Pete's Pad: March

OK, I guess we’re still doing this then.

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Crucially, I hope you liked some of the recommendations. The last thing I want to do is be any kind of gatekeeper to good stuff, so what follows is a summary of all the things I enjoyed absorbing during March (and a few that I didn’t, just to make things interesting).

My wonderful wife and streaming service facilitator got some sweet deal with her bank for cheap Apple TV access, so I managed to catch up with the zeitgeist and work through Severance season two in time for the recent finale.

From the brilliant intro visuals and theme song, to the set dressing and period tech attention to detail, all credit to Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson (plus many more I haven’t bothered to IMDB) for making it the most weird and wonderful thing on the box. It just looks and sounds like nothing else - sumptuously stylised, but with just enough substance to get away with it.

I can only imagine all the Easter eggs I’m missing, but despite the strangeness of the setup and how many unanswered questions remain, its central theme of the balance between a person’s home and office life still make the show accessible enough for the more casual viewer.

I’ve definitely developed a crush on Mr Milchik and also particularly enjoyed some of the inventive scene fading cuts:

Most of what I watched this month was documentary-shaped, rather than drama, so I’ll switch to non-fiction for the next few.

No Other Land is the only winner from this year’s Oscars that I’ve managed to watch so far, and even without seeing any of the rest, I’m going to say the most important.

Directed by Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ball (the latter of which was attacked and kidnapped by Israeli settlers last week), its the tale of a Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank which has been resisting forced displacement after being designated a firing range for Israel’s military.

It’s incredibly frustrating to watch, but at the same time, I think it’s important to bear witness to what’s going on there as well, even if it’s usually overshadowed these days by the atrocities in Gaza. As usual, I still feel completely powerless to help in any meaningful way, but hopefully the more people that see the film - overcoming streaming and cinema bans (more power to Channel 4 for sticking it up) - the more chance something can be done to halt the illegal land grabs.

Another fairly unpleasant, but couldn’t-take-my-eyes-off-it, doc was Devil in the Family: the Fall of Ruby Franke. What starts as a seemingly straightforward story of the perils of family vlogging - especially in perfection-striving Mormon Utah - gradually descends into something much darker over the three episodes. The lady in the title is the driving force behind the YouTube channel, with husband and four children initially pretty happy to be involved, but of course the problems start when the channel gets popular and more ‘content’ is expected from them. What really turns things is the introduction of a influencer therapist to the mix, who edges out the husband and the dissenting older kids, turning a cautionary tale into some fairly shocking criminal acts.

The latest in the Imagine series on the ‘academy of Armando’ Ianucci is an altogether cheerier affair. Mercifully light on the Yentob, this look at the life of Glasgow’s second best comedy export (apparently he went to the same school the Big Yin) is a joy from start to finish. What it reminds you is that he’s just never missed, 30 years on from his breakthrough with The Day Today. So-much-so that this post almost became me just fanboy-ing over Brasseye, Partridge, the Thick of It, Death of Stalin, etc. As the title alludes to, what’s really nice about him is how, over the course of making all these shows and movies, he’s brought in young talent and encouraged people to try other roles within the industry - with some spectacular results.

The Imagine on the Pet Shop Boys is also superb. I already love Neil Tennant and his Smash Hits sarcasm, but it was lovely to learn more about the more secretive, but equally hilarious other half, Chris Lowe. It’s daft to call them underrated after all these years and albums and tours and hits, but I still don’t think the pair of them get their dues, perhaps because they make pop music with synths, rather than rock with guitars.

Sticking with long-running BBC series’, there was another cracking Storyville on this month. Eternal Spring: The Heist of China’s Airwaves tells the story of a high-stakes hijacking of state TV by the persecuted Buddhist group Falun Jong. Told via accounts from the survivors living outside China and beautifully animated recreations of the action and its fallout, I’m always fascinated to get glimpses of what really goes on behind the communist curtain - and certainly hadn’t realised it was such a big deal back in 2002.  

Rounding up some of the other telly we’ve devoted weekday evenings to, as has become tradition since the pandemic lockdowns neatly coincided with Marvel’s small screen content dump (has it really been five years since the pandemic began in earnest?), the wife and I sat down to the rebooted Daredevil series.

