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Issue 633

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Issue 633

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Sighthill - The Estate

Sighthill - The Estate

9 Jul 2009

A new Channel 4 series of short films seeks to dispel the myths surrounding one of Glasgow’s most notorious housing estates. Kirstin Innes meets the director.

Duncan Jones

Moon: interview with director Duncan Jones

9 Jul 2009

Cerebral science fiction thriller Moon heralds the arrival of an impressive new filmmaking talent in Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie. Miles Fielder meets him.

Irvine Welsh, Alan Bissett and Ewan Morrison

Scottish Books - Irvine Welsh, Alan Bissett and Ewan Morrison

9 Jul 2009

Irvine Welsh inspired a generation of young Scottish writers and showed there was literature to be found in the lives of the Scottish underdog. Two of the leading lights of that next generation are Alan Bissett and Ewan Morrison. Both authors boast…

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

9 Jul 2009

You saw him at Glastonbury, he played for ages, everyone loved it. Now he’s coming to do the same for us at Hampden. Revel in our bluffers’ guide to Bruce Springsteen.

Paolo Nutini

T in the Park: Paolo Nutini

9 Jul 2009

Paolo Nutini is a star in charge of his own destiny, arriving at this year’s T, flying high on his success. Mark Robertson gets an insight into life behind the scenes of an errant pop star.

BrÃ¼no

Brüno

9 Jul 2009

Poor Brüno! The 19-year-old presenter with the really hot body from Austrian TV fashion show Funkyzeitung has been ‘schwarzlisted’ following an unfortunate incident involving his all-Velcro suit at a Milan catwalk event. Leaving behind his pygmy Asian…

Your Healthy Living Show

Your Healthy Living Show

9 Jul 2009

Ah, the great Scottish diet. (You can make up your own joke involving the words ‘deep’, ‘fried’ and possibly ‘Mars Bar’ here, or just recycle one of the thousands already out there.) People who like to mourn such things will often mourn the fact that we…

Moon

Moon

9 Jul 2009

Cleverly conceived, evenly paced and consistently intriguing, this old-school science fiction thriller is a very welcome repost to the numbing spectacle of what passes for sci-fi these days. Taking his cue from genre classics from the late 1960s through…

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen - Brucie Bonus

9 Jul 2009

11 Number of current members of the E Street Band 19 Number of grammys won. 2 Number of Golden Globes won. 1 Number of Academy Awards won. 7 The age Bruce was when he knew he wanted to become a musician after he saw Elvis…

Sighthill - The Estate: In state

Sighthill - The Estate: episode guide

9 Jul 2009

Sifiso Forced to leave Zimbabwe because she opposed Robert Mugabe, Sifiso has been living in Sighthill for four years, watching her children grow up with broad Glasgow accents, and worrying about their sense of identity. Episode 1: My Home. Airs Mon…

Deep Sea World

Site specifics: Deep Sea World

9 Jul 2009

What is it? Dah-duh. Dah-duh. Dah-duh dah-duh dah-duh … That was a textual rendering of the Jaws theme, right? Right! Because this fortnight we’re focusing on Scotland’s own shark haven, Deep Sea World! You’re chipper today We just really…

Tommy Reilly

T in the Park: Virgins & Veterans

9 Jul 2009

Veteran Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai It’s Mogwai’s first T in ten years. What brings you back? We’re doing a lot of festivals this summer. We hadn’t actually done any for a while until we did Connect two years ago and it was great. So we’re…

The Slam Tent at T in the Park

Slam dunk: The Slam Tent at T in the Park

9 Jul 2009

‘It’s nerve-wracking, as it is with any gig we’re involved in. We have such a headstrong booking policy; we’re so close to the scene and have very strong ideas about who we want to play. One of the reasons we got involved in the first place is because I…

The Horrors

T in the Park: The Horrors

9 Jul 2009

Forget about the big barnets for a second, because The Horrors are back; having weathered the hype and the haters to come up with one of the best records of the year in the form of atmospheric second effort Primary Colours. As the Southend quintet gear…

T in the Park

T in the Park: Info

9 Jul 2009

Amy Taylor provides you with all manner of sensible information to take the hassle out of the weekend

True Blood

True Blood

9 Jul 2009

The TV schedules have succumbed to a plague of bloodsucking parasites ever since Buffy staked her first vampire. But have vamps lost their bite? True Blood puts the allegorical power back into the fangs of the undead, and triumphs over the genre’s other…

Edwyn Collins

Falling and Laughing: The Restoration of Edwyn Collins

9 Jul 2009

‘I witter on like a budgie, as my mum would say.’ Lanarkshire-born writer Grace Maxwell is chuckling as she talks about Falling and Laughing, her story of partner Edwyn Collins’ miraculous rehabilitation from two devastating brain haemorrhages in 2005.

