Issue 640

Dizzee Heights - Dizzee Rascal interview

24 Sep 2009

Erstwhile underground sensation, critical darling and now serial chart-topper Dizzee Rascal, aka Dylan Mills, has just notched up three MOBO Award nominations to complement his three consecutive number one singles. Fame has not phased him, however, and…

Conversation piece - Dani Marti interview

Exploring gay men's health and sexuality through art

24 Sep 2009

Dani Marti’s new exhibition, insideout, has been safely installed in the sh[out] space at Parnie Street as part of Glasgay! Yet the convoluted tale of how one of the show’s installations ended up in this space still sticks in the craw of the…

Guide to Edinburgh's Old Town

24 Sep 2009

Not for nothing is the Old Town famed for its tartan tat. From Jimmy hats to bagpipes and ‘I Heart Scotland’ badges to ‘I Love Ewe’ cards, it’s all too easy to write off Auld Reekie’s historical hub as simply a place to partake in the city’s…

Glasgay! - Steven Thomson interview

24 Sep 2009

2009 will be both one of Glasgay!’s best and most troubled years. The programme is stronger than ever, but as Glasgay! has grown in its cultural importance it has attracted new levels of criticism and controversy that now threaten to undermine its…

Urban Legends - MOBO Awards 2009 come to Glasgow

24 Sep 2009

‘You’ve heard of us, even if you don’t know it yet. Remember that boy driving you mad on the bus, playing music on his mobile at full volume? He’s listening to us. So is his sister, his best mate, his best mate’s older brother and his teacher. We make…

Public Interest - Edinburgh Royal Mile pub crawl

24 Sep 2009

Between the sprawling concrete shapes of the Scottish Parliament and the historic heights of Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile covers some of the best and worst aspects of the city. Plenty of tartan tourists and Australian backpackers stroll aimlessly up…

Ripe Time - L’Artichaut

24 Sep 2009

France isn’t a country known for its abundant vege sympathy, with non-meat-eaters often having to make do with a half-hearted omelette, a green salad or frîtes for every meal. But in a way the concept of a vege French restaurant shouldn’t seem so…

First Word - Peter Hook interview

24 Sep 2009

Founder of Joy Division, and bassist with New Order, Peter Hook lets off some steam about music piracy. First record you ever bought. ‘Ride a White Swan’ by T Rex. Now that was very, very long time ago. Last time you were chatted up. Tragically, I…

Dizzee Rascal’s YouTube Hits

24 Sep 2009

A selection of Dizzee’s most colourful moments, available for posterity on YouTube.

The House of Bernarda Alba

23 Sep 2009

Rona Munro's reimagining of Federico Garcia Lorca's all-female ensemble piece, blinging neon, dripping in credit, is the sort of glossy, hard-edged melodrama River City dreams of being After the gangland execution of her husband, Siobhan Redmond’s…

John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins – Taking Liberties

23 Sep 2009

Among many remarkable pictures in this essential retrospective of London’s 1960s counter-culture’s snapper-in-residence, there’s a wonderful study of the editorial team behind International Times, the era’s alternative bible. In it, eleven people huddle…

Baddies

23 Sep 2009

Mixing post punk and art rock Baddies are ready to step out alongside the likes of Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads and The Maccabees. Instantly catchy and boasting big anthemic choruses as they unleash their debut Do The Job on the public.

Sugar Crisis

Apple Store, Glasgow, Thu 17 Sep

23 Sep 2009

Even before they’ve played a note, the bubblegum pink guitar onstage seems like a sign that this boy-girl duo could well be about to perform a heady sugar rush of fluorescent pop. And so it proves – the short and sweet half hour set reveals a…

Confined Human Condition

23 Sep 2009

Comprising song, acting, dance and original musical scores, the two compositions that make up Confined Human Condition are both, evidently, Theatre Cryptic, but otherwise make strange bedfellows. The first, ‘Baghdad Monologue’, is an examination of…

Books hitlist

23 Sep 2009

Nick Cave The Death of Bunny Munro is only veritable polymath Cave’s second novel, presumably, the band, the film scores and the film scripts all kind of got in the way a little bit of him getting round to another one until now. Here he reads from it…

