1970s
Reissue CDs Weekly: Rema-Rema - Fond ReflectionsSunday, 24 March 2019
Until now, Rema-Rema’s only release was a 12-inch EP released in August 1980. It had hit shops after the band fell apart at the end of the previous year. Negotiations with 4AD, a new offshoot of the Beggar’s Banquet label, were underway towards the... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The ResidentsSunday, 10 March 2019
Writing in 1980, the musician and musical theorist Chris Cutler said that “without the support and patronage of the culture-establishment, The Residents were able to exist, continue to exist, grow, find their public, hold that public – and expand it... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: SparksSunday, 03 March 2019
Although American, Sparks’ initial commercial breakthrough was in the UK where their rococo art-rock chimed with ears attuned to, say, Roxy Music. Their sensibility has always been more European than American. In 2009 they issued an album titled The... Read more... |
Follies, National Theatre review - the Sondheim spectacular returns, better than everSaturday, 23 February 2019
This is a golden age of London Sondheim revivals, with Marianne Elliott’s thrilling Company still playing in the West End, and Dominic Cooke’s Follies getting a hugely welcome second run at the National – both testament to a director’s... Read more... |
Bodies, Southwark Playhouse review - shaky revival misses the markThursday, 21 February 2019
Bodies is the latest in Two's Company's series of what they deem "forgotten masterworks", this one making a less-than-triumphant return to the London stage after almost 40 years away. Written by James Saunders in 1977, it opened at the Orange Tree... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Dawson City - Frozen TimeThursday, 21 February 2019
Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time is an intoxicating cinematic collage-compilation that embraces social history – in microcosm, via its story of the titular Canadian mining town – as well as the history of film itself. But it goes further,... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Manchester - A City United In MusicSunday, 17 February 2019
Full marks for shoehorning-in the names of city’s two major football teams into the title of Manchester - A City United In Music. But this spiffy double-CD compendium roams further than the boundaries of the titular metropolis. Leigh, Salford,... Read more... |
CD: Chaka Khan - Hello HappinessThursday, 14 February 2019
Chaka Khan’s last album, 2007’s Funk This was billed as the Queen of Funk’s comeback after her 80s and 90s purple patch. But after its release, apart from the odd cameo vocal on other people’s tracks, she stepped back out of the spotlight and... Read more... |
If Beale Street Could Talk review - love defies racism in James Baldwin adaptationSunday, 10 February 2019
Films that show a young couple’s love deepening are rare because without personal conflict there’s no narrative progression. They're especially rare in the current mainstream American cinema since romantic dramas are commercially risky, though LGBTQ... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Third Noise PrincipleSunday, 27 January 2019
A compilation on which Philip Glass and Terry Riley rub shoulders with Controlled Bleeding and Smegma is going to be interesting. Throw in Data-Bank-A, Dog as Master, NON and Suicide, and it becomes clear what’s striven for is an all-encompassing... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Charles MingusSunday, 20 January 2019
Releases dedicated to previously unisssued live recordings can be tricky. The variables at play don’t necessarily ensure that what’s in the shops is worth investigating. The audio sources may be of sub-standard quality or capture an off night. Some... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Tangerine DreamSunday, 16 December 2018
In April 1973, John Peel wrote that “For my money, Tangerine Dream are the best of the Kosmische Music bands. Whenever any of their extended works are played on the radio there is a heavy mail from listeners. Most of the letter-writers are for it,... Read more... |
