Asher Roth: Asleep in the Bread Aisle
Features
Given the excitement surrounding Eminem's imminent return, it's easy to forget that his rise was not greeted with untrammelled delight by the hip-hop community. Indeed, some suggested his success might effectively signal the end of hip-hop as we know it. Once the music industry found a million-selling white rapper, it was bound to search out others and promote them at the expense of their black counterparts. Honky was going to go on one of his periodic musical mission creeps; hip-hop would be annexed as thoroughly as R&B had been by skinny kids from Richmond and Newcastle in the early 1960s.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Books I & II; Angela Hewitt
Features
Angela Hewitt made her first recording of the 48 Preludes and Fugues in the late 1990s, as part of her Hyperion cycle of Bach's keyboard works. Her return to them seems to have been prompted by a sense of greater familiarity with the music itself, matured over 10 years of playing the pieces in recital. In fact, not a great deal about her performances has changed, though the piano itself has: for Hewitt now prefers the pearly glow of a Fazioli to the greater assertiveness of the Steinway. In some preludes, her rhythms are far more unbuttoned than before - a result, she suggests, of getting to know more music by French baroque composers such as Couperin and Rameau. But only occasionally does she take more liberties with expressive rubato than the music can stand. What shines through her playing most of all is a sovereign control of touch, texture and dynamic, so that every line is perfectly characterised and distinct. This is by no means the only approach to playing Bach's masterpiece on
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

Bleep of faith
Features
It's one of the UK's greatest independent labels, responsible for introducing the world to Aphex Twin, LFO, Boards of Canada and Squarepusher. But the origins of Warp Records, which celebrates its 20th birthday this year, were much humbler. The track that would inspire a revolution in UK dance music was conceived in a teenager's bedroom.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

Hail, Hail, Rock'n'Roll
Features
It began quietly enough, with a late-night hankering to hear again the demo version of the Lemonheads' Bit Part. Several hours later, however, I found myself sitting in my kitchen feverishly downloading Vanessa Paradis's Joe le Taxi, Taylor Dane's Tell It to My Heart, and searching YouTube for the video to House Arrest by Krush, just to see if it was how I remembered it to be.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

Intergalactic FM: a hotbed of 80s electro
Features
In my quest to escape my addiction to Five Live, I'm spending entire weeks listening to radio stations I've never heard before. I was drawn to Intergalactic FM by its name (who wouldn't be?) and a banner promising listeners "the west coast sound". That's nice, I thought. I like west coast sounds - the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Fifth Dimension. The reality is though that the west coast Intergalactic is referring to isn't California, it's the "west coast sound of Holland". I didn't even know the Netherlands had a west coast, let alone a sound unique to it, but it does and it's as far removed from 12-string guitars and songs pining for chestnut mares or beautiful balloons as it is possible to get.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

Before I Forget
Features
This is an insight into a subculture that, it's fair to say, doesn't get a decent crack of the cinematic whip: the demi-monde of the ageing, former-gigolo, gay Frenchman. The first few minutes - an unhurried inspection of an unpleasant coughing fit of someone we can only assume is seriously ill - doesn't promise much fun.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

Blood, guts and bullets
Features
For some reason I thought it would be fun to gather all the Italian-made western DVDs and tapes I could lay my hands on, and watch them in the order they were made. An interesting experiment, which maybe I could turn into a book, or a long article on the development of one of the most peculiar and popular cinematic sub-genres.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

Casting the news: McBride of Satan, the 'smeargate' film
Features
If ever anyone had a face for cellulite, it's Damian McBride. Sorry, celluloid. If ever anyone had a face for celluloid, it's Damian McBride. The 34-year-old former adviser to the prime minister is, we're pleased to announce, the subject of Guardian/film/films' latest multimillion pence blockbuster – McBride of Satan – a political thriller offering a chilling glimpse into the very heart of power and the fat-clogged arteries that surround it.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

Claws out
Features
In slow motion, Hugh Jackman rises out of a tank of blue liquid. He shakes the water from his mutton-chop whiskers, veins throb in his neck, his shoulders bulge, claws extend, and he lets out an almighty, woodland- clearing roar. "If we get it right," says Jackman animatedly, "people are going to go, 'Fuck yeah!' That's the reaction I want. If we don't get that, I haven't done enough."
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009

DVD review: Mike Leigh at the BBC
Features
For anyone who has come to the Salford director's oeuvre late, this is a wonderful six-disc look at the early days. Abigail's Party - as toe-curlingly embarrassing as anything from Larry David or Ricky Gervais - is the famous one, but Nuts in May and Grown-Ups run it very close in sharp, observational comedy. Alison Steadman and Roger Sloman's veggie duo in the former are as indelible as Steadman's famous monster, Beverly. A reminder, too, how many of these gems arrived via Play for Today or BBC2 Playhouse series. Nothing remotely like them exists in today's BBC.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Date Published: April 17, 2009