To both a seasoned Star Wars fan and a casual viewer, the treatment of Natalie Portman’s Padmé in the prequel trilogy (Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) is… Read More
Nancy Wilson, a trailblazer for female guitarists and rock sister acts everywhere as a member of Heart since 1974, is going back to her musical roots with the April release of You and Me, her first official studio album as… Read More
The Netherlands’ ISLE are an indietronica duo that incorporate folk and classical elements into their sound. ISLE’s latest single, “Lone Wolf”, is a dreamy pop number that employs sweeping strings to create a sense of vast atmosphere, while the light… Read More
Bassist and composer Eric Revis has mainstream credentials through his membership in Branford Marsalis’ longstanding quartet. But his recordings, with a sturdy trio and larger groups, have tended to be more adventurous and varied, at the edge of the compositional… Read More
In an interview with A4 TV, the Bug, aka formerly UK-based producer and sound manipulator Kevin Martin explains, “I love drowning in decibels. I like swimming in frequencies. I like to forget where I am.” For someone who sees the… Read More
“It’s not a rule. It’s sportsmanship.” So instructs Mr. Shaibel, the custodian who introduces chess to orphan Beth Harmon in the Netflix limited series The Queen’s Gambit (Scott Frank, Allan Scott, 2020). The nine-year-old Beth knows how the chess pieces… Read More
A thumbnail sketch of Britain’s state in 2021 will provide a useful entrée into the quite brilliant new Sleaford Mods album, Spare Ribs. As Cornish fishermen and women complain that their catch is being left to rot on docksides due… Read More
Alexis Boylan opens Visual Culture with a careful explanation of how inundated most of us are by visual imagery. Whether engaging with screens — televisions, computers, smartphones — or moving through the world, the constant flow of changing images, many… Read More
On their first album, Birthday (2019), Pom Poko delighted in confounding expectations and taking their brazen sounds to giddy extremes. With Cheater, the band are essentially repeating the process with even more confidence. This is a group that doesn’t believe… Read More
In the late hours of a June 2001 evening, a performance by a young, fresh-faced band was broadcast for a national audience on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. Late-night talk shows draw in musical artists of all stripes, but at that… Read More