Issue 606

5 Reasons To Go See - Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

3 Jul 2008

They’re unclassifiable - to some they’re outsider pop, to others they’re hip hop played through a punk filter. Then again their recent debut album Angles could easily be called lo-fi electronica mixed with spoken word poetry. Whatever, the end result is…

Rock of Ages

3 Jul 2008

In a bid end that long-standing argument about just how old that guy from The Prodigy really is, Josie Balfour digs out the birth certificates of those appearing at T in the Park.

Scotland: A Changing Nation

3 Jul 2008

‘I don’t want to blow our own trumpet, or anything,’ says Maureen Barrie, standing with her arms spread in front of a blank wall that will shortly be emblazoned with a giant replica of a Tunnock’s Teacake, ‘but we’re a hell of a nation if you think…

Will & Greg: A Sketch Show

3 Jul 2008

SKETCH SHOW The Stand, Glasgow, Sun 6 Jul Before the Fringe kicks in along with the attendant confusion of flyers, here’s your chance to take a sneak peak at one of its prime sketch shows. Fresh from some of the minds who brought you last year’s…

Good Vibrations

3 Jul 2008

One of the Capital’s most exciting visitor attractions, Our Dynamic Earth, has teamed up with Edinburgh International Science Festival to bring you Good Vibrations. Join Maestro and Bella as they embark on a journey of discovery to find out how noise is…

Obadiah Steppenwolfe III

3 Jul 2008

Praise the lord, for Obadiah is back to spread the good news of comedy. First up he'll be 'calming' the nerves of the Red Raw contenders before going hell for leather with his own Thursday madness. 'Allelujah! The Stand, Glasgow, Tue 15, Thu 17 Jul

Duty Free

3 Jul 2008

The Cab once again bring us an enviable line-up of the best up-and-coming live acts Scotland has to offer all at the bargain price of absolutely jack. Not only are they free entry but you can enjoy the guitar/synths line-up of Smoked Glass and psych…

Wet Sounds

3 Jul 2008

Underwater, you hear things differently. This is part of the thinking behind Wet Sounds, a knowingly named tour of sound art which takes place not in uptight white space galleries, but in ten public swimming pools between London and Nairn. With the…

T in the Park 2008 - Running order

3 Jul 2008

FRIDAY MAIN STAGE The Verve Richard Ashcroft and co make a long-awaited return promising all the hits and some newly recorded material. Stereophonics Welsh outfit still successfully peddling their distinctive brand of pub rock with…

T in the Park - The Ting Tings

3 Jul 2008

Walking through Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens with the band who are number one in both the UK singles and downloads chart is a cheerful feeling, and it’s not purely down to the bright, sunny Saturday afternoon weather. Katie White and Jules De Martino…

T in the Park - Up-and-comers

3 Jul 2008

MGMT What Psychedelic synth-pop duo from Brooklyn Unique Selling Point They sound wonderfully woozy on record but the MGMT live experience reveals a harder, darker and much more edgy side to the band. Imagine full-on swampy rock colliding with…

T in the Park - KT Tunstall

3 Jul 2008

‘I remember playing T in the Park for the first time in 1996. I was 21 and a backing singer with the Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra, the band led by the man now known as King Creosote. We played in the ceilidh tent and Radiohead, Alanis Morrisette and Beck…

T in the Park - Biffy's James Johnston recommends

3 Jul 2008

I n Case of Fire Festivals are always a great place to check out new bands, and T in the Park has a great tradition for uncovering hidden gems. In Case of Fire are definitely worth checking out. We played some shows with them last year in their native…

Mamma Mia!

