Philip Koch’s harrowing prison drama reviewed by Declan Tan When you watch Picco you get the feeling that former-critic and one-time film student Philip Koch knows his stuff. In his feature debut follow-up to the award-winning short Lumen, Koch skilfully blends the theory and artful subtlety that seems to have informed his Nouvelle Vagary from […]
Essential Killing (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Vincent Gallo won acclaim for his silent portrayal and director Skolimowski has the pedigree. Declan Tan assesses whether Essential Killing lives up to its reputation Jerzy Skolimowski (writer of Knife in the Water, writer-director of Deep End, actor in Before Night Falls) is clearly not a bad sort. His credits speak for themselves. And on […]
The Hit Back: Who Are These Weird Old Kids (Sidedown Audio)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger Mixed bag, thy name is The Hit Back. At the start this DIY album behaves like most of your basic quirk-electropop records, endlessly inviting, understated electro-twee in the manner of Here We Go Magic’s more subtle material, stuff that’s considered electro-folk for lack of a more imaginative term; it’s simply very […]
Frank Butrey: Malicious Delicious (Lust For Toys Recordings)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger Puttering, burning and filibustering from the Philly-based jazz guitarist. Somewhat typical example of this sort, power trio setup as jazz outfit, with Butrey switching deftly enough from Carlos Santana doodling to flamenco-plucking, then over to di Meola Weather Channel stuff, but the goal appears to be self-fulfillment over resumé, particularly when, […]
Orchestre National de Jazz: Shut Up and Dance (Bee Jazz Records)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger From the title you might deduce either a) weirdo indie techno or b) epic hipness fail by old dudes. Actually it’s neither, this large-scale prog-jazz project. It could be more rightly assumed that the word ‘dance’ really means ‘play’ in this context, as the scope of these ten mini-concertos allows for […]
Howl (Friedman and Epstein)
The James Franco-Allen Ginsberg biopic is now available as a DVD. Save your money, reckons Declan Tan As well as telling the story of the 1957 obscenity trial concerning City Lights Books’ publication of the seminal poem, Howl, Friedman and Epstein’s film attempts to navigate the murky juices of Allen Ginsberg’s life and work during […]
Ship Shape: We Are Augustines
Fresh off their tour with The Boxer Rebellion, Russell Mardell interviewed Billy McCarthy from Brooklyn’s We Are Augustines in the wake of their album Rise Ye Sunken Ships Brooklyn based trio We Are Augustines bring their album Rise Ye Sunken Ships to the world this June, and for singer/guitarist Billy McCarthy and bassist Eric Sanderson, […]
Farewell Continental: Hey Hey Pioneers (Paper+Plastic Records)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger This Minneapolis alt-rock quintet have an embarrassment of riches in that they can sound exactly like many popular acts of both the present and the not-crazily-distant past, such as first-album OK Go, Snow Patrol, Killers and stuff, not to mention singer/keys chick Kari Gray’s gold-medal-level karaoke of Dolores O’Riordan. There’s a […]
Yellowbirds: The Color (Royal Potato Family Records)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger Someday, the Royal Potato Family company is going to own Bonnaroo. You can always count on friendly, distinctly American, blatantly flawed records from them, like this spinoff LP from Apollo Sunshine’s Sam Cohen. Yellowbirds are from Boston, so there’s some Berklee-drop out guitar solos that absolutely blow doors, and they’re also, […]
Hate Eternal: Phoenix Amongst the Ashes (Metal Blade Records)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger Although sporting much better production than they’re used to, this Florida death metal outfit doesn’t need it as much as bands like Nile do. Riff-wise, this is quite experimental in a sense, with guitarist/frontman Erik Rutan trying to find the longest route between two adjacent notes in a (heavy-ass) scale, sort […]
Abel (Diego Luna)
Mexican actor Diego Luna’s directorial debut reviewed by Declan Tan Here’s one: a heartfelt directorial debut from Mexican actor Diego Luna, about a young boy who has this mental condition where he thinks he’s his dad, so he comes home from the hospital and orders his family about, checks their homework, meets their boyfriends for […]
The Queerest Of The Queer: What It Means To Be A Queer Punk
Luke Velazquez on the singular experience of the queer punk scene, reflected in the work of sculptor Fernando Carpaneda In our society, people are expected to behave in a certain way. To grow up, go to school, work a soulless dead end job, squirt out a few kids for the good of the commonwealth and […]
