Film Review: Cobain: Montage of Heck (15) (U.S.A. 2015) (Director: Brett Morgen), Filmhouse, Screen One, Edinburgh, Sunday 02.05.2015, 20:30

Nirvana are a group that I enjoyed back to when I first heard the album 'Nevermind' (1991), sometime in the summer months of '92. I was in my final year of school when Kurt killed himself. I was curious about this film due to Kurt's daughter, Frances Bean, being one of the executive producers. I hopeful that due to this there would be no access issues in regard to what materials the film makers were able to draw upon. This was not one of the issues by some margin...

The film is poorly structured and appeared to lack any sense of direction or purpose. There were entire animated sections which I would expect to fundamentally be conjecture. Scenes such as these tended to be accompanied by re-workings of Nirvana songs which at best were distracting. There appeared to be an imbalance of focus within the film, towards Kurt's early life. I found the film wilfully chaotic and at times hard to follow. I don't think this film adds anything in regards of trying to understand this iconic musician. The only thing that grew within me as a result of watching the film is greater sympathy for Frances Bean.  I did think about walking out as was bored, though something made me stick it out. I cannot recommend this to anyone who is not an absolute Kurt die-hard. Maybe I should be reminding myself of the age I am now at and question myself as to whether films like this are really my cup-o-tea. 

Rating: 02/10.     

Live Performance Review: Nick Cave, Tuesday 28.04.2015 20:00 The Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh

This gig was advertised as a solo performance. This was not the case. He had some 'Bad Seeds' with him, though it was a parred back version to that which I have seen before and he did some songs by himself, which was nice. The setting and lighting was very nice and the view from where I was in the 3rd row could not have got much better. Nick and his chief collaborator, Mr. Warren Ellis, were superb showmen as always. 

This was the fourth time in total that I have seen Nick and his Seeds. I have seen them twice on the first leg of a tour after albums have come out and now twice with more distance to album releases. I prefer seeing him in the performances that have more distance to album releases as he tends to do more of a spread of work from across his career with the Seeds. This show had works spreading from his most recent album, back to the very first and contained many of my favourite songs by Mr. Cave. The performance lasted 2 & 1/4 Hours and was top notch throughout, what more could you want.  

Rating: 10/10.    

Live Performance Review: Laura Marling, Saturday 25.04.2015 19:00, O2 Academy, Glasgow

The following is not a review, although I will mention details about the performance. As with Josie Long during the Edinburgh Festivals in August last year, I have to admit that I can no longer be objective in regard to how great I think they are. 

This is the eighth time I have seen Laura perform since the first time in 2009. This time, Laura performed with people on drums, bass and guitar. Although I have seen her perform with a group of musicians a couple of times before, the tone of this performance was a new area for Little Miss Marling (as I like to think of her). Laura herself was using a range of electric, semi-acoustic and acoustic guitars. The performance itself, I would not class as rock, though it had a harder element to the sound than what I have heard from her before. She played songs from her second album, 'I Speak Because I Can' (2010) to her most recent 'Short Movie' (2015), along with a couple of covers and (I think) a newie. 

With some of the songs from previous albums she was approaching them within the manner of her new work. I have seen musicians previously do this well such as Iron & Wine, and others do this really badly such as Bon Iver. Thankfully Laura was able to manage this with aplomb. She was performing songs that I know well, that were still instantly recognisable to me, though which sounded quite different. The manner in which she has evolved her sound causes me to think that it is no longer fair to consider her within the stricture of being a 'folk' musician, though she should just be considered as a great musician.  

Her musical skill in terms of guitar playing and singing were faultless. There were a couple of times where she stumbled onto a wrong note, gave humble recognition and moved on, which in my eyes just added to the charm. There was very sweet banter and interaction with the very appreciative crowd and there were several songs where I was having goosebumps. This also appeared to be the most relaxed I have seen her when she has been performing, laughing and smiling at various points throughout the performance, which is always nice to see.