New York Dolls

New York Dolls

9 Jul 2009

Having burned brightly for just a few short years in the early 1970s, seminal glam-punk band the New York Dolls reformed 27 years later for what was supposedly a one-off gig at the Morrissey-curated 2004 Meltdown festival. A rapturous reception from the…

Cooking with Elvis

Cooking with Elvis

9 Jul 2009

Lee Hall might be best known for his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Billy Elliot, but long before Jamie Bell’s dancing feet captured the public imagination, Hall scored a hit with the acclaimed comedy Cooking with Elvis. First performed in Newcastle’s…

The Discovery of Spain Ã¢ÂÂ British Artists and Collectors: Goya to Picasso

The Discovery of Spain – British Artists and Collectors: Goya to Picasso

9 Jul 2009

Spanish holidays have come a long way from the sun, sea and sangria of the 1970s and having it large in Ibiza in the 90s. Yet, the pop cultural memorabilia of both eras remains in the bullfighting posters and maracas many brought home as jet-age…

CafÃ© Fish

Café Fish

9 Jul 2009

For a nation surrounded by sea, we can get ourselves into a right fankle over fish. There are the sustainability problems (explicitly set out in the recent film The End of the Line), the langoustines that are flown off to a more appreciative Spanish…

Dominion

Spotlight On Morningside

9 Jul 2009

Surely almost all Edinburgh inhabitants harbour a healthy respect for the Morningside Lady, for whom, it is often surmised, nothing is worth having if it cannot be bought in Jenners. Stereotypes aside, the average Morningside resident does have much to…

Taste Test: Cider

Taste Test: Cider

9 Jul 2009

Thistly Cross Cider Belhaven Fruit Farm, from Edinburgh Farmers’ Market and Cornelius Beers and Wines, 18–20 Easter Road, Edinburgh, £2.70 •••• Scotland’s first cider from the makers of Belhaven Fruit Ice, this cider is described as ‘Scottish and…

Be a Familiar

Singles & Downloads

9 Jul 2009

Time was that the onset of summer beckoned a slew of novelty singles, courtesy of cartoon pop ingénues, often replete with carefree dance moves. You know: The Vengaboys’ ‘Going to Ibiza’; Los del Rio’s ‘Macarena’; Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’. Ah, happy…

Michael Jackson

The Death of Michael Jackson: Funny?

9 Jul 2009

The only sure thing in life is that one day we will all die. The next sure thing is that if you happen to be famous, jokes about your death will be zooming across the internet while your corpse is still lukewarm. Though in this 24-hour newsiverse, it’s…

Loopy Lornaâs

Six of the Best - Eating & Drinking around Morningside

9 Jul 2009

The Canny Man’s 237 Morningside Road, 0131 447 1484 One of Edinburgh’s most divisive drinking establishments, patrons of Morningside landmark The Canny Man are greeted at the entrance by a brass plaque banning mobile phones, cameras and…

The Burrowers

Summer Horror DVD round-up

9 Jul 2009

First stop on our journey into the sinister world of horror is Arrow’s new ‘Masters of Giallo’ DVD imprint, launching with three decidedly depraved titles from a trio of Italian auteurs. Lamberto Bava’s Macabre (Arrow) ●●● is a dark psychosexual study…

Scottish Books - Scottish Summer reads

9 Jul 2009

Craig Russell: Lennox In the first of a new crime series, Russell combines atmosphere, action and a pleasing pitch-black sense of humour in 1950s Glasgow. Dodgy PI Lennox has just lived through one war but is being flung into another, more local one.

