Reviews

Depeche Mode – Remixes 81-04

Two decades' worth of remixes from the one-time Essex boys

Various Artists – Dread Broadcasting Corporation: Rebel Radio

Comprehensive double-disc tribute to true renegade radio

The New York Dolls – Live From The Royal Festival Hall, 2004

This is much better than it has any right to be. Three decades after the Dolls first strutted their dimestore-Stones stuff on New York's wild side, David Johansen, Sylvain Sylvain and Arthur Harold Kane shook London's RFH with punchy retakes of classics from their first two platters. When those included "Trash", "Babylon", "Jet Boy" and "Lookin' For A Kiss" , how could they miss? Naturally Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan are missed, but add-on axeman Steve Conte is a slicker player than Junkie Johnny ever was. You can put your arms around this memory.

Subtle – A New White

cLOUDDEAD's Doseone in full-on mode

Never Mind The Ballads

Mouthy agit-rock trio trade spiky bombast for mellow elegance

Death In Vegas – Satan’s Circus

Rewarding diversion into Krautrock, plus bonus live CD

All Roads Lead To Land

Incredible String Band banjoist wanders up the garden path

Dances With Wolves: Special Edition

Costner's multi-Oscar winner recalls Ford and Lean in its epic sweep, as well as revisionist westerns like Run Of The Arrow in its portrayal of Native Americans. Costner's weary Civil War veteran is appointed commander of a remote army outpost, where he finds kinship with the Lakota Sioux. Rich characterisations are balanced by awesome widescreen backdrops.

Bus 174

This Brazilian documentary is based on live TV broadcasts from 12 June 2000, when a one gunman hijacked a commuter bus, enacting his own version of Dog Day Afternoon. Around this tense stand-off, director JoséPadhila interviews victims, eye-witnesses, media and police, probing the hijacker's motives, police vendettas against Brazil's homeless population, and a terminally unjust society.

Bad Santa

Insanely funny, foul-mouthed comedy with bells on
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