Issue 576

Life & Style - Travel

22 May 2007

The car rental clerk has me sussed. ‘Of course, for only an extra US$100 you can have this.’ Turning the page of his display book, he taps invitingly on the upper corner of a photograph. There, glistening in the Californian sunlight, is a Chrysler…

Life & Style - Shop

22 May 2007

That tired old maxim that nobody queues like the British has had a new lease of life this month, with a nasty rash of ‘event shopping’ getting consumers and commentators itchy. They included the launch of Kate Moss’s collection for Topshop and Anya…

Life & Style - Eat & Drink

22 May 2007

The Meal When both YoSushi! and the original OKO shut their doors a few years back, some predicted the death knell for sushi in Scotland. The pair were sprawling joints and probably evidence that the local market for cold cooked rice, seaweed and…

Aereogramme call it a day

22 May 2007

Scottish four-piece Aereogramme have announced that they are to split up. The band, credited with crafting intelligent, innovative alternative/progressive rock for the past nine years, across four albums, are currently in the midst of a UK and European…

Burns an’ a’ That festival line-up unveiled

22 May 2007

Words: Allan Radcliffe (Picture: Deacon Blue (left) and the MacDonald Brothers (right)) The sixth Burns an’ a’ That festival, which takes place from Wednesday 23-Monday 28 May, features an enticing programme of entertainment, music, dance…

Biffy Clyro

22 May 2007

It seemed like a good idea at the time. The Golden Tower is a tall structure not unlike a stunted Big Ben with a row of seats strung around it. It looks like a lot less of a drop than you think even when you’re stranded several hundred feet up, legs…

*Hitlist

22 May 2007

Sara Barker An exhibition of sculptures by the Glasgow-based artist made out of flimsy, throwaway materials. Barker arranges her anti-sculptures in intentionally unimpressive geometric arrangements, forcing the viewer to stand directly in front of her…

Hanneline Visnes

22 May 2007

PAINTING (Picture: Possessions) Belgian-born, Glasgow-based artist Hanneline Visnes’ paintings record the tension between abstraction and representation, pattern and spontaneity - a play of opposites that has come to characterise a slightly…

Peacock Among the Ruins

22 May 2007

INTERIOR DESIGN DCA hosts Peacocks Among the Ruins, co-curated by Glasgow-based designers Timorous Beasties as part of the Six Cities design festival. The exhibition brings together a rich selection of contemporary design with antiquated textile…

Sara Barker

22 May 2007

SCULPTURE (Picture: Falling Abbey) Conceptual and perceptual reality fit like a Möbius strip, chasing and paralleling each other in the work of Glasgow-based sculptor Sara Barker. Her new installed sculptural works kick the over-stuffed…

Aernout Mik

22 May 2007

(Picture: Scapegoat) At first, it might seem surprising that Dutch artist Aernout Mik claims to care little about art. He argues that you might as well get rid of the words ‘experiencing art’. Yet, in going against his orders and experiencing the…

Remote Control

22 May 2007

They don’t make ‘em like they used to back in the good old days, do they? The nostalgia industry is showing no sign of abating and, frankly, why should it when it consistently throws up some fascinating television. The clutch of shows about the past…

Brits Get Rich in China

22 May 2007

BUSINESS DOCUMENTARY Paul Merton recently recalled with some anxiety how he forced down a portion of cooked donkey penis in the name of travel shows. And in this documentary, a marginally traumatised businessman dines briefly on the same delicacy.

Broken Glass

22 May 2007

SCOTTISH PREMIERE Whenever someone expresses a view that dissents from the mainstream it makes others feel uncomfortable, and they may feel the need to find a label for them. In his own time, Arthur Miller endured a good deal of abuse from various…

Too Close to The Sun

22 May 2007

MUSICAL THEATRE ‘When I was very young, just a nipper, after my first album, I was living with a pal, Steve Morris, who lived in some style in Beverley Hills and I was invited to go to St Louis and write a musical with some real theatre people,…

