Reviews

Spooks – Faster Than You Know…

Second album from Laurence Fishburne-approved Philadelphia hip hop quartet

Envy – A Dead Sinking Story

Mogwai-endorsed noisecore ferocity from Japan

The Pearlfishers – Sky Meadows

Glaswegians' fifth album of orchestral pop

Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism

Third UK release from rising Seattle heartbreakers

Susan Cadogan – Hurts So Good

Lee Perry-produced reggae diva's 1977 classic

Various Artists – Off The Wall: 10 Years Of Wall Of Sound

Anniversary package from independent dance label with chart aspirations

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Knockabout adaptation of clever cult comic

Barbershop

Amiable shoot-the-shit comedy from hangdog actor/producer Ice Cube, Barbershop reveals a hint of drama (sinister gangster Keith David has designs on the shop), but is really a sitcommy chatabout between neighbourhood eccentrics. Topics range from slavery reparations to "the difference between a woman with a big ass and a big-assed woman!"

El Crimen Del Padre Amaro

Buckling under the weight of expectation inherent in all 'New Latin Cinema' (this isn't City Of God), El Crimen still has another deft performance from movement poster-boy Gael García Bernal as the eponymous priest in forbidden lust scandal. The film also has a keen eye for the ritualised sexualisation at the heart of Catholicism (the Virgin Mary, the semi-naked Christ etc). Familiar, but intriguing.

Can DVD

Compilation of documentary, videos and live footage marking the 35th anniversary of the Krautrockers. Though their backgrounds were in jazz and classical, they blasted rock into the future via its first principles through repetitive, improvised sessions. This DVD has live material from Cologne and a '76 slot on TOTP playing their one hit, "I Want More". The live footage is irretrievably '70s in its visual mixture of the garish and dismal but the music's way out and beyond. Interviews confirm the cerebral underpinning of this most deceptively primal of bands.
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