Reviews

Remastering the Scottish stadium rockers' fame years

Debut release from Yorkshire four-piece follows on from support slot with The White Stripes

From Monterey, Mexico, Kinky's extraordinary debut album was recently shortlisted for the American equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize, and it's easy to hear why. The quartet mix funk, house, rock-en-Español, salsa, hip hop and mariachi into an anarchic musical fusion that has inevitably been dubbed 'decks-Mex'. Think the Chemical Brothers meet Flaco Jiminez and you'll get the idea. The lyrics are fascinating, too, although they're almost entirely in Spanish. "San Antonio" is about a local saint, who, when hung upside down, helps women to catch boyfriends.

Fine Australian guitar sketches

Avant-electro types dazzled by mirrorballs

Former frontman of The 45's and Ruth strikes gold

Dynamic version of the Fosse/Ebb/Kander musical

The 'medieval dead' conclusion to Sam Raimi's legendary trilogy is more action/comedy than horror, with heroic amputee Ash (Bruce Campbell) wielding his trusty chainsaw on Sumerian demons back in the year 1300. The special effects are worthy of Ray Harryhausen, and the comedy's in a league of its own. Great fun!

Oliver Stone in mind-fuck overdrive. Seven years after it provoked the most hysterical reactions to a movie since the '70s heyday of confrontational classics like A Clockwork Orange and Straw Dogs, NBK remains as violent, hilarious, unsettling, outrageous and awesome as ever. At the peak of his cinematic powers and throwing everything into an increasingly volatile mix, Stone reworks Tarantino's original plundering spin on the familiar Hollywood tradition of lovers on a killing spree and sheerly eviscerates it.

Troublesome teens? Round them up at random, dump them on a deserted island, armed to the teeth, and force them to fight each other to death. It works brilliantly in Kinji Fukasaku's relentlessly violent and cheerfully tasteless satire, and is surely a public order initiative David Blunkett would approve of. DVD EXTRAS: Loads, including additional footage and alternative ending, Takeshi Kitano interview, filmographies and director interview. (AJ)