Ian Hamilton Finlay

Ian Hamilton Finlay

9 Jul 2009

SCULPTURE & PRINTS Off in a side gallery at this quasi-retrospective show of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s work sits a neat pile of brown bricks arranged on a pallet. On the top of each of the bricks, their look and colour reminiscent of a loaf of bread…

St Vincent

St Vincent

9 Jul 2009

PREVIEW INDIE She may induce elemental wonder, but Annie Clark is no meteorologist. ‘By my humble estimation, it’s 175 Fahrenheit here today,’ affirms Clark – aka cinematic sorceress St Vincent – of her prevailing Atlanta, Georgia vicinity. A quick…

No Room for Bigotry

No Room for Bigotry

9 Jul 2009

Forms of drug addiction and sectarianism are perhaps the two most pressing social issues facing the West Coast of Scotland. It’s timely, then, that the boys of Jericho House, an institution which helps young men with drug problems, should devise a piece…

Tindersticks

Profile - Stuart Staples (Tindersticks)

9 Jul 2009

Born Stuart Ashton Staples, 14 November 1965. Background Staples is the lead singer of Tindersticks, an originally Nottingham-based band formed in late 1991. Initially called Asphalt Ribbons, the band changed their name after Staples found a box of…

LGBT Film Festival

London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival on Tour

9 Jul 2009

FILM This year’s LLGFF contains a typically alluring mix of the classic and contemporary, the light-hearted and hard-hitting. Among the comedies, Baby Love, directed by Vincent Gareng, mines the consequences of a gay Parisian doctor’s decision to…

Piano Circus

Sound Festival

9 Jul 2009

Following its success last year, the sound festival has launched its programme boasting over 60 performances and events. The music fest line-up will include a special celebration of the work by the festival’s patron, James MacMillan to mark his 50th…

Scottish opera

News in Brief

9 Jul 2009

Scottish opera, in collaboration with the RSAMD, is piloting a new programme to help graduate singers launch their careers. The Emerging Artists programme will offer graduates a wide range of opportunities over the year to help them at the start of…

Jamie T

First word: Jamie T

9 Jul 2009

First record you ever bought Gabrielle’s ‘Dreams’. Last time you were chatted up Two weeks ago. First film you saw that really moved you Platoon. Last lie you told I’ve never told a lie. First movie you ever went on a date to I…

Drop the Lime

Drop the Lime

9 Jul 2009

‘What’s in a name, huh?’ muses Luca Venezia, the New York-born, Italian-descended producer of some truly riotous breakbeat meets acid house meets new rave recordings as Drop the Lime. ‘It’s based on an old Sicilian ritual, where you take a lime and…

Mark Farina

Profile: Mark Farina

9 Jul 2009

Occupation Chicago house master. Chicago you say? He’s certainly not the first quality DJ from that neck of the woods Very true – Chicago has a place in the hearts of anyone who loves real house music. Farina counts Derrick Carter among his friends…

Superfly

Superfly

9 Jul 2009

Although the 100th month of a club night is a strange anniversary to be celebrating, it isn’t the only reason we’re recommending broad-minded soul, funk, classic rock and indie night Superfly this time round. This edition is also the last Superfly to be…

We Are Astronomers

We Are Astronomers

9 Jul 2009

NEW FILM When it first opened in 1999, Our Dynamic Earth quickly became one of Edinburgh’s most exciting and imaginative visitor attractions. Ten years later, the technology used to explore the history of the earth still looks fresh and innovative.

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice Through the Looking Glass

9 Jul 2009

With Tim Burton and Johnny Depp set to re-imagine Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for the silver screen, Lewis Carroll’s fantastical tales are firmly back in the public eye. So rich is Carroll’s storytelling that, since its publication in the 19th…

Gregory's Girl

Big Screen Edinburgh: Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Cinema

9 Jul 2009

It’s pillows at the ready this month, as Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Cinema sets its stall to showcase one of the country’s best loved films. As part of a national programme of events to mark London 2012 Open Weekend, comedy drama Gregory’s Girl will be shown…

Adrian McKinty

Adrian McKinty: Fifty Grand

9 Jul 2009

Seeking to avenge the death of a father she hardly knew, cop Mercado flees unrelentingly bleak Cuba for the celebrity-filled Colorado ski resort where he was killed in a hit-and-run, his demise covered up with a pay-off to the sheriff. With a luxurious…

Frozen River

Frozen River

9 Jul 2009

It’s a week before Christmas, and in upstate New York Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is struggling to keep her head above water. Her husband has gambled away their savings and promptly disappeared, she is having to support herself and her two sons on her meagre…

