Preview: Glasgow Film Festival 2016

Oh Glasgow, you are spoiling us... Yes, the Glasgow Film Festival just gets better and better. It wasn't enough to announce an opening gala of the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar!, and a closing gala of Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa - they had to go and show off with a blistering full programme too. It’s basically impossible for us to detail everything that’s caught our eye without just directing you to the brochure, so we’ll take you through some of the things we’re particularly excited by.

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Miles Ahead

Music is a big theme this year, as it always (rightly) is at the GFF. Blasted favourites Monorail Film Club host a screening of Danny Says, a ‘frank and hilarious’ documentary about the man (Danny Fields) who made the likes of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Patti Smith household names; the inimitable (and really quite brilliant) Ela Orleans performs a live soundtrack to the 1929 silent film Lucky Star at Mackintosh Queen's Cross; they’ve also bagged Don Cheadle’s labour of love, the long-awaited Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead; over on the Southside, the Tramway (fresh from hosting a typically provocative and stimulating Turner Prize) hosts the exhibition This is Now: Film and Video after Punk (1978 - 85) for four days, an exploration of the filmmaking of artists in London’s post-punk scene, featuring remastered work by the likes of Grayson Perry and Cordelia Swann; and Aidan Moffat takes on ‘Scottish folk royalty’ in the hope of re-working traditional Scottish songs in Where You’re Meant To Be.

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The Man Who Fell To Earth

Planned before his sad and untimely death (which we couldn’t even bring ourselves to write about, and still can’t, to be honest), David Bowie is a bit of a theme this year too – not only are GFF screening D.A. Pennebaker’s classic documentary Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, they’re also putting on a very special screening of Nicolas Roeg's incredible (Bowie-starring) The Man Who Fell To Earth at no less a venue than the Glasgow Science Centre Planetarium.

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No Home Movie

Cinematic heavyweights get a chance to occupy the screen themselves; the master of suspense gets more than a cameo facing off against Nouvelle Vague maestro François Truffaut in Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut; Sergei Eisenstein finds himself in Mexico in Peter Greenaway’s exuberant Eisenstein in Guanajuato; the late Chantal Akerman’s relationship with her mother is the subject of her final film, the intimate video essay No Home Movie; and the one and only Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her mother, husband Lou Reed and her dog in Heart Of A Dog.

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Arabian Nights Vol. 3: The Enchanted One

Other new films glinting at us from the brochure are the marvellous Ben Wheatley's much anticipated adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s humorous dystopia High-Rise; Miguel Gomes’ ambitious Arabian Nights trilogy promises to be nothing less than spectacular; and Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s Goodnight Mommy looks to be an intelligently chilling family drama.

So there you have it. Get on it.

The Glasgow Film Festival runs from 17-28 February at various venues across the city. All images courtesy of the Glasgow Film Festival.

Lou Reed: 2 March 1942 - 27 October 2013

Lewis Allan Reed died today, aged 71, in Long Island. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family. His music has been a source of inspiration to many (including us here at Blasted- to an absurd level, in fact) and will continue to be so for a very long time. If you don't have the The Velvet Underground & Nico, White Light/White Heat,  The Velvet Underground, Loaded, VU, Transformer and Berlin, get them all tomorrow and learn them all back to front, you may well find some of your favourite records. R.I.P. Lou.

From Loaded (1970).

Gainsbourg et Son Gainsborough: Serge and Jane's Family Album

This month sees the publication of yet another interesting (and rather lavish) music tome - a photographic book documenting the 12-year relationship of legendary Gallic musician Serge Gainsbourg with English model and singer Jane Birkin.  This collection of intimate family portraits has been put together by Birkin's brother Andrew and offers an interesting and unusual angle on a very public and sometimes controversial union. 

Jane & Serge. A Family Album by Andrew Birkin & Alison Castle is available now. 

Image courtesy of Taschen

Gothic - The Dark Heart of Film

The BFI have recently unveiled their next big project, a voyage into the dark heart of British film that will encompass over 150 titles and 1000 screenings, a number of special events, DVD releases and an educational programme. Revolving around four main themes (Monstrous, The Dark Arts, Haunted Love is a Devil), GOTHIC will explore how much-filmed characters like Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Frankenstein made an impact on audiences in the UK and abroad, introducing them to taboo subjects along the way. 

Courtesy of Janus films/BFI

We are particularly excited about Philip Glass' take on Jean Cocteau's 1946 film La Belle et La Bête, which will take place on 10th and 11th August (part of the Edinburgh International Festival). The Filmhouse should also reveal a series of screenings and events; for further details keep checking these pages. The BFI are also stepping into the art world: working in conjunction with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, they will launch the Witchcraft and Wicked Bodies exhibition (opening on Saturday 27th July) - it features works by Albrecht Dürer, Francisco de Goya and William Blake, as well as pieces by 20th century artists like Kiki Smith. 

The GOTHIC season runs from August 2013 to January 2014. To keep up with BFI updates sign up to their newsletter.

