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Issue 597

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Foals

Foals

28 Feb 2008

From blogosphere sweethearts to daytime radio fodder, Foals’ recent rise to fame has been meteoric. With Antidotes, they have easily made one of the albums of 2008, and the famously energetic outfit are about to embark on a run of totally sold out UK…

China

Aye Write! - China

28 Feb 2008

What do Westerners really know about the People’s Republic of China? Our understanding of the world’s biggest nation is chiefly drawn from news reports about the country’s booming economy, her patchy human rights record and controversial intervention in…

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

28 Feb 2008

There’s no particular reason why Glasgow poetry promoters Vital Synz are holding a Leonard Cohen Supper this fortnight. It’s not the great songwriter’s birthday, and he’s still, as far as we know, in rude health. He is being inducted into the Rock…

Omid Djalili

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Omid Djalili

28 Feb 2008

There are a few things guaranteed about an Omid Djalili show. There’ll be spot-on regional accents, plentiful jokes about his Iranian roots, a slap or two in the pug ugly face of British bigotry and, the pièce de résistance, an energetic slab of…

Hanif Kureishi

Aye Write! - Hanif Kureishi

28 Feb 2008

Hanif Kureishi is one of the most prolific, radical and ambitious writers around. He’s also one of the most multi-talented, having started out as a playwright in the 1970s and since written novels, journalism and directed films. He’s been busier than…

Paul Taylor

Paul Taylor - We Are Together

28 Feb 2008

Director Paul Taylor had just finished his first year studying film at Bournemouth in 2003 when he went off and worked for a few months at the Agape Orphanage in South Africa. A year later he returned with a camera and documented the kids. In some ways…

Martyn Bennett

Aye: An Affirmation of Martyn Bennett

28 Feb 2008

Martyn Bennett changed the face of Scottish music, marrying the high octane waves of the 90s dance scene with jazz beats, classical strings and his native Gaelic traditions. Now, the life and work of the performer and composer are set to be celebrated…

Sons and Daughters

Scottish musicians at SXSW

28 Feb 2008

The South by South West (SXSW) music festival has long been considered a showcase for some of Scotland’s most eclectic bands. Now, six homegrown acts are set to continue that tradition when they travel to the festival in Austin, Texas next…

Semi-Pro

Semi-Pro

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

COMEDY (15) 91min Will Ferrell raises his game with this typically energetic and supremely daft ‘frat pack’ comedy that also boasts a surprising winning streak in its semi-serious celebration of the now defunct American Basketball Association. With…

Dawn of War: Dark Crusade

Online gaming

28 Feb 2008

Downloading media has become increasingly easy in recent years. Your mobile phone can download games, your television can stream radio and DVDs can be rented over the net and played on your games console. While users are increasingly warming to the idea…

Garage

Garage

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

DRAMA (18) 84min Director Lenny Abrahamson follows his quirky junkie comedy Adam and Paul with another tale of oddballs living life on the margins of Irish society. Stand-up comedian Pat Shortt plays against type as the gas station attendant Josie…

Richard H Kirk

Richard H Kirk

28 Feb 2008

Richard H Kirk is talking about how his old band inspired the names of not one, but two clubs. The fact that Cabaret Voltaire, the electronic pioneers formed by Kirk in 1970s Sheffield with Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson themselves took their name…

Julia

Berlin Film Festival

28 Feb 2008

Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light kicked off the BFF, and, while it wasn’t terrible, it lacked the emotional pull of the director’s 1978 live concert film The Last Waltz. At least the Panorama section boasted more music…

Fatih Akin

Interview - Fatih Akin

28 Feb 2008

Fatih Akin is embarrassed that his new film The Edge of Heaven picked up awards in Cannes and at the European Film Awards for Best Screenplay. The Turkish filmmaker admits: ‘The final film looks nothing like the script. We completely changed its…

Scottish Opera - Five:15

Scottish Opera - Five:15

28 Feb 2008

Think opera, and it’s usually think big. At 15 hours in total, for instance, the four operas that make up Wagner’s Ring are very definitely tipping the overblown end of the scale. Proving that the genre doesn’t always have to be of such towering…