Exposure: Dead Boy Robotics

Exposure: Dead Boy Robotics

9 Jul 2009

Edinburgh based duo Dead Boy Robotics used to be, by their own admission, pretty terrible. They haven’t even released an EP yet, but have been selected to play the T Break Stage at T In The Park. Multi instrumentalist Gregor McMillian explains how the…

Wilco

Wilco: Wilco (The Album)

9 Jul 2009

Reputation can be a curse. With 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born two years later, Wilco re-wrote the book on what rock bands could do, blending brilliant musical experimentation with note-perfect rootsy folk-rock and searingly troubled…

Big Tent Festival

Side Dishes

9 Jul 2009

The Big Tent Festival in the lovely setting of Falkland Palace’s orchard and grounds takes place over the weekend of Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July. As the biggest eco-festival in Scotland, and the birthplace of the award-winning Fife Diet a couple of…

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Home Season: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

9 Jul 2009

As the curtain comes down on another packed season of theatre in the Central Belt, and with the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe waiting in the wings, it’s worth casting an eye over the superb series of Scottish plays currently running at Pitlochry…

National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland

National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland

9 Jul 2009

Guitarist Mike Walker will join the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland on this three-date tour, which will feature a full performance of his long-awaited debut album, Madhouse & The Whole Thing Here, released earlier this year. It will be a…

I am a Camera

I am a Camera

9 Jul 2009

FILM Brace your retinas, this show demands endurance. A sequenced screening presents eight films by artists Len Lye, John Latham, Steina & Woody Vasulka, Craig Mulholland, Katy Dove and Kate Davies. Focal encoding and processing take place as the…

Cycling Up the Hill with My Dad

Cycling Up the Hill with My Dad

9 Jul 2009

MIXED MEDIA This father and daughter exhibition features ceramics by David Heminsley and textiles by Claire Heminsley. The pair undertook a cycling trip together in order to start planning their joint exhibition. Intended as a contemporary show with…

Horace Andy

Horace Andy

9 Jul 2009

After giving us The Congo’s first ever Scottish show, the Summer Reggae Sunsplash season turns up a more familiar talent in the distinctive vibrato of Horace ‘Sleepy’ Andy. Hardly warranting introduction, Andy’s career as first guitarist, then singer…

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

9 Jul 2009

More small-time deadpan shenanigans from Fernando Eimbcke, the mischievous young Mexican writer/director of 2004’s Duck Season. In a sleepy sun-baked Mexican suburb, teenage Juan (Diego Cataño) crashes the family car. Stranded and fearful of…

La Roux: La Roux

La Roux

9 Jul 2009

Good pop music is instant, but great pop music lasts forever. Elly ‘La Roux’ Jackson, with hair like a winsome gingerbread Mr Whippy, a voice like spun sugar and on the receiving end of more hyperbole than Cristiano Ronaldo, Kanye West and Susan Boyle…

Patrick Bardoulet

Food For Thought - Patrick Bardoulet

9 Jul 2009

I am from Paris, the focus of many of the celebrations associated with Bastille Day, 14 July. It’s a national holiday, so there’s the chance to enjoy breakfast – in Paris this will be a baguette and coffee or chocolate. It sounds disgusting to the…

35 Shots of Rum (35 Rhums)

35 Shots of Rum (35 Rhums)

9 Jul 2009

Claire Denis’ latest venture is a far more intimate affair than 2004’s sprawling and elliptical The Intruder and a fine addition to the director’s challenging and protean body of work. Centring on the delicate but loving bond between a father and his…

Michel McIntyreâs Comedy Roadshow

5 Stand Up Comedy things to watch on TV

9 Jul 2009

Michel McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow The comic designated by someone as the leader of the contemporary pack heads to the Brighton Dome for the final laughfest of the series. Micky Flanagan, Jo Caulfield, Jon Richardson and Al Murray make the punters spill…

Oxfam

Morningside Shopping

9 Jul 2009

Unsurprisingly for an area with a high proportion of wealthy residents, Morningside’s many charity shops offer booty in all shapes and sizes.Dusty books, chintzy 1960s tea sets, cast-off fur coats and more gems reside among the cluttered shelves of…

Soul Power

Soul Power

9 Jul 2009

Just when you thought there were no more films to be made about the Muhammad Ali/George Foreman bout in Zaire in 1974 there comes a remarkable film about the 12-hour, three-night-long concert which took place around the event. In 1974 musician Hugh…