3 Jul 2008

Set on a sun-kissed Mediterranean island, musical blockbuster Mamma Mia! features Meryl Streep as the mother of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a bride-to-be trying to identify her natural father amongst three wedding guests, played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin…

T in the Park - The Fratellis

3 Jul 2008

The Fratellis aren’t a band you’d think of as suffering from existential self-doubt, eh? But a spell out of the spotlight has left singer and guitarist Jon Fratelli with the slightest lingering doubt about his band’s success and longevity. ‘I’m…

Singles & Downloads

3 Jul 2008

Why is there so much slickly produced, pretend-to-be-credible pop around these days? Newton Faulkner, Amy MacDonald, The Hoosiers, Sara Bareilles – the insipid list just keeps on getting longer. Eurgh, and here’s another one; the emotionless and utterly…

T in the Park - Panic at the Disco

3 Jul 2008

It’s hard to be cool when you were ‘discovered’ on the internet by Pete Wentz with only three songs in your repertoire and your ‘fans’ were a few thousand e-friends who thought you were totally hot. Still, you’ve got to give Panic at the Disco points…

T in the Park - Rob da Bank

3 Jul 2008

Richie Hawtin ‘Spastik’ ‘Will he play it, won’t he play it? Hawtin is the don, and this record lives on and on. This track IS the Slam Tent at T.’ http://tiny.cc/Plastik Aphex Twin ‘Analogue Bubblebath’ ‘Heard this at sundown at Sonar…

T in the Park - T Break Stage

3 Jul 2008

Friday State of Affairs Promising Edinburgh-based foursome who cater in wonderfully heartfelt indie rock. No Kilter Excitingly frenzied math-punk quartet from Glasgow. Figure 5 Much-adored skiffle-tinged, psychedelic garage pop…

Exposure - Ross Clark

3 Jul 2008

Looking like the bastard rockabilly son of a Proclaimer and with a singing voice like a shot of raw Glasgow bluegrass, 20-year-old Ross Clark’s exuberant, sweat-drenched live sets have been getting him a reputation. He sings brainy songs about girls and…

Found

3 Jul 2008

ART/MUSIC INSTALLATION Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Sat 21 Jun It was the all-you-can-eat buffet of line-ups. There were robots playing bamboo instruments, dancing in the sculpture garden, tai chi and the chance to…

Kevin McDermott

3 Jul 2008

ROCK Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 23 Jun ‘Was that good?’ says the chipper Scots musician early on in his set, and 20 years into his career as a singer-songwriter. ‘I thought so,’ he adds, tongue in cheek. ‘And I liked the guitar solo.’ But he has every…

Kid Canaveral

3 Jul 2008

INDIE Henry’s Cellar Bar, Fri 20 Jun Henry’s, for all its charms, is hardly the most sparkly place in town. However, bringing a solid dose of summer to the venue’s dimly lit confines, St Andrews four-piece Kid Canaveral’s lively guitar pop does the…

John B McKenna, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Over the Wall

3 Jul 2008

ROCK Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Thu 5 Jun Starting with suitably hushed reverence for John B McKenna’s gentle powerhouse of a voice in an acoustic set, and ending with the squawking guitar, pounding keyboard and trumpet combo of Over the Wall, tonight’s…

Steve Mason - Black Affair

3 Jul 2008

The last many people will remember hearing of Steve Mason was when, in April 2006, he prompted much head scratching amongst the press by cancelling a nationwide tour with his post-Beta Band project King Biscuit Time, before leaving a curiously oblique…

Profile - Andrea Parker

3 Jul 2008

Name: Andrea Parker Occupation: Sister, doing it for herself. Doing what, exactly? Building and maintaining a reputation and currently moving swiftly towards the status of ‘esteemed’ with a career in leftfield electronica that stretches back a…

Stapleton

3 Jul 2008

INDIE ROCK Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow, Tue 8 Jul It must be tiring, constantly being referred to as unsung heroes. Who wouldn’t rather be a sung hero than an unsung one? If Scottish outfit Stapleton feel any of that frustration they hide it well, but…

Numbers 5th Birthday

3 Jul 2008

TECHNO The Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 4 Jul; Club 69, Paisley, Sat 12 Jul. As they say, there’s strength in numbers. After all, there’s a small army of people involved with genre-straddling Glasgow club promoters Numbers, including Richard Chater, Adam…

Smoove

3 Jul 2008

FUNK/HIP HOP Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Fri 4 Jul. Smoove is a man in the thrall of the funk, and while he’s happy to pilfer from any genre or decade, it all needs to have that groove. ‘Everything is rooted in the funk; soul, even music going way, way…

