Scene 240

Books: The Book Thief on Screen Stage: Vernon God little TV: Film to TV: A Step Down?

Music: Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip Film: Long Walk To Freedom Tech: Indie vs Mainsream Games

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In this issue

A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS

Hi there! Welcome to the second issue of Scene in 2014. We are your new Scene editors, Rachel and Milo.

This issue is all about the theme of high art and low art: we’re looking at it in the distinction between acting in TV and in film on page 10, and also in the differences between indie and mainstream games.

Our feature looks at the blurring of boundaries between what is typically considered ‘high art’ and ‘low art’, showing how the two are now, in many ways, indistinguishable from one another.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed writing and creating it.

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7 MUSIC

Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip (p3) Review: Sophie Ellis Bextor (p4)

FILM

See you next issue!

10

WHAT’S ON:

FILM Philomena at York Student Cinema - 3 February / 7:30pm / P/X/001 Gravity at York Student Cinema - 7 February / 7:30pm / P/X/001 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire at York Student Cinema 13/14 February / 7:30pm / P/X/001 DRAMASOC Oleanna - 8/9/10 February / Drama Barn Rough Crossing - 14/15/16 February / Drama Barn STAGE Jesus Christ Superstar - 6/7/8 February / Central Hall Fusion on Film - 21/22/23 February / 7:30pm / Central Hall MUSIC Quatuor Diotima - 12 February / 7:30pm / Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall Stoop Quintet - 5 February / 7:30pm / Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall University Chamber Orchestra - 19 February / 7:30pm / Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall University Jazz Orchestra - 21 February / 7:30pm / Rymer Auditorium Anais Mitchell - 22 February / 8:00pm / Pocklington Arts Centre

Bad Films: The Attraction to Repulsion (p6) Review: Long Walk To Freedom (p7)

FEATURES

High Art/Low Art/High Art (p8-9)

TV

Film to TV: A Step Down? (p10) Informative or Exploitative? (p11)

BOOKS

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The Book Thief (p12) Top 5 Abandoned Classics (p13)

TECH

High and Low Budget Art in Gaming (p14) Ultrafast Internet (p14)

STAGE

To the Stage! (p15) TFTV Spotlight (p15)

SPOTLIGHT

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OTHER Global week: Cultural performance - 11 February / 8:00pm / Central Hall Global Week: Food Fiesta - 15 February/ 7:00pm / James Dining Hall

Luke Sital-Singh (p16)

SCENE TEAM Scene Editors Rachel Seymour Milo Boyd

Music Editors

Film Editors

TV Editors

Books Editors

Tech Editor

Stage Editors

Will McCurdy Mairead Kearins

Alex Radford Tim Douglas

Zena Jarjis Katie Thomas

Rebekah Boyle Lilith King Taylor

Will Addy Costas Mourselas

Charlie Benson Nadine Garbett

Deputy Music

Deputy Film

Deputy TV

Deputy Books

Deputy Tech

Deputy Stage

James Scott Katie Molloy

Joosoo Yi Samuel Bowell

Martin Waugh Phillip Watson

Steven Rowan Jeram George Norman

Louisa Hann Meri Aho

Zoe Bennell Matt Durrant

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MUSIC FILM FEATURE TV BOOKS TECH STAGE SPOTLIGHT

Music THE BENEFITS OF BEING A SNOB

BY WILL MCCURDY

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hmer Rouge, the leading party in Cambodia from 1971 to 1977, amongst various other crimes, famously persecuted those who wore glasses because they perceived them as intellectuals, and therefore threats to the regime. Rather insensitively, you could say, that if they were really so smart they would have just taken their glasses off.

It’s a bit like that being a music snob. You may well be very clever and know lots about free jazz and delta blues, but it’s not necessarily something you want to openly admit to being in public. In fact it’s the single best

way to kill conversations, start arguments, be miserable on nights out, and is generally not a very clever thing to do. Society favours people who smile and dance, not people who sway awkwardly while wishing they were at home listening to Neutral Milk Hotel. It’s a hard knock life for us.

Pitchfork Media, arguably the music influential music website on the entire internet, picked ‘Hold on We’re Going Home’ by Drake as their song of the year. The creator of such sterling poetic couplets such as “I love bad bitches that’s my fuckin problem/ And yeah I like to fuck, that’s my fucking problem” Now I’m not saying it’s a bad song.

But I don’t however believe that it was best track released anywhere in world over the course of the entire year. However people don’t want to read a list filled of songs that they’ve never heard before and can’t identify with. In journalism, like high school, it’s not cool to be too clever. There is an increasing trend of reverse snobbery in music journalism, and quality experimental works are

LIVE REVIEW: DAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS P.I.P

BY STEVEN JERAM

I

never really liked poetry at school. The thing is, as with any art form, you’ve got to start with the classics. But the language used, whilst beautiful, is often incomprehensible to our modern ears. Dante and Goethe didn’t mean a whole lot to me in year 8, so I wrote the whole thing off as bollocks. It was only when I heard the poetry of Scroobius PIP, written in my own language that the spoken word world opened up for me. Scroobius takes his name from an Edward Lear poem of the same title about an unidentifiable animal, and thus it is with his music: “It doesn’t fit into a category and can just be its own creature.” Poetry is a form that uses aesthetic and rhythmic devices in order to convey its message, therefore you only really get the full impact when you hear it live. So when I was offered the the opportunity to see Dan le Sac vs Scroo-

bius PIP I simply couldn’t say no.

Although it was my 6th Scroobius gig, the bearded master of poetry and stage always leaves you wanting more.

Infiltrating the Leeds University Students’ Union I felt somewhat a traitor to our dear old York. But nonetheless the place was huge, boasting a supermarket, hairdressers and an enormous sound system.

The warm-up artist Itch set the scene for the night to come. With unrelenting and somewhat intrusive basslines, Itch blasted their “revolutionary” manifesto against the state of the world, delivering a heady mixture of hard-hitting rap, insane guitar riffs and outrageous amount of fury: “London is burning. Burn motherfucker, burn motherfucker, burn.” The power of such profanities was hammered home by the intense front

being side-lined for generally crowd pleasing fluff.

People need to take a stand against mediocrity, lest people actually believe this is the pinnacle of all musical achievement.

We, the listeners and the fans, have a much bigger job than what we may have thought.

Literary critics and art historians such as Matthew Arnold and William Wordsworth have praised the role of critics for hundreds of years, saying that they help not only great art to be appreciated but that they can inspire new art and move the zeitgeist forward. The responsibility is in fact on us to champion what is actually good, and not give into an easy age of irony that surrounds us, where bad is good and good is bad.

Yeah, so some people are going to think that you’re a massive twat. But being considered a hipster weirdo may be the only thing standing between us and a world where One Direction are knighted and Snoop Dogg is president. So I may be overdramatic, but

this wouldn’t be the first time someone no one takes seriously rises to power.

man who, if not a chip on his shoulder, definitely had something to get off his chest.

Although not entirely my cup of tea they certainly whipped the crowd into a frenzy of excitement and left us ready to welcome the main event of the evening.

With his iconic look, landmark track ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ and the beats of Dan le Sac, Scroobius has worked his way into both the music industry and my heart with relative ease for a spoken word artist.

The gig was a far cry from his humble Essex beginnings performing without music in pubs throughout the country.

The Union was packed and the crowd surged forward as soon as the glitchy industrial start of ‘The Beat That My Heart Skipped’ kicked in. They performed a number of songs of the latest savage album Repent Replenish Repeat. The darkest track of the album ‘Porter’ rendered the audience silent and captivated as we ventured into the life of a mental asylum worker, whilst ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ brought about the opposite - the inevitable mosh. “Fuck stiff upper lip; pick up a brick. And if the crime fits, do something with it”. An aggressive clash of bodies, all of which had a smile on their face, singing ‘Get Better’ to their heart’s content.

Scroobius masterfully held the audience with his 6”6’ stature, a beard proud enough to demasculate the most vehement of geezers, and maverick articulacy that powers

throughout the entirety of the performance.

The encore was by the far my most euphoric experience with Pip to date. Beginning with ‘Introdiction’ from his solo album, a song which includes the line “You see a mousetrap… I see free cheese and a fucking challenge” immediately followed by ‘Letter from God to Man’ and a 10 minute Dan le Sac freak out. All of which culminated in me falling asleep on the train.

Beg, borrow or steal. Watch this duo. I promise you won’t regret it.

“Scroobius P-I-P, till I D-I-E.” – Scroobius P.I.P

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MUSIC FILM FEATURE TV BOOKS TECH STAGE SPOTLIGHT

Reviews Sophie Ellis-Bextor WANDERLUST

BY MAIREAD KEARINS

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t has been two years since the quirky British pop princess has released an album and thirteen years since she first came on to the music scene. However after her recent stint on Strictly Come Dancing, Sophie Ellis-Bextor may have earned herself a new generation of fans with this unique haunting return to the music industry. As an album being released under a lesser known record label, Wanderlust emphasises the song writing ability of EllisBextor with a brooding soulful backdrop.

The album opens with ‘Birth of an Empire’, which has a gorgeous grandeur about it with Ellis-Bextor’s seductive vocals over an almost epic orchestral piece. It symbolises the fact she has now matured as an artist and hints that this is the beginning of a new Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The Brit-pop sounding ‘Until the Stars Collide’ and ‘Runaway Dreamer’ provide a musical juxtaposition to the opening track. They may have the string crescendo, but are ultimately a quirky twist to folk music which

GRAMMYS 2014: The Year Music Won

BY JAMES PASCOE

F

or the first time in what feels like many years, musical justice seems to have been done at the 56th annual Grammy Awards. While sceptics may dismiss the Academy’s selections as safe and unoriginal, it would be difficult to pick better winners in many of the key categories than 2014’s victors.

For much of the 2000s, the Grammys have been lambasted by the music world for their shameless commercialism and hamfisted attempts to appease the masses. Unlike the Oscars, its cousin in the film world, the Grammys’ validity has frequently been called into question given some dubious

fit the individuality of Sophie’s voice perfectly.