Cyprus

22 May 2007

Political thriller When Cyprus writer Peter Arnott’s taut, politically charged three-hander debuted at Mull Theatre in 2005, it was set on the day of the London bombings. ‘At the time, the bombings were the newest instalment of this continuing, sad…

Introdans Ensemble for youth and NDT2

22 May 2007

MODERN DANCE Double Dutch usually implies confusion and misunderstanding. But in Edinburgh this month, it means two tasty helpings of dance from the Netherlands. Hot on each other’s heels, Introdans Ensemble for Youth and Nederlands Dans Theater 2…

‘E Polish Quine

22 May 2007

NEW WORK Henry Adam’s capacity to emotionally move an audience has remained unchallenged in Scotland over recent years. This writer’s work, for all the wildly funny farce of such pieces as The People Next Door, and unflinching political commentary of…

Yippeee!!!

22 May 2007

CONTEMPORARY DANCE With his love of geometric patterns and big budget dance routines, Busby Berkeley knew how to entertain an audience. And trying to emulate such a master, in these days of funding cuts and small venues, is no mean feat. But as she’s…

Mahabharata

22 May 2007

CLASSIC East meets West is often a tricky encounter. Can either of us truly reproduce the culture and sensibilities of the other? Director Stuart Wood’s version of the ancient epic Indian poem, Mahabharata, chooses to combine the two. ‘We use Western…

Hitlist - The best theatre & dance

22 May 2007

Mahabharata Epic narrative, vivid colour, dancing and puppetry are promised in this new production of the sprawling Indian tale, first brought to Western audiences by Peter Brook. Written by Stephen Clark and with music by Nitin Sawhney, this looks like…

Alison Peebles

22 May 2007

Here’s something you may not know: Samuel Beckett is the only Nobel Prize winner to play first class cricket. This might only be of significance to a quiz master, but for the following story, possibly apocryphal, yet terribly plausible, that’s…

Day Jobs

22 May 2007

Look closely at your electrician. Can you imagine him as a rock singer? What about your cleaning lady - does she exhibit in the Saatchi Gallery? And have you heard the one about the aerobics teacher with a book deal? For a variety of (mostly financial…

The Graffiti Project

22 May 2007

If you stand on the 45th floor of the tallest building in downtown Sao Paulo, the chaotic concrete jungle stretches in all directions as far as the eye can see. The energy and traffic fumes produced by this Brazilian city’s 18m inhabitants create a haze…

Hitlist - The best rock, pop, jazz & folk

21 May 2007

Sparklehorse The Smokey Mountains are home to Mark Linkous (pictured) a wayward music force whose magical sound invokes thoughts of Robert Wyatt and Syd Barrett. Oran Mor, Glasgow, Tue 5 Jun. (Rock & Pop) Nouvelle Vague Who would have though covers…

Also Released

Album

21 May 2007

The Hold Steady Separation Sunday/Almost Killed Me The band who have produced the best album of 2007 so far finally get their first two albums issued here, the first of which, Separation Sunday, is arguably better than their latest, Girls and Boys of…

Records - Candie Payne

21 May 2007

RETRO POP Candie Payne sings songs about love lost, makes you think of skinny, melancholy girls in 60s eyeliner, tramping Liverpudlian streets wishing their lovers would give them one last chance. Her bell-clear voice coos through the introspective…

The Rainbow Family

Album

21 May 2007

ELECTRONICA Having a remote Scottish studio hasn’t quite made The Rainbow Family the new Boards of Canada, but their surroundings certainly seem to have given them a more pastoral outlook. Duo Barry Christie (who has worked with Mylo as a member of…

Erik Truffaz

Album

21 May 2007

JAZZ French trumpeter Erik Truffaz’ new album takes its name from the crazily surreal architecture and shifting wintry landscape of the remote Russian city of Arkhangelsk, and succeeds in working up some intriguing musical geometry of its own.

