Reviews

Laura Cantrell – Not The Tremblin’ Kind

The reissue of Cantrell's 2000 debut is timely following the critical success of last year's When The Roses Bloom Again, and a major US tour with Elvis Costello. John Peel deemed this his "favourite record of the last 10 years and possibly my life", while Costello describes her sound as "if Kitty Wells made Rubber Soul". Nashville-bred, NYC-based Cantrell is steeped in country and bluegrass, but brings a strident grace all her own. Set atop guitars both acoustic and twangy—and soft squeals of steel—her voice is cut-glass pure.

George Usher – Fire Garden

Ny Stalwart Champions Power Pop

That Old Black Magic

Farrell & co are back with a vengeance

Basil Kirchin – Quantum

Long-lost experiment with, yes, our perceptions of sound

Pete Yorn – Day I Forgot

LA scenemaker makes decent foray towards rock stardom

Uncle Tupelo

First three albums from alt.country pioneers remastered with bonus tracks

Lonnie Youngblood Feat.Jimi Hendrix – Two Great Experiences

Very early Hendrix tapes dusted down by his sax mate

So Squalid Crew

Consummate, witty and wicked conmen caper

My Kingdom

King Lear re-enacted in modern-day Liverpool as crime boss Richard Harris, broken by the senseless murder of wife Lynn Redgrave, splits his empire between his two black-hearted daughters. The dialogue's got a touch of the Guy Ritchies and the violence is silly, but Harris—cunning, lean, leonine—commands the screen.

The Killer Elite

Handsome widescreen digital transfer for one of Sam Peckinpah's most underestimated films, 1975's angrily prescient satire on corporate America, whose ultra-cool surface belies the roiling fury at its bleak and bitter heart. James Caan and Robert Duvall are cynical operatives for a San Francisco-based intelligence agency, doing jobs too dirty even for the CIA. Early on, Caan is crippled by gunfire in a bloody double-cross and 'retired' from the company.
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