Review added to Live Music by JPGR&B:
Rumer @ Cadogan Hall (2016)

FIRST NIGHT REVIEW
Pop: Rumer at Cadogan Hall, SW1
When the British vocalist went through the easy-listening songbook she was untouchable, but it didn’t work so well with her own material

Will Hodgkinson
October 19 2016, 12:01am,
The Times

★★★☆☆
It takes a high tolerance of schmaltz to include a slide show of wedding photographs at your concert, but that’s Rumer. Since the release of her 2010 debut album, Seasons of My Soul, this British singer has become a modern Karen Carpenter, heading fearlessly towards the middle of the road and making the kind of mid-1970s-style easy listening that goes well with a cocktail, an evening dress and a prescription of tranquillisers. Now living in Arkansas and married to Rob Shirakbari, who is also her pianist, Rumer returned to the UK to present a show that was the musical equivalent of a relaxing back massage.

“This is one from the new CD,” said Rumer, managing to make a CD sound like something that had just been invented, before singing Bacharach and David’s Balance of Nature. When Rumer went through the easy listening songbook she was untouchable; there’s something about not just her voice but her very being that makes her the perfect vehicle for smooth standards such as Walk On By and Jimmy Webb’s PF Sloan.

It didn’t work so well with her own material. Pizzas and Pinball was a portrait of an American childhood that listed such pursuits as eating candyfloss and slurping on a Slurpee; not quite up there with Hal David’s way of evoking deep emotional truth through everyday language.

Nevertheless, Rumer is a likeable performer and, in her long black gown, a convincing chanteuse. “Look at him. He’s so small,” she said of her husband, pointing to a photograph of Shirakbari with Dionne Warwick. Backed by an orchestra as well as a band, she brought soporific charm to the best of her own material, such as the peerlessly sad Aretha, and to an encore of What the World Needs Now Is Love. It was anything but challenging, and therein lay the appeal.

Review added to Vinyl Album by Magic Marmalade:
Pata Negra - Blues De La Frontera (1987)

This one got me quite excited when I found it, as the rather cool cover, coupled with the title was suggestive of potential treasures inside...

...And having taken it out of the record bin and flipped it over to read the back, I saw the words: "Flamenco"... and: "Electric Guitar" alnongside: "Electric Bass".

Blues. Flamenco. Electric.

This ought to be very interesting, I thought.

And it is.

I suppose the first thing though, is to ask why nobody (to my knowledge) had attempted this before, or isn't doing it regularly now... Maybe they just don't sit well together: The Blues and Flamenco... maybe it would turn out to be a disaster of two disparate genres jammed together in some unholy alliance, and who's opposite poles, unlike magnets repel each other, rather than attract.

Having given it a spin now, I can see that this could easily have happened, if they attempted to over do the one element or the other, and make the contrast too striking, but this is very subtly, and very judiciously done; Opening with a flat out Flamenco acoustic piece to set the stall out, with the kind of incredibly intricate flamenco guitar work, played at the customary break neck pace at times, which is a feature (Which I love) of both flamenco, and this record.

The blues elements, and the flamenco are thereafter gradually introduced to each other, by first laying down a gentler flamenco rhythm, and then lightly layering the bluesy electric guitars over the top. And conversely, in other places, taking a slower, blues pattern, and playing a an easier flamenco/acoustic guitar over that.

And it works.

These elements compliment, rather than impede each other.

The electric guitar work is very reminiscent of B.B. King's guitar sound, rather than a harder, crunching Hendrix style pyrotechnic extravaganza. And though the fusion of a musical genre like Flamenco with a rock (blues) sound will inevitably draw comparisons with someone like Santana, this is very distinctly not Santana - the Latin flavours of South America being very different from Spain, and Spanish Flamenco, which very clearly retains it's character here.

The only thing which is a bit of a quibble is the very dating addition towards the end of How High The Moon, of a very eighties synth organ sound, which places it too much of that specific time.
(Otherwise an excellent instrumental version).

Lindo Gatito is the outstanding track for me, where these elements really do gel.

Good stuff, that I expect to grow on me over time.

Review added to Vinyl Album by Lee Wrecker:
Dr. John Cooper Clarke And Hugh Cornwell - This Time It's Personal (2016)

Hmm... Dr. John eh? Is that change supposed to mean anything other than I'm cleverer than you or I'm cleverer than you thought I were. Anyway this one does leave you thinking "why?,why?,why?" but for all the wrong reasons. A clutch of well chosen covers, given a an old time punky overhaul by Cornwall's and Clarke's band of Dads. Not bad but not good either.

Review added to Vinyl Album by warpigcat:
Legs Diamond - Legs Diamond (1977)

I agree with TheDroid. A really superb album and there was a time it was my fave for some weeks. Listen to "Stage Fright" and you exactly know which stuff I love. There is really no filler on the whole album.