Harmonia

3 Jul 2008

KRAUTROCK ABC, Glasgow, Fri 11 Jul As long lost supergroups go, the reignition of Harmonia is the musical equivalent of discovering some buried mythical city. When Michael Rother, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius got together again in 2007…

DMX Krew

3 Jul 2008

Inner City Acid continues to forge new roads into cutting edge electronica with a guest slot from DMX Krew. This particular Krew is in fact one-man bass pioneer Ed DMX, who crafts synth grooves, techno and electro on vintage equipment. Releasing early…

Mark Mendes

3 Jul 2008

Musika brings yet another Scottish debut as they are joined by Canada’s rising tech-house star Mark Mendes. Picking up his first set of decks at the age of 16 and inspired by his uncle, Matteo di Marr (aka M1), Mendes moved into production releasing a…

Luna

3 Jul 2008

Russian dolls and stubbly Niko Bellic lookalikes filled out Club Ego a month or so ago, when the Picardy Place venue hosted Rockstar North’s fancy dress launch party for Grand Theft Auto IV. The walls were glowing with projections of soviet propaganda…

T in the Park line-up 2008

3 Jul 2008

The full line-up for Scotland's biggest music festival, which takes place 11th to July 13th in Balado, Kinross.

Remote Control

3 Jul 2008

When it comes to making new TV dramas, being brave and original can either make or break the show. Sometimes just playing it straight off the bat and keeping things safe can help your programme reap the rewards. Two hot and hyped BBC affairs go for the…

Last Word - Ewan Morrison

3 Jul 2008

First film you saw that really moved you The Elephant Man. I was 12 and ran away from the TV and wept in the shower for an hour. It was that whole thing about the Cathedral made of matchsticks, and him going to sleep without a pillow even though he…

Jim Cartwright - Supermarket Supermodel

3 Jul 2008

‘I’ve got something to tell you,’ confides Jim Cartwright, in a rascally, Lancashire drawl. ‘I used to be called Maureen.’ But, as it turns out, that wasn’t where he drew the inspiration for his novel, Supermarket Supermodel. A chat with the Northern…

Altered States of Paint

3 Jul 2008

According to clichéd legend, if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there. The artists taking part in Altered States of Paint at DCA who were around during that heady decade were still in their wide-eyed infancy. The ones who weren’t are…

Ian Smith - Peeping at Bosch

3 Jul 2008

Some performance projects simply have to be seen to be believed. This is certainly the case with Mischief La-Bas’ fascinating slice of live, interactive entertainment, Peeping at Bosch, the first stage in an attempt to realise the iconic Hieronymus…

Mother India’s Café

3 Jul 2008

Monir Mohammed is the quietly spoken, congenial proprietor of six restaurants in Glasgow operating under the Mother India and Wee Curry Shop banners. In a sector grossly overpopulated with long, samey menus, kitsch decor and blandly ill-defined dishes…

Taste Test - Yoghurts

3 Jul 2008

Yeo Valley •••• Organic Strawberry Probiotic Yoghurt, 49p From Somerset, Yeo are now one of the market leaders in organic yoghurts, delivering a noticeably creamy yet light, pleasant tasting product. The sweetness comes from the fruit, and while…

Pageant

3 Jul 2008

Summer 2008 A shop. Why ever not? Inspired by trips to Berlin, London and even Glasgow, my friend Anna Stride and very-soon-to-be friend Claire Anderson suggest that we collectively open a menswear boutique in Edinburgh. Despite my retail experience…

DVD Round-Up

3 Jul 2008

The time has come to celebrate British cinema. Not the British cinema of Hitchcock, Powell and Pressburger, David Lean or Robin The Wicker Man Hardy, but the cinema of subsidies and struggle, the results of which have barely seen the inside of a cinema…

Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008

3 Jul 2008

PHOTOGRAHY National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 21 Sep Any exhibition that begins with an Ashkenazi Jewish songwriter (Irving Berlin) and ends with a sloaney celebrity culture muse (Diana, Princess of Wales) is worth a peek. Following New…