Fat Tongue

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Fat Tongue

28 Feb 2008

Never mind creating characters, pulling off original set-ups and delivering a fine punchline, the toughest thing about being in a sketch show group must be finding a decent name. You can easily picture individuals sitting for hours in a smoke-filled…

Barry & Stuart

Barry & Stuart

28 Feb 2008

Some magicians spend their lives trying to convince us that they can walk on water. Metaphorically speaking. With London-based, Aberdeenshire-raised double act Barry Jones and Stuart MacLeod, there’s one thing you should know: they actually can walk on…

Bethany Black

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Lesbian comedians

28 Feb 2008

Stand-up comedy has always provided a platform for historically oppressed minorities. From the self-deprecatory Borscht belt humour of Mel Brooks and Rodney Dangerfield through Richard Pryor’s fearless exploration of racism to the feminist material of…

Alistair Findlay

Aye Write! - Alistair Findlay

28 Feb 2008

On the face of it, football and poetry are not obvious bedfellows. The Tartan Army enjoy a good singalong but they’re not renowned for their linguistic prowess or their gentle poetic insights. Likewise, you can’t imagine a Poets XI mastering the 4-5-1…

Russell Kane

Glasgow Comedy Festival - Russell Kane

28 Feb 2008

Since the age of eight he has written short stories but has never been published ‘The one creative constant I’ve always had is to write fiction. I read that you should get your rejection slips and decorate your room with them. I literally ended up…

Yeasayer

Yeasayer

28 Feb 2008

After riding a wave of hype stateside and playing to sold-out audience on their first full US tour, Yeasayer are bringing their unique brand of world music-tinged rock to Glasgow. The four-piece combine sprawling, experimental soundscapes with African…

Tegan and Sara

Tegan and Sara

28 Feb 2008

FOLK QMU, Glasgow, Fri 29 Feb Poor Tegan and Sara. If it’s not their supposedly unfashionable asymmetrical haircuts (it’s the latest in Canadian coiffure), it’s the insipid curiosity with their private lives (they are twins and both lesbians) that…

Taylor Clark

Taylor Clark

28 Feb 2008

Full fat? Half fat? Skinny? A shot of eggnog syrup maybe? Since the coffee house revolution of the 1990s, your morning cup comes in an endless myriad of permutations. It wasn’t always like this of course, there was a time PS (Pre Starbucks) that coffee…

Isle of Harris

Isle of Harris

28 Feb 2008

To someone who, as a child, often prayed for the kind of harsh weather that kept the rest of the world at bay and provided an excellent excuse for ‘coorieing in’ and contemplation, the idea of staying on an island on the Outer Hebrides during the winter…

Janey Godley

Janey Godley

28 Feb 2008

STAND-UP Jongleurs, Glasgow, Thu 28 Mar; The Garage, Glasgow, Thu 6 Mar; Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sun 9 Mar ‘I read an article about Josie Long and Kristen Schaal saying, “Isn’t it lovely that female comedians are returning to being quirky and nice?”…

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

POP (Mute) For a woman who has done so much unashamed musical thievery in her time that she would put a gang of Pollock shoplifters to shame, Alison Goldfrapp has always been a bewitching character. In her efforts to distinguish herself from the…

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

28 Feb 2008

ROCK Carling Academy, Glasgow, Tue 11 Mar Amalgamating widdly solos, psychedelic soundscape wig-outs, inscrutable lyrics, heroin abuse and big hair is bound to conjure up some Frankenstein’s monster of the worst excesses of (whisper it) prog. Yet…

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl

(2 stars)28 Feb 2008

ADAPTATION/ROMANCE (12A) 114min This clumsily abridged adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s bestselling historical novel fills in the ‘hidden history’ of Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne, the second of Henry VIII’s six wives. According to this take on the 16th…

Anne Enright

Anne Enright - Taking Pictures

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

SHORT STORIES (Jonathan Cape) The unheralded winner of last year’s Booker Prize with fourth novel The Gathering, Anne Enright here presents her second collection of short fiction. The first was also her debut publication, 1991’s The Portable Virgin…

