Latest music DVDs reviewed

LOW
A Lifetime of Temporary Relief Chairkickers' Music
*****
As a comprehensive survey of a band's career, Low's DVD/CD box set is pretty impressive - every anthology should be so exciting, provocative and complete. The extended DVD includes all 11 of Low's videos, three digi-verité documentaries by Marc Gartman - the Making of Trust being the most fascinating - and live performances by Minnesota's favorite brooding alt.rock trio. The three CDs of rarities, B-sides, demos, outtakes, remixes, alternative versions and covers - 53 "loose ends" selected and annotated by the band - chronicle Low's 10-year career, from their extraordinary first lo-fi demos in 1993 to alternative versions from their mammoth-selling 2003 release Trust - highlights include uniquely assured demos Lullaby and Lion/Lamb, exquisite rarities Old Man Song and I Remember, and bold covers of The Smiths, Pink Floyd and the Beach Boys. With its self-penned liner notes and amateur photographs, A Lifetime of Temporary Relief is that very rare gift from a band to its fans. 
www.chairkickers.com
Jocelyn Clarke

JOHN LEE HOOKER
Come See About Me - The Definitive DVD Eagle Vision
****
Standing tall over most blues guitarists and casting a shadow as wide and deep as the Grand Canyon, John Lee Hooker's brusque style blended essence of blues with honest-to-goodness otherness. There have been too few visual representations of the man's life and times, so this career retrospective (tellingly overseen by the guitarist's estate) almost makes full amends. True, it might not peek too insightfully into Hooker's private life but, with footage from 1960 through to the 1990s (including raw, intense performances of Maudie, Hobo Blues and It Serves Me Right To Suffer), interviews with his daughter Zakiya and interview clips with Hooker himself, you can be assured of much boom boom and very little bad vibes.
Tony Clayton-Lea

DVORAK: RUSALKA
Soloists: Renée Fleming, Sergei Larin, Larissa Diadkova, Franz Hawlata. Orchestra and Choirs of the Opera National de Paris. Conductor: James Conlon. TDK Media Active
****
Rusalka is one of Renée Fleming's favourite roles, the part suiting both her voice and temperament. This staging, taken from live performances at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, will surely be the definitive video production of this work for some time to come. Fleming is in glorious voice, and the heartfelt conviction of her singing brings real life to the part. However, her total identification with the character brings an irritating tendency to occasionally underline notes and phrases. The supporting cast is exemplary, particularly Sergei Larin as the Prince and Larissa Diadkova as the Witch. The lavish though spare modern setting, while imaginative, is somewhat out of character with the spirit of this romantic masterpiece.
www.tdk-mediactive.com
Colman Morrissey