Review added to Live Music by cptbeefheart:
The Sessions @ The SSE Arena (2016)

Didn't really have much expectation of what we were going to see but all in all it wasn't a bad nights entertainment. Musically I thought the show was quite good, there were several versions of The Beatles and they would change intermittently to suit the narrative of the show. One set of Beatles were definitley better sounding. It did get a bit hammy and over acted in places but not bad. I was surprised however to sit and watch the studio engineer smoking quite a bit throughout the performance and was obviously added to give a sense of how it must've been back in the day but in this day of anti-smoking legislation I'm surprised they got that passed. Every now and then the scene would be broken up by a group of teenagers running around screaming which I didn't particularly like, other than that quite a good evening.

The Sessions website

(YouTube Video)

Review added to Cinema by zabadak:
To Have And Have Not (1944)Rated 9/10

Now this is better!

Having been disappointed by The Maltese Falcon, I started watching this with some trepidation but was pleasantly surprised!

Howard Hawk's direction seemed less... stilted than that of John Huston: is it me?

Also, there was a (hell of a) lot more chemistry between Bogey and Bacall (natch) than he and Mary Astor!

Also, the standard of everything just seemed higher, from the acting to the support cast (Hoagy Carmichael for God's sake!!!) to the settings...

Walter Brennan! Superb!

:happy:

Review added to Live Music by cptbeefheart:
Brit Floyd @ Belfast Waterfront (2012)

Would've got a 10 only Damien in the band had a broken ankle, his leg was in a cast and he had difficulty playing. There were the odd moments when he would lose concentration, balance or something else and strange notes would eminate from his guitar. He at one point when finishing a number on an accoustic guitar played the wrong ending note and he visibly slumped his head forward in a dispondant manner. You couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. In true Wall fashion " The Show Must Go On "

Review added to Live Music by cptbeefheart:
Horslips @ Dunluce Castle (2014)

This, on the face of it should've been a good night, unfortunately it turned out to be one of the coldest summer solstices in living memory. Being perched on the clifftops overlooking the Irish Sea only served to exacerbate the situation with the wind coming off the sea making the temperatures plummet even further. I felt sorry for the guys in Horslips as by the time they came on it was freezing and they could hardly play their instruments at all. So all-in-all a pretty gruelling event and one not to be repeated

Review added to Live Music by cptbeefheart:
Alison Krauss And Union Station @ Belfast Waterfront (2010)

Based on the success of the BBC4 music show The Transatlantic Sessions and Following the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow early in the new year, a selection of artists from the Transatlantic Sessions part of the festival will make a short tour in these islands: four dates in England and one (Thursday 4 February) in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast. The package consists of Shetland fiddle maestro Aly Bain and dobro legend Jerry Douglas, Nickel Creek vocalist/fiddler Sara Watkins, O brother where art thou? soundtrack star Dan Tyminski (aka the singing voice of George Clooney), Eddi Reader, Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott, Karen Matheson (Capercaillie), Bruce Molsky and Cara Dillon and 'the ultimate house band'. The BBC4 shows were made available to buy on DVD also

Review added to Cinema by zabadak:
The Maltese Falcon (1941)Rated 8/10

Watched this for the first time, a couple of days ago.

Well, yes, it's obviously a classic but my, doesn't it creak!

Some of the dialogue is a bit ropey, but Bogey's (over-)acting? Wow!

Yes, I think 8/10 is about right. :happy:

Review added to CD Album by kab2112:
The Michael Schenker Group - The Michael Schenker Group (2009)

When this album came out in 1980, I thought that the guitar work of Michael Schenker and the drumming of Simon Phillips on the first track (armed & ready) was amazingly good and helped to compliment each other's work.. This is a very good album and has not been bettered by the man himself on any of his subsequent releases. It still gets a spin every now and then.

Review added to DVD by gregs78s:
The Revenant - 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2015)Rated 9/10

I was only just saying to a friend that i haven't seen a good film for ages,and then this comes along (i'm always slightly behind and playing catch-up with films,so it's new to me;),gripping stuff,and one i really enjoyed,brings a whole new meaning to the word "suffering",not for the squeamish though perhaps,recommended.

Review added to Cinema by zabadak:
Erinnerungen An Die Zukunft (1970)Rated 6/10

Tag-line: "Was God an astronaut?"

Er, no.

An entertaining slice of hokum but nothing more :happy:

Review added to Cinema by George Slv:
Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary (2002)

This originated as a ballet by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. There's classical orchestral accompaniment, but I would not call that a "musical". I don't recall comedy that the description here states, and anything incidental would not make this a "comedy".
The players are ballet dancers throughout the film, with the camera among them. A well-executed idea relating Stoker's novel. Mainly black and white, with subtitles, harking back to silent films.