Pete's Pad: June

Welcome to your midsummer night’s dream.

We’re half-way through the year, so I’ve done a short appraisal of the best music during the first six months of 2025, but before that it’s the usual ramble through my TV and film highlights of the last 30 days.

Both the fourth series of The Bear and final instalment of Squid Game only came out late last week, and I haven’t had the time or fortification to binge either, so after just a couple of episodes of each all I’ll say is more of the same really, with one observation - that Bear is at its best when it’s funny and warm, while I must say I enjoy Squid best when it gets dark dystopian.

As for TV shows I have been able to consume in full during June, the month began with a surprise (at least to me) feature-length directorial debut from Jesse Armstrong. Mountainhead has a lot of similarities to his previous opus, Succession, but this time the filthy rich quartet of hugely unlikeable main characters are different flavours of tech bro. They’ve decamped to the titular mountain-top man-bunker for the weekend, as the social media app they’re all involved in has just rolled-out some divisive new AI tools that are (in many cases literally) blowing up all over the world. The zinger-tastic repartee flies - as to be expected with an Armstrong joint - between a decent cast (Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman and Ramy Malek, etc), but after a promising start, the whole thing kind of peters-out. A ludicrously shambolic murder plot in the final third is quite amusing, so this TV movie isn’t a complete waste of time; but ultimately it all feels rather underwhelming.

Something else which, for me, didn’t live up to the hype, was Anora. For a picture that won that many Oscars I was expecting a lot more substance, but then when was the last time the Academy got something right? The first 45 minutes of setup are very tedious - if I have to hear that godawful Take That remix one more time, so help me - before things improve markedly once the adults enter. From then on out it’s got the feel of Uncut Gems, except without any of the consequential pressure and genuine dread. I will say, Igor finally coming to the fore in the last 15 minutes or so just about saves it - but not quite.

Also popping into Sky Cinema in the last few weeks was The Joker: Foile a Deuce, which despite its two-star rating, I decided to at least give a fair viewing. It starts pretty strongly: I enjoyed the little animation at the start and the early, moody prison stuff is nicely shot, but then he meets Lady Gaga and the singing starts in earnest. As a plot device it’s among the more annoying I’ve sat through, but what makes it slightly easier to stomach is imagining the groans of all the incels who saw it in the cinema, gradually realising they’d paid to watch a musical. When the Joker escapes the courtroom towards the end I was dreading the idea of a third instalment, but at least that got snuffed out. The only other note I’ve made is that a tremendous amount of cigarettes were smoked; so there’s that I suppose.

To maintain some kind of balance, I also watched Captain America: Brave New World recently. It’s a White House conspiracy thriller kind of thing, with a peculiar X-Files style baddie and some racial equality overtones thrown in for good measure. Perfectly passable Marvel fare I guess, with the enjoyable nonsense of Harrison Ford getting red Hulk-ified. Anthony Mackie is likeable as the new cap, but other than properly announcing him as an MCU character, I struggle to really see the point in this one.

I realise I’ve got this far without really making any recommendations - which is sort of the point of this blog.

Apologies for that, but the final film I watched in June was Piece by Piece, which I did quite enjoy. It’s the Pharrell Williams biopic, done in the medium of Lego. The absurdity of this concept is addressed up top, but given how weird and wonderful a personality he seems to be, it’s very easy to get on board with - aside from forgetting what the man actually looks like (a face like his, while vampiricly youthful, doesn’t translate that well to yellow brick head). As mentioned last month, I’ve watched so many samey documentaries about the lives of music stars, that this format is quite refreshing. The same can be said for his career trajectory, which - bar a bit of commercial excess and creative block a while back - doesn’t get stuck in the usual booze/sex/drugs/divorce tropes. What it does do is remind you quite how prolific a production period he had in the early noughts - and what a musical hotbed Virginia Beach was. His hot steak coincided with me being dragged out to cheesy nightclubs during the first few years of university, so while a lot of the Neptunes-backed bangers irritate me greatly, I do appreciate things could have been a lot worse without him and Chad’s ingenious beats and catchy hooks.

Another documentary I loved last month was David Attenborough’s Ocean film, which may just be the most important thing he’s ever done. It’s as gorgeously shot as anything he ever put together with the BBC, but this time it really leans into the environmental consequences; rather than just bit of guilt tripping here and there. Crucially, rather than just focusing on the flora and fauna impact, the production team actually talk to the people being impacted by unsustainable fishing practices - and perhaps more important, there’s a proper look at solutions and how quickly the seabed can recover. Given just how important the ocean’s carbon sucking - or emitting - properties are, we just have to hope that, given how widely this has been shown, enough people in the relevant positions of power see it and act upon it. For my part, I wrote something on the Scottish aspects and wasn’t particularly reassured by the response…

Sticking with remarkable factual filmmaking, Storyville have brought another beauty to British screens in the form of The Contestant. It’s about a Japanese production company pioneering reality TV in the 1990s and coming up with the concept of sticking a chap in a small room, naked, with only a radio, phone and a shelf of magazines - with which he has to enter competitions to win the prizes that will hopefully bring adequate sustenance, clothing, etc. Our plucky contestant, Nasubi, isn’t aware that his efforts are edited into a weekly show that is increasingly watched by millions, as he struggles for more than a year. Starved of human contact, he starts breaking down, but even when he hits a winning target, he’s transferred to do it all over again in South Korea by the distinctly exploitative producer. Things get arguably even wilder after he’s allowed back into society, as he decides to use his new-found fame for good, helping out earthquake victims in his hometown of Fukushima. To further aid the city, he then decides to summit Everest, only to be hit by another earthquake; surviving the base camp avalanche to help out with rescue efforts. It’s a heartwarming conclusion to a tale that would have sent most people over the edge.