Records - Lau

21 May 2007

FOLK This debut CD from Lau, a trio made up of fiddler Aidan O’Rourke, accordionist Martin Green and guitarist Kris Drever, is an accurate reflection of the kind of music that had been emerging in their impressive (if occasional) live work since they…

Records - Megadeth

21 May 2007

METAL Once one of the most influential thrash titans (part of the ‘big four’ alongside Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer), Megadeth went one faster, one harder than the rest of the metal pack. However in 2002 it looked like frontman Dave Mustaine would…

Abram Wilson

Album

21 May 2007

JAZZ The New Orleans-born, London-based trumpeter and singer has been winning a lot of admirers, both for his work with Jazz Jamaica and in his own bands. This second album for Dune, subtitled Ferris Wheel to the Modern Day Delta, follows the example…

Wiley

Album

21 May 2007

GRIME Long hailed as the progenitor of grime, since his 2004 debut Wiley has struggled to match his credibility with commercial success. Sadly, lacking any degree of quality control, his third album sees only more underachievement. While others can…

Various (Thank You For Being You)

Album

21 May 2007

NDIE One of Scotland’s most prominent indie labels of the last two-and-a-half decades thanks to their discovery of Belle and Sebastian with Tigermilk, Stow College’s Electric Honey here pay tribute to a whole slew of contemporaries such as Postcard…

Jeff Buckley

Album

21 May 2007

ROCK For those of us who are not paid-up apostles in the Church of Jeff, this collection, marking the tenth anniversary of his tragic drowning, contains everything that was great and galling about him. Not for nothing does his immense cover of Lenny…

Various (Optimo)

Album

21 May 2007

ELECTRONIC Technically this is a ‘various artists’ compilation, but rarely has a DJ partnership ever put their own stamp to a mix CD like the Optimo duo. Following on from their recent, well-received Kill The DJ and Psyche Out mixes, Walkabout…

Rufus Wainwright

Album

21 May 2007

POMP POP Conceived as a more commercial release than the acclaimed but largely overlooked Want One and Want Two, Release the Stars is nothing of the sort, not so much radio-unfriendly as radio-oblivious, despite the presence of Neil Tennant as…

Biffy Clyro

Album

21 May 2007

ROCK The pressure of expectation on a band is only really pressure if you don’t have the requisite songs to walk the walk. This, Biffy Clyro’s fourth album, walks the walk. The proggy edges that might have frightened the greater populace in the past…

Singles & Downloads

21 May 2007

(Picture: Caz Mechanic) It can be with some trepidation that one delves into the fortnightly sack of singles and when the first out proves to be the charming ‘Cupid’s Revolution’ (Big Toe’s Hi-fi, 3 Stars), Barba Poppa Choppa ’s super-cheeky re-rub…

Candie Payne

21 May 2007

MELANCHOLIA Phil Spector’s name may now be more likely to be linked at the moment to incarceration than innovation, but the eccentric New Yorker’s influence still casts a powerful shadow over the performance by diminutive Scouse songstress Candie…

Au Revoir Simone

21 May 2007

INDIE (Picture: Au Revoir Simone) There’s no denying that all-female New York trio Anna, Erika and Heather aka Au Revoir Simone have a thing or two going for them. They’re all tall, thin and exceptionally pretty for one thing. More importantly…

The Draytones

21 May 2007

ROCK (Picture: The Draytones) For anyone craving aggression, Holy Ghost Revival in support do the job. As well as smashing his tambourine to pieces, singer Conor Kiely leads a passionate exhibition of fierce-rock bled with timely piano and charged…

The Skatalites

21 May 2007

SKA After April’s rare treat of The Funk Masters, Glasgow’s next Band To See Before They Die offering was this May Day Fundraiser from Ska originals The Skatalites as they closed the Scottish leg of an expansive world tour. The support had been…

New Young Pony Club

Exposure

21 May 2007

The NME Awards Tour might be a kingmaking spectacle, but, by being involved with the New Rave leg of it this year, fine young London electro-pop outfit New Young Pony Club may find themselves dragged down into a scene. That would be a shame, because the…

Le Weekend

21 May 2007

EXPERIMENTAL (Picture: Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori) Experimental music festivals are currently so voluminous as to arguably be considered more over-ground than under. When Le Weekend first set the trend back in 1998, however, the landscape was a…

