CDs/DVDs
howard.male
Alarm bells went off when I learnt that Brian Eno was co-producer of Seun Kuti’s second album. The last thing the son of the legendary Fela Kuti needed was his personal brand of Afrobeat to be given a distancing sheen, or diluted by some space-age Enoesque sound effects. But it’s easy to forget that Eno isn’t only Mr Ambient – he also produced the groundbreaking Afrobeat-influenced work of Talking Heads in the late 1970s.Alarm bells went off when I learnt that Brian Eno was co-producer of Seun Kuti’s second album. The last thing the son of the legendary Fela Kuti needed was his personal brand Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Low undeniably create a music of rare beauty. Elegiac and affecting, their unhurried evocations of intimacy urge reflection. They've ploughed this furrow for a while though. C’mon is Low’s ninth album. Their first was issued in 1994. Things are refined and occasionally tinkered with – 2007’s Drums and Guns was fitted with some ill-suited glitchy beats. But the sonic core remains. Is this stasis enough to sustain 17-plus years?C’mon is hugely seductive, the slow, distant, Mogadoned power-chord squall of “Witches” pulling you into something like a half-asleep Crazy Horse. “All you guys over Read more ...
james.woodall
It was bonkers then and it’s bonkers now. Nic Roeg’s space-power-environment fantasy was really only about David Bowie in the lead. In one respect, he didn’t disappoint. Caught between mid-1970s creative cul-de-sac and bodily burn-out, he resembled here a ghost pumped full of some kind of bio-fuel, a Frankenstein’s monster with unassailable global pop cred: the most decadent, beautiful Bowie that ever was.As an alien crashlanding on earth from outer space (many of Bowie's early songs obsessed on the theme), he was perfect. With centre-parted orange hair, fragile and emaciated - like a Read more ...
david.cheal
This is the sound of a band who want to be big. Really big. Produced by Flood (The Killers, U2 etc) and recorded in California, the second outing from Scotland’s Glasvegas bursts with epic widescreen soundscapes, its chiming guitars designed to shimmer around arenas and festivals, its throbbing, pulsing synths adding depth and drama, the heavily treated voice of James Allan pleading and hollering.Whereas last time around they sounded like The Jesus and Mary Chain, now they sound a bit like The Killers (especially on “Euphoria Take My Hand”) or like U2 (especially on “Dream Dream Dreaming”).It Read more ...
peter.quinn
Having chosen John Cage's 4' 33" as his number one Desert Island Disc, and a tandem bike with wooden models of his family on the front as his luxury, it's fair to say that poet, comedian and broadcaster Ian McMillan has a highly developed sense of the ludic. And for a man who used to work in a factory gluing tennis-ball halves together, that's probably no bad thing.It's that underlying philosophy which makes The Ian McMillan Orchestra such an unusual, fascinating beast. What it does exceptionally well is to open up the sheer breadth of things that you can do on a recording, couched in Read more ...
emma.simmonds
The unexpected winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s 2010 Palme d’Or is a triumphant foray into the fantastical. Strange and surprising, yet serenely measured, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s sixth feature tells the story of the final days of Thai farmer Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar), and alludes to the continuation of his life, albeit in another host.A dinner table sequence is when the film truly announces itself as something extraordinary. After Boonmee's wife Huay (Natthakarn Aphaiwonk) has unexpectedly materialised, the shock is trumped by the appearance of his son Boonsong (Geerasak Kulhong) Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
Katy B has something of the everygirl about her. Part of her appeal is that, unlike Ke$ha, The Saturdays and so many other female pop stars, she hasn't embraced pole-dancer chic, nor does she appear to be gagging to be spread over the pages of Heat pondering her love life, her diet or her cleavage. Katy B is a 21-year-old from Peckham who looks like a 21-year-old from Peckham.With girl-next-door features and a penchant for unobtrusive casual wear, she presents herself as the young woman perched by the bassbins in your local dubstep hotspot, nodding along with a satisfied smile.
As with Read more ...
marcus.odair
Forget Lady Gaga – Mica Levi, aka Micachu, is modern pop’s true maverick. More likely to sport jeans and T-shirt than frock of flesh, she’s a skinny, scruffy tomboy who can hold her own in a game of keepie-uppie. Her take on music is similarly unassuming, but it’s also, genuinely, extraordinary. Debut album Jewellery, originally recorded for Matthew Herbert’s Accidental label but then snapped up by Rough Trade, deserved to be classed as pop, in her own eyes, because it comprised “short songs, with choruses and verses”. But its wonky and defiantly lo-fi tunes, hammered out on a tiny, charity- Read more ...
graham.rickson
If you’ve not already read theartsdesk interview with Nick van Bloss, have a look now. Then hopefully you’ll be persuaded to buy his autobiography and this CD. The sleeve notes refer to Van Bloss’s fascination with Glenn Gould’s iconic 1983 second recording of the Goldberg Variations, but in no way is this performance an attempt to imitate Gould.“I knew I wanted to record something cohesive, something that would not be fragmented… It’s one massive work. In myself, I feel very fragmented, but music brings everything together.” That sense of “everythingness”, of unity, shines through Read more ...
graham.rickson
This month, we’ve some virtuoso pianola, Bruckner and Chopin get downsized, and there’s some full-fat Mahler. Rare American orchestral works rub shoulders with Mozart, and a Russian conductor gives his final performance. A British pianist tackles Ravel, and a Danish accordion player seeks Slavic inspiration. Brass players from San Francisco take on contemporary music, and Trio Mediaeval revive 13th-century polyphony from Worcester. And a young Norwegian brings Grieg to vivid life.CD of the Month Grieg: Chasing the Butterfly: Recreating Grieg’s 1903 Recordings and Beyond Sigurd Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Having amasssed bankable screenwriting kudos for Edge of Darkness and The Departed, William Monahan made his writer/director debut with London Boulevard, a reworking of Ken Bruen's novel burnished with useful marquee glitz from headliners Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley. However, some reviewers remained unconvinced by the flick's aura of "Guy Ritchie does Get Carter", and Monahan would have done himself a favour by dialling down the guns and geezerdom. Much as we love Ray Winstone, it was a little too predictable that he should turn up as the merciless über-villain, Gant.Nonetheless, the Read more ...
Joe Muggs
This is the most gorgeous Finnish Krautrock album I've heard in ages. Yeah, I know, how wacky, how alternative, how off-piste – but bear with me. If you associate Krautrock with over-serious record collectors it might sound like damning with faint praise, but yes, this mostly instrumental record is made by a trio of demented Finns; yes, it is rooted in the psychedelic repetitions of mid-1970s German hairies; and yes, it is really, really gorgeous.Or, OK, parts of it are gorgeous: there are rather darker tracks too, like “New World” which sounds pretty much like a lost Joy Division Read more ...