Issue 648

Profile: Gabourey Sidibe from Precious

13 Jan 2010

Born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, where Do The Right Thing was filmed, she grew up in Harlem. Her mother is an R&B and gospel singer and her father a taxi driver. Sidibe’s life changed when a friend encouraged her to go to an open…

Celtic Connections - Bearfoot

13 Jan 2010

As we know, Glasgow can be a cold place in January, but one band that won’t be fazed by icy temperatures is Alaska’s Bearfoot. The bluegrass quintet grew up with the music (all their parents played some form of American roots music) and have gone from…

First Aid Kit - The Big Black and the Blue

13 Jan 2010

Wichita Some people are just born talented, it would seem, and so it is with the extraordinarily gifted First Aid Kit, the band consisting of teenage Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Soderberg. Aged 16 and 19 respectively, the sisters have only…

Brothers

13 Jan 2010

(15) 104min Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen’s 2004 Danish drama Brothers (Brødre) is given a prestige Hollywood makeover courtesy of writer David Troy Benioff and director Jim In America Sheridan. The result in an engrossing, if flawed drama…

Five reasons to see . . . Alasdair Roberts

13 Jan 2010

1 He was discovered performing at a ceilidh by Will Oldham. An apocryphal tale, but the pair have worked with Songs:Ohia’s Jason Molina as Amalgamated Sons of Rest, and Oldham (aka Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy) produced Roberts’ ballad collection No Earthly Man…

The Boys Are Back

13 Jan 2010

(12A) 103min Based on journalist Simon Carr’s memoir of bringing up his two boys in South Australia, The Boys Are Back is a small scale but quietly pleasing drama about the difficulties of parenthood. Executive producer Clive Owen cannily casts…

Darksiders

13 Jan 2010

XBOX 360/PS3 (THQ) If you’re hungry for action, Darksiders should satiate any hunger pangs for third person thrills. Taking it’s cues from the likes of Devil May Cry, God of War and Legacy of Kain you take on the mantle of War (of the Four Horsemen…

The Void

13 Jan 2010

Biffy Clyro have got a fair bit to answer for in terms of the amount of copyists they’ve inspired to clog up the nation’s stages. But no apology is needed for this Edinburgh bunch. It’s fair to say The Void aren’t doing anything new, but they write…

Bojan Z Tetraband - Humus

13 Jan 2010

(Universal) Pianist Bojan Z (short for Zulifkarpasic) has been touring this band as a trio with bassist Ruth Goller and the ubiquitous Sebastian Rochford (of Acoustic Ladyland and many others) on drums, but the addition of New York-based trombonist…

Various artists - Soma Compilation 2010

13 Jan 2010

Soma Compilation 2010 (Soma) This latest taste-of-the-label comp demonstrates precisely who has been making waves on Slam’s Glasgow-based label over the last year. It’s very much a family affair this time out as the label’s signees and associates…

Erland and The Carnival - Erland and the Carnival

13 Jan 2010

(Full Time Hobby/Static Caravan) Despite nary a bushy beard nor deftly plucked acoustic guitar having impacted on the making of this debut album by Orcadian Erland Cooper, it inconspicuously embraces the folk custom of reworking ancient songs to suit…

Beach House - Teen Dream

13 Jan 2010

Bella Union This third album from the Baltimore dream-pop duo is billed as a more immediate platter than previous output, and while that’s certainly true, there remains a certain obscurity and lack of personality that makes it, well, a tad…

Owen Pallett - Heartland

13 Jan 2010

(Domino) Torontonian boy-wonder Owen Pallett – formerly revered as Final Fantasy – is a violin alchemist, electronic illusionist, orchestral commander and indie librettist whose loop-ensorcelled, string-drawn pop has lured us since 2004. He’s…

DJ Friction, Dillinja and Spor set for Xplicit Fifth Birthday Party

12 Jan 2010

Scottish club brand Xplicit is still carrying the torch for drum & bass, putting on one of their best line-ups to date for this month’s fifth birthday event. David Pollock speaks to guest DJ Friction and promoter Simon McGrath It’s 7pm on Friday…

Duncan Campbell: Make It New John

‘Ello John got a new motor?

12 Jan 2010

Meet John DeLorean. It’s a name that swaggers with the charismatic if somewhat clichéd machismo of a pulp fiction hero, self-made, aspirational sort, all sports cars and girls, with an Icarus-like downfall plotted in. DeLorean was all too real, however…

Promises Promises - Douglas Maxwell interview

12 Jan 2010

With The Miracle Man, his play for the NTS slated to open in March, Douglas Maxwell will be in familiar territory. Spotty trauma, adolescent angst and the icky business of entering into the adult world are house themes for Maxwell, and this new work, in…

Martin Boyce: No Reflections

12 Jan 2010

As with most aspects of Martin Boyce’s reimagining of his 2009 contribution to the Venice Biennale, the autumn leaves that dust about the floor’s edges in the DCA aren’t quite what they seem. Made of paraffin-coated crepe paper and nestling alongside a…

Profile: Adam Beyer

12 Jan 2010

Name: Adam Beyer Occupation: Swedish techno master Swedish techno you say? I love a bit of Swedish techno And well you should. With names like Cari Lekebusch, Joel Mull, Christian Smith and of course Adam Beyer himself, Sweden has been home to…

Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival

12 Jan 2010

Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival is a festival of puppetry, animation and object theatre for adults. Drop the P-word and most people tend to think of talking socks, flying sausages and general silliness: kids’ stuff, in other words. Manipulate, now in…

Born To Be Wide - German Night

12 Jan 2010

Born to be Wide is a bit of strange one. It’s not really a club more of a muso social, it mixes up genres, seminars, producers, musicians, journalists and various other odds and ends. ‘It started out as a way to bring people in the Edinburgh scene…

Modernista: Gaudi and his Contemporaries in Modern Day Barcelona

12 Jan 2010

At the turn of the 20th century, Catalonia’s architectural response to European art nouveau was manifested in buildings such as the Park Güell, Casa Milà and the Sagrada Família, characterised by highly stylised organic motifs and curvilinear forms. A…

Jan Garbarek & Trilok Gurtu

12 Jan 2010

Saxophonist Jan Garbarek’s long-standing influence from Norwegian folk music picks up on an equally well-established strand in the Celtic Connections programme, but there will be a much more broad-ranging musical canvas explored in the two concerts in…

Ben Sidran - Dylan Different

12 Jan 2010

(Bonsai Music) Jazz covers of Bob Dylan’s songs are pretty much a rarity, but veteran singer and pianist Ben Sidran takes the bull by the horns in this project. The fact that these are vocal interpretations in Sidran’s laconic, Mose…