As with so many of these superheroes, I’m only vaguely aware of the backstory, having not been a comic book fan in my youth. It would appear this character already had a few seasons behind him back when Netflix were doing Marvel things, and apparently this roughly follows on from them, but coming to it cold (aside from some of the crossover at the end of the Echo miniseries) the first episode does a pretty good job of explaining the motivations of the goodies and baddies. Charlie Cox is a likeable hero, wrestling his blind lawyer public image with his vengeful ‘supe’ alter-ego, while Vincent D’Onofrio is perfectly cast as the massive villain Kingpin. So far it’s fairly derivative stuff, in the Big Apple crime fighting mould of Spiderman, but with some interesting camerawork, visceral violence and a bold line on NYPD institutional racism.

My final recommendation, for an easy way to spend an hour and a half, is the film Wolfs, which essentially takes Harvey Keitel’s Winston the Wolf character from Pulp Fiction and runs with it. The extended premise being ‘what if two such supposedly unique problem solvers got called to the same job’, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt cast as said wolves. It’s an enjoyable enough charisma showdown, with both pulling all their trademark faces and generally seeming to have a good time cashing their respective paycheques.

If only all films were so satisfying, but I guess the occasional bopter makes you appreciate the better bits all the more. At least that’s what I was telling myself after the abrupt and unfulfilling ending of I Saw the TV Glow, a well-reviewed A24 movie that I saw had sneaked its way onto Sky Cinema. Aimed squarely at my late Millennial demographic, it really leans in to nineties nostalgia, with the plot revolving around a bad late night TV show that seems to suck obsessed teens into an upside-down dimension.

Except, unlike the similarly-vibed Stranger Things, there’s very little of that shown, or really any action/scares at all. The film takes itself way too seriously and ends frustratingly unresolved. A quick wiki search explained to me that it was allegorical to the trans teen experience, but that went right over my head - I just thought it was a bit slow and exceedingly nippy.

My other moan this month is one you’ll probably be able to avoid, unless you’ve got children of a certain age. Having quite enjoyed the first, I was willing to give Moana 2 a go when it became available on Disney+, but much like the Frozen sequel, this felt really phoned-in in terms of plot and songs, with very little that really captured the imagination - at least for this misanthropic old man (the eight year-old seemed to mostly enjoy it).

Before I move onto music, a quick note to say that despite all the hype and soul-searching think-pieces, I haven’t yet plucked up the courage to view Adolescence. Perhaps a review of that to come next time, along with some thoughts on the final season of What We Do in the Shadows, which I was about to start earlier this week, before realising I was only half-way through the previous series; so am currently playing catch-up.

I am now able to reveal that the artists I interviewed last month were Slam, who I originally wanted to speak to in order to find out what the future looked like for more Pressure-like parties at Platform (AKA The Arches), after attending their triumphant Return to Source night there last October. I did get to ask them about that, but while waxing lyrical about the club nights, they couldn’t say more about plans for getting back to more regular parties. The chat did, however, coincide with Stuart and Orde releasing a new album, which I got a chance to listen to.

Nothing’s been released at time of writing, so you’ll have to just take my word that its a return to bangin’ form; about as industrially-powerful techno as I’ve ever heard from them. You’ll be able to hear that and read my article in The Skinny during April. And as for the future of my favourite venue, the previous owners bought it back off the London corporate events group that was in control, so with a bit of luck there will be more opportunities in the near future to enjoy getting sweaty under Central Station.

More as I have it…

Given we’re three months in to 2025, I reckon it’s about time for a first quarter performance update (in the parlance of my day job). So how about a mini-list of my favourite five tracks so far this year?

Mogwai - God Gets You Back

The latest record by arguably Glasgow’s best band kind of passed me by in January, but giving it a proper listen recently I fell in love with this song. Like all their best work, it’s a deft balance of catchy melody, looping rhythm and wall-of-sound guitars.

Tunde Adebimpe - Drop

The TV on the Radio frontman’s debut solo album comes with this as its lead single (ahead of release on 18 April) and from the beat-boxing intro it builds into a really pleasant bit of pop music; all chunky drums and soaring chords.

Boof - Breakfast in Collingwood

The new 10-track release from Maurice Fulton’s more dubby, jazzy alias is a perfect accompaniment to work-from-home or headphone commute soundtracking. This is my favourite cut; deep piano house stripped back to its bare, beautiful essentials.

Factory Floor - Between You

Signed up to Phantasy for their first new material since 2018, Gabe Gurnsey and Nik Colk Void have returned with an absolute walloper; something you can absolutely see the likes of label boss Erol Alkan caning in his sets.

FKA Twigs - Room of Fools

More brilliantly idiosyncratic stuff from Tahliah. Soaring hyper pop with a dark edge and some beguiling dancefloor elements.

Alright, that should do it for this edition. Do let me know what you think in the comments - as I’ve never had such a feature on my blog posts before - or recommend me stuff you think I’m missing out on.