Chimpomatic

The Devil's Whore

(creator: Peter Flannery)

Channel 4

Four-part drama set during the English civil war, with Andrea Riseborough playing Angelica Fanshawe, a proto-feminist courtier who finds herself at the heart of Cromwell's revolution. 

Channel 4's historical dramas sometimes suffer from budget problems which make it look like there just weren't that many people around in ye great hiftorical momentes of olde Englande. Here, they just about get away with it, thanks largely to a great cast cast: as well as the mighty Dominic "McNulty" West as Oliver Cromwell, they've also got one of TV's all-time best swearers, Peter "come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off" Capaldi (although he's a lot meeker as King Charles than he was in The Thick Of It), John Simm (ever-reliable, and engaging here as a freestyling blade-for-hire), and Michael Fassbender, (Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's Hunger).

Weirdly it was shot in South Africa - it's a lot cheaper to make it look like 17th century England than 21st century England now is apparently. Fanshawe's journey from naive noblewoman to roving highwaylady is highly entertaining, though it's hard to know how fast and loose they've played with the history (the English Civil War wasn't on the curriculum at Chimpschool) - was Cromwell such a fun guy? Or is that just the McNulty charm seeping through Dominic West's grin? Would she really have been allowed to chat back to the King in the way that she does? 

Historical questions aside, it's an engaging romp, with a good mix of swashbuckling, drama and moustache-twirling that looks like it'll be worth following for all four episodes.

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#chimp71

13th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

The Lord Dog Bird

The Lord Dog Bird

Jagjaguwar

The Lord Dog Bird is the solo alter ego of Colin McCann - the guitarist in the band Wilderness (review of their new album to follow) - and it was recorded at home on a 4-track by the spookily voiced Lord Colin himself. Sparse scratchy droning guitar, vocals and simple drums are the main ingredients here. This bare and basic sound adds authenticity and power to both voice and word. The atmosphere is a heavy claustrophobic mix of fear, honesty, and a tinge of optimism.

There is, though, a sense that these tunes are works in progress torn from a scrapbook. The similarity of the songs (both the sound and the composition), the presence of a couple of noodly instrumentals and the lo-fi nature of the whole piece gives it an unfinished feel. That said there are two exceptional tracks on here that elevate the whole damn thing:

“March To The Mountain” takes us on a compelling journey where the drums punch in to drive an urgent sense of being up against it. The words sound better delivered than written, but I like the way the end of the/my world is nigh gets expressed: “The sky is up above - the melting snow of love - and every rivers clogged - and you can’t find the sun.” The twin vocals on “The Gift Of Song In The Lions Den” add a haunting tone to this driven song that…Oh – bugger it – download and have a listen for yourself here.

This rather enjoyable 9 track album, released by the solidly rostered jagjaguwar label, was recorded when the main act were on an extended hiatus. Now, it might turn out that he has worked tirelessly to create this, his magnum opus, but I wonder if it might have reached a greater level of opus-ness if worked on for a bit longer.

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#Locochimpo

12th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Underbelly

FX UK

Interesting spin on the suburban gangster story, looking at ten years in the life of an Australian mob family: think Neighbours meets the Sopranos. Lots of leisurewear, barbies, and E-pressing machines running all night in houses you could imagine Kath and Kim living next door to. 

With a high incidence of death for characters throughout the series, it's something of a hard sell - you don't know who's going to stay the distance, so you can't get as attached as we could with the Bada Bing crew. But after a few episodes it takes on its own flavour, showing the loose connections between the mobsters, and their volatile, casual flip between life and death. The cops chasing them emerge too - with a grizzly by-the-book chief (who likes to bake his own shortbread).

For fans of recent Aussie shows, the cast have been in everything from The Secret Life Of Us, Heartbreak High and yes, Home And Away and Neighbours...

When it was shown in Australia, some of the court cases involving the real gang members were still pending, so they banned it in the state of Victoria, which all sounds pretty unworkable. 

NIce to see FX - home of The Wire, Breaking Bad and Burn Notice etc - spreading their reach to bring us other shows worth watching from around the world. Can't help thinking they've really made the terrestrials in the UK look lazy in the last few years.

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#chimp71

10th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Quantum Of Solace

(dir. Marc Foster)

MGM

Daniel Craig puts in another granite-hard turn as the noughties 007 in this Casino Royale sequel.

As in his first mission, he's a good combination of all the best Bonds - the punch-first toughness of Connery, the occasional quip from Moore and the physical presence of Brosnan. The scenes with Judi Dench's M bristle, new Bond girl Olga Kurylenko does a good job of breaking through Bond's post-Vesper grief and French actor Mathieu Amalric makes a decent mwah-ha-ha villain for Bond to chase around the world.

But - and it's a big but - it's a film that's totally let down by the action direction. From the opening sequence, to the fights, speedboats chases etc it's a mess - you can't see what's happening, and so it's impossible to be impressed or to care, or even get that excited. There's nothing to match the visceral thrill of CR's parkour chase here - although you get the feeling that any of the action scenes could have measured up if they'd just let one camera linger on what was happening for longer than a second. There's one fight which pretty much cuts to another angle after every punch - a bewildering, disorientating tactic, which leaves you with the impression of some hard-ass kicking going on, but no real sense of the flow of anything. 

The so-so theme from Jack White and Alicia Keys just about sums it all up really: it's close, but really misses the essence of what made Craig's first go such a treat. Would like to see him have another go, because this would be a lame way to leave it.

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#chimp71

9th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Apparitions

Episode One

BBC1

Spooky atmospherics with Martin Shaw as a Catholic exorcist, fighting off a series of angry demons and the people they've possessed.