Dizzee Rascal

21 May 2007

HIP HOP For many the turn of the new millennium was a bleak time for British music. A mixture of saccharine garage, imported nu metal and Travis had ripped the spine from the charts, leaving a charmless corpse and no respite in sight. Few though…

Nouvelle Vague

21 May 2007

BOSSA NOVA REINVENTION There’s something about covers bands that usually screams ‘novelty record’. However, Nouvelle Vague managed to transcend the Mike Flowers Pops comparisons with their eponymous debut album, and multi-instrumentalists Marc Collin…

Isle of Skye Music Festival

21 May 2007

The fact that Isle of Skye Music Festival scooped the ‘Most Fan Friendly’ gong at the 2006 UK Festival Awards is testimony alone to its quality. Consider that the event took such a prize in spite of being one of the most soggy, windswept outdoor…

Hansel and Gretel

21 May 2007

THEATRE SHOW Like most fairytales, scratch away the surface of Hansel and Gretel and you find something nasty lurking underneath. Edible house aside, the story is filled with fear and adversity - perfect for any theatre company to get its teeth…

London Gay Men’s Chorus

21 May 2007

CHORAL EXTRAVAGANZA One of the best moments from the now defunct TV show Will & Grace was when Jack and guest star Matt Damon tried to ‘out-camp’ each other to prove their gayness and thus win a spot in the Manhattan Gay Men’s Chorus. There is no…

Hitlist - The best film & DVD releases

21 May 2007

Lights in the Dusk Finland’s finest filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki rounds off his ‘Loser Trilogy’ with another brilliant piece of miserablist comic cinema. See review . Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Fri 1-Thu 7 Jun. Jindabyne Peerless Australian adaptation of…

Science is Fiction

DVD

21 May 2007

DOCUMENTARY There’s just space to mention this fascinating film about one of the great pioneers of science films, Jean Painlevé (1902-1989). Painlevé was a poet in every sense of the word and there was nothing he liked to do more than film fish, foul…

The L Shaped Room

DVD

21 May 2007

DRAMA Writer/director Bryan Forbes’ second film (after Whistle Down the Wind, released in 1962, remains a bold study of social mores at the dawn of the sexual revolution, and unlike many of the new wave of kitchen sink dramas it hasn’t dated badly.

1971

DVD

21 May 2007

ACTION/WAR Debut writer/director Amrit Sagar’s factional action adventure, follows 54 Indian POWs gathered from Pakistan’s national prisons and herded into a secret POW camp close to the border, where Major Suraj Singh (Manoj Bajpai) leads a daring…

Trio

DVD

21 May 2007

DRAMA ‘If you like to take the [leading] character as a flattering portrait of the old party before you, you’re perfectly at liberty to do so.’ Thus the great British writer Somerset Maugham himself introduces the third story in this 1950 adaptation…

DVD - Round-up

21 May 2007

‘What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love and Understanding?’ Well apart from the fact that they are all non-existent man-made conceits, quite a lot, actually. Just ask Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose two most recent works Uzak and Climates, take a…

Also Released

21 May 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (12A) 168min (unable to review at time of going to press) The third and final part of this high seas franchise, initially based on a Walt Disney theme park ride, has arrived. Shiver me timbers, old Jack Sparrow…

Paradise Lost

21 May 2007

HORROR Having already flopped under the title Turistas in the US last November, John Stockwell’s limp lettuce of a thriller finally emerges in the UK as little more than a smudged photocopy of Eli Roth’s Hostel. It’s not Slovenia but Brazil that…

Flyboys

21 May 2007

ACTION/ADVENTURE Based on true stories about American pilots flying for the French Lafayette Escadrille in WWI, director Tony Bill’s $90m film opens here nine months after crashing and burning spectacularly at the US box office. And despite being…

Water

21 May 2007

DRAMA/ROMANCE After 2002’s abysmal effort at cinema fusion Bollywood/Hollywood, Toronto based Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta serves up Water, the final part of her elements trilogy. The good news for those who missed Fire (1996) and Earth (1998) is…

