Reviews

Front 242 – Pulse

First album in 11 years from Belgian "electronic body music" pioneers

Broadcast – Pendulum

Mini album from Birmingham avant-rockers

Brassy – Gettin Wise

Follow-up to 2000's Got It Made from NY-Manc punk-hop crew. Includes that album's TV ad tune "Play Some D"

Various Artists – Don Letts Presents The Mighty Trojan Sound

B.A.D. mainman and Roxy DJ's double-CD tribute to reggae's premier label

Loudon Wainwright III – More Love Songs

Wry, off-centre singer-songwriter on good form

Ripley’s Game

Patricia Highsmith's villain comes to life again

Etre Et Avoir

French classroom documentary hits the mark

Lenny

Bob Fosse surprised everyone in '74, showing there was more to his dark vision than nimble dance steps. He riffs permissively on Lenny Bruce's stand-up routines (which were never routine), and Dustin Hoffman's rarely been bolder. Somehow nominated for loads of Oscars while railing against the establishment's buffoonery.

Bande À Part

The definitive example of High Godard (that brief period after his spectacular debut, À Bout De Souffle, and before the left-wing quasi-revolutionary abstractions of British Sounds and Passion), Bande À Part is a veritable checklist of stylish and insouciant Nouvelle Vague chic. There's the casually one-dimensional protagonists, in this case pseudo-gangsters Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and their new playmate Odile (Anna Karina).

The Hot Spot

Dennis Hopper-directed noir-by-numbers from 1990. Don Johnson's ambiguous stranger drifts into a sultry small town to run a con, and gets caught between lust for married Virginia Madsen and troubled teen Jennifer Connelly. Routine; but cherish this movie for the once-in-a-lifetime soundtrack Hopper persuaded Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal to jam.
Advertisement

Editor's Picks

Advertisement