Crossing Over

Crossing Over

9 Jul 2009

Seven stories involving immigration and customs enforcement officials are awkwardly fused together in this well-meaning but compromised drama in the Crash/Babel mode. Writer/director Wayne Kramer graduates from promising lightweight B-movies Running…

Church Hill Theatre

Morningside attractions

9 Jul 2009

Church Hill Theatre The Church Hill Theatre might be less centrally located than Edinburgh’s other major theatres, but it’s a far from forgotten part of the city’s performing arts scene. A major renovation has recently improved facilities, and as well…

Battant

Battant

9 Jul 2009

Signed to Paris’ Kill the DJ label, sometime home of Optimo’s own How to Kill the DJ (Part 2) mix, Battant are a class above most other bands of their ilk. Look to lead singer Chloe Raunet for the reason why, her jeans, plain white T-shirt and cropped…

The Proposal

The Proposal

9 Jul 2009

A summer-smash in the US, Anne Fletcher’s follow-up to 27 Dresses is an old-fashioned odd-couple comedy which might appeal to admirers of the bland charisma of Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. In a plot that blatantly reworks the central idea of…

Malcolm Middleton

Malcolm Middleton

9 Jul 2009

Welcome back, Malcolm Middleton. Now with added Jenny Reeve on guitar, violin and gorgeous, elfin vocals, and Johnny Lynch (the Fence Collective’s Pictish Trail) in charge of yet more guitar, harmonies and – we kid you not – rapping out the entire theme…

Jocasta Sleeps

Jocasta Sleeps

9 Jul 2009

It could be said the Scottish alternative music scene is threatening to become over-saturated with Biffy Clyro clones, accent and guitar attack in tow, so where are the bands capable of transcending this rut? Well, we may well have just found one.

Ac/dc

AC/DC

9 Jul 2009

Crashing through the back of the stage on a full-size locomotive is one hell of a way to make an entrance, as the opening chords of ‘Rock’n’Roll Train’ blare out across a sweltering Hampden. The atmosphere is electric as AC/DC are greeted as all…

Dominion

Don’t Miss - Morningside

9 Jul 2009

Get sweet treats from S Luca S Luca of Musselburgh’s Morningside café is a Mecca for chocolate lovers in the area and far beyond. Warm up on a cold winter’s evening with a cup of tea and a lovingly crafted chocolate treat. In summertime, S Luca really…

Fired Up!

Fired Up!

9 Jul 2009

Two sex-hungry high school jocks, who don’t fancy summer in a baking hot football training camp, decide to infiltrate the girls’ cheerleader training instead. It’s a blatantly misogynist notion for comedy, yet director Will Gluck pulls off a far better…

Take Three: The three ages of fish restaurant

9 Jul 2009

Rogano 11 Exchange Place, Glasgow, 0141 248 4055, roganoglasgow.com Fitted out in art deco style in homage to the Clyde-built Queen Mary in 1935. It looks expensive and by golly it is. Amid the walnut veneer and polished silver, choose fish bisque…

SNJO: Rhapsody in Blue Live

SNJO: Rhapsody in Blue Live

9 Jul 2009

It has been a source of regret that so little of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s mighty achievements of the past decade and more have made it onto commercial CD release. This is only the second disc they have been able to issue (although Tommy…

Ultra

Ultra

9 Jul 2009

Ricky Tognazzi’s grim, but occasionally comical piece of social realism from 1990 might be seen as a fascinating insight into the kind of empty nihilism that has led to so many years of Berlusconi in Italy. In it, the lives of a group of Roma casuals…

Wild Geese II

Wild Geese II

9 Jul 2009

If you’re a man of a certain age, chances are The Wild Geese made a lamentably unPC impact on your youth. So too, it’s likely that you found your way to the sequel, seven years later in 1985, but you don’t remember much about it. Here’s why: Peter…

Fine, Totally Fine

Fine, Totally Fine

9 Jul 2009

Less character-driven than character trait-driven, Yosuke Fujita’s film follows three youngish incompetents as they try to make the best of their lives, all played charmingly by well-known young Japanese actors. There is Yosiyosi Arakawa’s Teruo, the…