The lead single ‘Young Blood’ is a gorgeous romantic ballad, conforming to the characteristics of the perfect love song, with an immaculate melody and heartfelt lyrics. For a lead single, it sets the tone of a romantic album with a difference. It is a simple reflective song which allows her distinctive voice to stand out. There is a touch of Florence & The Machine here, resembling her trademark dark ballads incredibly well. Far away from her usual disco pop hits, this pretty song makes it hard to believe that this is the same woman who once sung about a ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’.

‘13 Little Dolls’ is the most upbeat out of all the tracks and it stands out with its carefree guitar backdrop. It sounds a lot more relaxed and spontaneous than the other tracks despite the hectic guitar thrash playing throughout. Ellis-Bextor’s voice is almost lost yet the song stands out in its elegant lyrical content and competent weilding of quiet and loud. ‘Love is a Camera’ is one of the best songs on the album in terms of songwriting and originality. It tells a story with fairytale elements that comes across as mischievous in parts, elsewhere morphing into some heavy Cossack rhythms. Whatever you think of our generation’s Snow White, that’s ambitious.

The album ends at a highpoint with exquisite ballad ‘When the Storm has Blown Over’. Resembling Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ it is a gorgeous, heart-breaking 3 minute wander. Her sadness appears sincere and yet there is space for the musical quirks, humour and sonic splashes that separate Ellis-Bextor from your average crooner. It may be a complete world away from her early chart smashes, but that doesn’t mean Ellis-Bextor is still not a great British talent. She has focused more on song-writing than disco beats and that has resulted in a great album full of musical surprises.

decisions in recent years. While the Academy Awards can arguably receive praise for, more often than not, omitting the biggest blockbusters from the reckoning, there was a sense that the Grammys had begun an inexorable decline which sought only to pander to the lowest common denominator. The irony being that the more they tried to avoid controversy, the more they inflicted it upon themselves.

There were signs of recovery in 2013, although the Academy’s love-in with Skrillex, frequent target of hatred from electronic music fans everywhere, and the increasingly maligned Mumford & Sons irked music prigs around the world. But now, in 2014, only the snobbiest of music aficionados would argue against the night’s big winners Daft Punk and Lorde.

2013 was Daft Punk’s year - it was refreshing to see a song as ubiquitously mainstream as ‘Get Lucky’ so widely acclaimed and recognised by the usually holier-thanthou music press. Now, even the once notoriously inward-looking Academy has given

ruce Springsteen’s highly anticipated eighteenth studio album has shot straight to number 1 in both the US and the UK charts, making it his eleventh number 1 album and proving that, even after 45 years, he’s still got it.

This feels like an album dedicated to The Boss’s longest standing fans. It includes popular covers from his tours and updated versions of his old tracks, including the haunting ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’.

This version of Springsteen’s 1995 song is more fleshed out than the original, and Tom Morello’s (Rage Against the Machine’s guitarist) influence is most obviously heard on this track. ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ has gone from being an almost feeble, slightly forgettable song to being one of the most powerful tracks on the album. Rather than the sadness of the original, this song has all the anger of ‘Wrecking Ball’.

Even though this album is a patchwork of updated tracks and cover versions, Springsteen still brings something new, as he does with every album. Thanks to More-

B

llo, this album has a completely new sound which is almost unrecognisable. This is very different from the E Street Band of ‘Greetings From Asbury Park’ and ‘Born To Run’. Gone are the jazzy saxophone solos we heard in ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze Out’. The E Street Band’s sound has grown up, and High Hopes has a gritty sound not heard since Devils & Dust.

However, the lyrics still contain all of Springsteen’s old themes; particularly ‘Hunter of Invisible Game’, which includes the same issues of broken dreams seen in ‘The Promise’ and ‘Downbound Train’.

Lyrics dealing with this are just as heartbreaking and meaningful as Springsteen’s lyrics have always been, and with lines like “There were empty cities and burning plains/I am the hunter of invisible game”, The Boss proves he has not forgotten his roots. Even with these kinds of lyrics, Springsteen still somehow manages to retain the optimism of songs like ‘Thunder Road’, especially in the titular track, ‘High Hopes’. Despite all of the themes of disappointment and fruitless dreams, he still insists that things will get better.

High Hopes shows how much Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have changed after 45 years and the death of Clarence Clemons. It is impressive that The Boss manages to come up with fresh ideas after all this time and all those albums. The introduction of Morello has a dramatic effect, and sometimes it is difficult not to miss the harmonicas and saxophones of old Springsteen songs in the ilk of ‘Thunder Road’ and ‘This Hard Land’. However, Springsteen has not forgotten the fans who have been with him since Asbury Park. The inclusion of old tracks and cover versions is a nod to those who have seen him perform, and the actual content of the songs is no different from any of his old tracks. The E Street Band has updated its sound, but all of the themes familiar to his fans are still there.

its seal of approval. ‘Get Lucky’ is undoubtedly the record of the year. What’s more, Daft Punk’s astonishing album Random Access Memories, which has come near the top of most critics’ end-of-year lists, fended off competition from the bigger-selling Taylor Swift and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis to take home the coveted album of the year prize.

And the bonus: they’re French. We should all be grateful that foreign love at the Grammys is on the rise, and that the Grammys are starting to overcome their American -focused outlook.

Elsewhere, Lorde’s ‘Royals’ took home song of the year. In a year of wrecking balls, roars and blurred lines, the seventeen yearold Kiwi’s minimalist, curveball anthem was the most refreshing of number-one singles, striking a chord with hipsters and clubbers alike. Five years ago, maybe Bruno Mars or Pink would’ve taken home tonight’s gong, so it’s great to see that the Academy isn’t afraid of upsetting chart heavyweights anymore - something that perhaps will bring a satisfied nod of approval from the

music press.

That said, not everyone gets the hype around Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who scooped four awards. But recognising the likes of Daft Punk and Lorde is a start, and you can find a lot worse than Macklemore in the charts these days.

All in all, it feels like the Grammys are, possibly, on their way to getting their mojo back. Sure, it would have been nice to see some more love for Arctic Monkeys, and maybe Disclosure deserved some more nominations, but then again, the Grammys are American awards. Kanye West’s Yeezus was surprisingly overlooked for album of the year. James Blake, Kendrick Lamar or Ed Sheeran aren’t really new artists. But these are all small gripes. We should be pleased with the progress of the Grammys and live in hope that they’ll get it all right eventually.

In the digital age where everything seems to be going wrong in the industry, music, and good music at that, was the night’s biggest winner. How often is it these days that you can say that?

BRUCE SPRINGSHIGH HOPES

BY ZENA JARJIS

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MUSIC FILM FEATURE TV BOOKS TECH STAGE SPOTLIGHT

INTERVIEW

BY WILL MCCURDY

H

ailing from our very own York, the guitar driven ensemble Fawn Spots are successfully going their own way, creating a distinctive brand of punchy noise rock. Their music has a contemporary flare and feel. It reflects trends in modern society and has a pronounced identity that leaves its mark on you, especailly after repeated listen. Known both for their wild live shows and melodic, well written songs, they have gained acclaim in both the local and wider national scene. They’ve widely toured the US alongside fellow noise rockers Cumstain, with whom they recently released the raucous joint album Wedding Party.

“We never actually made a choice to make the type of music we made, it’s just us doing our thing with what we had at the time.”

Their distinctively raw style is not just manufactured kitsch, or merely an imitation of their influences, but an organic progression based on what was available to them in their formative period: “We never actually made a choice to make the type of music we made, it’s just us doing our thing with what we had at the time.” It seems to be a product of necessity rather than invention and it is all the better for it, something the band seems to understand explicitly: “I like hearing something in its natural state, whether it’s a well-developed or produced

FAWN SPOTS sound or a borderline mess. I think there is always a capacity to enjoy something in there.”

Drummer Sean had only been playing drums for two weeks before performing live, and the band had only had a few rehearsals prior to their first gig. In Pixies-esque fashion, this absence of technical skill has made their sound. They are not however, a band solely motivated by noise and aggression. There is a depth and a complexity that is sometimes not found in other bands of their ilk. They show appreciation for quality song writing and melodies. “I guess most music we like could be called ‘pop’ – it has a relatively melodic focus. I mean Big Star and Sloan are power pop sounding but not popular so I don’t know.” They cite ‘I Breathe Again’ by Adam Rickett as an inspiration in their song writing, in the same breath as hard-core bands like Black Flag, Fugazi and Rites of Spring.

The trio also look back fondly to the original driving force of the punk movement for inspiration “If you look at the history of music it has always been pushed forward by youthful revolt in some form.”

However, there are certain doubts as to whether its values can remain in anyway relevant today; something that they lament: “To say that it wouldn’t still be relevant is nonsense, but I don’t think it is the same and it never will be.” Although avoiding the full scale pessimism of analogue purists, a certain ambivalence concerning the modern world permeates the interview. “The good side is that now anyone can contact anyone and the possibilities are incredible, however the real context of everything seems to be a bit scattered. Being involved might have meant you stood together for

something once. I think that the depth has gone out the window and on the whole it is in danger of just really becoming another surface value trend.”

The music scene in York is a topic that they remain undecided upon, particularly when they compare it to larger more nationally important scenes such as those in Bristol and Manchester: “There isn’t really a scene - yet. For the people who live here there isn’t much but what there is has a lot of support. There are a few interesting bands.”

“I like hearing something in its natural state, whether it’s a well-developed or produced sound or a borderline mess.”

For all of York’s flaws, most notably the closing of Stereo, Fawn Spots collectively feel that imperfection can in many ways be a positive creative force. “The alienation from everything else can create something special. A lot of people use that to create their own thing or use it as a drive to escape whatever they have in the places they live.”

York’s relative distance from the countries creative spotlight may in fact work in its favour. “When you’re completely removed from a scene it’s easier to focus on your own thing, rather than what other people are doing.”

