Demob Happy

This month I’ve been beguiled by the latest side project by sometime DJ and Kings of Convenience member Erlend Oye. The Whitest Boy Alive hints at Oye’s interest in the hypnotic rhythmic concerns of house music but features the same Simon & Garfunkle-esque vocal style of KoC. Angular – but certainly not abrasive – guitars, [...]

Whitest Boy Alive - Burning [ 3:11 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yeasayer - Many Waves [ 4:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Octopus Project - Bees Bein Strugglin [ 3:48 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Radiohead and the art of modern marketing 10/10 How much is music worth? Not the CD it’s printed on or the cover art, and certainly not the plastic jewel case – but the music itself? Or more precisely, how much is Radiohead‘s music worth? This is the question the band have asked fans to contemplate [...]

Radiohead [ 3:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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The way we were 8/10 Dubbed the `Scorcese of the Midlands’, Shane Meadows is one of the UK’s brightest modern filmmaking talents. ‘This is England‘ continues a series of excellent films by the director set around working class Nottingham that often feature non-professional actors and a liberal use of improvisation. While belonging to a British [...]

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The other side of the wall 9/10 1984 is an inauspicious date for the setting of this fine movie about the East German autocracy. Whereas films like ‘Goodbye Lenin’ inspired a trend of nostalgia (coined as OSTalgia) for the GDR, ‘The Life of Others’ paints a more realistic picture. In a thoughtful, humane work, Stasi [...]

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In sickness and in health 7/10 The thoroughly unloveable documentary maker’s latest sets its sights on the American healthcare system – and a large and easy target it is. With Sicko’s polemic evidently intended for American audiences, Moore is typically selective or misreprentative when making comparisons to healthcare in Europe. Britian is portrayed as some [...]

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Dirtier, not so pretty things 8/10 With ‘History of Violence’ David Cronenberg initially seemed to have made a change of direction from the ‘body horror’ genre which he popularised. On closer examination however, both that film and ‘Eastern Promises’ – which share Viggo Mortensen in the lead role – graft classic Cronenberg themes on to [...]

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Game for a laugh 4/10 The fact that this is a remake of Wim Wenders’ 1977 “classic” ‘An American Friend’ – or at least based on the same Patricia Highsmith book – doesn’t detract from the monumental silliness of the plot. You might have high hopes for a film that counts John Malkovich, Ray Winston [...]

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Once upon a time in the Midlands 8/10 Nice Work is a clever, well-constructed comedy and social commentary about a clash of cultures in a fictional Midlands town in the mould of Birmingham. Well-paced and meticulously plotted, the novel revolves around the unlikely convergence of Dr Robyn Penrose – a professor of Women’s studies and [...]

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