Recent releases reviewed
ERASURE
The Tank, the Swan, and the Balloon Live! Mute
****
Erasure's double DVD concert film is a pretty fabulous affair. Recorded in the Manchester Apollo as part of their 1992 Phantasmagorical Entertainment tour, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke's exuberantly theatrical concert of crowd pleasing hits and covers (including A Little Respect, Sometimes, Ship of Fools, Over the Rainbow, Stop! and the very wonderful Abbaesque homage) combines high-energy electro-pop and knowing camp spectacle into a joyously frothy concoction. The band interview (with costume designer Dean Bright and choreographer Lee Child) offers a rare glimpse into the gregarious Bell and laconic Clarke's highly successful creative partnership of 29 consecutive Top 40 hits in two decades: making music and show business are serious fun. Oh, L'Amour indeed. www.mute.com - Jocelyn Clarke
THE WHITE STRIPES
Live Under Blackpool Lights XL
***
You didn't really think Jack White was going to hire an orchestra, a brass section and a string quartet for the night, did you? With The White Stripes, less is more, and the maxim very much applies to the show recorded at Blackpool's Empress Ballroom last January. Directed by Dick Carruthers (whose CV includes Portishead's Live in NY film), Live Under Blackpool's Lights is every jot as low in fidelity as a White Stripes' studio recording. Visually, it doesn't really amount to much more than a grainy record of the night in question - Meg White bangs the drums, Jack White howls at the microphone and plays the guitar and that's your lot - but the music is far more technicolour in texture, the blues revisited by way of Detroit. Short, sharp and thrilling, the hits are all present and correct, as is a fine take on Dolly Parton's Jolene. www.whitestripes.com - Jim Carroll