A couple of local bands do catch the Fawn Spots eye: “The Franceans doing “totally raw garage punk”; Neuschlaufen who make “damaged and damaging kraut stuff ”; and Luke Saxton, whom they present as a

“one man Beach Boys” and an “incredible songwriter.”

They are forever forward thinking in their outlook. When asked about their favourite material from what they’ve recorded it’s not Wedding Dress that induces the most pride, but their new album.

“Everything else recorded and released so far was really transitional from the two piece to the three piece – the album is us now. It has been a real labour to write and record, and we really hope that it comes across that way. It’s not something we’ve just shit out and hoped for the best.”

America seems to have welcomed them with open arms, playing LA in particular clearly meaning a lot to the band. “Just playing in LA is a really mind blowing experience – countless bands that have inspired us are part of that city’s history. People are incredibly friendly, want to talk about the music afterwards and seem down to have a good time at a show, which really is what it’s all about. I guess with all the sun and food over there they will never be as miserable as people at shows here.” Whether or not we should take take note of our cousins across the pond, Fawn Spots are a band who will continue to not take things too seriously. When asked for a wild anecdote, they merely reply “This one time Sean fell asleep in a car. That was pretty wild.” However, they are worth serious attention, and are a shining example of a quality and individual voice in the York music scene. Burning their own unique trajectory as a band, in a town where too many bands who value Facebook likes over enthusiasm and inspiration, I’m very happy to have the Fawn Spots around, and they don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“Being involved might have meant you stood together for something once. I think that the depth has gone out the window and on the whole it is in danger of just really becoming another surface value trend.”

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MUSIC FILM FEATURE TV BOOKS TECH STAGE SPOTLIGHT

FIL The Room

The Tommy Wi-Show Playboy Adventures

Bump The Neighbours The House That Drips Blood on Alex

Homeless in America

Tommy Wiseau career-o-graph

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2012

Bad Films: The Attraction to Repulsion

ROM ALARMING news stories and the likes of Supersize vs Superskinny, it’s safe to say that society is informed on how fast food can lead to malnutrition. Yet the Big Mac will always be one of God’s most wonderful creations, what with its criminally delicious effects on our taste buds. Is it the same for bad films? Are they as bad for us as the critics deem them to be, or do they make a good substitute for a Big Mac? For starters, what do we even consider to be a ‘bad film’? According to Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator, bad films are otherwise known as ‘rotten’ if less than 60% of the films’ reviews are rated ‘positive’. It’s shallow, but it essentially gives budding cinema-goers the ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ on a new movie release. A rotten habit of mine (oh stop, how could I resist?) is searching for the latest, hoping they’ll be the greatest, and pre-imposing my opinions based on that miniature tomato or bogey green splat. Should I not watch something because of a blemish composed of the beliefs of a critic?

In all honesty, we spent the majority of December watching film after film stamped with this curse. Christmas films are as sinfully awful as that tacky sing-along Santa that your Mum is obsessed with. Jingle All the Way is a personal favorite, where every year I chuckle at Arnold Schwarzenegger running across the city to get his kid a Turbo Man doll. I think to myself, “This is absolute trash” when he shouts “Get to de choppa!”

Yet I continue to watch it, just like I do any Christmas film plucked from the depths of a bargain bin.

This seems to be apparent at pretty much any time of the year. The truth is, we love our trash. Twi-hards together spent hundreds of millions on seeing an awkward Kristen Stewart pout at pretty boys, whilst comedy junkies flock to the new Adam Sandler flick to see his latest attempt at ‘acting’. We dedicate the ‘Razzies’ to mocking their efforts and attempts; yet we still willingly empty our wallets to see some sub-standard cinema shite.

The question is - why? As much as critics

slate these “bad films”, I feel they exist in their own right as an art form. Sometimes, we find that we don’t want to watch a film and be philosophically engaged, politically persuaded, or culturally inspired.

Sometimes, I just want to relax at the end of a long week and get a kick out of having my senses insulted with pure rubbish.

Would you prefer admiring the Mona Lisa to watching a flipbook of a cartoon cop repeatedly running over a burglar (always a highlight of Hot Fuzz)?

Of course I’m not undermining the talent and genius of these creative minds. If anything, these two art forms give light to one another. We wouldn’t know what an Oscarworthy film was without having Syfy readily on demand to scoff at Titanic 2. Society needs that counterbalance to really appreciate what taste is and I’m glad people exist who give our cultural lives a bit of perspective. As the saying goes, ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’.

Adrian Horan

Alex Radford examines the tropes of Hollywood’s most artistic and most lowbrow directors:

MICHAEL BAY Explosions Whenever there is a lull in his films, Michael Bay will inexorably plug the gap not with silence or scene setting but by blowing up every object/person on screen that is not central to the plot.

Shaky-cam Michael Bay seems to really hate the cameras on set because every time he films an action sequence he feels the need to violently strangle them, resulting in a scene that looks like a sudden and local earthquake has just hit.

Product Placement Wherever you look in his films, advertising ends up featuring almost as prominently as such trivialities like the plot or characters. Why just make an entertaining film when you can appease your avarice-fuelled sponsors as well?

Milk The Transformers Cash Cow With three films, millions and millions of dollars already made, and a fourth CGI soaked sequel, Transformers: Age Of Extinction, coming out this June, Michael Bay makes clear his strategy for squeezing every last penny out of this lucrative series.

STANLEY KUBRICK The Long Shot Stanley Kubrick may have never made the same film twice, but his style is recognisable from a mile off. The iconic carefully framed, slow and long scenes make an appearance in all of his films.

Transgress Through Genres

Not content with simply creating one type of masterpiece, Kubrick would switch genres with each new film: from the hard-nosed sci-fi of 2001: A Space Odyssey, to the surreal black comedy of Dr. Strangelove.

Work Yourself To The Grave Before and during the filming of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick was reported by his family to stay up until 4am every day which they claimed to contribute to his death shortly after the film’s release.

Subversion Of Music As notable as his cinematography, Kubrick’s love of twisting the meanings of songs means that after watching A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket you will never view ‘Ode to Joy’ or ‘Surfin’ Bird’ in the same way again… and not necessarily for the right reasons.

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MUSIC FILM FEATURE TV BOOKS TECH STAGE SPOTLIGHT

REVIEWS E

VERYONE HAS heard of Nelson Mandela. He is one of the most well-known and most loved figures of the last century. His story is one that most people know parts of, maybe even all of, and it is a history so recent that it resonates with a number o f generations who have lived through it. How then, to commit it to celluloid, with the weight of experience and preconceptions hanging over it? Is it possible to take this man’s life and create something both historically accurate and cinematically moving? Well, they’ve certainly had a good go at it.

The result is Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (adapted from his

Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

autobiography of the same name), a diligent overview of a man’s struggle moulded into an evocative cinematic experience.

The film opens with a beautifully sunlit shot of the South African countryside, a slow and moving sequence of the young Mandela coming of age in the traditional rites of his village. This sets the scene of what continues throughout to be a beautifully shot piece of cinema, not merely a stroll down someone’s timeline. Although Mandela’s life is inextricably linked with the struggles in South Africa and the film uses his life as a prism through which to explore this, the film is first and foremost the life of one man and his role within this wider context. It begins with him as a young man and, as was inevitably the case, focuses on only a few moments which shape his life; from many different women, to joining the ANC. We watch as the many years imprisonment take their toll, until Mandela the President comes into being.

Devil’s Due

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ACH AND SAM, a happy pair of one-dimensional newlyweds, embark on their honeymoon in the Dominican Republic where they inadvertently get totally hammered, end up kidnapped and subjected to a strange underground ritual by some dodgy looking goths. The following day they return home, remembering nothing of their bizarre encounter to find that, shock-horror, Sam is now preggers. What’s more, the gestating fetus turns out to be a little more than they bargained for and much chaos ensues.

If the set up sounds familiar, that’s probably because it is. Devil’s Due shares so much DNA with Rosemary’s Baby that it may as well be a remake. But where Polanski’s film was a chilling masterpiece and an exercise in claustrophobia and insidious mind games, what we have here is more of an impotent Xerox; same plot but fewer scares and little of the atmosphere.

Sure there’s the added bells and whistles of the faux found footage set-up that is handled fairly capably by fresh directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, but it’s not sufficient to raise the film in any major way. The found footage genre has been literally done to death so much that it’s hard to find any real meat on its bones that hasn’t

Idris Elba couldn’t be further from his east London roots as he takes on the overwhelming task of embodying a figure so familiar. The film covers a lot of ground and races through from 1942 to his inauguration in 1994, thereby aging Mandela considerably. Inevitably, Elba gets quite grey and is required to age extensively with only a little help from the hair and make-up departments. Certainly, the technical ageing process is great, but it is Elba himself who brings the Mandela of recent years to life.

Although faced with an incredibly daunting task, or perhaps because of this, Elba’s performance is superb. He creates a Mandela who is charismatic and someone who is easy to believe in. But it is not an image of a godlike figure, he is certainly not an ordinary man, but ultimately he is humanized and, in some cases, shown to be flawed. The president Mandela grows throughout the film and everything that happens moulds him into the icon he becomes.

This is not without the influence of wife Winnie Mandela, played by Naomie Harris, whose performance makes this film a two man show. Her turn as the wife left on the outside, harassed by the government and

resorting to brutal violence in the streets is utterly heartbreaking. Her role requires not only physical ageing, but a huge development of character which is jaw-dropping to see on screen. She is engaging and terrifically powerful, and together with Elba’s Mandela creates a ‘two sides of the same coin’ approach to the difficult and horrifying situation unfolding around them.

Unsurprisingly I never had a chance to meet Nelson Mandela, but I do know someone who did. According to her, the Mandela on screen did resemble the man she met in real life; an extraordinary man who fought for his whole life to change both South Africa and the world around him. A man’s life to which Justin Chadwick has created a moving and effective tribute in a well-meaning biopic, with stunning performances from its leading cast. It is by no means flawless, perhaps weighed down by the responsibility of committing this man to screen, and inevitably, given the time constraints, is only a fraction of this enigmatic man’s life.