Inherent Vice

Thomas Pynchon: Inherent Vice

9 Jul 2009

Less than half the length of his last 1000-page tome and riffing on the relatively straightforward hardboiled crime genre as opposed to the exhausting literary mash-up of Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon’s seventh novel is the reclusive author’s most…

Alyn Cosker: Lynâs Une

Alyn Cosker: Lyn’s Une

9 Jul 2009

The Ayrshire drum maestro’s current high-power trio with guitarist David Dunsmuir and bass guitarist Ross Hamilton provides the foundation for his debut album. The energised music foregrounds the funk and groove elements of Cosker’s playing to great…

Book of Clouds

Chloe Aridjis: Book of Clouds

9 Jul 2009

The Scottish climate comes in for a fair bit of stick but if Book of Clouds is to be believed, there’s more to dreichness than we think. Chloe Aridjis’ Berlin is awash with the wet stuff, from torrential downpours to misty masses. Tatiana is a young…

Peatbog Faeries: Live

Peatbog Faeries: Live

9 Jul 2009

The Skye-based fusion outfit never let up in energy or intensity in the course of this first live recording, taken from concerts in Edinburgh and Durham last year. It will surely satisfy those who feel the band’s studio outings don’t quite reflect the…

On Black Sisters' Street

Chika Unigwe: On Black Sisters’ Street

9 Jul 2009

The depiction of modern prostitution is often one-dimensional, something this skilled new writer is seeking to address. Chika Unigwe is Nigerian-born but now lives in Belgium, the setting for this evocative and heartfelt novel. Four African women share…

Max Manus: Man of War

Max Manus: Man of War

9 Jul 2009

This fact-based drama follows, somewhat in the manner of Black Book, the wartime experiences of the title character, a Norwegian resistance hero. As genre films go, Max Manus doesn’t wander far from tracks laid down for half a century, yet there’s a…

Funuke, Show Some Love, You Losers

Funuke, Show Some Love, You Losers

9 Jul 2009

A long-winded title for a film that ultimately runs out of puff, Funuke is at its best in the early stages. As a conceited struggling young actress comes back to her hometown after her parents’ death, Sumika (Sato Eriko) is as trapped in denial as she…

Wasted No. 2

Various: Wasted No. 2

9 Jul 2009

More Scottish comic action this fortnight with the second issue of Wasted. Much like its predecessor Northern Lightz, it’s a cheeky selection of comedy shorts from names such as Alan Grant, John Wagner, Jamie Grant, Alan Kerr, Curt Sibling, Dave…

Busdriver: Jhelli Beam

Busdriver: Jhelli Beam

9 Jul 2009

Regan ‘Busdriver’ Farquhar’s natural verbosity has won him as many badmouths as it has plaudits in the past, and for album number eight, he seems perfectly content to continue letting his mouth run off. His supreme ability to over-egg the lyrical…

Heavy Metal Mouth

Heavy Metal Mouth

9 Jul 2009

For their latest exhibition Polarcap invited 13 artists, drawn from a diverse pool of ages and experience and disciplines to respond to contemporary Heavy Metal culture, in particular to a text by participating artist Norman Shaw, which includes the…

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

9 Jul 2009

Another new name (all four of them!) to drop into conversation at a summer shindig, the enigmatic Miles stirs the cockles on this rich and raw debut set. From Portland, Oregon, to living rough in Coney Island, New York (and back again), Miles and his…

Dream Theater: Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Dream Theater: Black Clouds & Silver Linings

9 Jul 2009

The phrase ‘prog-metal’ might not be the most alluring, but bands like Mastodon, Muse and The Mars Volta are helping to rehabilitate this most over-indulgent of art forms. Dream Theater have been in the game for longer than most, creating dense, complex…

White Denim: Fits

White Denim: Fits

9 Jul 2009

The Texan trio who hit the ground running a year ago with their impressively disparate debut Workout Holiday are back with an even wilder polyphonic follow-up. Appropriately titled Fits, this schizoid record veers from avant punk to psychedelic funk…

Beatdown mixed by Scratch Perverts

Various: Beatdown mixed by Scratch Perverts

9 Jul 2009

Those most nimble of fingers ever to molest a turntable in the name of high hip hop art, the collective better known as the Scratch Perverts (who enjoy in their number Edinburgh’s own Plus One) spread their wings here for our musical delight. Using…