Meanwhile, Adam Curtis is back trawling the BBC archive, piecing together another factually wobbly collage of odd moments from the not-too-distant past. This time out he’s dropped the audio narration in favour of capitalised white Helvetica and there’s less of the Burial/Massive Attack/Nine Inch Nails soundtrack than usual. The topic is pretty standard fare though, focusing on the ‘Shifty’ period in the UK at the end of the 20th century. Cue much Maggie Thatcher, miner’s strikes, deregulated City boys and bleak housing estates. He makes a compelling - if not journalistically rigorous - case for the failure of monetarism, the rise of individualism and the collapse of British exceptionalism, but as ever, the best bits are strange snapshots taken from news footage: a sex changing boxer dog, a provincial Elvis impersonator and a factory stuffing giraffes, to mention but a few. Exasperatingly you never get nearly enough time or context with these bits, but then I’ve found it’s best to just sit back and let his works wash over you. In a different timeline, Curtis would be a niche YouTuber working in relative obscurity with online clippings, so I’m happy to pay the license fee in order for him to sketch these abstract compositions for the nation.

Back within the confines of regularly-formatted factual television, I found myself getting a flavour of Stanley Tucci in Italy. This series is incredibly relaxing - just seeing a lovely man potter around a lovely country eating lovely things and meeting lovely people - he really does the foodie travelogue thing as well as anyone. Speaking the language helps, and the production team hook him up with some interesting local characters and delicious-looking spots. Then all he has to do is sport a well-fitted shirt and slacks, raise an eyebrow at the right moment and everything’s well in the world. Exactly what’s required when patently everything is not well in the world.

Not quite as easy-going, but similarly well put together, is the second series of The Gold. I thoroughly enjoyed the first, charting the Brinks Mat robbery and subsequent hunt for the record-breaking amount of stolen gold bars. Superbly written by Neil Forsyth, this run of episodes has a lots less to work with in terms of agreed facts - with the disclaimer at the start admitting some characters are amalgamations and storylines are based on popular conspiracy theories. No matter though, as the scripts are superb, the performances pitch-perfect and the plot well-paced. I really can’t recommend it enough.

One last televisual mention before we get onto music. I bumped into Noel Edmonds’ Kiwi Adventure during an idle flick through the channels and felt strangely compelled to give it a go. He was always on the box as I was growing up, so must have been regarded a solid light entertainment presenter - although seeing clips of House Party now feel like a Blobby-haunted fever dream - but the somewhat glossed-over lead up to his move to New Zealand confirmed my suspicions about the nastier side of his Patridge-esque ageing Englishman character. I’m not going to watch anymore than the first episode, but it tells you all you need to know about attempts to reinvent himself down under; opening a pub in a tiny town and going a bit woo with his new-age wife. Perhaps the main reason I still pay him any attention is that a few years ago I had quite a task editing a colleague’s investigation into the repercussions of his legal battle against Lloyds - trying in vain to chase Noel for comment - something which is mentioned via the statue he’s erected memorialising his ‘dark times’ at war with the bankers that brought down his companies. He does look pretty good for 76, so fair play I suppose - it’s just hard to shake the suspicion that when the cameras are turned off he’s not a colossal berk.

At the half-year stage and with the annual playlist sitting at 50-or-so tracks, it seems pertinent to review the best sounds so far in 2025.

My end-of-year lists of late have been lamenting the quantity of quality albums, in favour of a selection of stand-out songs, but so far this year I’d argue the opposite is true.

I’ve mentioned some of them in previous posts, but I implore you to listen to any of these long-players all the way through: Bonobo’s delightful soundtrack for the Lazarus animation series, Stereolab’s triumphant return, Djrum’s electronic experimentations, Aesop Rock’s lyrical loquaciousness, Mogwai still making the best guitar music going, Lindstrom still making the best disco music going and SAULT still being enigmatic and soulful.

To finish, how about a trio of fairly new tracks…

Man Power and Django - Home

Wasn’t sure what this collaboration wasn’t going to sound like, but quite pleased to come across the piano house chugger of the summer.

Cut Copy - When This Is Over

Nice to hear from these trendy chaps from down under. This is a tale of two halves - a slinky little wind up which breaks into something quite gloriously cacophonous from about three minutes in.

Slick Rick and Nas - Documents

Slick Rick is one of the unsung heroes of rap - sampled far and wide, but without the quality cannon his talent deserves. Come for THAT voice, stay for THIS video.