The result is an uplifting cinema experience which should be taken as a starting point rather than a definitive image of the man, Nelson Mandela.

Zoe Bennell

The Railway Man been picked off by the likes of The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity. As such, all they can muster here is a lame hop and a skip through the clichéd tropes of the horror film cheat sheet.

It’s the cinematic equivalent of cheap Ikea furniture; sure it does a half-decent job of standing up on its own and it looks fairly shiny, but you can’t escape the nagging feeling that there’s millions of others out there that all look just the same.

The script too is work-manlike and clunky, sapping any real dread with leaden dialogue and hampered immeasurably by a totally nonsensical decision to give the game away so early in the film that come the half-baked conclusion you’ll be wondering why they even bothered at all.

Not to knock it entirely though, the two main stars try their best and give reasonable performances with their woefully underwritten characters, particularly Allison Miller as the put upon devil mama who gets the lion’s share of the decent scares. Some of the set pieces, too, are fairly entertaining and freaky, even if you know you’ve seen them all done before.

Summarising this film in short, it is ultimately a disappointing experience that is as hackneyed as it is flavourless.

Thomas Shutt

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ASED ON the autobiography of the same name, The Railway Man is the touching true story of Eric Lomax, a British soldier in WWII, who went away to war and never truly returned. Colin Firth is well suited and comfortable in the role of the endearingly gawky Englishman, which we are so used to seeing him in, but he is fascinating and evocative in conveying the anguish of a man paralysed by inescapable days spent in torture.

Triggered by the attempts of his wife, Patti (Nicole Kidman), to connect with him and understand his past, Firth’s character struggles throughout to reconcile his need for revenge on his captors.

Lomax is closed-off and gripped by harrowing memories pulling him from reality - represented cinematically with the use of flashbacks, suddenly cutting between the war many years ago, and the war Lomax continues to fight within his own mind.

Unfortunately, perhaps as a byproduct of this narrative reliance on flashbacks, there is something unbelievable about the romantic element of the film, with little real basis for their love. Yet, the problem goes further than that; they seem too… cordial and dispassionate. They say all the right things to each other but I just didn’t buy it.

Kidman is given little to work with in the role of Patti, serving more as a catalytic plot device for Firth’s self-reflective journey than as a developed and intriguing character in her own right.

Making these elements of the movie secondary is natural considering the subject matter, however. The film is, of course, more concerned with telling the story of unimaginable horror and trauma experienced by soldiers.

Beaten, tortured, encaged and enslaved as prisoners of war.

There were times when it felt brooding and indulgent, but just as it begins to drag; viewers are jolted awake by startling scenes of brutality towards young Lomax (Jeremy Irvine) and his comrades.

While much of the cinematography is striking, punctuated by captivating wide shots teeming with dirty-faced, emaciated soldiers, for a war film, the music is underwhelming and uninspiring; a wasted opportunity. More effective, though, is the motif of counting and time. This permeates and adds another layer to the film; running from the very opening, of a tormented Firth muttering “Hickory Dickory Dock”, down to little moments, when all that can be heard is the counting down of a kitchen timer.

Ultimately, though somewhat flawed, the film will win you over in sudden, brilliant images and in the final five breath-taking minutes. The Railway Man is a touching portrayal of the immense human propensity for heroism, emotional strength and forgiveness where seemingly impossible.

This film is visually and emotionally compelling. This film is important.

Charlie Benson

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HIGH ART/LOW

MILO BOYD and RACHEL SEYMOUR take a loo

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he battle between high and low art is one which has been raging for the near entirety of human history. Emerging from the ashes of the late stone age, Venus of Hohle Fels is the earliest undisputed art work and in its abstracted, ivory form takes a certain level of squinting and turtle neck to properly understand. Whilst its bulbous, misshapen attempt to echo the female figure may be fired more by limited tools than artistic conception, its production signalled the birth of the dichotomy between high and low art that remains open to this day.It is not beyond the heavily cartoon influenced minds of our generation to picture two small groups of cavemen, one sporting high ponies and breezy, leopard skin cardies, the other a mixture of shit and animal, converging around the Venus. Certainly challenging, the first group kind of get it, finding a quiet pleasure in the figurine’s daring contours and nod to the post-irony state of prehistoric society. The other group are less convinced and decide to hunt animals and masturbate.

A dance as old as time, this is the conflict of culture in its purest form.

Fast forward 38,000 or so years and these two groups have been pushed even further apart. Built on the preposterous notion of Platonic artistic value and deeply embedded class divisions, cultural capital reached its premium in the illiterate and immobile societies of yesteryear. For the majority of Medieval Britons art was a largely unknown entity, existing predominantly in unintelligible Latin sermons and on the walls of churches. The scant few free of the feudal ties of subsistence, high art was largely synonymous with the social elite and would remain so until the liberating forces of industrialization kicked in.

Find yourself in the modern Western world and the evolution of technology and comparative wealth has all but dissolved the restrictive confines of the high/low ideal. Undeniably snobbery remains and arguably the low has become lower, but with £5 student tickets to the Royal Opera House and the internet on the cards, cultural capital is there to be seized.

One result of this open playing field is the “reduction” of the classically high to the classically low.

As with all cultural phenomenon, sex has played a large part in rendering high art palatable to the masses. The earliest recorded example of smut comes in book 5 of Virgil’s Aeneid in which the oiled Trojans “man the thwarts, their arms strained to the oars; straining, they await the signal, while throbbing fear and eager passion for glory drain each bounding heart.” An amount of time later and The Bible got wind of the game, tingeing some of the drier sections with a touch of blue. In Genesis 19:30-38 Lot’s daughters get him drunk in a cave and engage in the unspeakable, and in Solomon’s song her “beloved put his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.”

If the barely metaphorical qualities of old greats weren’t close enough to the literal bone then turning towards the poets and creative types of the modern day will satiate any lingering cravings for filth. The epistolary text The Perks of Being a Wallflower with a Huge Cock is one of the best known sexual re-imaginings of a critically regarded work and as well as including the line “Despite my raging hard-on”, does actually exist. Keeping it on the screen, fledgling movie makers have given the fans what they want with niche classics like Jurassic Pork, The Devil Wears Nada and Edward Penis Hands. The last film is a particularly fine example of high meeting low, the lead male Sikki Nixx doing a genuinely good

job of emulating the tick ridden, endearing performance of Johnny Depp; albeit with penises instead of hands.

Away from the sexual sphere, the art world has a long history of breaking the stifling confines of the gallery and frame. Although the much documented street art movement can seem a little tired to the gift shop generation, with its near limitless scope of creativity it has challenged our very understanding of the concept as much as the pop movement of the ‘50s and ‘60s did. Rochdale native and mural painter extraordinaire Walter Kershaw is both an incredible painter and artistic trailblazer, dragging the fine art staples of impressionism and abstract onto the gritty northern streets of his home town.

As beautiful as Kershaw’s work is, and as tempting as suggesting he reclaimed art on behalf of the masses may be, the evolution of street art from territorial signatory to meticulously worked out creations would eventually have the opposite effect. What re-emerged as a fresh take on Kershaw’s formula at the turn of the millennium slipped from the political and revolutionary back into the establishment.

Banksy’s perfectly on point social fury began to feel a little disingenuous following the commerical success of Wall and Piece and the sublime irony of Shepard Fairy’s consumerist comment seemed to get a little lost following the billionth Obey snapback. The brilliance of these two cannot be doubted, but what can is the elevation of a grass-roots movement to a sell-able brand through the hands of an established marketing mechanism.

Leaving vaguely anti establishment feelings and cynicism aside, the theatre world has done a good job of dropping its post Beckett reputation of dull absurdism in recent years.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company re-packages the bard’s greatest hits into palatable, innuendo-ridden nuggets of GCSE fun. Over the Atlantic and the ‘Surveillance Camera Players’ have been sticking an unwavering artistic middle finger towards the perceived Big Brother state with on-street performances of 1984 especially for lonely CCTV monitors.

These troupes and productions in the vein of Danny Boyle’s cinematic Frankenstein taken into account and modern theatre emerges as a near staple of the masses. Even opera, once the sole reserve of short-sighted rich women and fat English men pretending to be Scottish Lords, has become an accessible entity following the remarkable success of G4, Paul Potts and Popstar to Operastar.

The general shift of high art from the realm of the elite to the collective sphere is of course in no way complete. Art galleries are cheaper but are increasingly depleted at the hands of private collectors. Torrenting and cheap DVDs have made film widely accessible yet communicate staunchly Hollywood ideals leaving the avant garde the preserve of fanatics and independent movie club members. Regardless, the shift exists. Quantitatively and qualitatively more and better art is there for the taking and a increasing number are doing so. Worries of over saturation exist and fears of the changing nature of consumption grips movements set on preserving traditional formats and means of distribution. Regardless, the internet, loosening dress codes and the decreasing value and believability of snobbery has forced high art to embrace the masses.

Whatever ones feelings towards the great unwashed, the accessibility of art can only be a positive.

Milo Boyd

Jean-François de Troy, Lot with his daughters

venus de hohle fels surveillance camera players

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ok at the shifting boundaries of the cultural sphere

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Walter kershaw

Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Can

Dj Shadow, Endtroducing

Roy Lictenstein, Whaam!

he divide between what is typically considered to be ‘high art’ and ‘low art’ is long established. A tradition going back hundreds, even thousands of years, there was always a distinction between the fine arts of painting and sculpture, and the ‘folk arts’ of metalwork, tapestry and woodwork. Typically, any art produced by peasants or labourers was considered to be folk art, whilst the fine arts were the reserves of the educated and wealthy.

For a long time, this class division was unquestioned. It was only with the rise of the industrial revolution that the uneducated masses moved from the countryside and into the city, causing them to come into close contact with the ‘high art’ that they had been denied for so long. This led to the creation of what art critic Clement Greenberg terms ‘kitsch’ – basically high art for the masses, diluted down and easy to digest.

