Considering the unpredictability of Ang Lee’s previous filmic ventures: middle-class melodrama, high-wire Kung-Fu drama, English period-drama, and less successfully, the ‘Giant-Green-Man Drama’ it’s perhaps not such a stretch for Lee to opt for ‘shepherding-homosexual-drama’ as the choice for his latest; a tale of forbidden love against the oppressive homophobia of Southern America, 1963. Wisely released in time for an Oscars shoe-in, Brokeback Mountain started its life as a short story by E. Annie Proulx published in The New Yorker magazine, [...]
SO, HOW IS the psychedelic sci-fi surf-rock scene in Wigan? It’s very well, thank you. Wiganites The V.Cs have a bit of a ‘thing’ for 1950s B-Movies and Sci-fi; so much so their beanpole lead singer (that’s Vocoder Joe to you) plays each gig with outsized ski-goggles strapped to his face, bass-siren FemBot-S4FF wears only PVC and Keyop-503 treats his synth and theremin like a rare specimen of, like… space goo. But let’s do the time-warp (I apologise) back to [...]
From mid 2005, the Arctic Monkeys were already being zealously tongued in the massive stinking gob of Hype. Said to be yet another band that will be ‘the greatest thing ever ever ever’, and for this, you could be forgiven for hating them before even hearing them. It’s not the Arctic Monkeys fault either, they were just born into a time where many people would rather put burning hot coals under their eyelids than listen to the ‘next big thing’, [...]
Valiantly providing the general public with girly falsettos and guitar kickassery for almost a decade now, Muse’s augmentation from makeup-caked ‘Gothic Plague’ to one of Britain’s most flamboyant and original acts has been an interesting one. Having been picked up by Madonna’s Maverick label early on in their career, Muse’s first album, Showbiz, was beleaguered with comparison’s to The Bends-era Radiohead (producer John Leckie was present on both albums). But where Radiohead’s biography reads; ‘Raised in Oxford, met at Uni, [...]
There’s a Jean Michel Jarre light display high-beaming through an eerie mist, a piano whistles ominously to itself, shadowy figures – hair draped across their faces, enter the stage, shortly thereafter there’s a drum clap and light explosion so loud it reverberates through your nostrils. Welcome to Secret Machines country. Texan trio the Secret Machines have established an effectively small, yet devout group of followers since the release of their extraordinary debut album; Now Here Is Nowhere in 2004, patrons [...]