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NEW YORK • Last month, South Korean pop group BTS observed their sixth anniversary with an annual celebration called Festa – 10 days of new interviews, behind-the-scenes clips, choreography videos and the release of their member Jin’s first solo song, Tonight. They also held their fifth “Muster” fan gathering, continued their Love Yourself: Speak Yourself […]

Prolific Taiwanese musician Leo Wang has been active since 2012, first as the lead singer of punk band Gigantic Roar and then as a member of rap act Ye Mao Zu (literally, Night Cats Group). In 2015, he released his debut solo EP, whose title roughly translates to Leo Wang Sings His Own Praises. Please […]

JAZZ GETZ/GILBERTO (EXPANDED EDITION) Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto Verve 5 stars Brazilian musician Joao Gilberto died last Saturday at the age of 88. The singer-guitarist, along with composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and saxophonist Stan Getz, launched the bossa nova craze with their landmark 1964 album Getz/Gilberto. While the original had just eight tracks, I […]

ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC JOYTIME III Marshmello Joytime Collective 3 stars DJ Marshmello, who is most famous for dressing in all white and donning a marshmallow-shaped helmet, has lasted way past novelty status and released his third album in three years. On Joytime III, the American DJ-producer has made a significant departure from the instrumental Joytime […]

ART ROCK REWARD Cate Le Bon Mexican Summer 4 stars Perhaps it is about doing something tactile with your hands. Or is it the routine, focus and discipline required? Yes, I am talking about the allure of carpentry here. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis studied woodworking and apparently built a kitchen table for his role as a […]

HIP-HOP BANDANA Freddie Gibbs and Madlib ESGN/Keep Cool/ Madlib Invazion/ RCA 4 stars The second collaborative album by rapper Freddie Gibbs and renowned producer Madlib, Bandana, melds two prominent aspects of hip-hop. Gibbs, who hails from Indiana, is brilliant in narrating the sobering reality of life on the streets while Madlib masterfully chops and splices […]

Wonder Woman (2017) director Patty Jenkins and actor Chris Pine have reteamed for I Am The Night, a new limited series inspired by the so-called Black Dahlia murder of the 1940s – one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in Los Angeles history. And while it is a true-crime potboiler, the neo noir drama also […]

Is Singapore in the “real world” or is it part of a massive theme park? The woman who knows is not telling. All that Lisa Joy, co-creator of HBO’s science-fiction series Westworld, will tell The Straits Times is that the crew has been filming at National Gallery Singapore, the hotel Parkroyal on Pickering, School of […]

While some showrunners who create hugely popular shows with an ardent fan base feel mounting pressure with every season, the creators of streaming giant Netflix’s Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers, are happy to have a devoted audience. Matt and Ross Duffer, twins aged 35, tell The Straits Times in an e-mail interview: “We’ll never feel […]

Games Of Thrones, Deadwood and now Stranger Things – this year has seen several beloved series return, like prodigal children, after long absences that test their fans’ loyalty as well as memory. If you struggle to recall storylines from two or more years ago, season recaps help, but summaries do not quite capture the first […]