In response to the kitsch that was slowly infiltrating the general population, the high arts sought to become even less accessible to the average person, creating the complicated and oft-misunderstood notion of the ‘avant-garde’.

Practically impossible to understand without a degree in art history, the avant-garde in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries focused on taking art away from depicting reality, and into the realms of philosophy and discovering the ‘ultimate truth’. Artists either wrote epic texts discussing the true meaning of their work, or remained resolutely silent about their aims – neither of which is useful for helping your average Joe understand the complexities of abstract art. Above all, avantgarde art sought to be seen as the polar opposite of the everyday, ‘common’ kitsch.

It was into this confusing world of high and low art that Pop Art arose in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Typified by bright colours, a strong, cartoon-like style and everyday motifs, Pop Art became renowned above all for its celebration of the banal. Andy Warhol, an artist practically synonymous with Pop Art, is best known for his depictions of Campbell’s Soup Cans and Coca-Cola bottles, both of which are easily identifiable to everyone in the Western world. This stands in sharp contrast to the work of artists who came before, such as abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock, whose work is not only difficult to understand, but also almost impossible to explain. In light of all that came before it, Pop Art’s breach of the divide between high art and low art was daring, revolutionary, and previously unthinkable. Yet it paved the way for culture in all its variations as we see it now.

By taking images typically seen in advertising, newspapers and supermarkets, Pop Art made ‘high art’ accessible to all. More importantly however, it blurred the line between avant-garde and kitsch. Kitsch is typified by its method of production, usually being mass produced in order to be consumed by the general population. Pop Art took these methods of production into the realm of high art, seeking to remove all evidence of the artist’s hand from his work. Warhol did this through the use of silkscreens, and also through outsourcing much of his production to other members of his band of followers known as the Factory.

Roy Lichtenstein, another prominent Pop artist working in the 1960s, achieved this effect of mass production through his iconic use of Ben-Day dots. Ben-Day dots were developed in the late nineteenth century as a method of printing a variety of colours inexpensively, and were later used in the ‘50s and ‘60s by pulp comic books – where Lichtenstein found most of his sources. Pulp comics, in contrast to the more expensive ‘glossies’, were printed

on cheap wood pulp and were often filled with sensational and lurid stories. In many ways they were the very definition of low art for the masses, being seen as style over substance and easy to read. The very word ‘pulp’ suggests a substance already pre-chewed and easy to digest, with the merest modicum of thought required to understand it. Lichtenstein took sections of these pulp comics and blew them up to gigantic proportions (his best known work Whaam! is over four metres long), essentially glorifying the most everyday of objects.

This tradition of using industrial methods to produce fine art has continued into the modern day. Damien Hirst, one of the most celebrated artists of the past decade, is well known for outsourcing his production to others, in the same way that Warhol did with his work. Despite this, he is still one of the richest artists alive, with people lining up to willingly pay hundreds of thousands of pounds for a ‘Damien Hirst’ knowing full well that he hasn’t even touched it. This is perhaps due to an inherent fear within many of the superrich that ‘high art’ and popular culture will eventually merge together completely, rendering all of their millions of pounds worth of art worthless.

Whilst this is unlikely to ever occur, it is undeniable that it is now much harder to tell the two apart from one another. And with the advent of that tricky-to-define movement, postmodernism, it has become harder still.

Postmodernism revels in combining all elements of culture in unusual and unexpected ways. An example of this is DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing….., which is notable primarily because it is composed entirely of samples of other records, interviews or films. Released in 1996, it received critical acclaim in the UK and reached number seventeen in the album charts. This combining of different genres and even mediums in order to create something new is a trope typical of postmodernism, and one that typifies the blurring of boundaries between different elements of culture in the age we live in.

In many ways, it hardly makes sense to distinguish between ‘high art’ and ‘low art’ anymore. The two are so intertwined that it is practically impossible to discuss one without mentioning the other. The opening sequence of Desperate Housewives referenced a multitude of artworks, from van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait to Warhol’s famous soup can, bringing high art and popular culture together. Yet what is most fascinating about culture today is the fact that many people do not even realise when an image is a copy. To many people watching Desperate Housewives, the opening sequence will just be a series of female characters going about their business. They might possibly be able to identify one style as ‘Egyptian’ or ‘Pop Art’, but many of the references will go straight over many people’s heads.

This is what is amazing (and quite possibly worrying) about culture today: the distinction between high and low art has become so blurred that it is often impossible to tell what is original and what is a copy. Yet at the end of the day, as long as new and interesting art and media are being created, does it really matter if someone else did something similar before you? Ultimately, it is beneficial for everyone that the distinction between high art and low art is waning, as all it ever really seemed to do was uphold social immobility and the class system in gneral. Art that is impossible for the average person to understand only benefits the select few who are in the position to understand it, which ultimately benefits nobody.

Rachel Seymour

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TELEVISION WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN...

Following the success of @Seinfeld2000, ZENA JARJIS and KATIE MOLLOY imagine modern day episodes of 90s TV classics...

Seinfeld

Sex and the City

Friends

Elaine twerks at her office Chrismas party and her colleagues lose respect for her. Kramer and Newman watch Breaking Bad and try to cook crystal meth. A Jerry Seinfeld parody account gets more followers than Jerry’s actual Twitter accout. George knows his girlfriend has dumped him via a Facebook message, but he refuses to open the message so she doesn’t know he’s ‘seen’ it. “If I haven’t seen the message, then we’re still together!”

Samantha is having Snapchat sex with ‘BigDick17’, but he turns out to be 18 years old. Miranda gets Netflix. Carrie starts a blog but attracts a troll. She tries to figure out which of her ex-boyfriends it is, but in the end trolling teaches her a valuable lesson about life and love. The episode ends with her looking out of her window, smoking an e-cigarette.

“And then I got to thinking- aren’t we all our own greatest trolls?”

Ross gets Snapchat, but he takes it too far by sending Rachel a ‘WE WERE ON A BREAK’ Snap. Meanwhile, Joey and Chandler get an Xbox, and, once they have discovered voice command, decide that there is no need to leave their leather chairs for the rest of the episode. Monica and Rachel have a competition to see who can gain the most followers on Twitter. Monica turns it into a bet, loses, and has to give Phoebe her car.

FILM TO TV: A STEP DOWN?

ZENA JARJIS discusses film actors who switched to the small screen...

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N THE fifth season of 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy tells Tracy Jordan “Do TV and no one will ever take you seriously again. It doesn’t matter how big a movie star you are… none of that will matter once you do television. You can win every award in sight. You can be the biggest thing on the small screen, and you’ll still get laughed out of the Vanity Fair Oscar party by Greg Kinnear.

Tracy, your career hit rock bottom the first time you decided to do TGS. You want it to hit rock bottom again? Go on network television.”

This statement is, of course, intended to be ironic. 30 Rock is mocking the common misconception that the move from film to television is degrading- a misconception disproved by 30 Rock itself. Alec Baldwin, who plays Jack on the hit sitcom, has been enormously successful in his transition from the big screen to the small screen, having received two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, seven Screen Actors Guild Awards and one Television Critics Association Award for his

role as the ruthless network executive. Baldwin’s performance was critically acclaimed, with IGN’s Robert Canning calling Baldwin “perfectly cast” and writing that most of the show’s “good laughs” come from him.

Nevertheless, Baldwin’s transition is seen as the opposite of the natural progression of an acting career. Will Smith, Tom Hanks, Claire Danes, Seth Rogen… so many big names started out on TV, moved onto film and never looked back.

Most are happy to return small screen to do the odd guest spot, star in a miniseries or play them-

selves on Family Guy, but very rarely do actors spend years in a starring role on a television show once they have established a successful film career.

In the acting world, moving on to film is often seen as the ultimate promotion.

But is the move from film to television really a step backwards? Is television really just a starting point for actors looking to be taken more seriously?

Absolutely not. Take Steve Carrell, for example. He spent seven years on The Office and his film career has hardly suffered. He managed to star in hits like Little Miss Sunshine and Despicable Me during the sitcom’s run, all the while receiving awards and positive reviews for his portrayal of Michael Scott.

M o r e r e c e n t l y, Zooey Deschanel took a starring role on F o x ’ s

New Girl, despite having already established herself as a film actress. In just one year of doing television, Deschanel has received more than twice as many awards as she did throughout the entirety of her 14-year film career, proving that the actress has hardly lost respect in her decision to move to television.

Period drama Boardwalk Empire is littered with actors with film careers, like Steve Buscemi, Michael Shannon and Kelly Macdonald. Despite their previous reputations as film actors, the show has put all three on the map. Macdonald’s film career has flourished as a result and has seen her grab a starring role in Brave.

While television was once seen as completely inferior to film, the success of intelligent and critically acclaimed television series of recent years such as The Wire, The Sopranos and Mad Men means that there is now no reason for film actors to feel ashamed to do television.

The small screen is catching up to the big screen and actors are increasingly managing to have successful careers in both.

THE SMART CHART Our chart of TV shows, ranked from shows which can be passed off as revision to shows which probably kill brain cells...

1. House of Cards Netflix series House of Cards has received acclaim for its intelligent writing.

2. Sherlock

The detective stories within Sherlock’s crime drama format makes viewers think.

3. The Big Bang Theory All the science jokes don’t make up for the fact that every plot line is some varitation of ‘They’re geeky. She’s ditzy.’

4. The Only Way is Essex

The ultimate guilty pleasure. There is no way to pass TOWIE off as intelligent viewing.

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TWEET US: @YORKVISIONTV

SHOWS YOU DIDN’T KNOW WERE BOOKS: KATIE THOMAS looks at books that went from pages to programmes...

It may come as a surprise that the American drama television series is inspired by H G ‘Buzz’ Bissinger’s book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream published in 1990. The book is non-fiction and was originally created as a work of journalism.