Edinburgh Art Festival announces programme

Where the art is

3 Jul 2008

Another week, another festival launches. Hot on the heels of the Fringe, the EIF and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, relative newbie the Edinburgh Art Festival last week laid out its stall, boasting a roster of art glitterati from a 20-year…

The Merchant of Venice

3 Jul 2008

OUTDOOR THEATRE Botanic Gardens, Glasgow, until Sat 12 Jul Don’t be put off by Glasgow’s unpredictable weather and miss this summer’s Bard in the Botanics. Cheerful and casual in its approach to theatre, the outdoor play season is a big hit with…

Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1918-1945 (Group Show)

3 Jul 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 31 Aug The years between the two World Wars marked an incredibly innovative period in the development of Modernist photography. Today the photographic image is so ubiquitous that it barely merits comment…

Festival frenzy as Edinburgh gears up for August

3 Jul 2008

With just three weeks until Edinburgh officially takes its place in the spotlight as one of the world's greatest cultural playgrounds, festival news and views have been coming in thick and fast. Perhaps most contentious is the news that after capturing…

The Apartment

3 Jul 2008

Billy Wilder’s corrosive 1960 lampoon of corporate America is now so familiar to most people that it barely seems to deserve the time investment that this new print demands. Look again, though, and there is plenty of really surprising stuff in this…

Cappella Nova - Voices of Scotland

3 Jul 2008

CLASSICAL St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, Fri 4 Jul A fascinating concert of sung Scottish texts from the 6th to the 16th centuries seems the ideal way to close an international conference on the language and literature of Scotland in mediaeval and…

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

3 Jul 2008

ROCK (Rough Trade) If ever a band suited a time, a place and a mood then it is The Hold Steady. Their innate ability to capture that great moment on a warm summer Friday night when everything comes together and things are just... right. For four…

Hancock

3 Jul 2008

SUPERHERO/COMEDY (12A) 91min The writers and director of Hancock take a hyper-powered leaf out of the Mystery Men and Return of Captain Invincible school of heroism with Hancock. Will Smith plays a nihilistic superhero who has fallen out of favour…

Superstars

3 Jul 2008

SPORT Five, Fri 11 Jul, 8pm Sporting life was very different in the 1970s. Kevin Keegan had bubblier hair, the only athletes who used artificial enhancement to boost their performance seemed to be born female in East Germany and it was still possible…

Kung Fu Panda

3 Jul 2008

COMEDY/ANIMATION (PG) 91min In the words of Carl Douglas’ 1974 disco hit: ‘Everybody is kung fu fighting.’ Everybody, that is, apart from overweight panda Po (voiced by Jack Black). He dreams about joining his heroes, the Fierce Five, in butt-kicking…

Side Dishes

3 Jul 2008

Urban Angel has opened a second branch on Forth Street in the former Tapas Tree premises just off Broughton Street, Edinburgh. Compared to the Hanover Street original it’s open earlier (from 8am), has more space and is serving much the same local…

Three Blows

3 Jul 2008

PERFORMANCE St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 5 & Sun 6 Jul As the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Scotland, St Cecilia’s Hall is in possession of unique acoustic properties. St Cecilia, of course, was the patron saint of church music, whose…

Nicky Bird: Beneath the Surface/Hidden Place

3 Jul 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 20 Jul For a project which corrals so many amateur photographers and their family photos to share co-creative billing with the artist, its unifying theme is acutely realised. This show is about…

Materials For a Small Winter

3 Jul 2008

DANCE THEATRE CCA, Glasgow, Sat 12 Jul The teenage years can feature some pivotal moments. For choreographer Angus Balbernie it was the discovery of Malcolm Lowry’s 1947 novel Under the Volcano, widely regarded as one of the great literary works of…

Our House

3 Jul 2008

MUSICAL Theatre Royal, Glasgow, until Sat 5 Jul; Playhouse, Edinburgh, Mon 7–Sat 12 Jul Following in the footsteps of popular jukebox musicals Mamma Mia! and We Will Rock You, comes this effort from writer Tim Firth (Calendar Girls), featuring the…