Within the opening suite of songs I was already transfixed and aware of mentally saying to myself, 'who am I kidding with (occasionally) questioning how great I think you are, you're perfect'. In my mind, there is nothing sexier than someone who is a masterful musician. When this is matched with physical beauty and a manner of poise & dignity, along with being intelligent and eloquent, that becomes for me a package of perfection. I used to feel slightly like a 'dirty-old-man' finding her hot with being 14 years older and her being this refined youthful beauty. From this performance it was evident that she still has that refined beauty, though for me, this is now balanced with a sexy bad-ass element to her, and it is this new aspect which enables me to no longer feel like a pervert.

I feel this is probably a good point for me to wrap this up otherwise I will dribble and get to a point of embarrassing myself. If it were not already clear and by means of summing up, I am besotted. 

Live Performance Review: Blonde Redhead, Thursday 26.03.2015 20:00, Orion, Ciampino, Rome

Blonde Redhead, for the uninitiated are a trio of musicians from New York. They are: Kazu Makino from Japan on vocals, guitars and keyboards, and the twin brothers Simone & Amedeo Pace from Milan. Simone is the drummer and Amedeo does vocals, guitars and keyboards.

I find it hard to describe to people what their music is like, though Wikipedia terms them as American Alternative Rock with elements of dream pop, nu-gaze & psychedelic and experimental rock. I tend to think of them as electronica and I feel it is justified to see some of what they do as coming under this banner. Despite this being how I term them, I also have a sense that this in no way conveys breadth of what they do. Blonde Redhead, to date, have done nine albums. The first five I don't rate and only discovered in retrospect. The sixth, and in my view still best album they have done, is 'Misery is a Butterfly' (2004). This album has sweeping strings, a sense of grandeur in places and melancholia throughout. I regard it as being perfect.

Since then the group have produced a further three albums all of which I feel to be very good, though not quite as good as 'Misery'. These subsequent albums are '23' (2007), 'Penny Sparkle' (2010) & 'Barragan' (2014).

Blonde Redhead are not particularly well known in the United Kingdom, and they are the final artist/group that I am presently aware of who I had not seen though was very keen to see, so I decided to treat myself with a trip to Rome to see them.

Ciampino is a small town just outside Rome and the venue is small with a capacity of approximately 1,000. It did feel to be particularly pleasurable to see them in such a small space, though the venue was clearly not full (a local at the gig reckoned this would largely be due to the fact that it is difficult to get public transport out to there from Rome). As usual I was in the middle of the front row.

There was a support, who's name I didn't catch, they were okay though every song progressed in a similar manner.

The group's set covered a good selection from across their last few albums. I was delighted that they did several songs from 'Misery' and also performed a good range of other songs I am familiar with. There is clearly a very good connection between the musicians particularly between the two brothers. Kazu comes over as a very shy lady though a very able performer. The performance was very absorbing, causing a sense that although I was tired having spent the day walking around Rome, I would have happily have stood there listening to them for hours.

There was only one slight blip in the whole show. During the encore, they had just begun to perform 'Melody' from 'Misery' when Kazu stopped the others and went over to speak with them. I am not sure what the issue was, though it was dealt with and then she asked the audience if we wanted them to restart the song or move on to the next. Happily the audience asked for them to begin the song again. I like the fact that a musician stops the performance to enable getting it right, rather than just bumbling through and trying to just move on. The only negative about this was that it appeared to affect Kazu's mood and at the end of the gig she appeared lost in her own world though quite sad and Amedeo went to comfort her and to assist her off-stage. I don't feel this really detracted from the performance, though it is not nice to see a performer get upset.

The performance was very good and the crowd seemed to love it, though I can't quite say it was excellent. I am though very glad that I went and did greatly enjoy myself. Though the downside is that I now have no musicians left who I have a burning desire to see, which I have to admit feels a bit odd.

09.5/10.    

Live Performance Review: Martin Carthy, Monday 23.02.2015 19:30, Traverse Theatre Bar, Edinburgh 

This is a musician I have wanted to see perform for some years. I have read in various publications this musician being cited as the greatest living English Folk musician. Martin primarily performs solo acoustic with a guitar, this is the form I wanted to see him perform in, and this is what we got.

