Blu-ray: Who Wants to Kill Jessie?

Fast-paced and visually inventive Czech comedy

"Crazy comedy" was a recognised subgenre in post-war Czech cinema. Turn to this disc’s bonus features first and watch Michael Brooke’s video essay Those Crazy Czechs, an entertaining whistle-stop guide which piqued my curiosity about films such as You Are a Widow, Sir!, I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen! and How About a Plate of Spinach?

Music Reissues Weekly: The Final Solution - Just Like Gold

THE FINAL SOLUTION - JUST LIKE GOLD San Francisco psychedelic pioneers

Despite their idiotic name, these San Francisco psychedelic pioneers sounded astonishing

The booklet coming with Just Like Gold - Live At The Matrix frequently refers to the band as “The Solution.” It will be the same here.

With respect to the name this pioneering San Francisco psychedelic outfit did choose, their drummer John Chance is quoted in the booklet as saying “My mother was really upset about it [the band’s name], and I knew why.”

Blu-ray: Two Way Stretch / Heavens Above!

BLU-RAY: TWO WAY STRETCH / HEAVENS ABOVE! Two gems from Peter Sellers in his prime

'Peak Sellers': two gems from a great comic actor in his prime

The years between 1955’s The Ladykillers and 1964’s Dr Strangelove were the years of what Sanjeev Bhaskar recently described as "peak Sellers", a period when the great comic actor rarely seemed to put a foot wrong. Two Way Stretch and Heavens Above! succeed largely because both films feature Peter Sellers alongside talented supporting casts, his performances by necessity subtler and more nuanced.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps review - innocence regained

★★★★ THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS Innocence regained

Marvel's original super-group return to fun, idealistic first principles

Marvel goes back to its origins, gulping the fresh air of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s first hit comic The Fantastic Four in 1961. Ignoring recent flop film versions, it revels in a self-contained, space-age world as yet uncluttered with other costumed characters, and heroes who aren’t brooding vigilantes but human beacons of light.

Album: Paul Weller - Find El Dorado

Inspiring curation of some pretty great covers, and hints of majesty

Paul Weller occupies a strange place in the cultural sphere. Especially since he was adopted as an elder statesman of Britpop in the mid 1990s, he’s been particularly beloved of a core audience whose tastes are extremely conservative. So much so, in fact, that middle-aged men who ape his classic mod haircuts are now a shorthand for meat-and-potatoes, Brexity, red-faced, pub-coke bloke-rock. Yet Weller himself is anything but conservative.

Music Reissues Weekly: Mike Taylor - Pendulum, Trio

MIKE TAYLOR - PENDULUM, TRIO Two idiosyncratic, uncompromising Sixties British jazz rarities

The return of two idiosyncratic, uncompromising Sixties British jazz rarities

Wheels of Fire was Cream’s third album. Issued in the US in June 1968 and in the UK two months later, it was a double LP. One record was of live recordings, the other of studio material. Of the nine tracks on the latter, three were co-written by the band’s drummer Ginger Baker – who wrote the lyrics – and British jazz pianist/composer Mike Taylor.

Blu-ray: A Hard Day's Night

The 'Citizen Kane' of jukebox musicals? Richard Lester's film captures Beatlemania in full flight

Andrew Sarris, doyen of auteurist film critics, dubbed A Hard Day’s Night “the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals”. Wild over-praise, or sly, back-handed compliment?

Album: Mocky - Music Will Explain (Choir Music Vol. 1)

Is the Canadian polymath hiding behind his exquisite production and arrangement skill?

Dominic “Mocky” Salole has had a long career in which the tension between authenticity and pastiche has been a constant. Toronto-born, of English and Yemeni heritage, he came of musical age in the Bohemian hotbed of 1990s Berlin with a close-knit bunch of other Canadian ex-pats, including Peaches, Chilly Gonzales and Feist.

Music Reissues Weekly: Rupert’s People - Dream In My Mind

How ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ transformed a London mod-pop band

Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was an instant phenomenon. Recorded in April 1967 and issued as a single on 12 May after pre-release play on pirate station Radio London, it topped the UK charts four weeks later. Globally, it hit big on most pop markets and was integral to launching the classical music/pop hybrid which evolved into prog rock.