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.          

Film Review: Enemy (15) (Canada/Spain 2013) (Director: Denis Villeneuve), Filmhouse, Screen Three, Edinburgh, Saturday 03.01.2015, 20:35

I was drawn to this film due to the fact that it is another film staring Jake Gyllenhall and directed by Denis Villeneuve, who previously worked together on 'Prisoners' (2013). Jake plays a university history lecturer who is listless and disinterested in life. A colleague suggests a film he may enjoy and within that film he sees his exact doppelganger who he then pursues. I don't wish to say more regarding the plot, though do feel it is fare to say that the film approaches the idea of a doppelganger in a fresh manner. 

The film makes very good use of lighting to induce a queasy/twilight sort of quality. The editing is done in a manner that, along with Jake's nuanced acting, gives the film a  mysterious/enigmatic quality. Having given the film my full concentration, I am still unraveling it now the day after having seen it. It is not often that can be said in these times where most filmmakers feel they have to spell out exactly what is happening. The sudden ending is both bamboozling and revealing, as long as you don't allow the bamboozling element to lead you to dismiss what you have seen.  

I feel this is a fundamentally more interesting film than 'Prisoners', as good as that was, though don't feel I can go quite as far as saying it is excellent. Jake is developing quite a habit of making very good films that are not quite excellent. I find myself having to give the same rating as 'Prisoners' & 'Nightcrawler' (2014). 

Rating: 09/10.      

Film Review: Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (15) (U.S.A. 2014) (Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), The Cameo Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Saturday 03.01.2015 15:40

I am a great fan of this directors film from 2000, 'Amores Perros', though this is the first film that director has made since that I was intrigued enough by to wish to go and see. 

This is the film about an actor who used to play a superhero who is now pursuing putting on a credible stage production on Broadway to rescue some semblance of dignity and respect. The film also appears to be in a very flippant way to be ab out telekinesis. 

The only things that rescue this film from being complete and utter pretentious tosh are the performances by Amy Ryan, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough and most notably Emma Stone. Emma Stone's performance, in the size of role she has, is really very commendable. She is easily the most naturalistic of all the cast.

It appears to me as though the director may have had a fluke back in 2000, and my resistance to his subsequent work is now reinforced. Don't waste a couple of hours of your like on this vanity project. 

Rating: 04/10.    

TOP 10 LIVE PERFORMANCES OF 2014:

2014 was a quieter year than last, hence why I am only doing a top 10 of live performances.
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1.) Sister Marie Keyrouz L'Ensemble De La Paix, 13.08.2014, Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh

2.) Akram Khan Company perform Gnosis, 20.08.2014, King's Theatre, Edinburgh

3.) Iron & Wine (Solo Acoustic), 16.11.2014, Adelphi Theatre, London

4.) Robert Newman's New Theory of Evolution, 15.08.2014, Stand in the Square, The Stand Comedy Club, Edinburgh

5.) Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch perform Sweet Mambo, 24.08.2014, The Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh

6.) Philharmonia Orchestra perform Britten's War Requiem, 14.08.2014, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

7.) Ladysmith Black Mambazo, 09.08.2014, The Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh

8.) Toumani Diabate & Sidiki Diabate, 29.05.2014, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

9.) Abdullah Ibrahim, 18.07.2014, The Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

10.) Billy Connolly: High Horse Tour Scotland 2014, 04.10.2014, Usher Hall, Edinburgh