Lorrie Moore - A Gate at the Stairs

23 Sep 2009

(Faber) Lorrie Moore is a writer who doesn’t exactly believe in rushing things. Not only is A Gate at the Stairs her first book since her 1998 short story collection Birds of America, but it seemingly takes an eternity to get anywhere, steadily and…

Rage

23 Sep 2009

‘The world’s first interactive multi-venue film premiere’ as Rage is launched in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow simultaneously, with footage from the London red carpet broadcast live on screen at the other venues with an interactive Q&A with director…

Wigtown Book Festival

23 Sep 2009

Edinburgh might have the biggest book festival in the world but Wigtown stands up as an individual one the with over 150 events over ten days, mixing up big names like Roddy Doyle (pictured), Julia Donaldson and Nick Nairn with local specials including…

International Guitar Night

23 Sep 2009

A trio of truly outstanding guitar talents join forces. Lulo Reinhardt (grandson of the great Django Reinhardt) specialises in gypsy jazz; Itamar Erez combines European classical, jazz and world styles all brought together by IGN founder Brian Gore for…

Odemba OK Jazz

23 Sep 2009

Scottish debut from African collective for a night of hypnotic guitars, horns, driving rhythms and dancefloor jazz. This twelve-piece are led by guitarist Dizzy Mandjeku in this special gig to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of the King of…

The Godfather preview

23 Sep 2009

The most iconic mafia film of all time, and rightly so, in which Francis Ford Coppola weaves a rich and detailed story of family, bloodshed and crime all ruled by a masterful Marlon Brando. A great opportunity to see the life of the Corleone family on…

The Hurt Locker

23 Sep 2009

It’s well worth highlighting that Kathryn Bigelow’s Hurt Locker is still on limited release. Based on a journalist’s account of the Iraq war, this is one of the most realistic films to tackle the conflict, as you’d expect from the woman who gave us such…

The Invention of Lying preview

Gervais is back on the big screen

23 Sep 2009

Ricky Gervais is back on the big screen in the this offbeat romcom, co-written and co-directed by Gervais, who also takes the starring role as Mark, the first person who learns how to tell a big fat porkie in a universe where lying doesn’t exist.

Claire Martin

23 Sep 2009

Singer Claire Martin remains the front-runner in the jazz vocal department on the UK scene, and celebrates the release of A Modern Art, her 13th album for the Glasgow-based Linn Records, on this latest foray north. The Lot, Edinburgh, Fri 2 Oct…

The 40 Year Old Virgin

23 Sep 2009

Despite the title The 40 Year Old Virgin is a surprisingly sweet film from comedy juggernaut Judd Apatow that brought Steve Carroll to the public at large’s attention in the titular role. Screening here with The Hangover for a smart comedy double…

Simba and Kobi Onyame

23 Sep 2009

Hip hop double bill featuring Zimbabwe’s Simba and Ghanaian producer/artist Kobi Onyame. Now both based in the UK mixing R&B beats with rap lyrics, yet another reason why British hip hop is so exciting right now. Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Sat 26…

White Lightnin'

17 Sep 2009

Some films come out of nowhere, knock you for six and leave you dazed and elated and wondering where the hell that came from. White Lightnin’ is one such film. It starts as a biopic based on the life of 1970s Appalachian mountain dancer Jesco White…

White Lightnin' or just white trash?

The creators of the controversial revenge tale explain all

17 Sep 2009

Watching White Lightnin’ you wonder where its makers came up with the idea for their gloriously demented film. At once a biopic about a hillbilly dancer and a tale of revenge that plays like a seventies American horror movie, it’s the story of Jesco…

Kraak and Smaak

17 Sep 2009

Name: Kraak and Smaak. Occupation: Dutch purveyors of crispy funk and futuristic jazzy beats. Kraak & Smaak? Is this some new high-class drugs combo I’ve never heard of before? While we’re sure they get the double meaning it actually translates as…