Margot at the Wedding

Margot at the Wedding

(2 stars)28 Feb 2008

DRAMA/COMEDY (15) 92min Writer/director Noah Baumbach starts proceedings on his latest feature with a block capital title caption, forewarning the audience that his latest offering pays homage to the French New Wave, in particular the work of Francois…

The Game Plan

The Game Plan

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

FAMILY/COMEDY (U) 110min ‘Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?’ Although wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson doesn’t get to use his trademark catchphrase in Disney family-values comedy The Game Plan, his charismatic presence turns some…

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet - interview with Kevin Lennon

28 Feb 2008

By comparison to Shakespeare’s other great tragedies, there’s a certain snootiness on the part of literary critics about Romeo and Juliet. Certainly it’s early work, and shows a certain immaturity, but does it constantly need to be compared unfavourably…

National Year of Reading

National Year of Reading

28 Feb 2008

Compared to a stick that transforms into a golf club, tennis racket or aeroplane control, the book seems a poor choice of entertainment. But when was the last time a Nintendo Wii helped a child overcome bullying, get through their parents’ divorce or…

Stuart Delves

Hidden World - Litter of Sandals

28 Feb 2008

NEW WORK Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 25 Feb–Sat 1 Mar Being able to address the oppressive regimes of recent world politics in mainstream lunchtime theatre is a luxury some countries simply do not have. In Hidden Worlds, playwright Stuart Delves…

Shining City

Shining City

28 Feb 2008

IRISH DRAMA Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Sat 29 Feb–Sat 1 Mar, then touring If you saw the recent production of Equus which has been touring Scotland, you might be forgiven for thinking a theme was emerging for audiences of Scottish theatre. Just as…

Nutcracker!

Nutcracker!

28 Feb 2008

NARRATIVE DANCE Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Tue 11–Sat 15 Mar When it comes to getting bums on seats, a popular title goes a long way. But Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! has far more than its name to thank for the show’s phenomenal success. Like all his…

Waiting For Godot

Waiting For Godot

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

MODERN CLASSIC Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 8 Mar Our thirst for enquiry may be waning in an age when answers are so readily available at the click of a mouse. But the Citizens’ company’s production of Beckett’s masterpiece, perhaps the least…

Autechre

Autechre

28 Feb 2008

EXPERIMENTAL Numbers, Glasgow School of Art, Sat 1 Feb ‘The same thing only now’ runs the tagline for Autechre’s ninth and latest album Quaristice. Whoever came up with that one was having a good day at the office, for the album continues the…

Nathan Fake

Nathan Fake

28 Feb 2008

TECHNO Kapital and the Caves, Edinburgh, Sat 1 Mar Kapital’s headliner at this Border Community (James Holden’s rather fantastic record label) special is none other than Nathan Fake, a 25-year-old producer who makes stripped down techno tracks bathed…

Scottish Dance Theatre

Scottish Dance Theatre

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

CONTEMPORARY DANCE Glasgow Theatre Royal, Thu 28–Fri 29 Feb When dance works – and I mean really works – it’s not your eyes that tell you, but your heart. And that rush of adrenalin. Needless to say, it doesn’t happen very often – but with Liv Lorent…

Dexter

Remote Control

28 Feb 2008

What could the worlds of American contemporary mobsters and 1960s ad men possibly have in common? Actually, more than you’d imagine after you’ve seen a couple of episodes of Mad Men (BBC4, Sun 2 Mar, 10pm •••). Creator Matthew Weiner earned his stripes…

White Season

White Season

28 Feb 2008

DRAMA/DOCUMENTARY SEASON BBC2, starts Fri 7 Mar No doubt there will be chins being stroked and hands being wrung over whether the BBC is correct to be giving a voice to some of the unchallenged casual xenophobia and downright blatant racism that is…

Craig Mulholland

Craig Mulholland

(5 stars)28 Feb 2008

In an exhibition that spans three venues, and will morph into an even larger installation in Bristol later this year, Craig Mulholland’s Grandes et Petites Machines, which comprises sculptures, constructed ‘paintings’ and films, fills the Mackintosh…

Nanakusa

Nanakusa

28 Feb 2008

There’s no such thing as a Japanese restaurant. So David Wan concluded during a fact-finding mission to the Far East last year – just as he was planning to open up such an establishment in Glasgow. There was no shortage of specialist bars selling sushi…