The popular TV series is actually based on Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City, a historical text by Nelson Johnson. Although the book stands by itself, the show really brings the literary adventures to life and has given the story renewed dynamism.

Cecily Von Ziegesar’s book series is responsi- It isn’t known by many that Richard Hooker’s ble for the American TV teen drama Gossip MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors is Girl. The books were initially planned to be the book the TV show is based on. There was adapted into a film featuring Lindsay Lohan. also a 1970 feature film MASH, but the TV show The books have received attention as a trashy version is undoubtedly the most recognised yet easy and comical read, though differ version of the M*A*S*H works - being one of from the TV show on key storylines. the highest rated shows in US history.

INFORMATIVE OR EXPLOITATIVE?

MAX BREWER and KATIE THOMAS discuss what can be gained from Channel 4’s documentaries

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HANNEL 4 puts forward the impression that its documentaries serve the purpose of raising awareness about various social conditions and, in doing so, encourages its viewers to engage in the debate. The fact of the matter is, however, that the Channel’s skewed view of what these debates actually consist of amounts to serious exploitation of the people being featured.

Whether it be the complexities of the welfare state generalised by one street in Birmingham, or attitudes towards disability encapsulated by the title of Undateables, or the pseudo-intellectual presentation of dogging, Channel 4 does nothing but point an intrusive camera at the fringes of society, so that us ‘normal’ people can have a quiet chuckle or an ill-informed rant at our TVs. This polarises the notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ even further, and the patronising attempt at balance from the voiceover narrative provides little respite from the exploitation, especially in the face of brutal and heavilyloaded editing.

Admittedly, it has produced a number of eyeopening and genuinely balanced documentaries, which is why it is all the more surprising that it reverts to glorified freakshows time and time again. There would be little opposition to Channel 4 providing documentaries on a whole number of different topics, but presenting a largely accurate insight into the British education system via Educating Yorkshire alongside 47 minutes of adults dressing up and acting like infants in The 15-Stone Babies, is not balance; it’s an excuse for balance hiding behind a guise of exploitation.

Katie Thomas

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NQUESTIONABLY THERE are a number of faults in the way that Channel 4 documents fashion. Twitter storms, negative reviews and petitions circulating threatening to remove shows from airing are typical of the public’s reaction to the controversial shows. However, what many fail to realise is that a number of the documentaries receiving negative media attention are at least addressing a stimulating debate about hugely prominent issues affecting society today.

Shows such as Beauty and the Beast and Benefits Street may be addressing extreme situations, but such circumstances should not be ignored due to their extremities. Channel 4 brings to our screens subjects too often disregarded by television and what at times makes for uncomfortable viewing. It forces viewers to engage with issues regarding disability, cultural stereotyping and prejudice. Beauty and the Beast, for instance, explores the boundaries of discrimination and addresses the problems associated with the beauty industry and the war of beauty fascism, through bringing together individuals with opposite perceptions of what beauty entails. Benefits Street, through documenting the lives of residents living on James Turner Street, the majority of whom claim benefits, provides something of an insight into the constant battle involved with living off a minimal amount and has induced wide political debate on the topic of welfare. Channel 4’s documentaries may not make for balanced representations, but featured topics do need to be addressed and considered further by a mass audience.

Max Brewer

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BOOKS WHAT’S ON MY KINDLE...

CALLUM SHANNON @callum_shannon THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH (Ken Follet) This has everything you could want in a historical novel: war, politics, love and a healthy dose of Cathedral building. Follet’s epic, chronicling the events of Medieval England from 1123 - 1174 from the perspective of the residents of Kingsbridge as their new Cathedral is built will keep you gripped for all of its 816 pages. The sequel, World Without End, is well worth checking out too.

Avoid the C4 Miniseries adaptations of both like the plague though...

THE LORD OF THE RINGS J. R. R Tolkien OK, I have a confession to make: despite being a huge LOTR geek, complete with being the proud owner of the extended edition box set of the movies and a map of Middle Earth on my wall, until recently I hadn’t actually read the books. A must-read for any fantasy fan, this epic tale of good versus evil will consume your life for however long you choose to enjoy it, and stay with you long after.

One does not simply dip in and out of this book.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (John Green) I’m not normally a fan of young adult fiction, especially romance-orientated, but for this book, Time Magazine’s fiction publication of the year 2012, I’m willing to make an exception.

Following the star crossed romance between two teenage cancer patients Gus and Hazel, Green’s gripping read totally reinvents the genre of romantic teen fiction. Give it a read!

Classic tales/bad romance?

Maddi Howell gives us the most high and low brow novels and plays sure to have you turning multiple pages this Valentine’s...

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f you would rather eschew the commercialised cheese-fest of overbooked restaurants, or avoid spending your evening watching Bridget Jones with a Cadbury’s Milk Tray, jump on a proper love story instead. But is it to be romance of a high art form or a good grubby slice of some chick lit?

No one can deny the timeless appeal of the classics; never was a man so grouchilyyet so sexily- portrayed as Rochester. For all his flaws and mad women hidden away in the attic, his expressions of love for the humble Jane Eyre are sincere and beautiful. He professes to his plain employee: ‘I have for the first time found what I can truly love – I have found you’. Yet this is no mere fairytale romp and the reader will be subjected to all the sufferings of complicated, unforgettable characters. With indelible literary technique, Bronte appeals directly to you: ‘Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt! May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heartwrung tears as poured from mine.’ You need not feel too guilty; you rest safely assured that love stories of Jane Eyre’s calibre are also an art form of the highest quality. Try Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca for another narrative with a dark side, or immerse yourself in the French Revolution of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

There are even some juicy bits as far back as

Greek mythology - revisit the story of Penelope as she waits for her Odysseus, warding off ambitious suitors. Perhaps you will discover on the journey that your love is also worth waiting for. The forbidden will never be as illicit as the doomed love affair of Romeo and his Juliet, although this one is arguably best enjoyed on the stage. Bringing that into the 21st century, Orlando Bloom’s Broadway version definitely continues to appeal...

If this is all a bit too intense, and really you’d just like to switch off and enjoy the ride, recent chick lit has great things to offer to enhance your sofa time. This is the sitcom of romantic literature and makes no claims to be a higher

art form or moral authority. Alongside the usual offerings which focus on sex and consumerism, a recent coup of easy reading was the incredibly successful One Day. This one gives a gritty, comic rollercoaster ride as two unlikely lovers go from graduation, to mediocre jobs, to media stardom and finally, tragedy. This is a good one too and could definitely appeal to blokes as well as avid chicklitters. With similarities to the traditional romance novel, chick lit such as The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing (a collection of witty short stories) is amongst the best.

If you’re still stuck, look no further than Sophie Kinsella, the queen of light reading.

This may be chick lit but the woman behind the nom-de-plume studied at Oxford. The Undomestic Goddess came out a few years ago and newer contributions to our shelves include Twenties Girl and I’ve Got Your Number.

If you’re still sitting on the fence between high and low culture, there is also no harm in opting for the middle ground.

Tracy Chevalier’s Girl With a Pearl Earring or Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha will transport you back in time as you embark on an affair with Johannes Vermeer and enter the world of the Japanese geisha girl as her life and loves unfold in a dating scene entirely different from that of campus.

The Book Thief on screen Will the film live up to the literary masterpiece? Lilith King Taylor investigates...

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arkus Zusak’s The Book Thief first graced our shelves in 2005, and I am glad that the wonderful story will be rekindled once again with a film adaptation, from the studio that brought us Life of Pi, which will be released in late February. I am a huge fan of stories told from unusual perspectives, and The Book Thief’s narrator is possibly one of the strangest.

It is set in Nazi Germany, at a time when the narrator, Death himself, was extremely busy.

We follow the emotional journey of Liesel, a young girl with hair a shade close enough to the ‘brand of German blonde’, but dangerously brown eyes, and her relationship with her new foster parents. A lover of books, but unable to read, Liesel is taught by Hans Hubermann, her new papa, to embrace literature and develop a passion for ‘bor-

rowing’ books from the mayor’s impressive library. She learns to

find solace in stories, as a method of escaping from the horrors unfolding in the world outside, the darkness of which she is only just beginning to understand.

The story soon takes a dangerous and exciting turn when the Hubermanns begin to hide a Jewish refugee, Max, in the basement of their home. Unable to leave for fear of his safety, Liesel and Max bond over their love of stories and fantasy.

A wonderful tale of danger, escapism and human affection, The Book Thief is undoubtedly one of my favourites. Unsurprisingly, it was listed on The New York Times Best Seller list for an impressive 230 weeks.

I am waiting with baited breath for the film adaptation, and fingers crossed it will portray this wonderful story well and do justice to a literary masterpiece.

Catch The Book Thief in cinemas from 26th February 2014

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BOOKS Top five: abandoned classics JOONSOO YI

@joyiparr

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t is arguably a bad habit when one decides on a book to read for pleasure and puts it down only a few short pages later.

Interestingly, Goodreads conducted a survey amongst its members on what it is about a book that makes us give up on it. Unsurprising to one’s educated speculation, the overwhelming majority had said that a book that is slow and boring is one they immediately cast away. Other reasons for abandoning a book included “ridiculous (or nonexistent) plot”, bad editing, weak writing, etc.

According to Goodreads, the top five most abandoned books in 2013 were: The Casual Vacancy (J.K. Rowling), Fifty Shades of Grey (E.L. James), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson), Eat Pray Love (Elizabeth Gilbert), and Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Gregory Maguire).

These are fascinating choices considering their popularity.

That is to say, you would be pretty hard-pressed to find someone who has never heard of these titles.

Then there is a list of top five most abandoned classics, which is perhaps a more plausible catalogue: Catch-22 (Joseph Heller), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (J.R.R. Tolkien), Ulysses (James Joyce), MobyDick (Herman Melville) and Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand).