Mia Doi Todd: Cosmic Ocean Ship (City Zen Records)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger There’s a certain kind of New Ager who’d dig Mia Doi Todd, whose voice is a cross between Annie Lennox and Joan Baez. And then there’s folks like me, who don’t lose sleep over not having any new music that sounds like the singer is battling tooth and nail just to […]
Primordial: Storm Before Calm (Metal Blade Records)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger Proffering their (relative) Irishness to the ever-eager whitey masses comes Primordial, one of the more interesting power-sludge bands to be heard nowadays, owing to a slightly wonkish nod to their heritage. But only slightly; this ain’t Glengarry Bhoys, it’s what the kids call ‘extreme metal’ with a great marketing angle – […]
Miracle Parade: Hark and Other Lost Transmissions (Little Record Company)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger It could be said that this surf-Americana-rock solo project from Everyday Visuals frontman Christopher Pappas mimics the effect of putting CDs from Bright Eyes, Glasvegas and Snow Patrol in the stereo and hitting Randomize. Owing to the predominance of it, I get the feeling Pappas most prefers doing bummer-busker stuff, strumming […]
A Screaming Man (Un Homme Qui Crie)
Declan Tan reviews Mahamet-Saleh Haroun’s third film Mahamet-Saleh Haroun’s third cinematic feature, sparse and emotionally kinetic, tells the modern-day allegorical tale of a Chadian man, Adam (Youssouf Djaoro); once unchangeable by the world, and content in his life, while seemingly devoted to his family (but more so his past), who begins to disintegrate as a […]
A Copenhagen Interpretation: Letter from Denmark
A deceptive visit to the Danish capital brings Kevin Fitzgerald into the orbits of physics, philosophy, politics but no escritoire connected to Kierkegaard 1. In March of this year I was privy to certain communications divulging that the escritoire once owned by the Danish scholar Victor Emerita, famous for his literary collaborations with Søren Kierkegaard, […]
San Pedro on St. George’s Day: Letter From La Paz II
Declan Tan’s second ‘Letter from La Paz’ is a fictional account of a visit to Bolivia’s San Pedro prison “A pint a-Carling yeah and whatever you’re havin’,” a white-spit mouth, mine, chums out familiar to the bar girl. I’m pointing at the tap and reaching my hand out as it pours, my fingers snatching at […]
Route 36: Letter From La Paz
In the first of two ‘Letters from La Paz’, Declan Tan straightens a few myths about Bolivia’s Route 36, “the world’s first cocaine lounge” “Take it out of the bag,” one of them whispers, as a small mountain of Bolivian marching powder unfolds from the wrap. Forming peaks where it piles on the surface, the […]
Repackaged Misogyny: Natasha Walter: Living Dolls
Jacob Knowles-Smith considers whether gender politics have lost their direction and clout through the prism of two recent books Anyone who has even the briefest acquaintance with nightclubs in recent years will have seen girls dressed as Playboy bunnies in almost just their underwear, replete with stockings and suspenders, quite as frequently as one will […]
The IT Impact: Information Technology in the Developing World
Digital and mobile devices can bring huge improvements to the health and lives of the very poorest. Vanessa Zainzinger takes a look at the organisations attempting to bridge the technological divide Last month, the non-profit organisation Worldreader held a video contest. The first price was a trip, but instead of the five star hotel one […]
Spamazon: ebook Junk and Content Farms
As Google tackles the content farms gaming their system, the ebook platform has become the newest territory for ripp-off content. Vanessa Zainzinger talks to Mike Essex, author of an influential post on the topic, about the war on spam Mike Essex has really hit a nerve. One post on UK-based digital marketing agency Koozai’s blog […]
The Seven Original Sins of a Book Addict vs. Seven Original Book Stores of Mumbai
Sourav Roy from Mumbai battles gluttony, despair and cricket fever to hunt down seven utterly original book stores of the city As somebody who has been taking books to bed way before hitting puberty, I have it on good authority that the addiction of buying and reading books, is not so very different from any […]
Insight, Imagination and Innovation: Taking Your Place in the Modern Music Biz
Across the span of 85+ interviews and within the wisdom of 100,000+ words, a cast of characters across all strata of the music industry reveals an astonishing diversity of paths and purposes in It All Begins with the Music: Developing Artists and Careers for the New Music Business. Spike asked the author Dan Kimpel for […]
Bringing It All Back Home: Dylan at 70
As Dylan turns 70, Robert O’Connor travels back up Highway 61 to untangle the myths and legends “Where did you come from, Cotton-eye Joe?” That’s the first question Studs Terkel asked Bob Dylan on his legendary radio show in 1963. Bob didn’t really answer then, and he hasn’t really answered since. He’s given hints, and […]