Takeaway lattes

Taste Test - Takeaway lattes

28 Feb 2008

Beanscene small latte, £2.05 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, 0141 352 9800; 99 Nicholson Street, 0131 667 5697 plus other branches across Scotland, www.beanscene.com Lacking any defining taste, this feels more like a watered down milkshake than your…

DVD Round-Up

28 Feb 2008

March waddles into sight with a couple of movie behemoths. First up there’s the Stanley Kubrick Special Edition Box Set (Warner Home Video ••••), which includes special editions of 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining…

6 Characters In Search Of An Author

6 Characters In Search Of An Author

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

CLASSIC Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until Sat 8 Mar, then touring We’ve all heard the stories about soap actors being approached and abused in the street, not for what they’ve done, but for the misdeeds of their characters. While we might chastise the…

Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius

Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY City Art Centre, Edinburgh, until Sat 19 Apr The natural ecological bent with which Ansel Adams’ work is infused means that a show like this could never be more timely, and many might read a somewhat sombre note in his otherwise…

Aye Write! - Best of the rest

28 Feb 2008

Asne Seierstad The Norwegian journalist who has reported on war in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan discusses her new book, Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechyna. Fri 7 Mar, 6pm. Kathleen Turner She gave young adolescents many sleepless nights with her…

Nick Evans and Tony Swain

Nick Evans and Tony Swain

(5 stars)28 Feb 2008

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE Inverleith House, Edinburgh, until Sun 20 Apr Two Glasgow-based artists have been brought together and seemingly linked by their aptitude for and interest in the process of making. It gives this exhibition an appealing rawness…

Robert Orchardson

Interview - Robert Orchardson

28 Feb 2008

David Pollock What form does your work take? Robert Orchardson Effectively, it’s sculpture, it’s three-dimensional work. But it also sits between sculpture and the references which play out within each piece. Certainly for this exhibition the works…

Singles

Singles & Downloads

28 Feb 2008

With Spring’s arrival comes a whole bunch of new tracks from bands who are readying an assault on 2008, and boys with guitars look set to feature just as heavily this year as in any other. Or resilient old fellas with guitars, as The Charlatans ’ ‘Oh…

David Patrick

David Patrick's Bohemians

28 Feb 2008

JAZZ The Lot, Edinburgh, Wed 5 Mar; Tolbooth, Stirling, Fri 7 Mar Edinburgh-based pianist David Patrick has been putting together some fascinating combinations in recent times. In the wake of collaborations with two of the best saxophonists on the UK…

Diary of the Dead

Diary of the Dead

28 Feb 2008

HORROR (18) 94min Having expanded his ‘living dead’ trilogy to a tetra-logy with the relatively high budget, studio-produced Land of the Dead, modern horror movie master George A Romero goes back-to-basics – and his own beginnings – with his fifth…

Disney's High School Musical

Disney's High School Musical

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

MUSICAL Playhouse, Edinburgh, until Sat 1 Mar If the cast-iron chastity, remarkable level of racial harmony and general abstemiousness of the teenagers represented in this stage version of the hit Disney Channel film don’t seem to ring true of the…

Static

Static

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

NEW WORK Tron Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 23 Feb, then touring It sometimes takes a brush with death to remind people of the truly important things in life, the shock instantly cutting through the meaningless static that surrounds us. Evoking memories…

Backstage

Introducing . . . Backstage

28 Feb 2008

The best new nights in town. This fortnight: Backstage Residents and guests A rotating line-up of regular Club Noir DJs, to keep every night feeling fresh and special. Music policy In keeping with Noir’s ethos, a cross-section of the sexiest music…

Safari Holidays

Safari Holidays

28 Feb 2008

Blow the budget With many safaris costing well over £2000 per person, it’s understandable that they are often viewed as a once in a lifetime trip rather than any old holiday. But you don’t necessarily have to re-mortgage your home to get up close to…

The Edge of Heaven

The Edge of Heaven

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

DRAMA (15) 121min With Goethe’s assertion that ‘We are our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens’ ringing in his ears, the seriously gifted Turkish/German filmmaker Fatih Akin (Head-On, Crossing the Bridge) delivers something completely…

