Entertainment

If April was an indie rock darling, April is all about hip-hop. What a list of legends. Get ready for a long and happy stretch of the best releases this month had to offer, kicking off with the fabulous new single from Childish Gambino. ‘This Is America’ is an absolute banger, and if you haven’t seen it already (where the hell have you been?!),  try consuming it with a side of the controversial video, too. There’s also a lovely, silly...

Venue: O2 Shepherds Bush Empire Date: 28.5.18 Few bands this side of the 1980’s are spoken about with near universal reverence, in hushed tones and with numberless superlatives. One such band are San Jose-an stoner doom progenitors Sleep. Two decades on from their initial hiatus, and nine years since their first reunion, the older and wiser psychonauts continue to grow their legend with rapturous live performances – and their turn at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire is no exception. It’s a...

The Nonesuch Orchestra is set to perform Stravinsky’s ballet Apollo (“Apollon musagète”) with new choreography from local dance company Ballet4life on Saturday 23rd June at 7.30pm at St Peter’s Church, Acton Green. Conductor Dan Shilladay has curated an evening of musical delights, starting with Mozart’s B-flat Divertimento, followed by Bach’s Double Violin Concerto (soloists Stephanie Waite, the leader of the Nonesuch Orchestra, and her husband Enrico Alvares) and concluding with Apollo. Traditionally Stravinsky’s Apollo is performed with the 1928 choreography...

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to step into your favourite paintings,  Paris' new totally immersive art experience at Atelier des Lumières may be just the ticket. The City's first digital art centre has blown up monumental depictions of your favourite art works, digitally cast onto floors walls and ceilings. Paris' new 'Studio of Lights' is set in a renovated 19th century foundry in the 11th arrondissement, with 26-foot-high walls and an immense 21,000 square feet of open floor...

Like the characters who wear several layers of clothes even though it’s a hot summer in 1833 in Baile Beag, an Irish speaking community in Donegal about to have a new civilisation and language imposed on them by the English, director Ian Rickson’s production of Brian Friel’s Translations (1980) is shot through with multiple meanings, some of which seem untranslatable into words- apt as Friel’s part inspiration for the play was George Steiner’s After Babel, a reflection on the science...

Venue: Brixton Academy Date: 24.5.18 Photos: Jamie MacMillan (@jamiemacphotos) Cigarettes After Sex make it all too clear in Brixton – life is definitely more fun in the dark. Photographer Jamie MacMillan was on the barrier for TLE to capture their striking Brixton Academy show, in which Greg Gonzalez led the crowd through cuts from their 2017 eponymous debut. Read Rich Jenkins’ full review here.

Venue: The Black Heart, Camden Date: 24.5.18 Support, Group of Man, møl Photos: Graham Berry (@BlkTPhotography) What a bruiser of an evening in the Black Heart. To mark the launch of their new album, It’s Hard To Have Hope, Holy Roar’s Svalbard brought the noise – and some equally noisy friends – to the heart of Camden. TLE tog Graham Berry got amongst it to get these snaps as Svalbard, møl and Group of Man did their thing. Read Jay...

Venue: Brixton Academy Date: 24.5.18 First, a word on that name. Truly it’s an all-time clanger, the sort of thing no band could come back from. Arctic Monkeys got away with it, just about, but Cigarettes After Sex? Really? The explanation (from my brother, a deeply unreliable source) is that frontman Greg Gonzalez has put together several outfits over the past 10 years or so, to the point where he was having to come up with names on the fly....

Venue: The Black Heart, Camden Date: 24.5.18 Support, Group of Man, møl It’s a younger crowd descending on the Black Heart than we’re used to seeing, a testament to the high energy blackened hardcore that tonight’s headliners, Bristol’s Svalbard, have been playing for nigh on a decade now. It’s heartening to see the ‘next’ generation of bands drawing in the ‘next’ generation of fans, and there’s a sense that the four piece are set to step over the threshold from...