overnight reviews

Album: ALT BLK ERA - Rave Immortal

Nottingham siblings' debut buzzes with amalgamated drum'n'bass and hard rock energy

The utopian messiness of 1990s dance music culture is now so far back in time that what remains, for those under 40, is an idea, a meta myth. It is one that ALT BLK ERA embrace. Where the Nineties was a smorgasbord of futurism, vanguard electronic exploration and hedonic madness, the excellently titled debut album Rave Immortal reimagines it through the prism of catchy TikTok snippets and rampant rock punch.

The Lonely Londoners, Kiln Theatre review - Windrush Generation arrive in a London full of opportunities, but not for them

 THE LONELY LONDONERS, KILN THEATRE A beautifully realised stage adaptation

Memories, frustrations and hopes in a city emerging from post-war austerity

As something of an immigrant to the capital myself in the long hot summer of 1984, I gobbled up Absolute Beginners, Colin MacInnes’s novel of an outsider embracing the temptations and dangers of London.

Prime Target, Apple TV+ review - the appliance of science

★★★ PRIME TARGET Boffins and baddies collide in Steve Thompson's complicated thriller

Boffins and baddies collide in Steve Thompson's complicated thriller

An opening sequence of a drone flying over a busy street in Baghdad, followed by a huge explosion that leaves many casualties and a gaping hole where a row of buildings used to be, suggests that Prime Target is going to be another special forces, war-on-terror type of drama.

Giltburg, Pavel Haas Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - into the labyrinth of a Martinů masterpiece

★★★★ GILTBURG, PAVEL HAAS QUARTET, WIGMORE HALL A Martinů masterpiece stuns

Fierce Czech first half followed by more storm but also balm in Brahms

Serious realisation of the seven often thorny Martinů string quartets is a major undertaking. When I spoke to Veronika Jarůšková and Peter Jarůšek after an East Neuk Festival concert, they said they intended to do it slowly, with absolute commitment. Tuesday night’s performance of the stupendous Fifth sealed the pledge. It held central place in a concert which only brought relief from Czech grittiness with the great cathartic melodies in Brahms’s Third Piano Quartet.

Amelia Coburn, Komedia, Brighton review - short set from rising Teeside folk sensation hits the sweet spot

★★★★ AMELIA COBURN, KOMEDIA, BRIGHTON Jim Moray tour support slot offers an undiluted snapshot of a name to watch

Jim Moray tour support slot offers an undiluted snapshot of a name to watch

The quandary is this. Middlesbrough singer Amelia Coburn made one of my favourite albums of last year, her debut, Between the Moon and the Milkman, and I hear she’s playing live near me on the south coast, not something that happens every day.

The Brutalist review - we're building to something

★★★★ THE BRUTALIST An epic of American dreaming that baffles and mesmerises

An epic of American dreaming that baffles and mesmerises

There’s a moment, as we build to a climax in Brady Corbet’s first film, The Childhood of a Leader (2015), when a servant at a grand house unwittingly nudges a candle into the path of a dangling curtain pull. The tassel ignites, unseen by gathering dinner guests.

Then something happens that’s rare in the annals of film. In fact, nothing happens. The drapery is not particularly flammable and, unseen by anyone in a lingering wide shot, burns itself quickly out. This dog-that-doesn’t-bark, tree-falls-in-a-forest moment is, it turns out, signature Corbet.

Album: FKA Twigs - Eusexua

★★★ FKA TWIGS - EUSEXUA A transformative electronic journey across diverse sonic and emotional landscapes

A transformative electronic journey across diverse sonic and emotional landscapes

It would be really easy to get hung up on the definition for this album. Is it a new sexuality term? A holiday genre of technopop? A planet that will align with the others on January 29th?

English singer Tahliah Debrett Barnett, aka FKA Twig, describes via X, that "eusexua is a practice, eusexua is a state of being, eusexua is the pinnacle of human experience".

Out There, ITV1 review - drugs and thugs disfigure the Welsh landscape

★★★★ OUT THERE, ITV1 Martin Clunes stars in Ed Whitmore's smartly-written drama

Martin Clunes stars in Ed Whitmore's smartly-written drama

If nothing else, ITV’s new thriller Out There is a fabulous advertisement for the Welsh countryside. Many scenes were shot in Brecon and the Black Mountains, amid acres of wild, rambling moorland and majestic hillsides. But it’s not always a happy place. Here, farmer Nathan Williams (Martin Clunes) is trying to hang on to his family business, but profits are low, overheads are high, and the recently widowed Nathan isn’t as young as he used to be.

William Tell review - stirring action adventure with silly dialogue

★★★ WILLIAM TELL Stirring action adventure with silly dialogue

The Swiss folk hero gets an epic update

Despite Rossini’s banger of an overture and a Looney Tunes cartoon starring Daffy Duck as William Tell, I’ll wager that few non-German-speakers can recite the precise details of the Swiss folk hero’s legend. Beyond, that is, describing him as a Robin Hood of the Alps whose crossbow arrow pierced the apple perched on his son’s head. However, in a stirring new action-adventure movie Tell turns out to be a surprising protagonist.