LGBT Youth Scotland National Gathering 2008

3 Jul 2008

YOUNG PEOPLE’S EVENT Westpark Conference Centre, Dundee, Sat 5 & Sun 6 Jul This year’s LGBT Youth Scotland National Gathering, ‘In Control, Your Life. Your Choices’, is a Scotland-wide event for LGBT young people up to the age of 26, their friends and…

Irvine Welsh - Crime

3 Jul 2008

CRIME DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) Irvine Welsh has never shied away from the seamy side of life, and for his ninth novel he crosses the Atlantic to the balmy climes of Florida, only to uncover a cesspit of evil that would put some of his previous local…

The Mist

3 Jul 2008

HORROR/SCI-FI (15) 126min After The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, writer/director Frank Darabont continues his one-man championing of the Stephen King estate with an adaptation of novella The Mist. After a thunderstorm in an isolated rural…

Savage Grace

3 Jul 2008

DRAMA (18) 97mins Sixteen years on from his debut, the New Queer Cinema-defining Swoon, Tom Kalin finally makes a return with his sophomore feature, a flawed but nevertheless fascinating examination of dysfunction among the American aristocracy. Based…

GoMA Family Festival 2008

3 Jul 2008

FUN DAY Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Sat 5 Jul Messing around with paint, glue and glitter is fun at any age, so why should kids have all the fun? Although aimed primarily at 3–12-year-olds, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) Family Festival…

Mladen Stilinovi?: On Money, Zeroes, etc

3 Jul 2008

MIXED MEDIA CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 19 Jul According to the Croatian artist Mladen Stilinovic, there is no art without laziness. A series of photographs entitled ‘Artist at Work’ shows his theory in action: Stilinovic lying in bed, looking melancholy…

Haptic

3 Jul 2008

DESIGN The Lighthouse, Glasgow, until Mon 29 Sep High design and its pioneering spirit are taken on a Seuss-like tangent in this enjoyable, inventive and very silly exhibition. According to curator Kenya Hara’s notes ‘haptic’ means ‘relating or…

Profile - John Gordillo

3 Jul 2008

Name: John Gordillo Who’s this fella, then? You may have seen the name ‘John Gordillo’ somewhere in your house, but perhaps you just can’t quite place it. No, it’s not the name of a brand new kitchen product (the ‘Gordillo grill’ does have a certain…

Mes amis, mes amours

3 Jul 2008

Mes Amis, Mes Amours resembles a Gallic version of a Richard Curtis movie, set in an affluent, quarter of London and peopled by French expats: it’s less a romantic comedy than a sentimental fantasy of city living among an ultra-friendly community of…

The Visitor

3 Jul 2008

DRAMA (15) 106min Ageing widower and economics professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a grouch. He spends his days giving his students a hard time. When he is sent to Manhattan to present a dull paper, a series of misunderstandings lead him to…

Jules et Jim

3 Jul 2008

French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut’s third film, made in 1962, was undoubtedly his masterpiece. Set in the 1910s and 20s it is the story of a freewheeling love triangle between alpha female Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), Austrian Jules (Oskar…

Also Released - Music

3 Jul 2008

Daedelus - Love to Make Music To (Ninja Tune) This leftfield hip hop doyen takes a few trips into the unknown, expanding his repertoire of beats bleats and cuts into hunks of textured, hypnotic, mirthful magic. Our Sleepless Forest - Our Sleepless…

Food For Thought

3 Jul 2008

I’ll eat anything but I’m not a good cook and so I avoid cooking and food publications at every turn. I only do one dish well, and it’s easy: a salad featuring mozzarella, mint, peaches, lime juice, olive oil, and prosciutto. I like to drink tap water…

Judas Priest - Nostradamus

3 Jul 2008

METAL (Columbia) Rob Halford’s howl and tracks as powerful as ‘Breaking the Law’ and ‘Painkiller’ have cemented Judas Priest’s status as a driving force that helped shape the entire metal genre. Formed back in the early 70s vocalist Halford left…

