December 2006
Beatmag Film Editor Anna Wood chooses her flicks of 2006, in no particular order (can also be used as guide to what DVDs to spend your Christmas HMV tokens on)
Grizzly Man
“I am a warrior. I will be one of them. I will be the master.” Timothy Treadwell made friends with the bears he lived with for 13 summers in Alaska, but they did not make friends with him. This is another great film from Werner Herzog, and the most brilliant in a year of brilliant documentaries. (more…)
Filed under: Reviews - Film/DVD/Blu-Ray by Flexmaster Nylon
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December 2006
Beatmag Games guru Khalid Mallassi goes on a sweaty three day bender with some aliens, crashes some cars and introduces R Kelly to Clark Kent
Gears Of War
(Xbox 360)
See, all this waiting for presents at Christmas shit, it’s for the birds! I’m feelin’ way too balller to play that shit, son! Nah, my girl dropped an Xbox 360 on me early… cause that’s how gangsta we roll, kid. You, smell me, yo? …Yeah, that’s the smell of me when I‘ve been playing this game for three days straight without a bath… sorry ‘bout that. Gears Of War is as addictive as a motherfucker and just the kind of game to make you feel like a real man (even if you’re really a big wimp like me). (more…)
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Maverick scribbler Tim Wild reviews… things
This month – Moments I relive in the dark night, unable to forget
The Hairdressers
I despise barbers and hairdressers of all kinds. Youthful humiliation seemed always to be order of the day, but this one incident still haunts me particularly. My Mum, ever-practical, booked me a haircut in her own favoured salon, which happened to be the pinkest, most feminine establishment in town. (more…)
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Radio Birdman
Radios Appear (Trafalgar, 1977)
The freshest forgotten albums of yesteryear. Not the usual fawned over suspects but albums that ‘net-trawlers and second hand record shop aficionados may come across and should snap up now.
This month Guy Oddy goes wild for…
Guitarist Deniz Tek and singer Rob Younger formed Radio Birdman in Sydney in 1974 with the expressed intention of shaking things up. This they did, in spades. In a cultural landscape dominated, in the live arena, by insipid boogie bands in the image of Bad Company and, on the airwaves, by watered-down disco and soft rock, Radio Birdman pretty-much kicked-started the Sydney punk rock movement. Not bad for a band that weren’t really punks at all. (more…)
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December 2006
Beatmag’s rundown of the best to throw your hard-earned money at.
Beatmag Album of the Month
1. The Klaxons
Myths Of The Near Future (Polydor) (more…)
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Albums Of The Year 06
Thomas H Green runs down of the best, worst and weirdest of the year
Once again we arrive at Top 50 list central, the time of year every trainspotter greets with glee. But we won’t hang about surmising 2006 and pub-philosophising about the state of the music biz. There are plenty of other bits of the Beatmag that do that. Instead, after predictable soul-searching and heated debate, here are the good, the bad and the oddball of the last 12 months:
1. Nathan Fake
Drowning In A Sea Of Love (Border Community) (more…)
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Singles Of The Year 06
1.Arctic Monkeys
When The Sun Goes Down (Domino) (more…)
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Martyn Ware
If The Human League didn’t exist, it would be essential to invent them, such is their influence on British electronic music. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were computer operators in the mid-1970s and started an experimental electronics band – The Future – with Adi Newton in Sheffield during the economically depressed 1970s. When Newton left, the pair searched for a new vocalist so that they could remain behind their keyboards. Somewhat ironically, their first choice was Glen Gregory (more on him in a moment), but he was already in another band in London, so they auditioned Martyn’s old school friend Phil Oakey. (more…)
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Albums Of The Year – Q&A
Along with Mina Agossi’s latest, Jhelisa’s ‘A Primitive Guide To Being There’ was one of 2007’s jazz highlights. Beatmag is not a jazz publication so it’s only albums that have raw crossover appeal or blatant genre-smashing originality which strike home with us. Jhelisa’s album has both, pitched midway between jazz, world music, percussion workshop and, unbelievably, prog rock, all laced with politics and philosophical ponderings. (more…)
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Beatmag Albums Of The Year – Q&A
One of the unsung albums of 2007 was Amy Millan’s quietly sensational ‘Honey From The Tombs’ (Arts & Crafts). Where there’s currently an avalanche of identikit female singer-songwriters following a sub-Joni Mitchell folky template, Millan headed out to the prairies for a sound imbued with the aching melancholy of country, laced with the guitars of her ‘day job’ as a member of Canadian indie sensations Stars. Thomas H Green caught up with her just before a gig at London’s Borderline… (more…)
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