Despite attempting all five, I only managed to finish three books from this list. The selfcentred Rand’s self-purported “classic” is not only boring and convoluted, but also very long (1088 pages). The same can be said about Moby-Dick. As a side note, this begs the question why War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy) did not make the list, which is even longer. Perhaps this is because it is less boring and contains less pretentious drivel (but only slightly).

Ulysses is an obvious choice because upon reading the first few pages of the book for the first time, a reader, however sophisticated, is unlikely to know what is going on. But for purists who appreciate Joyce’s play with language – epigrams, multiple entendres, foreign words and phrases, various allusions to historical events and

literature - Ulysses is the best book they have ever read. If you were patient enough to reach the end, you will have read one of the most beautifully written conclusions to a novel of all time. But despite its glory, it is easy to see why many people have abandoned the book as most people are casual readers who do not necessarily want to make painful, strenuous efforts just to get through a single page.

The Lord of the Rings is not a terribly long series (as the films make it out to be). Personally, I have never managed to finish the series because epic fantasy as a genre has never pandered to me, but other people may have some different things to say.

Catch-22 is an outrageous choice for me because it is probably the funniest book I have ever read. The fact that the name of a Major is ‘Major Major Major’ gives one the idea of what sort of comedy this book might be portraying. The book is inundated with sarcastic humour and unusual (to the degree of childish, but clever) play on words. It is also one of very few books that captures the qualities of an anti-hero masterfully.

I would go on to say that Catch 22 is even funnier than The Code of the Woosters (P.G. Wodehouse) and Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh), which is a very big claim indeed.

New release: Trouble Man by Tom Benn ALICE HORNE

@hornealice

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om Benn’s third novel is fast-paced and gritty, but pushes the boundaries of the plausible.

Just a few pages in and Benn’s protagonist is already throwing punches and rescuing helpless young women. If Trouble Man is lacking in anything, it’s definitely not pace, or punches for that matter. In fact, Benn’s adrenaline-fuelled tour of Manchester’s criminal underworld teeters precariously on the verge of the unbelievable.

It’s December 1999 and in the build up to the new millennium, criminal and nightclub manager Henry Bane finds himself embroiled in a gangster family feud whilst his own illicit love-affair threatens to turn his friends against him. Oh and he’s also trying to track down a serial-killer who has a penchant for leeches. When Bane finds out that his son’s teenage girlfriend is actually at the heart of the gangsters’ feuding, I couldn’t help feeling that the plot fits together a little bit too well. This carefully crafted crime novel does have a neat satisfaction to it

though, and if you’re willing to stick with all the complicated double-dealing, it’s well worth it.

Trouble Man is the third in a series of books about Henry Bane, but the novel stands alone in its own right. I have to admit, with passages that can read a bit like GTA fight scenes, Trouble Man isn’t usually my kind of book. But as the plots start to weave more and more tightly around the main character, Benn’s razorsharp style and impressive fast pace kept me turning the pages until the very end.

With all the blood, sex and dramatic plot twists, it feels like Benn doesn’t have enough time to give his characters the emotional complexity that they really need.

The women are either pregnant, ridiculously drop-dead gorgeous, or the victims of sadistic sex crimes: Bane’s world is most definitely a man’s world.

But as the men are constantly fighting - for

money, for women or just for the sake of it Trouble Man seems to comment more on the harsh rigidity of masculinity than it does about the weak female characters.

This unflinching look at the darker side of society feels fresh and compelling. For all the outrageousness of its plot and seemingly gratuitous violence, Trouble Man depicts a gritty and convincing portrait of late nineties Manchester. Benn’s writing style is sharp and incisive, brilliantly capturing the Mancunian dialect and bringing a refreshingly raw voice to the crime genre that carries the novel through to its climactic conclusion.

It may have its flaws, but if you’re after a crime novel thriller that is packed with action and plot twists, and if you’re not too squeamish, Trouble Man won’t disappoint.

#LitCrush Mark Darcy?

Katniss Everdeen?

Which fictional character would be your perfect Valentine?

Rachel Seymour @_rachel_seymour #LitCrush Jon Snow from GoT, #winteriscoming and I need someone to keep me warm

Zoe Bennell @zbennell

Dean Moriarty can take me on a road trip any day...#LitCrush

Zena Jarjis @zenajarjis

I really fancy Draco Malfoy #LitCrush

Jess Harris @_Jessie_Lou

Definitely always had a bit of a thing for Tybalt #litcrush #badboy #moveoverRomeo

Tweet us @yorkvisionbooks

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Technology

Top tech tweet of the month:

Burger Weekly @BurgerWeekly

Jan 7

At the 1994 #CES it was considered a big deal that the phone weighed 3.9 ounces — or less than that cheeseburger. #CES2014

High And Low Budget Art In Gaming Short-lived Wonder vs. Timelessness

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he rise of digital distribution means new games are no longer being produced by professional developers alone. While indie games are on the rise the biggest developers still produce better games, having had years to hone their skills and the budget to hire the world’s best and brightest.

I have never felt so connected to the characters in a game You don’t become one of the worlds leading developers without creating some of the greatest games of a generation. For instance, The Legend of Zelda games can still captivate me as much as they did when I was 7, I can still waste hours playing The Sims, and yes each FIFA is better than the last; you just need more practice.

I have yet to find an indie game that I haven’t got

bored of after a month, despite the customary surprise and admiration initially.

The reason indie developers seem like the better option is because you only hear about those brilliant games that make it through the scrutiny of the discerning public via word of mouth or more likely, word on screen. The less than perfect are left to die by the roadside with you being none the wiser. The biggest developers’ failures are oh so apparent only because everyone was expecting greatness, and they would be entitled to, due to an often glowing track record Despite these fabulous big name releases, my personal favourite is the recent NaughtyDog project, The Last of Us. This for me is a perfect of example artistry in the gaming industry.

The landscapes, the atmosphere and the storytelling all rival best-selling blockbuster movies.

Often games of this cali-

bre tend to fall down when it comes to actual gameplay but NaughtyDog as usual have pulled out all the stops to make sure immersion is never broken. I have never felt so connected to the characters in a game like this before, and, there are moments that left me more devastated than I have been in a long time.

These developers can afford to truly research their scripts, leading you through an intricate and thoughtful narrative effortlessly. Combined with top quality voice acting it becomes very easy to forget that you are playing a game at all.

In short, what you get from indie developers is short-lived wonder but mainstream developers are on an inevitable march towards perfecting their art, through constant refinement and very vocal feedback.

Will Addy

I

Is Less More?

ndie developers with low budgets, small teams and limited resources are increasingly showing us that you don’t need millions of dollars to make a game with a distinct visual style, innovative game mechanics and an engrossing story. With the increasing popularity of online distribution and services like Steam Greenlight, the costs of distribution have been minimized significantly allowing independent developers to flourish.

One title that truly stands out for me is the “dystopian document thriller” Papers, Please. The game’s basic premise is simple: you’re an immigration inspector on the Grestin Border checkpoint of the fictional communist country of Arstotska, checking the papers of immigrants. If you fail to garner enough mon-

ey each day, your family will die. What makes this game so captivating is the temptation of corruption. Will you take a little something from a wife with a fake passport who is split from her spouse who is just across the border? The game is perfectly playable if you wish to abstain from corruption and shows you how people with the best intentions can slowly lose their way in a bureaucratic and incredibly corrupt police state.

I have never felt so connected to the characters in a game The game is in 8 bits which may be a turn off for some, yet arguably makes the game more engrossing. The strong primary colours of your booth juxtaposed against the blends of blacks and grays outside constantly reminds you that you owe your existence to the government,

and failing to pay your rent or defying orders will mean your certain replacement. The 8-bit style combined with the thumping soundtrack cleverly conveys the backwardness of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The immigrants are portrayed as ugly 2D sprites giving the player the impression that these are real people, imperfect and sometimes repulsive, none untouched by the corruption and malfeasance of the state.

Papers, Please is more than just an example of how through the use of an compelling game mechanics, indie games can stand tall next to triple A releases.

Papers, Please is an experience that might teach you things you didn’t know you were capable of and, if nothing else, will make you more understanding next time you’re standing in line, waiting to have your papers checked.

Costas Mourselas

Far left: The Last of Us Left: The Last of Us concept art Right: Papers, Please

Speeds of 1.4 terabytes per second achieved on ‘commercial grade hardware’

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n the 21st of January, French global communications equipment provider Alcatel-Lucent and British telecommunications services giant British Telecom achieved speeds of 1.4 terabits per second on an existing 410km optical fiber link between the BT tower in London and BT’s adastral park research campus in Suffolk.

For the non-technologically savvy, a terabit is about 0.175 terabytes and a terabyte is 1024 gigabytes. A speed of 1.4 terabits per

second is about 44 uncompressed HD movies each second.

A new flexible grid structure was used which increased the density of channels on the optical fibers and achieved up to 42.5 percent greater data efficiency compared to today’s standard networks.

However, Oliver Johnson, CEO of broadband analyst firm Point Topic commented that “Essentially it’s more important for ISPs, and consumers won’t see any immediate benefits, just that their provider will be able to keep up

with their demands. Consumers won’t be able to have 1.4 terabits speeds in the near future, certainly not in the next decade.”

While a 1.4Tb/s download speed may still be out of our reach, this is still great news for internet service providers (ISPs) as it means that the existing broadband infrastructure will not have to be changed to meet rising consumer demand for streamed TV shows and movies on services like Netflix. This will mean lower costs for ISPs and hopefully lower prices for consumers.

Costas Mourselas

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STAGE

To the stage:Shows We’d Like To See

What’s On: York Theatre films such as Harry Potter and Frozen being developed for theatre, our Stage team explores what other works Royal

In light of we would love to see on stage:

Rear Window centres around Jeff

(James Stewart), confined to his apartment in a leg cast. Though initially dejected, Jeff becomes entertained by what he sees out of his window and into those of his neighbours. He uncovers something darker than expected, and disjointed scenes across the courtyard slowly build to a fragmentary drama to be pieced together.

Jeff ’s physical limitations keep the film to one set, leaving the piece easily adaptable for stage without having to scale down the original - often the case with a film-to-stage reworking.

