CDs/DVDs
Guy Oddy
It’s a rare year when 80s psychedelicists-with-a-black-sense-of-humour the Butthole Surfers stray into the studio. So when guitarist Paul Leary and bass player, Jeff Pinkus join up with Melvins’ mainstays, King Buzzo and Dale Clover, it’s not unreasonable to expect something special. Hold It In is not a disappointment and offers plenty of twisted, gonzo metal with Metallica-sized riffs, some completely whigged-out psychedelia and much inbetween.The metal-with-a-twist of tunes like “Bride of Crankenstein” and “Sesame Street Meat” will certainly keep long-term fans of the Melvins happy with Read more ...
Barney Harsent
Craig Bratley has been impressing for a good while now behind the desk and the decks alike. A handful of must-have 12”s and DJ sets at nights including the stellar A Love from Outer Space and the ever-reliable Música Noche have ensured that this is an album for which the bar of expectation has been set very high.“Transmission One” starts things off and the synth sounds glow with the warmth of a comforting, crackling fire. It manages to be both futuristic and enjoyably dusty at the same time – like finding an old Eagle annual on a visit to your mum’s. Then comes “Dance with a Mannequin”, which Read more ...
Nick Hasted
The original Planet of the Apes series was Hollywood’s most ingeniously extended franchise, surviving the obliteration of Earth in its first sequel to loop back on itself and spin out a further three. This second film of the successful reboot and its already planned follow-up are both basically remakes of the clapped-out 1973 finale Battle for the Planet of the Apes, a conceptual handicap evident when it climaxes with two chimps in a punch-up.The care put into the world of Matt Reeves’ film still mostly carries the day. Set 10 years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar (Andy Serkis, Read more ...
joe.muggs
The story of Busted and McFly was a weird case of pop lightning striking twice. Busted, an early 2000s attempt to put together a boyband-with-guitars for girls who don't like boybands, was a huge success – not least because one of its members, James Bourne, proved to be an extraordinarily deft bubblegum pop-punk songwriter. But not only that, but another auditionee for Busted, the then also teenaged Tom Fletcher, was taken on by the management as part of the band's writing team, and as apprentice to Bourne proved to be at least his equal – spawning offshoot band McFly, multi-platinum albums Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Over its 20 minutes, "Le Strategie Saint-Frusquin" colours its dark, funeral declaration with the insistent rhythm of an elephant dragging itself from a tar pit, textures from distorted guitar and saxophone, and occasional interjections of a voice sounding as though it’s beaming down from an early Apollo mission. "Pisces Analogue" is similarly lengthy and as engaging. Involving washes of pulsing electronics, it passes through five movements, each more intense than the previous. After a pause for quiet reflection at 12 minutes, it climaxes with a sky-scraping crescendo evoking a departure from Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
Various Artists: Native North America (Vol. 1) – Aboriginal Folk, Rock and Country 1966–1985America’s music could be jazz, gospel, blues or rock ’n’ roll. Or all of them. Each has black roots. Then there’s the white-rooted country, which also informed rock ’n’ roll. Taking the simplistic line has its problems and doesn’t allow for blurred boundaries, nuance and the fact that history is never neat, but it is clear that all these musical forms generally and initially proliferated amongst communities that are not native to the American continent. What about the music of native North Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
The future's uncertain and the end is always near, as Jim Morrison put it, and you wonder how long Oz's antique rockers can keep cranking it up. After 41 years, most of them vastly successful, they're now missing guitarist and riff-creator Malcolm Young (who's suffering from dementia), while it's not clear whether drummer Phil Rudd is still on board after a drugs bust and allegations that he was trying to get somebody killed.Despite all that, Rock or Bust, their 16th studio album, manages to deliver a few jolts of the old megaton swagger. Angus Young is still there on lead guitar, and judging Read more ...
Matthew Wright
With the musical riches of the BBC, an extended educational visit to Wayne Shorter, and broader collaborations with some of Europe’s most distinctive avant-garde players, it’s not surprising Trish Clowes needs a pocket compass to plot her artistic path. Clowes’ two years as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist are drawing to a close, but with the release of this, her third album, the evidence of her development is plain, with a richer compositional palette, more widely-sourced themes and more tightly woven musical textures.She’s always been situated in the fertile territory where improvisation Read more ...
David Nice
It was only six months after rendering the total amorality of ambiguous Lulu in Pandora’s Box, based on Wedekind’s two "earth-spirit" plays, that GW Pabst and Louise Brooks moved on to Diary of a Lost Girl. It revisits many of the same themes, but through a different filter (and a very much inferior literary source).This time Brooks’s character is decidedly more sinned against than sinning, the only excuse perhaps for an uncredited piano accompaniment which is way too innocent for the subject-matter. The adolescent Thymian Henning is seduced on the night of her confirmation by the repulsive Read more ...
peter.quinn
The weapon of choice of wannabe jazz chanteuses the world over, the fact that London-based singer, songwriter and composer Fini Bearman chose to deliver the ubiquitous “Summertime” as a wordless meditation almost made me weep with gratitude.The closing song of this eight-track homage to Gershwin's operatic masterpiece, “Prayer (Summertime)” typifies the way in which Bearman and her superb quintet cast fresh light on material that has long since been imprinted on our consciousness. Beginning with scattered phrases in free time, it builds inexorably. As Bearman's voice soars ever higher, the Read more ...
Katie Colombus
This is a simple story told in the most creatively chaotic way. A kaleidoscope of stunning visuals, intricate mechanics and curious characters unfolds, revealing the tale of Chloe (Audrey Tautou) and Colin (Romain Duris) who fall in love.Their Parisian romance, set in a non-specific era, is based on the 1947 cult novel by writer and musician Boris Vian, L'Ecume des Jours. The story is predetermined by an orchestrated manuscript, constructed on a revolving conveyor belt typewriter. It dictates the development of Colin’s Pianocktail – a piano that mixes cocktails to the tune played; Read more ...
Barney Harsent
Mind Fair, whose members comprise Dean "Chicken Lips" Meredith and Ben Shenton, has released a slew of imaginative and wildly different singles on their own label, Rogue Cat Sounds, as well as International Feel and Golf Channel. However, on hearing this accomplished debut album, you get the feeling that, good as these are, they’ve all been amuse bouches before the banquet.After some scene-setting, incidental fairground frippery, things kick off with “Green Fingers (Love From Above)”. The zither, distorted psychedelic guitar and bass that drinks deep from the subcultural well of the past 30 Read more ...