Mark Evanier - Kirby: King of Comics

3 Jul 2008

BIOG (Abrams) As befits a book about the man who reinvented comics with the most dynamic artwork the medium had ever seen, friend and colleague Mark Evanier’s biography/critical commentary is a large format coffee table hardback full of big and…

Also Released - Film

3 Jul 2008

Garbage Warrior (15) 88min ••• Hippie, sustainable housing architect and all round recycling guru Michael Reynolds presents his self sufficiency vision of the future in this absorbing documentary. The film follows Reynolds attempt to make his dream of…

Various - A Boy’s Own Odyssey – mixed by Farley and Heller and The Misterons

3 Jul 2008

HOUSE (Defected) There was a time back when Oasis were a relevant creative musical force, Tony Blair was a politician and it cost less than a month’s wages to fill up your car. And around this time clubbing was myriad of appealing adventures. DJs like…

Tick Tock Lullaby

3 Jul 2008

DRAMA (15) 72min (Peccadillo DVD retail) In one particular scene of this film, a good looking thirty-something notices that he’s been trailed by a couple of ladies, and comments that it’s the first time he’s been cruised by two gay women, and that…

Take Three: Striding the Glasgow/Edinburgh divide

3 Jul 2008

Café Andaluz 77b George Street, New Town, Edinburgh, www.cafeandaluz.com Glasgow-based restaurant chain Di Maggio’s opened their first Spanish style Café Andaluz off Byres Road in 2003. A city centre venue followed in 2005, with their first foray…

Interstate 60

3 Jul 2008

ROAD MOVIE (15) 111min (Scanbox DVD retail) Subtitled ‘Episodes of the Road’, this plays more like an edited version of a primetime US television comedy aimed at teenagers. Written and directed by Bob Gale, comic book writer and regular Robert…

Intimate Enemies

3 Jul 2008

WAR (15) 100min (Contender DVD retail) Will the Algerian war turn the humanist lieutenant at the centre of Florent Emilio Siri’s film into a monstrous shadow of his former self? After being posted to Algeria, Terrien (Benoît Magimel), the…

Andrew Sean Greer - The Story of a Marriage

3 Jul 2008

HISTORICAL TALE (Faber) Can you ever, really, truly know someone? Andrew Sean Greer begs this question with his third, remarkable piece of fiction, a compelling and beautifully-penned tale of love, long-kept secrets and motherly sacrifice set against…

Paris Lockdown

3 Jul 2008

GANGSTER (18) 143min (Momentum DVD retail/rental) This brutally efficient, thoroughly gratuitous French gangster film from Frédéric Schoendorffer, director of Scene de Crime and Spy Bound, explores the lives of various gangsters on the make.

Bob Levin - Most Outrageous

3 Jul 2008

NON-FICTION/BIOG (Fantagraphics) Looking for a suitable subject for the follow-up to his book The Pirates and the Mouse – a wickedly funny account of a gang of comic book creators who satirised themselves into court with the Disney Corporation, Bob…

Stephen McGinty - Fire in the Night: The Piper Alpha Disaster

3 Jul 2008

SCOTTISH HISTORY (Macmillan) The Scotsman journalist Stephen McGinty’s Fire in the Night is a moment-by-hideous-moment account of the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster in which 167 men died, and published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the…

Antony Moore - The Swap

3 Jul 2008

COMIC NOVEL (Harvill Secker) Cartoonists have for years been creating humorous/nostalgic stories about the obsessive pastime of comic book collecting: see Joe Matt’s confessional memoir The Poor Bastard and the eccentric whimsy of Seth’s Wimbledon…

Also Published - 5 Debut Novels

3 Jul 2008

Shona MacLean - The Redemption of Alexander Seaton Historical crime set in 1620s Banff in which a disgraced minister seeks to clear his name when a body is found in his house. Quercus. Harry Sidebottom - Warrior of Rome: Fire in the East The first…

