Reviews

Emotionally resonant ambient electro from Rothko mainman and pen pal

Dedicated techno head delves into death disco on his second LP

Overlooked Ohio five-piece deliver ravaged second album

Belated but brilliant follow-up to Choochtown from one-man Angry Brigade and Uncut columnist

Re-emergence of jazz-folk classic from Chicago tunesmith

Unusual but effective struggle-and-survival story

The cross-cutting is seamless—'20s England, '50s California and presentday New York feeding off each other, resonating, as our disaffected heroines, played impeccably by Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, flirt with total internal breakdown. And still, it's all about that nose. Kidman's prosthetic nose. Bumpy, spongy, and slightly off-colour. You either buy it, or you don't.

Al Pacino is in workaday Mad Mentor mode (see Donnie Brasco and Devil's Advocate) as the CIA talent scout who lures the brooding, intense™ Colin Farrell into the fold while director Roger Donaldson tries to rekindle memories of his definitive '80s paranoia thriller No Way Out by inserting a screamingly obvious twist into a 'mole in the agency' finale.

Already a by-word for meaningfully ambitious technical accomplishment, Alexander Sokurov's epic was shot in St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum in one unbroken steadicam shot. Moving through the rooms, we're tossed across history, from Peter the Great to Catherine the Great. And it IS great: saying much about Mother Russia then and now, but also visually gorgeous.

The gothic country of Frazer's '90s band Tarnation shared much with 16 Horsepower and The Handsome Family—a Georgia-raised pastor's daughter, the South inspired Frazer's poetry. While we await the follow-up to 2001's Indoor Universe, these four-track rarities provide ample nourishment. Some of these songs appeared on Gentle Creatures ('95) and Mirador ('97), but not this nakedly beautiful. Frazer's voice has a metallic-folk edge which, allied to mariachi guitar, floods "An Awful Shade Of Blue" and "The Hand" with harsh desert light.