Untraceable

Untraceable

(2 stars)28 Feb 2008

CRIME/THRILLER (18) 100min What new wine can be poured into the cracked old bottles of the serial killer movie? Although the sub-genre is less than 20 years old (kicking off with Silence of the Lambs and peaking with David Fincher’s Se7en), it has…

The Bank Job

The Bank Job

(2 stars)28 Feb 2008

HEIST/TRUE CRIME (15) 111min You’ve probably not heard of 1971’s Baker Street bank robbery, and with good reason; a government D-notice was used to black out all media coverage. The cover-up was to protect the identity of a member of the royal family…

Parka

Exposure - Parka

28 Feb 2008

Tomorrow’s music today. This issue: Parka While the name might scream Ocean Colour Scene, Glasgow’s Parka’s two singles so far (‘If You Wanna?’ and ‘Disco Dancer’, both on Jeepster) actually combine the earthy rock of Stereophonics with a bit of The…

Edwin Morgan

From Saturn to Glasgow: a celebration of Edwin Morgan

28 Feb 2008

POETRY EVENT Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Sun 9 Mar While the guid folk of Edinburgh are enjoying Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this year’s Glasgow City Read focuses on a new poetry collection, From Saturn to Glasgow: Fifty Favourite Poems by Edwin…

Dave Ramsden

Side Dishes

28 Feb 2008

Other noteable comebacks include Dave Ramsden, the man behind the ever-colourful and much-lamented ventures (fitz)Henry and Rogue, who is planning to open a restaurant-bar called The Dogs in March. It will be located on Hanover Street in the premises…

Lotte Gertz

Lotte Gertz

(2 stars)28 Feb 2008

PRINTING, DRAWING AND PAINTING Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 1 Mar It can be difficult to form a strong opinion about work that comes across as insubstantial and ‘bitty’. This may seem an obvious thing to say about the collages on show by Lotte Gertz…

Cabbages and Kings

Cabbages and Kings

28 Feb 2008

CHILDREN’S DANCE THEATRE Platform, Glasgow, Sat 8 Mar; Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Sat 22 Mar As a choreographer, Claire Pençak is fuelled by a wonderfully rich imagination. So rich, in fact, that sometimes there’s only one group of people to take…

Don't Touch The Axe

Don't Touch The Axe

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

DRAMA/ROMANCE (PG) 138min Adapted from Balzac’s The Duchess of Langeais, Jacques Rivette’s latest film tells the tragic story of a French general Armand de Montriveau (Guillaume Depardieu), back from a difficult trip in Africa, who falls for married…

The Cult

5 Reasons To Go See - The Cult

28 Feb 2008

The Cult might have a rather dubious legacy after more than a quarter of a century in the business, but they can lay claim to one of the finest rock’n’roll albums of the last 30 years, namely Electric, every inch of which is riff-drenched, wailing…

Bergman: The Faith Trilogy

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

DRAMA (15) 260min (Tartan DVD retail) As with much of Ingmar Bergman’s work this trilogy of early 60s films on the issue of faith are really chamber pieces, where a sense of claustrophobia weighs heavily on the characters’ lives. Whether that’s the…

Battle for Haditha

Battle for Haditha

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

WAR DRAMA (15) 96min Scottish documentary-maker Kevin Macdonald found when tackling Middle Eastern politics, as he did so memorably with One Day in September, that no matter how even-handed your approach, there’s little chance of pleasing any of the…

Stephen Healy: Ethereal

Stephen Healy: Ethereal

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Streetlevel, Glasgow, until Sat 22 Mar The large photographs by Stephen Healy at Streetlevel continue his interventions into remote locations, in the form of sculptural installations, site-specific artworks and photo-based projects. This…

Joanna Kane: The Somnambulist

Joanna Kane: The Somnambulists

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 6 Apr This small exhibition features newly commissioned photographs by Joanna Kane of the collection of 19th century life and death masks currently on loan to the National Portrait Gallery.

