Blu-ray: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

★★★★ INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION Elio Petri's political foray into the Italian absurd

Elio Petri's political foray into the Italian absurd

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto) is Italian filmmaker Elio Petri’s dark 1970s satire on state corruption.

Album: The Staves - Good Woman

★★★ THE STAVES - GOOD WOMAN The Staveley-Taylors kick over the traces

The Staveley-Taylors kick over the traces

The Staves – Emily, Jessica, and Camilla Staveley-Taylor – have routinely been described as “an indie folk act”, and while the term folk has undergone a lot of stretching over the years the band’s first two albums – Dead & Born & Grown and If I Was – could broadly be said to fit, their latest, Good Woman, requires redefinition.

Album: John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death

★★★ JOHN CARPENTER - LOST THEMES III: ALIVE AFTER DEATH Film director releases his first solo album in five years

The film director and soundtrack composer releases his first solo album in five years

John Carpenter may be more celebrated as the director of such great cinematic landmarks as Escape From New York, Assault on Precinct 13 and Halloween, but he is also well-deserving of his plaudits as one of the founding fathers of modern electronic music.

DVD/Blu-ray: The Masque of the Red Death

★★★★ DVD / BLU-RAY: THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH Horror is a many-splendoured thing in Roger Corman's 1964 film of Poe's tale

Horror is a many-splendoured thing in Roger Corman's 1964 film of Poe's tale

One hundred and seventy four years ago today, on Tuesday, 2 February 1847, the body of Virginia (“Sissy”) Poe, Edgar Allan Poe's 24-year-old wife, was interred in a vault in a graveyard near the couple's rented cottage in Fordham, in the Bronx; she had died of consumption (tuberculosis) the previous Saturday. 

Album: Elephant9 - Arrival Of The New Elders

★★★ ELEPHANT9 - ARRIVAL OF THE NEW ELDERS Norway’s jazz-prog luminaries

Norway’s jazz-prog luminaries take their feet off the accelerator pedal

Arrival Of The New Elders is unlike anything Norwegian trio Elephant9 have done before. Previously, their jazz-prog mélange was as full-on as it could be. Attacking, hard and heavy. Now, a previously unfamiliar pensiveness has been revealed.

Album: Femi Kuti and Made Kuti - Legacy+

★★★★ FEMI KUTI & MADE KUTI - LEGACY Scions of Afro-Beat dynasty deliver the old and new

Scions of Afro-Beat dynasty deliver the old and new

Fela Kuti and Afro-Beat have achieved a kind of joyous immortality: his son Femi and his grandson Made keep the flame of Nigerian agitprop and party-music ablaze, with a pair of albums (Stop the Hate by Femi, and For(e)ward by Made) that both, in their distinct ways, pay homage to the man who started it all.