The set-up was intimate with a tiny stage and comfortable seating. Martin performed with mastery and humble wit. It was one of those charming performances where each piece, while he was tuning up, was being introduced with some genuinely interesting information about the songs. 

At the beginning of the second half Martin performed a song written by a brother-in-law of his. From the intro it sounded intriguing and low and behold it turns out it was the one song of the night that I already knew very well. Before the end of the gig, Martin encouraged people to approach him afterwards if they had any comments or questions. I don't need asking twice, so I checked if he was aware of the version by Chumbawamba called 'Stitch That'  from the album 'Shhh' (1992). It turns out he had heard of it, though not heard it. I took the opportunity to suggest, that if he were to seek it out, in my view the more interesting version by the Chumbys is on a Japanese Mini-Album called 'Amnesia' (1998), where it is done in a Country 'n' Western Stylee.

This was an utterly absorbing evening at a good reasonable price. You can't ask for more. 

Rating: 10/10.          

Film Review: Whiplash (15) (U.S.A. 2014) (Director: Damien Chazelle), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Sunday 08.02.2015, 18:20

This is the film that J.K. Simmons won the B.A.F.T.A. Best Supporting Actor Award for this evening. As some will know this is the film that centres around jazz drumming. J.K. Simmons is good as the tutor, though I found to be sadly quite one-note. Some of the dialogue I found to be quite clunky and not very believable. I also found the progression of the story to be utterly predictable with nothing to say.  

The biggest issue I have with the film though is that both of the lead characters, tutor and student, I found to be as much of an egomaniac as each other. Even worse the tutor is a bullying homophobe and the student is an arrogant dick. The central characters are so reprehensible, that when the student is involved in a serious car-smash while trying to get to a performance in time to keep himself in the ensemble and prove himself to the bully, I found it hard to stop laughing. I have a sense I should have felt sympathetic towards the student though the only way he could have improved his standing in my view is by standing up to the bully, which he never does. 

Predictably this period of the story results in the tutor and student going separate ways. Though by the end they are back together, without addressing any of the previous behaviour towards each other, clearly for what they can both get from each other without any mutual fondness or respect, i.e. they are both users. 

Not that I am a big fan of 'learning' in films, as people tend not to learn in life, though this is a film that could really have done with some. I found it hard to give a monkeys about any character by the end. 

The defining characteristic of the film is narcissism. This is an element the film shares with 'Raging Bull' (1980). It is this reason why I find that film very hard to care about. Now Whiplash can join this select band of films that mean nothing to me (Oh Vienna).   

Rating: 04/10.        

Film Review: Ex_Machina (15) (U.S.A./U.K. 2015) (Director: Alex Garland), The Cameo Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Sunday 25.01.2015 17:40

This is a triple-hander of a film. The three central characters being a C.E.O. of a search engine company, one of his low-level employees and this 'artificial intelligence' that the C.E.O. has created called Ava. The CEO having invited the employee to his secluded residence to be part of a 'Turing test', where he is to interact with the machine and detect if he can at some point loose the sense of it being an artificial being. 

I was drawn to the film due to it's visual style, which did not disappoint. Sadly the rest of the film was a bit of a let-down. There is a supposed twist towards the end, though I felt the films progression to be fairly clear and guessable from the start. 

It is not to spoil anything to say that  the employee reaches a point of seeing the machine as having consciousness. How is this possible when all of the machine's drawings throughout the film are clearly hexagon based. Also the machine's facial micro-expressions are always slightly stilted and therefore clearly not human. This is clearly down to good acting, though it does make other characters look a bit stupid. Maybe this is part of the point. Maybe the film is trying to say that if you put an attractive face on anything then (horny) man will not notice these little things, as they don't fit the reality the man wants to see. Emotion overrules intelligence. This is a film I would neither recommend nor try to dissuade others from trying to see. 

Rating: 06/10.