Radiohead Nude remix film finds audience

3 Jul 2008

A Glasgow School of Art student has become a YouTube sensation. James Houston featured a remix of the Radiohead single 'Nude' from their album In Rainbows in a four minute video, 'Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)', as part of his Degree Show. Houston has…

Bethan Roberts - The Good Plain Cook

3 Jul 2008

FAMILY DRAMA (Serpent’s Tail) In the mid-30s, the American heiress and philanthropist Peggy Guggenheim set up house in the Sussex countryside with her daughter, her poet lover, his daughter, and a young local girl to cook for them. Bethan Roberts has…

Hebrides Ensemble - Olivier Messiaen – Chamber Works

3 Jul 2008

CLASSICAL (Linn Records) The Hebrides Ensemble are now firmly established as Scotland’s leading contemporary music group, and their stock is rising well beyond their native turf as well. The enthusiastic acclaim for their recent imaginative Wigmore…

Various - A Celebration of the Music of Gordon Duncan

3 Jul 2008

FOLK (Greentrax) The death of maverick piper Gordon Duncan brought a tragic and untimely end to a major talent, but his music continues to resonate well beyond the piping community. His tunes are regularly played by folk artists of all kinds, and this…

Mark Millar & JG Jones - Wanted

3 Jul 2008

THRILLER/SUPER VILLIAN (Top Cow/Titan) As yet another comics-based blockbuster hits the big screen, Titan brings us this timely repackaged re-release. Wanted was written by one of the comics world’s leading lights, Scotland’s own Mark Millar, a…

Ulf Wakenius - Love is Real

3 Jul 2008

JAZZ (ACT Records) Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius follows his Keith Jarrett project Notes From the Heart with a disc devoted to the music of Esbjörn Svensson. Tragically, its release has coincided with the death of the Swedish pianist – who had been…

The Graveyard

3 Jul 2008

HORROR (18) 83min (Revolver DVD rental/retail) Michael Hurst’s horror-by-numbers film harks back very ineffectively to the three decade old genre conventions of Friday The 13th and Halloween without evoking the slightest hint of the atmosphere. In…

Sharleen Spiteri - Melody

3 Jul 2008

BLUE-EYED SOUL-POP (Mercury Records) What’s the difference between Glasgow act Texas and its frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri? If listening to the latter’s debut solo album is any clue: very little. Wearing her Dusty Springfield influences proudly on her…

The Ex-Men - A Life of Love

3 Jul 2008

SPOKEN ELECTRO (Beanstalk Records) At first, I took this to be a spoof. Why else would anyone rhyme ‘expressionism’ with ‘jism’? What possible other reason could there be for someone to warble ‘a word is a picture/made out of sound/a sound you can…

Infadels - Universe in Reverse

3 Jul 2008

INDIE (Wall of Sound) Indie festive season is in full swing and the Infadels’ reinvention proves they’re wise to it. On Universe in Reverse, producer Youth turns their sound upside down, taking them out of the rave fields and into the main arena.

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

3 Jul 2008

ROCK (Rough Trade) Having never trod the most conventional paths, Kentucky natives MMJ have almost been Wilco, The Eagles and The Grateful Dead in their long, productive life but have always spun off into their own otherwordly orbit. Evil Urges is a…

Beck - Modern Guilt

3 Jul 2008

POP (XL Recordings) Beck seems to have found his mojo over the last few albums, the self-conscious idea of him being an ‘artist’ is gone and he lets the ideas flow. Modern Guilt is as sharp, clean and crisp a record as you’ll find, a compact, focussed…

Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom

3 Jul 2008

METAL (Earache) Once pegged as post-metal rip-offs in the vein of Neurosis, Sweden’s Cult of Luna are fast becoming a formidable outfit in their own right and Eternal Kingdom strengthens that reputation. A concept album lyrically and musically based…

Leon Jean Marie - Bent Out of Shape

3 Jul 2008

POP (Island Records) This talented Londoner must collect up a helluva lot of artists inside his dreadlocked head to conjure up such interesting pop brilliance. Leon’s inspired opener forecasts the outrageously catchy hooks which lie ahead on his…