The first episode crams in a visit to the Vatican, a repressed novice priest who was once cured of leprosy by Mother Theresa and a dad whose Satanic babbling isn't scoring him too many points on the parenting front. 

Sounds like it's been toned down from the original full-on version featuring a man's skin being ripped off his body in a gay sauna thanks to the kind intervention of the Sunday Express - can't have helped that it's being broadcast so soon after the nonsense of Sachsgate or whatever we're calling it. Which in a way is probably a sign that it's the sort of thing you might enjoy if you're not an Express reader.

With this and Dead Set, looks like horror's back on primetime TV - BBC3's vampire flatshare Being Human is coming in 2009 as well...

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#chimp71

9th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Undeclared

(creator Judd Apatow)

Undeclared follows the lives of a group of freshman students at a fictional US University. While not exactly a sequel to the excellent Freaks & Geeks, this comedy drama is a something of a logical follow up - featuring some of the same actors, in similar roles, with the high school setting upgraded to a freshman University dorm. The most notable difference is the contemporary setting, as opposed to the retro 70's of Freaks & Geeks.

Judd Apatow moves up from the exec producer role he took on Freaks & Geeks into the fully-fledged Series Creator seat here, and the series he created turned out to be something of a training ground for many of his regulars - with the young Seth Rogan serving as a writer and story editor on much of the show and Jason Segel taking a major role. A pink-eye free Jay Baruchel puts in sympathetic performance as Steven, tentatively finding his way through college, as well as dealing with a parental break-up - while the cameos come thick and fast from the likes of Adam Sandler (as an asshole version of himself), Will Ferrell (as a temperamental essay forger) and even Ben Stiller. Loudon Wainwright also puts in a recurring performance as Steven's father.

College rights-of-passage could be considered dangerous ground and I would imagine it's the kind of thing BBC3 could fuck-up beyond all recognition. Storylines here cover many of the standard University plots, but that also provides the main reason for the show's success. You'll be able to relate to the underage drinking, the friend-making process, the sexually successful roommate, the cool kids/geeky kids divide and the driving around town with the one guy with a car in search of a party you're not really invited to. As this show finds its feet there is a natural feel to much of the dialogue and the humor is well-timed, comical, contemporary and believable, much like The Office or Spaced, and effortless performances from many of the lead roles really fill out the characters, making for an eminently watchable show.

Unfortunately, like its predecessor, this one bit the dust after the fickle US market failed to recognise its brilliance...

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#CSF

7th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid

NYC

Domino

For their fourth collaborative album in 3 years, Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid turn to Reid's home town for inspiration. Recorded at the famous Manhattan studio Avatar, that has seen artists such as Miles Davis, Steve Reich and The Roots pass through its hallowed doorway, this album draws from the sounds and feel of New York City. With past recordings being challenging to the extreme, NYC seems to incorporate all the ground that these two artists have covered in the past and has managed to bring it all into line for what must be their best and most certainly their most accessible album to date.

All six songs rely on the contrast of simplicity and complexity with each structure being drastically stripped down compositions that employ an incredibly limited musical pallet. Having said that, each song glistens with intricate complexities that are packed into their formless shell with seeming abandon. Hebden is credited with providing simply "electronics" which heavily understates his contribution. Each track is laced with his trademark texture consisting of swirling atmospherics, mumbling white noise and clipped electric guitar. But of course at the centre of all this is Reid's drumming. Like a flock of swallows flying in unison, Reid's drumming holds all the elements together as it darts from one place to the next. It is the basis of each composition and yet drifts along with utter freedom. It can provide backing texture to Hebden's twiddling and samples or it can rise to centre stage with awesome strength and confidence.

The most challenging moment is chosen to lead the album, with Lyman Place kicking things off with an incredibly tense seven minute opener. It's like being in a lift in the tallest building in the world and watching the floor-count rise higher and higher with ever increasing speeds. If you can get past this, the record really starts with 1st & 1st. Like the credit crunch has bitten into the supply of musical notes, this song is built around a 4 or 5 note funk hook that is repeated in all its forms as Reid's drums take on almost tribal rhythm. 25th Street really captures the chaos of Manhattan's streets as frantic drumming churns inside out along with a multitude of fractured samples, including what sounds like the last sips of a McDonalds coke through a straw. Hebden's triumphant EP released earlier this year is brought to mind as this chaos effortlessly slips into a regular 4/4 beat towards the end, but he miraculously manages to restrain himself form this form and structure and lets the beat see out the rest of the song but continue no further. Arrival and Between B&C adopt a more abstract approach and choose a blanket-type structure that covers the whole song in feather-light cymbals and astral synths. But, when mid-way through Between B&C the drum roll ceases and a deep piano melody drops in, the result is electrifying.

Departure closes the album with a ground-mat of delicate, looping glockenspiel that recalls Hebden's early work as Four Tet. It's a beautiful way to finish and it simply gleams with jewell-like clarity and sensitivity. Reid really embeds his drumming deep into the distance and it's from this all encompassing bed of rhythm that Hebden's restrained percussion sparkles. It's a gentle way to close this accomplished recording and really completes the journey through this city, a journey that has been terrifying, mesmerising, hypnotic, exciting and ultimately blissful. Avatar's musical ghosts haunt every beat of this record as it brings into harmony the free-form creativity of MIles Davis, the avant-guard flare of Steve Reich and the The Roots' sense of rhythm. It oozes tradition and yet is acutely contemporary and is the glorious sum of many years of ceaseless creative pursuit by both artists and something not to be missed.

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#BC

6th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet