Reviews

There's little original Dylan footage and no music in this unofficial bio co-produced by the fanzine Isis. But what we do get is a series of fascinating new interviews—with old school friends and teachers in Hibbing who describe a loner who gave little hint of the extraordinary gifts he was later to develop, early colleagues who played with him in Greenwich Village and leading Dylanologists such as Clinton Heylin and CP Lee. NIGEL WILLIAMSON

Career-spanning compilation of Cohen covers

Having served his apprenticeship with Chico Hamilton, Ron Carter, and Charles Lloyd, Szabo gained wider prominence with 1966's Jazz Raga. The '60s found him producing more commercially oriented material with Jim Keltner and Hal Gordon. Szabo's method—state opening theme, extemporise making full use of drones and false fingerings—is well suited to these cover versions ("Dear Prudence", "Some Velvet Morning"). Although occasionally straying into blandness, this is mostly lounge-psych of the highest order.

Startling return from the abyss for LA-based Carlos Ayala

A solo vehicle for 16 Horsepower leader David Eugene Edwards, Woven Hand sacrifices his other outfit's thunderous bombast but retains the glowering intensity. This follow-up to 2002's self-titled debut is a masterstroke of creeping gothic: spectral percussion, skeletal guitar and Edwards' ominous voice, lent added weight by the religious significance of the lyrics (especially the startling "To Make A Ring"). Of his contemporaries, only Nick Cave and Willard Grant Conspiracy's Robert Fisher sound as eerily portentous.

Gentle solo album from Broken Family Band man

Portishead associations fail to rescue disappointing debut from Bristol soul luminary

JJ, Sonny and Joe enlist some top pals for a nostalgic yomp

Worth owning for the way she peels off her opera gloves as the nightclub singer caught in the snake's nest noir Gilda (1946) alone. It also features Rita chased by Fred Astaire in You Were Never Lovelier (1942); shaking her stuff with Gene Kelly and a pre-Bilko Phil Silvers in Cover Girl (1944); and being a magnificent bitch to nightclub heel Sinatra in Pal Joey (1957). Lady is a vamp.

A family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi Desert assist the birth of a rare white camel colt, buts its mother rejects it. The Mongolians send envoys in search of a magical musician to make things right. So far, so Bambl. What raises this is the direction, which shows the nomad boys coveting miracles like batteries, TV and video games without patronising their time-honoured mores.