The Beaches of Agnes

Playfully eccentric feminist biopic

17 Sep 2009

If this idiosyncratic cinematic self-portrait is indeed Agnes Varda’s final film, it’s an illuminating and poignant adieu. The Belgian-born octogenarian film-maker ‘walks backwards’ through her life, narrating and drawing on clips from her own films and…

Henry Coombes: The Bedfords

A film portait of effortless finesse

17 Sep 2009

The Bedfords tells the story of English painter Edwin Landseer’s commission to paint a family portrait of the Bedfords at their home in the Scottish Highlands. Like a twenty minute moving painting, the film is a portrait study of Landseer and…

Klaus Weber: Bee Paintings

Developing the relationship between the insect and humanity

17 Sep 2009

It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, making us entirely dependent on co-habitation. Klaus Weber’s project develops bio-aesthetic experiments to question the…

The Beggar's Opera

17 Sep 2009

‘Adaptation’ doesn’t even begin to cover this reworking of John Gay’s 1728 ballad opera that satirised the political morality of the day. Retaining physical remnants of the original – the characters, core plot and a smattering of dialogue – Vanishing…

Marshall Jefferson set for Byblos, Glasgow

17 Sep 2009

Dance music sounded very different before Marshall Jefferson got his hands on it. In 1986, Jefferson played piano over a 4/4 beat for the first time and was told by record companies that the sound just didn’t work. The next year he produced ‘Acid Trax…

Hare and Tortoise

17 Sep 2009

A noisy audience at a children’s show can mean one of two things: the kids are so bored they’re chatting among themselves, or they’re so involved they just can’t keep a lid on it. Happily for Licketyspit theatre company, the latter was true at the…

The Soloist

True life drama from Atonement director

17 Sep 2009

Having brought a brittle grace to adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, director Joe Wright makes a splashy stateside debut with The Soloist, a true-life drama about an unexpected friendship between world-weary LA journalist Steve Lopez…

Filthy English by Peter Silverton

Comprehensive history of swearing lacks humour

17 Sep 2009

Swearing is a universal phenomenon. The delivery, meaning, intent and pitch may vary – some might mouth a silent ‘fiddlesticks’ while others erupt with a string of expletives so incomprehensible it’s difficult to discern the exact meaning – but we all…

Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'edera

The crimewriter turns to comics

17 Sep 2009

Ian Rankin isn’t the first author to turn his hand to comics, with names as diverse as Jodi Picoult and Michael Chabon all having had a go. In fact he isn’t even the first Scottish crime writer to script a John Constantine story, with Denise Mina having…

Various - Haçienda Acid House Classics

17 Sep 2009

It was the last great musical revolution in British life so it’s no surprise that after years of fondness from those who were there at the time that another generation (what is this Generation Z?) would arrive to adopt the aesthetics, if not the…

Basement Jaxx - Scars

17 Sep 2009

Never ones to shy away from roping in a guest star or two, Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe have given over pretty much the entirety of their fifth studio album to friends with a willingness to come round the studio and muck in. While their tendency…

Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

17 Sep 2009

AC/DC aside, prematurely losing your lead singer is often fatal for bands. Grunge icons Alice in Chains of course lost Layne Staley in 2002 to years of well-documented drug (mis)use, but Black Gives Way to Blue will give them belief that they made the…

Edwyn Collins and Teenage Fanclub - Mono, Glasgow, Thu 10 Sep

17 Sep 2009

To anyone with an affinity for Glasgow’s indie music scene, this show was something beyond special. Simply surveying the local dignitaries in the crowd (Stuart Murdoch, Duglas T Stewart, Stephen Pastel, Adele Bethel, Jackie McKeown and more) was like…

Ladyfest

The feminist festival returns to the capital

17 Sep 2009

After the success of last year’s month-long lady-focused extravaganza, Edinburgh’s own feminist festival has gone for a more boutique look this year in the lead up to the Gude Cause event (look out for our feature next issue). Still, they’re packing a…

