CDs/DVDs
Tom Birchenough
The real achievement of this remarkable DVD release from the BFI is the fact that it brings the name of George Hoellering back to our attention as a director. His 1951 adaption of TS Eliot’s verse play Murder in the Cathedral has been virtually unavailable for years, and is the centrepiece of his career, while the accompanying documentaries here reveal a fascinating and diverse talent.Those from the British film world of a certain vintage will certainly remember Hoellering in another role: for 36 years he was very closely involved with the much-missed Academy Cinema on Oxford Street, one of Read more ...
mark.kidel
There was a magic moment in West Africa when, shortly after independence, in countries like Mali, Guinea and Senegal, the new leaders financed and encouraged new dance bands – telling them to dig deep into their own traditions and no longer feel obliged to imitate the music of their recently departed colonial masters. That exuberant joie de vivre shines through in the extraordinary music of that time, and this new compilation of rare and unreleased material from Senegal, subtitled "Sonic Gems and Previously Unreleased Recordings from the 70s", provides a delightful range of music that evokes Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
Say what you like about The Corrs, there was never any denying their talent – or the voice of raven-haired youngest sister Andrea, fronting the familial quartet with ferocity and grace. It’s why it’s so disappointing that White Light – the band’s first album in a decade – begins with egregious autotune and woeful EDM-by-numbers.As far back as “Runaway” (released in September 1995) the band always tried to pair the instruments and flourishes of traditional Irish folk music with whatever was happening in the charts – but given the extent to which contemporary pop is itself Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
In 1973, alone and with an acoustic guitar, Marc Bolan recorded the revealing “This Is My Life”. Over its five minutes, a strummed elegy akin to the T Rex B-side “Baby Strange” evolves from a finger-picked blues. The lyrics name-check B.B. King, Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Goode” and mention a visit to New York State, playfully rhymed with steak. “Everything I did when I was going to school was just an imitation of Carl Perkins singing ‘Don’t be Cruel’,” he sings, no doubt well aware the Elvis Presley hit did not figure in Perkins’ usual repertoire. Once Presley hit big, Perkins was firmly Read more ...
peter.quinn
With a moto perpetuo of looping accompanying figures in piano and bass underpinning a memorably angular melody in the sax, the opening track of The Day I Had Everything, ”Squared”, announces both a cliché-free collection and a work of trenchant individuality.Presenting 11 new pieces written by sax player and bass clarinettist Mark Lockheart (Polar Bear/Loose Tubes), pianist Liam Noble (Pigfoot, Sleepthief) and bassist Jasper Høiby (Phronesis), the album sees the trio developing a musical collaboration which began in 2009 when they first convened on Lockheart’s quintet album In Deep.Penned by Read more ...
Russ Coffey
In 1987 Def Leppard released Hysteria, a high-water mark in the history of soft rock. Not only was it gloriously infectious but there was also a moving backstory. To recap: the band’s drummer, Rick Allen, lost an arm in a road accident during recording. The group’s response was to help Allen build a custom, digital drum kit and carry on. This new set-up forced them all to tighten their focus, and the result combined technical excellence, good taste and real passion. Sadly, it was arguably the last really decent record they ever made. Def Leppard attempts to recapture those Read more ...
Graham Fuller
There’s nothing more affecting in a 2015 British film than Freddie Jones reciting John Clare’s “I Am” in By Our Selves, the documentary scene that concludes Andrew Kötting’s semi-fictional paean to the Romantic poet of enclosure-traumatised agrarian England. Jones memorised the poem for his portrayal of Clare in a dramatised 1970 Omnibus instalment, ironic sound bites from which Kötting wove into his film’s aural tapestry.The venerable actor, 88, couldn’t recall all the lines, though he indicates he would’ve done if his interlocutor Iain Sinclair (Kötting’s collaborator here, as on 2012's Read more ...
Katie Colombus
The anticipation for Adele’s new album has been building for months. It’s been nearly five years since her last, 21, which became the biggest-selling album of the 21st century, shifting over 30 million copies.Numbering the ages at which she wrote most of the material, 25 is a make-up album where 21 was a break-up and 19 just plain ol’ heartbreak. There’s no question about whether or not 25 will live up to the hype of the absurdly successful former albums – the first single , "Hello", shot straight to the top of the UK and US charts and was viewed an average one million times an hour on Read more ...
Guy Oddy
The Suicide of Western Culture are an electronica-powered duo from the Barcelona region who revel in a low-tech approach that creates plenty of depth as well as some lively beats. Their third album, the magnificently titled Long Live Death! Down With Intelligence!, is a significant sonic step forward from their last offering, 2013's Hope Only Brings Pain, marrying a post-rock attitude that brings to mind the likes of Mogwai with the sonic palette of electro-drone merchants Fuckbuttons. It also takes a wry look at the world with all vocals provided by spoken word monologues, like Louise Sansom Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Fritz Haarmann was – although the term wasn’t in use at the time – the first murderer to be recognised in Germany as a serial killer. He was executed in 1925 after being found guilty of 24 killings. Filmed in late 1973, Tenderness of the Wolves dramatises aspects of the case. It is directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s frequent collaborator Ulli Lomell – they had most recently worked together on Effi Briest. Nonetheless, Fassbinder produced and acted in Tenderness of the Wolves, and many of his regular players including Margit Carstensen, Ingrid Cavena and Kurt Raab appear. A very creepy Read more ...
Lisa-Marie Ferla
Names can be deceiving: take Emilie & Ogden. Once you know that the name is not that of a traditional duo, but rather describes Canadian musician Emilie Kahn and her Ogden harp, it’s hard to escape the thought that the music will be syrupy-sweet, twee and incredibly precious. But while it’s true that Kahn’s instrumental palette lends itself to a certain delicacy, underneath is a steely gaze and core of fire.An example: the album’s title track on which Kahn sings of potential squandered – a path not taken or a bad relationship, it’s hard to say. It would be easy to descend into Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
After Judy Dyble left Fairport Convention in May 1968, it was her replacement Sandy Denny who picked up critical kudos as the ensuing years unfolded. Dyble, though, did not drop off the face of the earth and, if credits were looked at closely enough and margins examined, it was evident she had a career in music as fascinating and often as admirable as that of Denny. Widespread consideration of her role in British folk and folk rock began after the issue of her album Enchanted Garden in 2004. Before that, Dyble’s last commercial release had been in 1970.The reissue of 1970’s Morning Way, her Read more ...