Issue 580

Bobby Hutcherson

Album

16 Jul 2007

JAZZ BOBBY HUTCHERSON For Sentimental Reasons (Kind of Blue) Vibes maestro Bobby Hutcherson was one of the key innovators in the post-bop experiments of the mid-60s for the Blue Note label, but he focuses on a more conventionally…

Classic Anxiety Dream

16 Jul 2007

IMPROV TATSUYA NAKATANI, RAYMOND MACDONALD AND NEIL DAVIDSON Classic Anxiety Dream @ The Meadow Bar, Edinburgh, Mon 18 Jun (Image: Nakatani & Davidson) Edinburgh last hosted a weekly improv night in the mid-1990s, when Lindsay…

Dragon Tiger Gate

DVD

16 Jul 2007

MARTIAL ARTS DRAGON TIGER GATE (15) 86mins (Showbox DVD retail/rental) Based on the popular Manga Oriental Hero and directed by veteran Hong Kong action director Wilson Yip alongside Hong Kong actor and stunt choreographer Donnie Yen…

Now is the Hour

16 Jul 2007

SOCIAL DRAMA TOM SPANBAUER Now is the Hour (Jonathan Cape) With a flower in his hair, 17-year-old Rigby John Klusener is hitching his way to San Francisco, reciting an abbreviated litany of the chain of events that forced him to come out…

Let the Right One In

16 Jul 2007

HORROR DRAMA JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVIST Let the Right One In (Quercus) Swedish magician turned stand-up comedian turned novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist’s first book features numerous sleight-of-hand tricks and sly jokes. In the opening chapter…

The Minus Man

DVD

16 Jul 2007

THRILLER THE MINUS MAN (15) 107min (Optimum DVD retail) Made way back in 1999 (but here receiving its UK debut on DVD), this overlooked American indie about a compassionate serial killer finds frat-pack comic actor Owen Wilson in an…

Megson

Records

16 Jul 2007

FOLK MEGSON Smoke of Home (EDJ Records) Megson are the duo of Stu Hanna and Debbie Palmer. They hail originally from Teesside, and have been picking up a fair bit of favourable notice on the acoustic folk/roots circuit over the past couple…

Secrets

Comics

16 Jul 2007

BATMAN SAM KEITH Secrets (DC/Titan) Sam Keith is a another singular and distinctive talent in comics. The unlikely co-creator of The Sandman with Neil Gaiman, he’s more famous for his own series The Maxx. His rough, exaggerated painted…

Miroslav Vitous

Album

16 Jul 2007

JAZZ MIROSLAV VITOUS Universal Syncopations II (ECM Records) Miroslav Vitous’ Universal Syncopations marked his return to the ECM label, and was widely praised on its release in 2003. The bassist has chosen to extend and develop the…

Batman and the Mad Monk

Comics

16 Jul 2007

BATMAN MATT WAGNER Batman and the Mad Monk (DC/Titan) Matt Wagner, who remains best known for his own Dark Knight creation Grendel, continues to re-envision the early career of the caped crusader, a self-consciously old-school pulp fiction…

Snow

Comics

16 Jul 2007

BATMAN DAN CURTIS JOHNSON, JH WILLIAMS & SETH FISHER Snow (DC/Titan) The first thing that strikes you on opening Snow is the cartoon styled pop art, which is unlike any other Bat-book. Seth Fisher is one of the most distinctive artists…

Hitlist - The best comedy

16 Jul 2007

• Stewart Lee The 41st funniest stand-up is at the top of his game. See preview. The Stand, Glasgow, 30 July. • Comedy Club 4 Kids Will the grown-ups manage to not swear? How will they cope being shown up by the kids? It could get messy. The Bongo…

Lethal Bizzle

Album

16 Jul 2007

GRIME LETHAL BIZZLE Back to Bizznizz (V2) The ailing Grime scene too often forgets that it was spawned from dance music, not hip hop, with many MCs eschewing potential club hits in favour of brainless trigger talk. Lethal Bizzle, on the…

Chungking

Album

16 Jul 2007

Electronica CHUNGKING Stay up Forever (Ecstatic Peace, Kill Rock Stars, -5RC, Three Lobed) Sean and Jessie have produced a slick, chic, dirty and danceable reason to stay up all night. It makes you think of Goldfrapp but with that…

Ryan Adams

Album

16 Jul 2007

AMERICANA RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger (Lost Highway) After three albums in 2005 (two were doubles) and a batch of nonsense online ‘releases’, Americana’s poster boy has put his energies into one album. And it’s easily his most consistent work to…

Martin Simpson

Album

16 Jul 2007

FOLK MARTIN SIMPSON Prodigal Son (Topic) Simpson may be an enthusiast - he includes notes on his guitar tunings - but he is no purist. His enquiring ears have kept him at the interesting edge of the folk scene since he was a genuine…

Spoon

Album

16 Jul 2007

ROCK SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Anti) What’s happened to Spoon? The Austin, Texas underground rockers have seen their profile increase with every album, but have simultaneously been losing creativity and edge along the way. This sixth long…

Wooden Wand

Album

16 Jul 2007

INDIE/FOLK WOODEN WAND James and the Quiet (Institute) Toning down from the eccentricities of his previous work, James Jackson Toth endeavoured to follow his muse and create something altogether different. Yet a style comparable to…

Randan Discotheque

Album

16 Jul 2007

SINGER-SONGWRITER RANDAN DISCOTHEQUE I Am the Singer, You Are the Song (Fife Kills) Snaking from Johnny Cash train stomp rhythms to delicate love stung paeans to departed muses, Randan Discotheque throws up an occasionally disconcerting…