Down and Out is a magnificent ac-

count of living on the edge of poverty; admittedly, it isn’t Orwell’s best prose, but it somehow reaches far into the human psyche in a way that none of his more famous and fantastical works do. It creates sympathy, in bucket loads, which is really what theatre is all about. It is a very human work, full of the flaws and failings of mankind, and so would offer something more to the stage than the endless adaptations of Orwell ‘classics’ do. It gives us a new way of seeing ourselves.

When I first read Moshin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist it seemed immediately theatrical to me. This first person novel details an epically one-sided conversation between the narrator Changez and an American stranger outside a Lahore Café. Starting innocuously enough, Changez maintains a mesmeric and yet unsettling hold on the reader as he confides his life story. This oneact, one-man show is easily transferable to stage and would be a powerful and remarkable story which is subtle yet hugely thought-provoking.

With the sheer amount of superhero movies flooding the cinema recently, what I’d love more than anything would be to see a production along the lines of Marvel’s Avengers Assemble adapted for stage. Features such as the suave attitude of Tony Stark, badassery of the Black Widow and Shakespearian charm of Thor lend themselves perfectly to interactions that would be massive amounts of fun to witness on stage. Maybe there should be a production with the taste of a live and tangible human heroism.

High Brow

The IIiad

The Tempest

Birdsong

TFTV SPOTLIGHT: Vernon God Little

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FTEN OVERLOOKED due to its position on Heslington East, TFTV Theatre Society is one of the most exciting, growing societies on campus. With its multi-million pound building and large budgets the shows are getting increasingly ambitious, innovative and state-of-the-art with every term. There is a constant drive to deliver bigger and better productions and a relentless focus on delivering quality drama.

With only two shows a year the competition is fierce but the committee are clearly striving to bring the most challenging and diverse contemporary theatre to TFTV. Productions are acclaimed and aim to showcase the variety of talent on offer in York.

With the humble beginnings of Churchill’s Cloud Nine, Angelis’ disturbingly watchable Wild East, to last year’s sell-out performance of McDonagh’s The Pillowman, TFTV Theatre Soc has arguably created some of the best theatre our university has to offer.

TFTV’s next production isVernon God Little. Originally a novel by DBC Pierre, Tanya Ronder’s adaptation was first brought to the stage by the National Theatre’s Rufus Norris at the Young Vic. This stunning drama follows the victimised Vernon, wrongly accused of being an accessory to a school shooting in a fictional Texas town. It promises to be one of the

highlights of the university’s diverse theatrical calendar.

We spoke to the Director, Connor Abbott, to find out more about the play:

What’s the play about in essence?

“It’s about a lot of things really.

I first became interested in it because it’s essentially about a main character that has no control over his destiny. He is never in the engine room of the play. Whilst all the other characters are used as a device to bring about his downfall, a 15 year old is accused of a school shooting and no one listens to his cries of innocence.”

Why should we come and see it?

“As a team we felt that productions within TFTV could be more ambitious and we wanted to do something that felt very different from anything on campus.

Vernon is a fast-paced irreverent comedy that is deeply satirical of modern America. At the same time there’s a real depth to the story; it’s not just spinning tops. It is not only hopefully entertaining, it is also extremely affecting.”

What are the main challenges you face as a Director?

The biggest challenge of this is how crazy it is. It’s insane. It’s good to embrace the anarchy, it’s how far you push it and the sense of judgement that is quite hard. For example we have sofas that turn into cars, TV’s made of wooden frames, and a classic country music soundtrack. The challenge is trying to use madness in the right way to tell the story clearly and effectively.

Do you have a favourite line from the play?

Near the very end of the play; “Son, you heard the true way to mourn the dead? Take care of the living, it’s all you have” - Lasalle.

Vernon God Little plays from 6-8 February in TFTV’s Black Box – tickets are now available at store.york. ac.uk.

Steven Rowan Jeram

Hot Mikado

The Play That Goes Wrong

Aladdin and the Twankeys

Low Brow

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SPOT L I G H T: L U K E S I TA L - S I N G H The rising star of the singer-songwriter scene talks to Milo Boyd...

I

n a genre that has been re-kindled with the meteoric rise of Ben Howard, Tom Odell, and Ed Sheeran and found critical acclaim on both sides of the pond, Luke Sital-Singh is making waves. Offering a slightly calmer, less overtly earwormy sound than the above mentioned, Singh’s telephone voice is as gentle as the singing on his accoustic driven records. The chink of coffee cups and tea spoons offers an almost foley-like backdrop to the cheery hello that follows a couple of rings.

“I’m sitting in a coffee shop near my house, because I have no signal at home which is annoying. Generally, I’m putting finishing touches on my album. It’s been a quiet year but it’s starting to gear up now.”

The gearing up is, if one is avoiding comparisons with the already substantiated success of Damien Rice, an understatement. Releasing three EPs in the space of a year, the London native and current resident has recently been signed to Parlaphone with much of their work already done. With the first EP Fail For You having reached No. 3 in the iTunes singer-songwriter charts, No. 1 on Bandcamp and featuring on the 6 Music Playlist, second single ‘Bottled Up Tight’ garnered the complimentary quality of “breathing life into a tired form”. Despite falling short of emulating Michael Kiwanuka’s success in 2012, Singh’s 3rd EP Tornados paved the way for a place on the BBC Sound of 2014 longlist. Now firmly established, a debut album is well on the way and a UK tour scheduled for February.

The other underplayed detail of Singh’s conversational opener is perhaps equally as significant.

The London coffeeshop across from the London

house, a house which provides a creative space for his wifecome-album-art-creator, forms a pleasing backstory as well as aural backdrop for Singh. Whether lamentably or otherwise, image and solo-artist success go hand in hand and with his seemingly effortless nailing of geek chic and tall, dark and handsome, Singh most definitely has the former. The extent of solo-artist success however, will be determined less by cheekbones than by the album.

“Part of the fun of performing live is making people cry. Usually I sing with my eyes closed so don’t often look at people whilst they are” “All the songs are written now. Other people may disagree but I think it is really. The issue at the moment is too many songs and deciding which ones to choose. Labels seem to like to biding their time but next week we’re recording.”

To say the end product of this process is hotly anticipated is no hyperbole. Radio 1 playtime does not come easily to unsigned acoustic artists and if this doesn’t give credence to the often raw, more often beautiful style Singh has made his own, then the conceptual mastery of an EP inspired by a Channel 4 tornado documentary surely does. In much the way that he is looking to defy accusations of genre saturation, Singh is eager to dispel notions of pressure.

“In some ways I do feel it but for the most part writing still feels organic. Suddenly when you sign to a label you welcome in the opinions of a lot more people so that’s a different thing to get comfortable with. It’s been pretty good going though. You hear lots of horror stories of people who sign to record labels and have to change and end up making awful music. But that really hasn’t been my experience. They’ve just encouraged me to keep doing what I’m doing.”

Beyond making an increasing number of onpoint girls swoon, on what exactly it is that he’s doing Singh is remarkably candid. “Part of the fun of performing live is making people cry. Usually I sing with my eyes closed so don’t often look at people whilst they are. A few times people have come up to me after gigs and told me they have cried and I wonder what it would feel like watching them; whether I’d feel guilt or internally laugh. It’s such a weird thing actually making people cry, almost on purpose. It feels like I’m being honest but at the same time it’s an act, I’m not actually feeling those emotions on stage. If I was I’d be a wreck.

I really enjoy the trickery of performing; knowing how and when to make my voice crack. It is a performance. I’m performing emotions. But when it’s really connecting and really going well it doesn’t feel fake. Other times I’ll be doing a gig and I’m not into it and in my head I’m just thinking about episodes of Sherlock I’ve got to watch at home on iPlayer.

Hopefully it’s still convincing but in my head i’m somewhere else. I’ve never actually cried on stage, but it could happen one day.”

If this is truly the case or a piece of flippancy akin to Singh’s suggestion that ‘there’s not a lot of thinking’ involved in his writing, the end result does not suffer. Now performing live with a bunch of old

friends, Luke Sital-Singh concerts are reminiscent of Villagers’ in their pitch perfect shift between built up versions and solo moments. The end result of the band’s quickly acquired musical tightness, Singh’s swift creative process and the slight sadistic feelings he has for audiences is an increasingly rare, raw believability. “I don’t listen to that much music and whilst I don’t want to put my foot in it, there aren’t that many singer-songwriters around at the moment who I believe. It’s a very subtle thing. I’ve been really getting into Nick Drake recently and there’s something in his vocal performance that makes me believe every single word of it. I’d love to be one that people did believe.”

“I don’t really have one way of writing that works” Whether you do buy into Singh’s performance will likely be determined by the more intimate, personal experiences that can be had equipped with his records and a recently terminated relationship or bleak sunday afternoon. Undeniably being force fed illustrative descriptions and comparisons of music is annoying, but the watery eyed result of ‘Nothing Stays The Same’ is as inevitable as Drake’s slight reconfiguring of ‘Take Care’. On the topic of how this is achieved Singh is typically unassuming and self-deprecating. “I don’t really have one way of writing that works. It mostly consists of staring at a wall and then procrastinating. But when it’s working, it just sort of happens. To anyone looking it would seem like the easiest thing in the world because it just all tumbles out really quickly. It’s suddenly so easy one day and then impossible the next.

“Recently I’ve been doing a lot of writing with other people. I hated the idea of collaborating at first and I have had a couple of awkward ones, but when you find people you trust who understand what you’re trying to do it’s actually quite easy. When you collaborate it’s not as hard to maintain a work effect. You can’t just go and watch TV. You go home and you’ve got a new song and it feels good. There’s a satisfaction in feeling like you have a real job and getting up at 11 and going home at 6. In fairness, that’s not really a job but it does make me feel respectable.”

Feeling respectable, releasing an album and playing live shows with some of his oldest friends, if he weren’t so goddamn good at making music he’d be very hateable.