zap! bang! Magazine

“We are like hippies. We take the shit and pig in it.” Quite the claim by Mouse on Mars, the German electronica duo who are about to celebrate their 20th anniversary of working together with a major release. They’ve been prolific since their first release in 1994 – the slightly rudely titled Vulvaland, but this is just their style. “Every music is cosmic”, Jan St. Werner tells me sitting alongside bandmate Andi Toma in their dressing room as we start an insightful view into his musical mind.

The Roundhouse hosted a night of highly-respected German electronica imported by Eastern Electrics and Black Atlantic headlined by Berlin-based duo Modeselektor. Fellow Berliners Mouse on Mars, Siriusmo and Apparat provided the support acts, and those who arrived early were treated to three hours of inventive beats before Modeselektor cracked out their classics.

When the Tom Cruise show hits cinema screens, you know there is going to be a gloassy finish to whatever you see. Oblivion is a wannabe sci-fi epic set on a scorched Earth with Cruise playing Jack Harper – one of two remaining humans ensuring the planet’s evacuation to Jupiter moon Titan is successful. Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski adapts his own graphic novel (published to coincide with the movie release) giving Cruise plenty of time to look broodingly troubled and action-man cool in equal measure, but ultimately the time required for much-needed exposition is dropped in favour of lavish set pieces leaving a baffling climax.

Nicole Kidman has generally picked her film roles by balancing commerical potential with quality content. Often she’s managed to bag an award or seen her films become box office monsters, rarely having to go red faced with embarrassment at the results. Sadly for Kidman, The Paperboy is a misstep which manages to feature at least two of her most excruciatingly bad scenes ever captured on camera and few of her illustrious co-stars escape potential for ridicule. Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels (Precious) clearly had the trust of Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey and John Cusack, but his adaptation of the Peter Dexter novel lets them all down.