Blueflint

The banjo toting duo on their Edinburgh Americana

17 Sep 2009

Sometimes the path less travelled isn’t as peculiar as you might think. Admittedly on paper, Blueflint’s story isn’t an entirely conventional one, but the result is something wholly engaging to anyone’s ears: great songs. ‘Clare [Louise Neilson] and…

Five reasons to go and see the Pixies

17 Sep 2009

1 Come on, do you really need this one spelled out? It’s The Pixies, man, alternative rock legends who formed in Boston in 1986 and split in 1993, leaving five studio albums which became hugely influential on shaping music for the next 20 years. 2…

Glasgow Festival of DIY Culture

Free and not for profit events take over the city

17 Sep 2009

Strange, wonderful, convoluted and absolutely charming. And that’s just the programme. From wonder walks to guerrilla gardening, time-travelling pub crawls to flash jam sessions on the subway, this festival of free and not-for-profit events is trying to…

Agnès Varda

The considerable career of the ‘grandmother’ of Le Nouvelle Vague

17 Sep 2009

There are rumours that Agnès Varda’s 2008 cinematic autobiography The Beaches of Agnès is her last film. For any octogenarian filmmaker, this might seem like the logical conclusion to a prolific career, but Varda is no ordinary artist. When she…

Polly Stenham

The young playwright takes That Face to Glasgow

17 Sep 2009

Polly Stenham’s play That Face left even London’s most codgerly critics struggling to stuff their reviews with enough superlatives. Aged just nineteen and having written only a single play, she found herself hailed as an important new voice in British…

The final Kinky Afro

The techno night waves a fond farewell

17 Sep 2009

Kinky Afro’s promoter Matthew Bennett, aka Mr Mafro, is on his mobile phone in a field on the Isle of Wight, the sounds of Bestival pounding out around him. For the moment, though, his heart is in the Sub Club. ‘It’s almost 13 years to the day since I…

Glasgow DIY Festival

The city shows off its talented underground arts scene

17 Sep 2009

Without wishing to play down the significance of Franz Ferdinand’s commercial breakthrough, arguably the real story of Glasgow rock in the ’00s has been the rise of the DIY gig scene. Nuts & Seeds got the ball rolling by booking weird, noisy and fun…

Eddie Campbell

The comic artist/writer brings his life's work together

17 Sep 2009

Glasgow-born, Brisbane-based Eddie Campbell is best known for illustrating From Hell, his and writer Alan Moore’s exhaustive graphic novel investigation of the Jack the Ripper murders. It’s the Oz-based ex-pat’s autobiographical comics, however, that…

Trongate 103

Behind the scenes of a gallery with a bright new future

17 Sep 2009

Billy Connolly once surmised that the great thing about Glasgow was that ‘if there’s a nuclear attack it’ll look exactly the same afterwards’. The Big Yin has a point. But while its character remains, some of Glasgow’s cultural hubs have certainly…

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Still breaking barriers and bigger than ever

17 Sep 2009

It started in 2007, with 40 fairly low-fi events, mostly in and around Glasgow. Two years on, and the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival is collaborating with major Scottish artists, musicians and writers, co-running events with the Natioanl…

Autumn Season Preview: Classical Music

What's ahead in the next few weeks

17 Sep 2009

It’s autumn, the leaves are turning and it’s that time of year when classical music’s own type of seasons start up again to keep everyone going through until the Spring. A major difference this year is that the orchestras are returning to their…

Hip Hop Round Up

17 Sep 2009

Given the lightweight folly of his ‘comeback’ album, 2007’s Kingdom Come, the idea of Jay-Z adding a third chapter onto his already substantial Blueprint series promised much, but in reality, The Blueprint 3 (Universal) ●●● doesn’t deliver like the…

An Argument About Sex preview

Pamela Carter's theatrical exploration of how gender affects behaviour

17 Sep 2009

A few months back, an outburst from acting Prime Minister Harriet Harman, blaming our current recession upon testosterone-fuelled male traders, reopened an old debate about gender and human behaviour. By coincidence, at the same time, preparations were…