The Lea Shores

The Lea Shores: The Lea Shores

9 Jul 2009

Inspired by Richie Havens and named after a David Crosby song, you might expect Peckham quintet The Lea Shores to bear echoes of Fleet Foxes or Kings of Leon, perhaps. Slightly disappointingly, it’s the ghost of ladrock’s stoner wing that floats over…

Florence and the Machine: Lungs

Florence and the Machine: Lungs

9 Jul 2009

Worth bagging for the staggering drive-pop grandeur of ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)’ alone, this surprisingly compelling debut from skewed London chorister Florence Welch largely justifies, and even outshines, the hype. Abounding with curious musical…

VV Brown: Travelling Like the Light

VV Brown: Travelling Like the Light

9 Jul 2009

Underneath VV Brown’s forward roll fringe and glossy grin beats a rockabilly heart. Hyped as a ‘girl most likely to’ in 2009, it’s kind of a balloon burster to find her pop’n’roll debut doesn’t match up to her striking, wholesome-hot good looks. (She’s…

Beerjacket: Animosity

Beerjacket: Animosity

9 Jul 2009

Like an iron fist in a velvet glove, acoustic troubadour Peter Kelly has wrapped powerful lyrical sentiment inside a delicate musical framework for this stripped-back-to-basics album. And what an album it is, with whispered vocals, plaintive harmonies…

Keletigui et ses Tambourinis: The Syliphone Years

Keletigui et ses Tambourinis: The Syliphone Years

9 Jul 2009

Look no further: the sultry, sensual dance sounds the summer demands can be found right here. Sterns are riding high on the back of their recent digital remastering of Mali’s Rail Band (Salif Keita, Mory Kante) and TPOK Jazz, and now give the same…

Magnolia Electric Co: Josephine

Magnolia Electric Co: Josephine

9 Jul 2009

If it’s conciliatory cowboy rock you seek, then look no further than Josephine. It’s the latest plaintive exposition from alt-country connoisseur Jason Molina: a dude whose musical soubriquets include Magnolia Electric Co and Songs: Ohia. While…

Mara Aranda & Solatge: DÃ¨ria

Mara Aranda & Solatge: Dèria

9 Jul 2009

Valencian singer Mara Aranda joins forces with Solatge in her latest post-L’Ham du Foc venture. Her voice is as spirited as ever as she sings stories of smugglers, mermaids and muleteers, re-vamping ancient Mediterranean-Spanish songs for the 21st…

Jackie-O Mother-Fucker: Ballads of the Revolution

Jackie-O Mother-Fucker: Ballads of the Revolution

9 Jul 2009

Now 15 years formed and with a plethora of studio (and live) albums to their name, Portland’s JoMFs produce yet another mind-blowing, psychedelic trip. Sounding like a hybrid of Butthole Surfers, Spacemen 3 and Red Red Meat, lead-guru Tom Greenwood and…

This will explain everything

Calling all Artists and Illustrators

9 Jul 2009

The Edinburgh-based Forest Publications are putting together a new graphic anthology named This Will Explain Everything, which is now open to submissions from comic artists and illustrators. Writer and publisher Ryan Van Winkle explains: ‘This anthology…

Tiësto

Tiësto

9 Jul 2009

His high-energy trance might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Tiësto (born Tijs Michiel Verwest) cements his place as the biggest DJ in the world with a date in the huge environs of Glasgow’s SECC as over 10,000 clubbers will be dazzled by his full-on…

Edinburgh Castle

More Gathering tickets available

9 Jul 2009

Tickets for the dress rehearsal for the centrepiece of The Gathering 2009 weekend are now on sale. Entry to the world premiere of Aisling’s Children: Tales of the Homecoming on Edinburgh Castle Esplanade was previously only open to weekend passport…

Implosion Quintet: The Future Sound of Yesterday

Implosion Quintet: The Future Sound of Yesterday

9 Jul 2009

A mashed-up melting pot of experimental world musak ‘lone’ multi-instrumentalist James R Baker delivers his long-awaited IQ debut. Cinematic, with a taste for the Eastern European, TFSOY is an eclectic and exotic hybrid of bohemian jazz and…

Des Clarke

Des Clarke

9 Jul 2009

Love the title of his Fringe show: Clarxism. But he’s not just a man of titular gimmickry, what with him being one of the most gifted comperes and headliners in the land. His reasonably sized fame hasn’t prevented him from keeping up the graft and he’ll…

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