Wedding Daze

21 May 2007

COMEDY In an excruciatingly embarrassing opening sequence worthy of the notorious warm apple tart shag in American Pie, the star of both somewhat infantile romantic comedies, the charmingly gormless Jason Biggs, proposes marriage to his sweetheart…

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

21 May 2007

DOCUMENTARY Joe Strummer was man of contradictions, some he could deal with, others he couldn’t. Director Julien Temple was a part of the London punk scene and experienced many of Joe’s magnificent contradictions first hand. Temple has a patchy…

Saadi Yacef

21 May 2007

Name Saadi Yacef Born 20 January 1928, Algiers Background Having worked in a bakery he joined the Parti du Peuple Algerien (Algerian nationalist party) in 1945. Soon after the group was outlawed and Yacef became one of the leaders of the…

Playlist

21 May 2007

The revolution will not be televised, it will be digitised; this issue’s PlayList bangs on your door in the middle of the night to evoke memories of the Eastern Bloc and consider what life would be like under the yolk of a repressive and uncaring…

Close to Home

21 May 2007

DRAMA Written and directed by a pair of female filmmakers, Dalia Hager and Vidi Bilu, Close to Home has the distinction of being the first ever Israeli film to focus on the experiences of women in the country’s armed services. The rebellious Smadar…

Lights in the Dusk

21 May 2007

DRAMA/CRIME/COMEDY The final part of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s ‘Loser Trilogy’ (preceded by Drifting Clouds and The Man Without a Past) concerns itself with lonely night watchman Koistinen (Janne Hyytiäinen) who has modest hopes of setting…

Ray Lawrence

21 May 2007

Ray Lawrence is being a bit testy today. ‘I know some of the blog reviews said Jindabyne is slow and boring. But they’re 18-year-old kids sitting in their underpants in front of the computer and I’m not interested. I have a very specific audience. They…

Hitlist - The best comedy

21 May 2007

Frankie Boyle This powerhouse comic is at the top of his game right now and these shows will be a fine indication about how massively he’ll be storming the Fringe come August time with Morons I Can Heal You. Brilliant, eh? The Stand, Edinburgh, Thu 24…

John Shuttleworth

21 May 2007

1 The man behind John Shuttleworth is Graham Fellows, a writer and performer with quite a CV to his name, including a top five hit as Jilted John for ‘Gordon is a Moron’ and for two separate appearances in Coronation Street in 1979 and 1982 but with the…

Derren Brown

21 May 2007

MAGIC SHOW (Picture: © Gary Moyes) There’s something about the world of magicians that turns people right off. In the old days it was easy to be repelled by the over-the-top theatrics and dodgy bouffant hairdos as skimpily-clad women went around…

Ultragroove

21 May 2007

HOUSE (Picture: Dennis Ferrer) It says a lot for Ultragroove that it was one of the only club nights to survive the cull when Cabaret Voltaire was bought over two years ago, the petite basement venue now ranking as possibly the best in Edinburgh.

Vince Ray

21 May 2007

Name Vince Ray Occupation Cult pop artist and leader of The Boneshakers What’s the skinny on this bloke? The man is something of an underground legend when it comes to design, especially on the alternative scene. He designs album covers, mugs…

Wee Chill

21 May 2007

FESTIVAL (Picture: Masters At Work) Celebrating its fifth year on the festival circuit, the central belt’s own Wee Chill has this year moved to the fabulous Glasgow Science Centre, boasting a greater capacity and bigger guests. The change of venue…

Hitlist - The best dancefloor action

21 May 2007

FC Kahuna The remix royalty take their spinning talents to Glasgow for a night of dance fuelled mayhem. Karbon, Glasgow, Fri 25 May. Kinky Afro A DC Recordings label showcase is always going to be a winner, especially when label boss J Saul Kane aka…

Shhh

21 May 2007

Ladies and gentlefolk, there are mysterious musical goings on afoot. In a place known only as Marvello HQ, Sonny Marvello and his band are creating an outlet for Glasgow talent at a semi-secret clubnight called Shhh. We say semi-secret as we now know it…