Playlist 18 - Short films

Though far from short of quality

17 Sep 2009

The internet has gifted us with the attention spans of goldfish. But that’s no bad thing when the best short films can stimulate more thoroughly than a dozen features, as well as providing the perfect calling card for up and coming directors. Witness…

Hello Sailor! Gay Life On The Ocean Wave

Documenting the lives of Britain's hidden homosexual seafarers

17 Sep 2009

An attractive, light-hearted exhibition revealing a hidden side of the Merchant Navy from the 1950s to the 1980s, when young sailors reported for duty as competent crew members during the day and dressed up as Broadway stars by night. Hello Sailor! Gay…

Hitlist: Clubs

17 Sep 2009

Cabaret Voltaire’s Alternative Freshers Week, Kinky Afro, Motherfunk, Pinup Nights, Weak at the Knees, Numbers & Fortified, Huntleys and Palmers Audio Club, Compact Disco, Streetrave 20th Birthday Party

Dorian Gray preview

Last year's International Festival dance hit is looking even better

17 Sep 2009

In August 2008, the eyes of the dance world turned expectantly on one man: Matthew Bourne. Known internationally for choreographing fun shows for all the family – Edward Scissorhands and Nutcracker to name but two – Bourne had strayed into unfamiliar…

The Wee Chill

17 Sep 2009

By accident more than design, Glasgow’s seven-year-old Wee Chill festival now has a spiritual home and no desire to leave it. The two-year renovation of its original venue, the Glasshouse on Queen’s Park, has brought about this conclusion, with an…

Daliso Chaponda

The Malawian born comedian offers cultural ponderings in Glasgow

17 Sep 2009

After snuffling around a myriad of shows on the Fringe this year, witnessing Daliso Chaponda was like finding a truffle. One of the few acts playing The Lot on Grassmarket, his hour, Westerners Calm Down: An African’s Perspective, was an intelligent…

Hitlist: Music

17 Sep 2009

Speech Debelle, Music Like A Vitamin, NME Radar Tour, Pixies

Hitlist: Around Town

17 Sep 2009

Glasgow Festival of DIY Culture, Be Creative, Ladyfest, GCM Social, Craft Guerrilla DIY Craft Evening, Cafe Improv, Suffragism

Also released: Music

17 Sep 2009

The Law, David Gray, Pixie Lott, Paramore, Big Star, A Boy's Own Odyssey, Tommy Reilly, Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson

Hitlist: Classical Music

17 Sep 2009

ERCU 150th Anniversary Gala Concert, Scottish Opera: The Elixir of Love, Artisan Trio

The Crimson Wing

The life cycle of the Lesser Flamingo

17 Sep 2009

This is the first cinematic venture to come out of the newly formed DisneyNature corporation and it certainly boasts all the right credentials: syrupy narrative read by Mariella Frostrup and a trendy soundtrack by The Cinematic Orchestra. What you…

Creation

Darwin's tragic and triumphant life on screen

17 Sep 2009

Charles Darwin’s earth-shattering publication of his theory of evolution came after a period of immense personal turmoil and self-recrimination. While critics and supporters predicted that his revelations would effectively kill God, they also put him at…

Codeine Velvet Club

Him from the Fratellis teams up with local singer/songwriter Lou Hickey

17 Sep 2009

Doesn’t Jon Fratelli scrub up well? Where the Glaswegian rocker’s other band were on a three-man crusade to reinstate denim as the rock’n’roll fabric of choice, he’s adopted a classier look for this new project with local singer-songwriter Lou Hickey.

Comedy Hitlist

The events bound to raise a smile

17 Sep 2009

Billy Connolly, Daliso Chaponda, Fred MacAulay, Iain Heggie, Mark Nelson, Miles Jupp, Scott Agnew, Scottish Comedian of the Year Grand Final, Stand Up For Myeloma,

Also published: Books

It'd be criminal to miss out on these

17 Sep 2009

Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest The third volume of the bestselling Millenium Trilogy has Lisbeth Salander fighting corruption as she is set to face trial for three murders. Maclehose Press. Ruth Rendell The Monster in the…

