Night in

The Katia Labeque Band: Unspoken
Unspeakable Records
*****

Labeque's music is an oddity: rivulets of gorgeous, almost classical piano, combined with electronics.

Thank goodness her collaborator and composer, Dave Maric, keeps the technology muted; the result is wild, inventive piano with an intriguing backing.

DVD

Nil By Mouth
20thCentury Fox
*****

The title's a slight misnomer - there are eerie guest vocals on a couple of tracks - but it's essentially true: no-one who can create the wondrous Breathe, which ranges from a delicate pant to a tearing gasp, all of it told in piano notes - need bother much with words.

Drawing on his upbringing in New Cross, South-East London, Gary Oldman's debut as a writer-director falls squarely into the hard-edged mould of British drama epitomised in the films of Alan Clarke.

And, as in Clarke's work, the actors are given dream roles into which to sink their teeth. Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke are simply stunning as the husband and wife around whom Oldman weaves his portrait of lives blighted by drugs and pent-up aggression.

No extras, however, where at the very least an interview with Oldman would have been fascinating. Still, the film remains a powerfully visceral achievement by itself.