Vicky Sibson

Food For Thought

28 Feb 2008

When we’re on tour, breakfast depends on where we’re staying. If we’re in a B&B I might get a cooked breakfast, but if we’re in a flat with a kitchen we’ll stock up on Weetabix, bread and fruit juice – things we have at home. I usually bring my…

Scarlett Johansson

Foals - Vinyl virgins

28 Feb 2008

Scarlett Johansson What does your average Hollywood doll do on her days off? Record an album of Tom Waits covers of course with Dave Sitek (see main piece) called Anywhere I Lay My Head. So wrong it could actually be right. (22 May) Wild Beasts…

Fugee

Fugee

28 Feb 2008

YOUTH WORK Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 13–Sat 15 Mar Given the number of acclaimed professionals the Lyceum Youth Theatre has produced over the years, it always seems worthwhile to check in on their thriving and dynamic program once in a while.

Them: Artur Zmijewski

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

VIDEO AND INSTALLATION The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 22 Mar Polish filmmaker Artur Zmijewski has established an international reputation and this film, ‘Them’, was originally shown at Documenta 12. The film is a documentary ‘social…

Frank Sidebottom

5 Things you might not know about - Frank Sidebottom

28 Feb 2008

1 The man behind the big-headed Manc is one Chris Sievey. Frank was initially created to be a fan of Sievey’s group The Freshies, but he became so popular that Sievey soon focused his artistic energies on Sidebottom. 2 Among those who played with…

Club Welto

Club Welto

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

ECLECTIC The Village Bar, Leith, Fri 8 Feb This new night is the very definition of a mixed bag, throwing differing musical styles and other entertainment in with pleasing, if variable, results. Wounded Knee (Drew Wright) opens the proceedings…

Venus in Furs

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

EROTIC ENTERTAINMENT (18) 81min (Shameless DVD retail) A wealthy man (Regis Vallee) learns from childhood to associate sexuality with forms of punishment. Which would be all very well, but he meets the woman of his dreams (Laura Antonelli) at a posh…

Frog Pocket

Frog Pocket

(5 stars)28 Feb 2008

ELECTRONICA 13th Note, Glasgow, Fri 8 Feb Frog Pocket’s get up tonight couldn’t be less timely. With the indie-embracing Celtic Connections just finished, John Charles Wilson is going back to his roots. Any artist tagged as ‘experimental’ must…

Yellow Bentines

Yellow Bentines

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

ACOUSTIC Linen 1906, Glasgow, Thu 31 Jan I like to imagine that bands are created in a Weird Science-style lab, and that when they’re complete, they emerge in a puff of dry ice to the delight of their creator. Then again, maybe I should lay off the…

Dig Lazarus Dig!

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig!

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

ROCK (Mute) Rather than retreating back to relative serene solitude after the Stooges-ish stramash of his tremendous side project Grinderman, Cave has rallied the troops and made his first distinctly ‘group’ record since 2004’s Nocturama. Dig…

Also Published - 5 Unit Shifters

28 Feb 2008

Jeffrey Archer - A Prisoner of Birth He just can’t get free of that prison cell, can he? Belmarsh is the setting for a revenge drama where an innocent man has been sent down at HM’s pleasure. Macmillan. Louis de Bernières - A Partisan’s Daughter A…

Also Released - Music

28 Feb 2008

Amp Live and Radiohead - Rainy Dayz (No label) In the spirit of free enterprise, US rap producer Amp Live took it upon himself to rework the finer points of Radiohead’s In Rainbows. After much wrangling and various cease and desists the two parties…

Angelina Jolie

Scottish Stars Asked to Make Nominations for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award

28 Feb 2008

The final call has gone out for nominations for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. Charitable stars, such as James McAvoy, Ewan McGregor, KT Tunstall, Angelina Jolie (pictured) and David Beckham have all been invited to nominate a charity or…

The London Nobody Knows/The Bicyclettes De Belsize

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

DOCUMENTARY (PG) 73min (Optimum DVD retail) The London Nobody Knows is a genuine curio. James Mason takes his brolly and bowler for a stroll around the seedier parts of the big smoke in the late 1960s, bemoaning ruined buildings such as Camden’s…