Hitlist - The best books, comics & events

21 May 2007

Martina Cole The big-selling thriller scribe does a signing at WHS and holds court at RCH as copies of Close go flying out the shops. WH Smith, Glasgow, Thu 24 May; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 25 May. William McIlvanney A good fat-chewing…

Essex County Vol 1: Tales from the Farm

Comics

21 May 2007

FANTASY Superman and flying saucers feature figuratively in Canadian cartoonist Jeff Lemire’s lovely low-key coming-of-age graphic novel. Set in a fictionalised version of the Ontario agricultural community in which the author grew up (here…

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

Comics

21 May 2007

FANTASY Given that this is by far the best work Mike Mignola did before creating Hellboy, it’s a wonder it’s taken Dark Horse this long (17 years) to collect his marvellous adaptations, scripted by Howard Chaykin, of Fritz Leiber’s terrific sword and…

Gutsville No.1

Comics

21 May 2007

FANTASY HORROR Created by two of British comics’ brightest new talents, Gutsville No.1 is a steampunk fantasy yarn that has absolutely no truck with even the furthest reaches of possibility. Yet it’s all the better for that, as Simon Spurrier has an…

Mister i

Comics

21 May 2007

SLAPSTICK SKETCHES Legendary French cartoonist Lewis Trondheim has been in self-imposed retirement for some years now claiming he didn’t want to make a job of his passion. He does however sporadically indulge us with one off, large format…

No One Belongs Here More Than You

21 May 2007

SHORT STORIES I’ll admit, I feared this book. A debut collection of short stories from an LA-based performance artist and indie filmmaker? Surely it’s going to be all pointlessly quirky characters, self-obsessed existential ennui and vacuous…

Also Published

21 May 2007

Terry Jones Barbarians You might have seen this on telly last year as the former Python charts the progress of the rough lot who had a tough battle or two with the Romans. BBC/Ebury. James D Tabor The Jesus Dynasty A controversial interpretation of…

A History of Modern Britain

21 May 2007

SOCIAL HISTORY The cynical and lazy may wonder what would be the point of purchasing 600 pages by Andrew Marr telling us about the development of Britain since 1945 when his simultaneous TV documentary series will do the same thing. But with more…

The Shanghai Union of Industrial Mystics

21 May 2007

CRIME SATIRE CF Wong is having a bad day. The office he shares with his Australian assistant Joyce is about to be demolished by property developers, and he also seems to be on a collision course with some vegan terrorists who have recently invaded…

Resistance

21 May 2007

WAR DRAMA September 1944. The women of a remote valley in Wales wake to find their husbands have disappeared in the night with neither explanation nor warning. Within weeks, a German patrol moves into the valley on some unstated mission, their…

The Lying Tongue

21 May 2007

LITERARY DRAMA After his biography of Patricia Highsmith, Andrew Wilson’s first foray into fiction emulates his idol, brimming as it is with sexual ambiguity and dark intent. His protagonist Adam Woods is a thinly sketched aspiring novelist who finds…

Esther Freud

21 May 2007

Esther Freud has been called ‘the best writer about childhood we have.’ Certainly, since her 1992 autobiographical debut Hideous Kinky, the tale of two young girls accompanying their free-spirited mother on a pilgrimage to 1960s Marrakech, her work has…

Hitlist - the best events

21 May 2007

Che Camille’s Parlour of Design Delights Throughout the Six Cities Design Festival, the showroom attached to Glasgow’s soi distant art rock factory, the Chateau, moves to a more accessible shop-front location. Pop in for art and fashion events, changing…

Thai yoga massage

21 May 2007

Amy Ku Redler has been practising Thai massage - known in Thailand as nuat phaen boran, which translates as ‘ancient’ or ‘traditional’ massage - since 1991. She studied in Thailand and has really become an ambassador for the practice since her return…

Records - Thomas Truax

21 May 2007

PSYCHEDELIC POP If you had to sum this record up in two words, you’d nick them from the press release: ‘Tim Burton’. Like the maverick filmmaker, New York-raised, London-based one-man band Thomas Truax is a man of similarly unique vision, his…