Snark by David Denby

Entertaining history of unnecessary written abuse from the New Yorker critic

17 Sep 2009

There’s little doubt that the information superhighway, as no one calls the internet these days, has revolutionised the way we communicate, think and act. But for each benefit to any seismic social shift, there are a myriad of downsides which need to be…

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffeneger

Disappointing ghost story from The Time Traveller's Wife author

17 Sep 2009

Like her debut novel The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger’s new offering requests from her readers some suspension of disbelief. When bookseller Elspeth dies, she leaves her plush Highgate flat to her American twin nieces, the daughters of her…

Alistair McClymont

17 Sep 2009

What you’re looking at is not a CGI or Photoshop trick, it’s an actual miniature tornado of water vapour, created through the application of some astounding physics by artist Alistair McClymont. This ‘meteorological eye candy’, as the up-and-coming…

The Leg - What Happened to the Shrunken Tina Turner

17 Sep 2009

Edinburgh-based arthouse indie maverick Dan Mutch has provided flickers of genius in previous bands Khaya and Desc, but latest incarnation The Leg is wilfully obscure to vanishing point. Compared to their recent inventive collaboration with Dawn of the…

Cabaret Voltaire’s Alternative Freshers Week

17 Sep 2009

So you’re a new student in the fair town of Edinburgh and not quite sure what club nights are worth going to. Well fear not young fresher, Cabaret Voltaire has assembled all their best nights for a full week of house, drum & bass, indie, electro and…

Skream

17 Sep 2009

Numbers and Fortified join forces to unleash the dubstep anarchy of Croyden’s finest Skream on the crowds at the Subbie. One of the earliest and most respected pioneers of the genre, he mixes jazzy complexity and house rhythms with juddering bass and…

Self-fulfilling prophesy

16 Sep 2009

Without wishing to play down the significance of Franz Ferdinand’s commercial breakthrough, arguably the real story of Glasgow rock in the ’00s has been the rise of the DIY gig scene. Nuts & Seeds got the ball rolling by booking weird, noisy and fun…

The Crimson Wing - Matthew Aeberhard and Leander Ward

16 Sep 2009

Who are they? Aeberhard and Ward are established cameramen working within the nature documentary genre and both have over ten year’s experience of filming specifically in Africa. The Crimson Wing is their first project as co-directors and…

Idlewild - Post Electric Blues

16 Sep 2009

(Cooking Vinyl) With a bulky back catalogue soaked in boisterous, if melancholic, guitar rock the expectation for Idlewild was always for them to make their Automatic for the People: a weighty album which crystallised all their most extreme emotions.

The Stripper

16 Sep 2009

‘I hate old age,’ complains Richard O’Brien. ‘The only thing going for it is the bus pass.’ But although the Rocky Horror Show writer and former Crystal Maze host may bemoan his 67 years, the revival of his 1982 musical The Stripper, now on a five-week…

Best of British Jazz Showcase

16 Sep 2009

The Europe Jazz Network is an association of producers and presenters of contemporary jazz and improvised music from all across Europe. It has gone through significant changes since it was first launched in 1987, but is now thriving, with Nod Knowles…

The Temper Trap

16 Sep 2009

Australia’s The Temper Trap have been rapidly gaining momentum in the UK of late, having based themselves in London to effectively have a decent crack at breaking into the conscience of the general populace. Thus far, things are going very much…

Exposure: Nite Jewel

16 Sep 2009

The musical project of philosophy student and artist Romana Gonzalez, Nite Jewel filter ‘80s pop, ‘90s R&B and new age music through a dreamy lo-fi haze. Following the 12” ‘What Did He Say’ on estimable avant-disco stable Italians Do It Better, debut…

Massive Attack set for Glasgow 02 Academy

16 Sep 2009

‘If a thing’s worth doing,’ declares the latest status update on Massive Attack’s MySpace page, ‘it’s worth doing slowly’. There’s your nine-word excuse, then, for the gap between 2003’s 100 Windows album and their much-anticipated fifth record.