Take Three: New Japanese Restaurants

28 Feb 2008

No 1 Sushi Bar 37 Home Street, Edinburgh 0131 229 6880 This Chinese-run Japanese restaurant is a cross between a style bar and a comfy old-school Chinese gaff, with birds of paradise cavorting over charcoal walls and big mirrors to reflect the…

The Wynntown Marshals

The Wynntown Marshals

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

AMERICANA Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Sat 9 Feb ‘If Carlsberg made Americana...’, runs the jokey tagline on this Edinburgh quintet’s MySpace, although the rest of the slogan would still be somewhere near true if it appeared next to footage of this…

Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart

Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

INDIE (Full Time Hobby) On the public face of it, ex-Arab Strapper Malcolm Middleton may not be getting any happier, but it’s difficult to come away from one of his collections without wiping a grin off your face while the inevitable tear dampens your…

The Same Earth

Kei Miller - The Same Earth

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

RURAL DRAMA (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) Kei Miller, a recent addition to the teaching staff on Glasgow University’s Creative Writing course, is under 30 and of the male persuasion. So the ease with which he tells this homely collection of life stories…

The ACME Novelty Library Number 18

Chris Ware - The ACME Novelty Library Number 18

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

INDEPENDENT (Chris Ware) It doesn’t get much more independent than self-publishing, and that’s what Chris Ware is now doing with his occasional title that was originally published by Fantagraphics and which initially introduced the Guardian First Book…

Sputnik Caledonia

Andrew Crumey - Sputnik Caledonia

(2 stars)28 Feb 2008

SCIENCE FICTION (Picador) Andrew Crumey has been putting a literary editorship at Scotland on Sunday and a PhD in theoretical physics to good use, juggling astral and quantum theory alongside plain, unfussy storytelling. Here, he throws some bygone…

So Super Duper

Brian Andersen - So Super Duper

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

INDEPENDENT (CBG Comics) San Francisco-based comics creator Brian Andersen has hit upon a winning conceit for his self-published title So Super Duper, the first three issues of which are available through his website www.sosuperduper.com. Neatly…

God’s Own Country

Ross Raisin - God’s Own Country

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

RURAL DRAMA (Viking) The view from Ross Raisin’s pedestal must be a particularly terrifying one, especially after verbal leg-ups from the likes of JM Coetzee and Colm Toibin. Happily, ‘one of the most eagerly awaited literary debuts of 2008’ does not…

Venetian Masters

Bidisha - Venetian Masters: Under the Skin of the City of Love

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

TRAVELOGUE (Summersdale) Bidisha probably had good reason to feel jaded with her pressured life of academia and media in London. After signing her first book deal at 16, the precocious novelist and arts journo spent the next decade writing for…

Bugge Wesseltoft - IM

Bugge Wesseltoft - IM

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

JAZZ (Jazzland) The slow, minimal single notes shrouded in a delicate shimmering echo on ‘deIMAGER’ is an extreme example, but the general mood of the music on the Norwegian pianist’s latest outing is notably understated and reflective, with the…

Christian Scott - Anthem

Christian Scott - Anthem

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

JAZZ (Concord Jazz) Under the direction of its founder, the late Carl Jefferson, the Concord Jazz label was a haven for straight-ahead mainstream swing. Its new corporate identity within the Universal group has seen the label branching out in more…

Moving Hearts - Live in Dublin

Moving Hearts - Live in Dublin

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

FOLK (RubyWorks) Reunions can often be disappointing affairs, but the occasional return to action of this mighty Irish band have been notable exceptions. This album was recorded on home ground last year, and if their pioneering fusion of folk with…

Ghost Game

28 Feb 2008

HORROR (15) 100min (Showbox/Cine-Asia DVD retail/rental) While the recent glut of J-horror shares similar imagery and folklore, this Thai entry is more Big Brother-meets-The Evil Dead as 11 young gameshow contestants are sent to a haunted prison camp…

It’s Just Ketchup

Malcy Duff - It’s Just Ketchup

(3 stars)28 Feb 2008

INDEPENDENT (Missing Twin Publishing) The modestly home-made comics of Edinburgh cartoonist Malcy Duff are abstract almost to the point of alienation, but there’s something about their cinematic grace and unashamed abstraction which sits comfortably…

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