The shipyard painter, political activist and razor-sharp cartoonist Bob Starrett has just written a new book The Way I See It on his eventful life and times. Below we reprint one of his stories and review an essential read
ENO's production of La Boheme is a triumph,
Dirty Threes' eighth album was borne out of a desire to return to a more improvised sound.
Eschewing the restraint and use of vocals that marked the Australian trio's last album, 2005's Cinder, they open with the blazing rage of Furnace Skies.
It layers Warren Ellis's distorted violin and Jim White's free-jazz drumming with post-punk ferocity, a dirtiness that's repeated on That Was Was, the chainsaw anger of which hasn't been heard since their earliest recordings.
Yet there are also moments of melancholy that shift with a restless yearning for change.
Rain Song and The Pier are both familiar in the way they use sparse instrumentation to create panoramic, desolate landscapes but Ashen Snow
revivifies the sound with the addition of flute and piano.
Both gently entwine with violin, at first tentatively and then with a confidence that gently blossoms with the hope of spring and with the sense that the band have relocated their muse.
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