Schuh presents The New Blood Tour - Bongo Club, Sun 13 Sep

16 Sep 2009

Even with the astonishingly reasonable free price tag, the prospect of Monday morning seems to have put many off the idea of heading to the Bongo Club for a night of what shoe companies think you should be listening to. The half empty floor does…

Rider on the Rain

16 Sep 2009

(15) 120min (Optimum) Between appearing in supporting roles in all-star Hollywood romps such as The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen throughout the sixties and establishing himself as a star in his own right in brutal thrillers such as The…

Robert Glasper - Double Booked

16 Sep 2009

(Blue Note Records) The double booking is captured on two voicemail messages on the disc, one from trumpeter Terence Blanchard and the other from Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson, both looking to have Glasper and his bands on the same night. The split…

The Big Knife

16 Sep 2009

(PG) 107min (Optimum) Movies about Hollywood don’t get more caustic than this. Released in 1955, the year after the final death knell of the studio system, it’s a searing indictment of old Tinseltown made in the style of a film noir. Directed by the…

Muse - The Resistance

16 Sep 2009

It seems like so long ago that Muse were dismissed as Radiohead copyists with their debut Showbiz back in 1999. Now they are probably the most vital rock act in Britain. After 2006’s all conquering Black Holes and Revelations they’re back with more…

The Red Baron

16 Sep 2009

(12) 101min (Showboat) The daredevil adventures of the famous First World War flying ace ought to make for an entertaining cinematic romp. Manfred von Richthofen, the young, handsome, aristocrat who terrorised the Allies in his scarlet bi-plane…

The Stranger

16 Sep 2009

(PG) 91min (Optimum) That this 1946 noir was the only Orson Welles film to show profit on release and that it was the director’s least favourite picture might suggest an absence of his signature talent. But while Welles had been pressured into…

Brian McNeill - The Baltic Tae Byzantium

16 Sep 2009

(Greentrax) Back in 1991, Greentrax issued former Battlefield Band mainstay Brian McNeill’s Back O’ the North Wind, a musical exploration of the Scots in America that became a classic in the label’s catalogue. Almost two decades on, The Baltic Tae…

Tom Bancroft Orchestro Interrupto - The Ballad of Linda & Crawford

16 Sep 2009

(Interrupto) Most of the music on this long-awaited disc was originally written for a tour that the drummer made with this 13-piece band and special guest Geri Allen back in 2004. Bancroft then recorded the music at Castlesound studio shortly…

Ian Brown - My Way

16 Sep 2009

(Fiction) To complain about Ian Brown’s production-bandaged voice or swaggering Manc intonation is to not really get it, quite frankly. Predictable, dullard technical proficiency is cooed over on X-Factor every week, if that’s what you want, but the…

The Low Miffs And Malcolm Ross: Malcolm Ross And The Low Miffs

16 Sep 2009

(Re-Action) Josef K/Orange Juice axe-man Malcolm Ross remains the most tasteful guitar hero to twang out of post-punk’s jangular alley. This collaboration with Glasgow’s most dashing young pretenders, then, is a perfect marriage of experience and…

Every Time I Die - New Junk Aesthetic

16 Sep 2009

(Epitaph) Every Time I Die’s last two albums were aptly entitled Gutter Phenomenon and The Big Dirty, showcasing the American noiseniks’ gruff and salacious sound. Their latest effort is little different. An unpredictable smorgasbord of neck-whipping…

Strike the Colours - Seven Roads

16 Sep 2009

(Deadlight Records) Jenny Reeve is a well-kent face in Scottish indie circles, having worked with Idlewild, Malcolm Middleton and The Reindeer Section in the past. This second album from her current project is a subtle and considered affair, a…

Driving Aphrodite

My Life in Ruins

16 Sep 2009

(12A) 94min Appalling sequel to the abysmal My Big Fat Greek Wedding Georgia (Nia Vardalos) has lost her kefi (Greek for ‘mojo’). She gets her groove back by becoming a travel guide and seeing things in new ways. General release from Fri 2 Oct.

Surrogates

16 Sep 2009

(12A) 88min FBI agents Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell investigate the murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate robots. Interesting but flawed graphic novel adaptation. Directed by Jonathan Terminator 3…