CDs/DVDs
Album: Jungle - Loving in StereoThursday, 12 August 2021![]() The UK is currently in the middle of a jazz, funk and soul renaissance. Homegrown, grassroots talent is producing an abundance of glorious music both retro and forward facing, in a way not seen since the combined influence of Soul II Soul and the... Read more... |
Album: Patricia Barber - CliqueWednesday, 11 August 2021![]() Do we undervalue artists who are just consistently good... who know what it is that they do exceptionally well? Singer/pianist Patricia Barber sings and plays songs her own thoughtful way. She and her regular band have a Monday night residency at... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Running Against the WindTuesday, 10 August 2021![]() There’s much to enjoy in Running Against the Wind: Jan Philipp Weyl’s contemporary Ethiopian epic is a visual treat, with excellent performances from its two young leads. And how often do we get to see a film in Amharic with English subtitles?We... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Blow OutMonday, 09 August 2021![]() A lot has changed in the 40 years since Blow Out was first released. In 1981, American critics from Pauline Kael to Roger Ebert praised to the heavens Brian De Palma’s homage to assorted Hitchcock thrillers and his script’s mash-up of 1970s... Read more... |
Album: Golden Child - Game ChangerSaturday, 07 August 2021![]() This second full-length album from South Korean 10-piece Golden Child moves seamlessly from pop balladry to anthemic EDM without ever losing its footing.With ghostly, submerged bell noises, ominous-sounding low brass, joined by strings and pounding... Read more... |
Album: Billie Eilish - Happier Than EverFriday, 06 August 2021![]() Billie Eilish was shot through fame’s looking glass with increasing force right through her teens. A girl’s hopeful artistic dreams exposed her to infinite judgement of her body and soul, social and mass media magnifying every blemish and... Read more... |
Album: Alan Vega - Alan Vega After DarkThursday, 05 August 2021![]() Following in the slipstream of wide critical acclaim for posthumous album Mutator, released earlier this year, comes Alan Vega After Dark by the former Suicide frontman. It’s a starkly different album to its predecessor, swapping concrete collisions... Read more... |
Album: Tomu DJ - FeministaWednesday, 04 August 2021![]() The endless circles and spirals that dance music moves in can take you to some strange places.It is, after all, a little peculiar that a producer from California, who was first turned on to DJing by the edgy, claustrophobic, ultra-modernist sound of... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Beauty and the BeastTuesday, 03 August 2021![]() Beauty and the Beast? Not quite; the Czech title of Juraj Herz’s 1978 fantasy is Panna a netvor, which translates, much more fittingly, as The Virgin and the Monster. This new release has a 15 certificate, a clear hint that the film wasn’t aimed at... Read more... |
Album: Liars - The Apple DropMonday, 02 August 2021![]() Despite being renowned for a somewhat fluid membership since their formation in 2000, it would seem that Liars has now become the solo concern of its only constant member, Angus Andrew. That’s not to say that Andrew has taken on all the... Read more... |
Album: Katherine Priddy - The Eternal Rocks BeneathSaturday, 31 July 2021![]() The folk world is slowly coming out of its long pandemic slumber, with Sidmouth’s month-long festival starting in the midst of Storm Evert’s high-summer arrival, and tours from the likes of fiddler extraordinaire Sam Sweeney, Eliza Carthy, and... Read more... |
Album: Willy Mason - Already DeadThursday, 29 July 2021![]() Already Dead’s opening cut is titled “Youth on a Spit”. As it unfolds, Willy Mason declares “I feel no pain I’ve already bled / You can’t kill me I’m already dead.” After setting a pessimistic tone the next track is the “You’d Like to be Free”, a... Read more... |
