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CULTUREEASTBOUND

Between the coversEastBound’s critics review the latest books, DVDs and

music from the hottest talents around

SCATTERED TREES / SYMPATHY

Scattered Trees may have gone relatively unnoticed for the past fi ve years, but judging by their third album release, things may be about to change. Having grown up together in the suburbs of Chicago, the bandmates’ intimacy and creative ease are clear in the sense of a playful irony beneath their earnest exterior. � e video for their single “Love And Leave” features Star Wars Storm Troopers sitting despondently on the toilet and staring at take-away pizza in its boxes. Sympathy is a sparkling, genre-evading record which demands to be taken seriously.

Release date: April 5. Roll Call Records

FLEET FOXES / HELPLESSNESS BLUES

Fleet Foxes won fans and critical acclaim with their self-titled 2008 debut album. � is time round with their second album the Seattle based folk troupe get a bit more creative with both the title and the content. � e title may not suggest a feel good record but it is not all doom and gloom. Wistful melodies and melancholic voices are present but the unity and force of the leads combines to create something far from depressing. Meanwhile the band’s folksy style makes you relax even if you do happen to live in London.

Release date: April 11. Sub Pop

YELLE / SAFARI DISCO CLUB

Following their success across the Channel, French pop ensemble YELLE is now set to take the UK by storm. Debut album Pop Up was a treat but failed to dent the pop scene over here. � e release of Safari Disco Club is hoping to change all that. Lead singer Julie Budet’s girlish vocals are infectious, think Patrick Wolfe meets Robyn. Ridiculously catchy? Oui. Lyrically genius? Non. But it really doesn’t matter. � e title track, and fi rst single, is an ideal pre-night-out tune, but expect the repetitious chorus (‘‘Les animaux dansent dans le Safari Disco Club’’) to ring in your head.

Release date: April 4. Recreation Center

The life of Wiley We catch up with the grime artist

“� e new album is 100 per cent my lyrics and beats”

So what have you been up to?I have just fi nished my new album, 100% Publishing, which is out next month on the record label Big Dada.Tell us about the new albumWell, it’s called 100% Publishing, because its 100 per cent my lyrics and beats. It also means I get 100 percent of the money from the tracks. Me and Dizzee started out like that, making our own beats, so it’s sort of going back to the roots.

Wait a minute. George Clooney is playing an actual baddie? Well, yes, because he has a beard and shoots a load of people. A beard. After this

rollicking fi rst scene, though, he shaves off the beard and things get worse from there. � e slim plot – contract killer Jack (Clooney) retreats to the Italian countryside after a botched job – lumbers on with little sense of drama. For an assassin who’s supposed to remain friendless, Jack shares a lot of dull dialogue with anonymous characters. � is is a promising play on Clooney’s

winsome screen persona, but loses momentum fast. A missed opportunity.

� e American (dir. Anton Corbijn, 2010). Rated 15. Release date: April 4. Universal Pictures UK

He’s a wrong ‘un, that Gaspar Noe. And, now on his third feature, still on a mission to provoke.

Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) is a dealer killed in a drugs

bust. Afterwards, his soul continues to fl oat through grimy strip clubs, squats and toilet cubicles. It doesn’t sound like uplifting fare – and it’s not. But the fi lm is surprisingly touching. Oscar’s past is mined in poignant fl ashbacks to explore what went so wrong. You might just end up sympathising with him.

Noe exploits the dazzling neon of Tokyo nights to show what is so seductive about life outside the norm. Further proof of his undeniable talent.

Enter the Void (dir. Gaspar Noe, 2010).Rated 18. Release date: April 25. Entertainmenton

If you liked Brief Encounter, but thought it lacked aliens, you’ll love Monsters.

North Mexico has been overrun by alien life. Photojournalist Andrew (Scoot

McNairy) must get his boss’s daughter, Samantha (Whitney Able), safely back to the US.

Director Gareth Edwards draws out the sexual tension between them. He throws in a good few sci-fi scares, such as the alien tentacles that drag a US plane into a lake, but the fi lm wouldn’t be so compelling without its fragile romance.

Monsters is an absorbing sci-fi chick fl ick. And, regrettably, that’s not a phrase we get to use very often.

Monsters (dir. Gareth Edwards, 2010). Rated 12. Release date: April 11. Momentum Pictures Ent

CULTURE

51 EASTBOUNDlondon.co.uk

BOOKS: A Taste of the Sun by Elizabeth David. Penguin Press, £6.99

Penguin’s latest series, Great Food, is a celebration of the best food writing from the past 400 years. � e 20 books are a collection of “the sharpest, funniest, most delicious writing about food,” according to Penguin. Each edition has a beautiful ceramic-style embossed cover, designed by Penguin’s senior cover designer, Coralie Bickford-Smith.

� e series is a treat in every sense of the word, exploring the role of writers passionate about food throughout society, and

showcasing the talent that helped to shape how we eat today.A Taste of the Sun gathers the writing and recipes of Elizabeth

David, the woman who brought a sun-drenched taste of the Mediterranean to post-war Britain. Seen by many as the fi rst Nigella Lawson, David wrote about food in a revolutionarily way. Her anecdotal style, revelling in the joys of picnics and simple holiday meals, ensured her status as a culinary legend.

Writing at a time when rationing still made ingredients such as garlic and olive oil exotic luxuries, David evoked the atmosphere of the olive groves and vineyards of Tuscany and Provence. Inspired fi rst by her experience of French cuisine, David went on to live and cook all over France, Italy, Greece, Egypt and India. Her recipes are the record of a fascinating woman who believed that food was the greatest pleasure in life.

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Do you think your audience has changed?Sort of. Now I love females listening, I’m not interested in mandem [young men] jumping up and down in a club anymore. My music has a more chilled out vibe now.Why were you such a force in the grime scene?I think it’s because I tried to help everyone. I thought of everybody when I made my music. Plan B is the same sort of fi gure, he makes sure that he thinks of everyone.What are your predictions for the year ahead in music?� is year is going to be about everyone who has the power to release music, they’re the ones that are going to be great. I mean look at Adele, she’s doing some amazing stuff .

Any particular artists to keep our eyes on?Jessie J is going to kill it. Other than that, I’d say keep your eye on the indie bands. Oh, and an artist called Angel. He’s as diverse as Plan B. And your biggest musical infl uences?Tinie Tempah. Not because he is better than anyone else about but because of his calmness and humbleness. He makes me want to become an achiever.Your top tracks at the moment?Jessie J’s “Price Tag”; Giggs’ “Monsta Man”; Jay Sean and Alesha Dixon’s “Every Little Part Of Me” and Rihanna and Drake’s “What’s My Name”.