Latest releases reviewed

THE RAMONES
End of the Century
Rhino
****

Getting a super-fast DVD release not long after its cinema run, this is pretty essential stuff, given that it contains scenes not used in the feature release. It skillfully details how a bunch of misfits from Queens first kicked up a considerable racket at CBGB's and then took their inspired buzzsaw guitar pop sound around the world in less than 80-minute sets. The music you'll be familiar with; what's most absorbing here, though, is the woeful state of the band's interpersonal relationships. Extensive interviews fill out the full picture, and this really is a remarkable rock'n'roll story: animosity, spite and downright hatred blended with some of the most sublime music that ever went under the title "punk rock". A fitting tribute.  - Brian Boyd

ADAMS - THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Conductor John Adams.
Decca 074 189-9
*****

The Death of Klinghoffer, John Adams's second opera, deals with the terrorist hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and the murder of American tourist Leon Klinghoffer. This remarkable film (directed by Penny Woolcock), made with the composer's co-operation and involvement, cuts out some of the original music but adds images (for example, going back to Warsaw during the Nazi period, and then forward to 2003 showing one of the hijackers in modern Gaza). Thus, the events dramatised in the opera are set in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, giving further emotional power and impact to the moving score by Adams. In the film the singers both act and sing their parts live on the ship, and the result is a unique sense of realism. A very fine and imaginative film realisation of a powerful opera. www.universalclassics.com - Colman Morrissey