Bonobo - The North Borders Review
As per usual for UK electronic artist Bonobo, The North Borders starts off extremely well. 'First Fires' punctuates a beautifully understated vocal performance from Grey Reverend with submerged synth droplets and fleeting, glacial, ASMR inducing pads -- all enhanced by a confident and generous allowance for negative space that seems to only come with experience. In terms of perfect intros, it almost stacks up to the double barrelled future classic of Prelude/Kiara from 2010's Black Sands. Unfortunately, in this case there isn't a whole lot of interest that follows.
Bioshock Infinite Review
Bioshock Infinite has entered a world of extremely high expectations.
Over the course of six years the first person shooter has grown stale, and Irrational Games are being looked to as the saviors, with a hope of reinvigorating the entire genre just like they did with the original Bioshock in 2007.
Developer ambitions and public aspirations, much like the in-game city of Columbia, are sky high. This amount of hype would ultimately lead to disappointment, as expectations would transcend any ordinary game.
But this is no ordinary game.
Stoker Review
From Park Chan-wook, the director of Oldboy, comes a new and incredibly disturbing piece of film-making. Stoker follows a young woman's relationship with her uncle after the death of her father, but it's not as benign a plot as it sounds.
Side Effects Review
Steven Soderbergh's latest and possibly last film is a fantastically written thriller, focusing on a woman with clinical depression and the consequences of the drugs that her psychiatrist recommends. Except it's not quite that simple.
StarCraft II: Heart Of The Swarm Review
If you’re a fan of RTS games, chances are you’ve played StarCraft, or at least heard of it. The 2010 sequel Wings of Liberty has finally received its first expansion pack, Heart of the Swarm, and only two years behind schedule! Was it worth the wait? You betcha.
Iceage - You're Nothing Review
Danish four-piece Iceage combine Wire-esque post-punk with the looseness of noise rock and the detached angst of hardcore, managing to avoid the banality of the latter genre with a kind of implied futility in their ferocity and a total lack of macho posturing.
Mama Review
With a track record including The Orphanage and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Guillermo del Toro's best medium is the horror film. Mama is the best one to date.
Flight Review
When I first sat down to watch Flight, I was anticipating a disaster movie. I got one, but not quite in the manner I expected.
I'm going to clarify straight away: this is a film about addiction. This is a film about alcoholism and drug abuse and the incredible damage it can do to a person and their relationships and their life in general. Denzel Washington, playing main character Captain "Whip" Whittaker, absolutely excels in this role, and I would recommend you see it just for his performance.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragonborn PC Review
If you're anything like me, when Dragonborn hit Xbox 360 you avoided all mention of it to keep yourself pure, so for my fellow keyboard-jockeys, Dragonborn is available on Steam now. Bethesda has a long and illustrious history with downloadable content, producing some of the best in the business (horse armour notwithstanding), but is Dragonborn a worthy addition to their catalogue?
Yo La Tengo - Fade Review
Yo La Tengo's thirteenth LP is permeated with startling confidence and clarity, unpretentious in its accessibility and masterful in the art of understatement.
Opening track 'Ohm' is a bright, dreamlike anthem that gradually layers simple, subtly evolving elements which amount to a psychedelic crescendo in slow-motion. 'Cornelia and Jane', another standout, sees Georgia Hubley's gentle falsetto vocals drift over guitar melodies reminiscent of Death Cab For Cutie's Translantacism. It's all very soothing, like a day at Centre Parcs without the extortion.
Emily Capell - Who Killed Smiley Culture EP Review
Emily Capell’s website describes her music as “telling stories of celebrity lust, longstanding musical influences and the ups, downs and rounds and rounds of general adolescence”, which couldn’t be more true in her first EP, Who Killed Smiley Culture.
Life Of Pi Review
Put simply, Life of Pi is a beautiful film. Beautifully shot, beautiful colours, beautiful scenery, and particularly breathtaking animal shots. If you've seen Ang Lee's other films, especially Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain, you'll recognise his style.
Hitman: Absolution Review (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Six long years since the bald-headed, bar-coded Agent 47 last appeared on home consoles in Hitman: Blood Money, there's something to cherish about his return. With a scarcity of truly stealth-driven games at market – where set-piece laden, high-octane action titles are ten-a-penny – IO Interactive have sought to redress the balance with Absolution. It's a genuine shame, then, that it just comes up short.
Star N8000 Note Review
We may not always notice this, but more and more new phone releases just don’t hit the west at all; least of which the technological backwater UK. A myriad of reasons are enough to keep them from our shores, but it nevertheless got us thinking: what are we missing?
New Myspace Review
Myspace has suffered in its position as the 'punch line' to any Social Media humour. Destroyed by News Corporation, then rendered further into obsolescence by a minor reboot and a subpar software integration into TVs. That is until a certain popstar/star in a movie about Facebook took interest, both financially and mentally. The result is what you see, a complete overhaul.
Has this proverbial phoenix risen from the ashes, or have we fallen for good looks with no form and function?
Crystal Castles: (III) Review
With (III), Crystal Castles entirely abandon the quirky, screechy, bleepy approach that characterized their debut, instead opting to push the darker, softer sound introduced on the second half of their sophomore album.
The Walking Dead: Episode Five – No Time Left Review
The concluding part to Telltale Games' The Walking Dead presents not only an end; but a beginning.
This may seem like the generic vague statement that; but its relevance is strong. One of the best games this year has come to its explosive finale, and a revolution of in-game storytelling has been introduced with it.
Lee Everett's narrative in No Time Left is emotional, terrifying, exciting, and tense all at once, making for a fitting conclusion that will affect even the most hardened of players.
*EDITOR'S NOTE:* While the storyline of No Time Left will not be spoiled in this review, I do write about key plot points from the previous episodes. If you have not played any of the series, you may want to refrain from reading, in order to keep it a surprise.
Deftones - Koi No Yokan Review
With Koi No Yokan, Deftones refine their fusion of the ethereal and the visceral that has remained consistently effective since their inception, whilst continuing to transcend the boundaries of the reductive and frankly insulting 'nu-metal' label so often applied to them.
Black Moth Super Rainbow - Cobra Juicy Review
Like BMSR's previous efforts this is a hazy, sedative affair which leaves you feeling like you've received an injection of pure fruit matter.
The tracks have names like 'Dreamsicle Bomb', 'Psychic Love Bomb' and 'Hairspray Heart', and I can't be sure whether this is satirical or not. BMSR are a band I enjoy in short bursts, which is especially relevant here as this album's accessibility renders it repetitive.
Pid Review
You come to realise that Pid is quite an odd game, emerging from the sea of recent indie platform games with an odd combination of politeness and eccentricity. This gaming premiere of Swedish developer Might and Delight casts you as Kurt, a schoolboy stranded on a distant planet after falling asleep on an intergalactic bus.