zap! bang! Magazine

Frank Wiedemann and Kristian Beyer are celebrating 10 years of collaborating as duo Âme, and this collection of exclusive remixes seems a fitting way for the house act to provide a showcase of their sounds as stands in 2012. Their diversely-influenced house sounds have been touched by jazz, funk, soul and Detroit techno, heard the world over. Âme Live offers a retrospective of their work, but given a new twist of being freshly remixed. There’s early records on Sonar Kollektiv, later works on Innervisions and unreleased material in a continuous mix that captures their dynamic club sets.

Lone came of age with his first release for seminal dance music label R & S Records. The Manchester producer who confirmed his reinvention of styles from to a blend of 1990s old skool rave and forward-thiking electronic with Coreshine Voodoo, now develops his style on Galaxy Garden. His refreshed ethereal sound with layer-upon layer-of intertwining bleeps and beats make for melodic bliss or inventive dancefloor fillers.

The Cabin in the Woods was made back in 2009, before star Chris Hemworth had become a comic book action hero in Thor, then shelved. Choosing to release the movie on both sides of the Atlantic now could be seen as a deliberate ploy to give Hemsworth a bump in popularity ahead of his reprisal of Thunder God Thor in blockbuster Avengers Assemble in the summer, but to even consider that would be to overlook the smart thinking behind The Cabin in the Woods. This self-aware movie is written by long-time collaborative duo Drew Goddard and Joss Wheadon, with the former taking on directing duties, who use a very obvious love for cult shocker The Evil Dead trilogy as the basis for a postmodern, Truman Show style horror.

The Muppets were last seen on the big screen in Muppets from Space – a commercial flop in 1999 that meant the popular puppets were downgraded to TV movies until now. A revival of Jim Henson’s creations was hardly demanded by eager fans and might have been seen as a mis-step by Disney with 3-D CGI animation all the rage for children’s movies. Could anyone make a Muppet film that re-created the original television show’s charm while also providing a spin on the characters that got people paying to see Kermit, Miss Piggy and the crew? Thankfully yes – How I Met You Mother’s Jason Segel co-writes and stars in this fresh, vibrant and remarkably poignant resurrection of the family favourites.