Reviews

No lip-syncing, backing tracks or gimmicks—only consummate talent on these 'live' late-'50s clips from Canadian TV. Cab Calloway ("Minnie The Moocher") is at his most bizarre, Nat King Cole ("Stay With Love") is finger-poppin' smooth and Sammy Davis Jr ("Gypsy In My Soul/Perdido") is a human dynamo, while the gem in this collection is Duke Ellington working in a quintet setting.

Surprisingly radio-friendly vehicle for ex-Santana drummer Michael Shrieve

Noir is the hour...

Twelfth album from Canadian champions of alt.country misery

Appetising mini album from swampy Friends Of Franz

Welcome return to form from Philadelphian roots rockers

Assured teenage drama from Iran

Roland Joffé's 1989 movie examines America's wartime race to develop the atomic bomb by focusing on the relationship between General Groves (a bullish Paul Newman) and haunted genius Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz), but dilutes the intensity by opening out to sketch in other players (including John Cusack and Laura Dern). Still, this is worthy, sombre, respectable drama.

Bizarre documentary atmospherically recreating strange events that took place in a small Wisconsin town in the 1890s. Economic depression and an epidemic spark off a succession of murders and suicides, and insanity is rife—most memorably in the form of the cocaine-fuelled Mary Sweeney, who travelled the whole state killing windows. Compelling.

Tori has chosen a surprisingly conventional in-concert format for her first-ever DVD. Recorded in Florida last year, it's an intense performance, the songs drawn mostly from her recent Scarlet's Walk album, augmented by old favourites such as "Cornflake Girl" and "Professional Widow".