The Brown Note Movie Review

What a con-artist Swans leader, Michael Gira is. After creating the greatest achievement in rock the last decade, the monolithic, gargantuan trilogy of, The Seer, To be Kind and The Glowing Man, he promised us he was done with these planet sized two hour behemouths and that Swans would enter a new phase of very different music. Well, they did for two albums, but he's right back into it with Birthing, another two-hour, widescreen apocalypse - and a hugely worthy addition to the now quadrilogy. And given how much fun they sound like they're having this time out, a great choice for my first Swans album for the terrified and uninitiated.

This substance free, Casio-presets, ambient waffle, is the worst album length project the (recently under fire) Radiohead front man has been involved with. Worse, it completely wastes the talents of a legend of British electronic music, who may as well not even be here, so little is his noticeable input. Someone needs to sit Thom down and say, stop commenting on the Middle East and stop releasing ghostly ethereal ballads. A total wasted opportunity.

As a huge fan of the underappreciated original, I could not be more disappointed by this utter slop. "Critics think it's better than the original"?! How?! By watering down and denuding everything that was different and special about the first film, until it's homogenized garbage? Even Ben Affleck's lead doesn't escape, his previous intensity as the autistic hitman, is now just goofy and the usually reliable ace in the deck, Jon Bernthal, has never been so annoying.

Not an original bone in it's body but utterly enjoyable sub-Hitchcock hokum, that makes great cinematic use of limited environs. Luckily they also have an excellent lead to helm it all in Meghann Fahy, as she traverses a dinner date with murderous complications.

As a painfully stick in the mud old school rap fan, I am deeply ashamed to have featured the last two Armand Hammer albums, without paying any attention to the twenty-five plus year career of one half of the duo, Billy Woods. Golliwog is one of the finest and most immersive rap albums of the recent era, though that immersion is not pleasant, the world being a nightmarish horror-scape, it is however brilliant.

DJ Felix Manuel has delivered one of the best - and classiest, and most listenable - electronic albums of recent years. A pairing of his virtuoso piano playing and equally dexterous drum programming - all produced to sonically beautiful fidelity.

A few years ago I would've ranked Alex Garland alongside Robert Eggers, as one of the most exciting new directors out there, now it's two utterly forgettable war films, back to back, that are bad in completely different ways. Though Warfare does share with Civil War, having both nothing to say and being at the back of the pack of numerous other much better films on the same subject. Watch something like The Outpost to see how the single battle film can be done so much better.

After my initial exposure to the mercurial talents of John Martyn - who created his own language through Folk, Blues and Jazz through the 1970's and on - a follow up. Before I focused on the immortal albums like Solid Air and One World, this time an extensive look at the rest. Well, up to a point, specifically from his debut, London Conversations in 1967 to The Apprentice in 1990. A slow start, and some real 80s trash lie in wait, but a few more classics are added to the list and it's a fascinating journey. Fans of Beverley Martyn turn away.

After a lackluster decade of documentaries, Theroux returns with one of his finest, most important - and most timely - ever, on Israeli colonization of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It says the quiet part out loud - it never has been about how the Palestinians behave, it's always been about ethnic cleansing.

Since their second album, Ants From Up There, bagged my album of the year in 2022, and promptly lost their iconic leader - no British indie act has gone through more change. Now firmly ensconced in their Harry Potter House Band/Music Hall Indie phase with a beguiling, detailed and unique baroque new album.