John Shand Posts

November 2, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

BRIGHT FORCE (Libra) 8/10 You know that wild, spiralling look in the eyes when a border collie suffering cabin fever is suddenly released into park or paddock? This music is the sonic equivalent, played with such ferocious intensity you’d think that Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Alister Spence (keyboard, electronics), Satoko Fujii…

November 1, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

YRU STILL HERE? (Northern Spy) 7.5/10 Is this the year’s angriest record? Marc Ribot is sick of seeing his Brooklyn friends and neighbours randomly arrested by the US Immigration and Customs Agency (contemptuously known as “La Migra”). When he’s not baring his punk roots in tsunamis of fury like Personal…

October 30, 2018 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Reginald Theatre, October 13 7.5/10 “If you stir a cup of tea,” explains Martina, a PhD candidate in astrophysics, “it all goes round. If you stir a superfluid [like the interior of a neutron star], what happens is you start a lot of vortices going through the liquid, so instead…