy award-winning emo stars Paramore on their Spring stadium tour, it seemed like a perplexing choice. But, four minutes into hearing the return sounds... Read more... |