Blackest Ever Black announce Tropic of Cancer's 'Restless Idylls'

After releasing numerous EPs and singles over the last few years, Camella Lobo's Tropic of Cancer will finally release its debut album, Restless Idylls, on the continually awe-inspiring Blackest Ever Black. The album and preceding 7", More Alone, sees TOC's return to the label after a series of singles and EPs (including a split 12" with HTRK) on the likes of Ghostly International and Karl O'Connor(AKA Regis)'s Downwards. O' Connor has, incidentally, provided additional production on both the album and single; the former is released on 23 September with the latter preceding it in late July. You can stream More Alone via SoundCloud below.

7" mix of Tropic of Cancer's 'More Alone', a track which features in different form on the forthcoming album Restless Idylls . The one-sided 'More Alone' 7" will be released in August 2013 on Blackest Ever Black. Restless Idylls follows on September 23 on double-vinyl, CD and digital formats.

Image courtesy of Blackest Ever Black

EIFF 2013

The longest running film festival in the world, The Edinburgh International Film Festival, finally kicks off this week.

Artistic director Chris Fujiwara delivers his second year, with a program that promises rich pickings. With 125 new features showing, the festivals boasts some big names; Sofia Coppola returns with The Bling Ring, a portrayal of celebrity-obsessed youth culture (based on the real-life story of a group of teenagers robbing Hollywood homes), Noah Baumbach builds on the wonderful The Squid and The Whale with Frances Ha, a bitter sweet comedy about a young New Yorker who is forced to review her lofty career ambitions.

There is also plenty of room for home-grown films: Edinburgh-based film-maker and critic Mark Cousins is back with A Story of Children and Film, a playful cine-essay on the relationship between childhood and the seventh art; Transgressive North's artistic director Jamie Chambers makes his debut with Blackbird, a captivating tale of belonging and loss set in a small village in the South West of Scotland.

As always, there are also intriguing retrospectives. This year the EIFF celebrates the work of neglected French director Jean Grémillont; audiences will also get the chance to re-discover the diverse ouvre of Brooklyn-born Richard Fleischer (Tora! Tora! Tora!, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea).

The 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from 19th to 30th June.  Tickets are on sale now. The festival brochure is available here.

POST 'Cavalcade' mini-album launch at Nice'N'Sleazy, 26 April 2013

​Earlier this year Glasgow/Manchester's POST had our ​Andrew R. Hill in raptures with the digital release of their debut mini-album Cavalcade, which is now receiving a much deserved physical release on (the ever-excellent) We Can Still Picnic. The live launch for this gem of a record is this Friday at Glasgow's Nice'N'Sleazy - doors are 1930, and it's a fiver on the door or £3 in advance from Monorail Music or Tickets Scotland. Support comes from gauzy popsters The Yawns and the enigmatic Spread Eagle. So (if you're in the area...or even if you aren't) make sure you grab the chance to catch one of the country's most exciting new bands in action, and be sure to pick up an album while you're at it.

Our new single, out on blue fur/we can still picnic records on 16th July 2012.

Record Store Day: Vic Godard & Subway Sect’s ‘Caught in Midstream’ 7” and Vic Godard & The Sexual Objects live in Mono, Edwyn Collins, and more…

20 April is this year’s Record Store Day, the day of the year that music fans and musicians celebrate their love of those most wondrous spaces – independent record shops. Since 2007 the event has grown and grown, with record shops across the world opening their doors (often early) to incredibly lengthy queues, hosting in-store performance and offering exclusive releases.

This year’s exclusive releases are of a particularly high standard (a full list can be found on the RSD website)  but one that has particularly caught our ear is Vic Godard’s Caught in Midstream 7”, produced at West Heath Yard by Edwyn Collins compatriot Seb Lewsley, and released on Collins’ label AED Records. Both sides of the 45 come from the sessions for the follow up to 1979 Now (the follow up to 1978 Now) a future release of another ‘lost’ Subway Sect album that saw them in their influential (but largely undocumented) Northern Soul phase.

Godard will also be playing a special set of Velvet Underground songs for RSD at Mono in Glasgow with the inimitable Sexual Objects. World Peace and Ela Orleans are also playing and Deena E. Jacobs, David Barbarossa, Jenny Rollo and The Brogues will be DJ-ing throughout the day.

Listen to A. Caught In Midstream: Vic Godard & Subway Sect by Analogue Enhanced Digital | Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio.

Listen to B. You Bring Out The Demon In Me: Vic Godard & Subway Sect by Analogue Enhanced Digital | Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio.

On a related note, Edwyn Collins will also be releasing a 7” with The Heartbreaks for RSD, and all of Orange Juice’s wonderful LPs are to be re-released on vinyl for this celebratory day. Collins is currently on tour and is in fine fettle, as we can attest to, having seen him at Glasgow’s ABC last night. Tears may have been shed.

Wherever you are and whatever you’re into, independent record shops are important for so many reasons, get along to your local (or locals) tomorrow if you can, even if it’s just to get reacquainted with that smell (you know what we’re talking about).