The Mandalorian goes Seven Samurai

Episode 3 showed The Mandalorian has a heart for the vulnerable and the courage to help them; in episode 4 he gets another stab at being a saviour. From the opening scene, in which a poor farming community is attacked and their harvest stolen, we enter the world of The Seven Samurai and its Western remake, The Magnificent Seven. 

As usual, the poor farmers have little to offer mercenaries but our hero has his own agenda and agrees. There aren't seven, mind you, just two and a child, but they are enough.

One of the reasons The Mandalorian is such a strong show is that it doesn't try to reinvent the history of cinema, but taps into it: everywhere we look we see echoes of what has already become iconic. Star Wars is already informed by Japanese cinema and zen (think The Force, Jedi Warriors, and light sabres aka Samurai swords) so an episode modelled on Akira Kurosawa's 1954 masterpiece is an inspired choice. 

Marconi Union: Dead Air review

I suspect that most people who have heard of Marconi Union first heard of them when one of their earlier tracks, Weightless (2012), was declared 'the most relaxing music of all'; my ears, though, were opened by the band's 2016 album, Ghost Stations, which is glorious. Dead Air, however, isn't like those previous masterpieces. 

I loved Ghost Stations for a variety of reasons, not all of them musical. For example, the idea of ghost stations, places that the train passes through but where no-one gets on or off, is a real part of my own personal history. Firstly there is the classic poem, Adlestrop, by Edward Thomas, that describes such a station; but, as a Londoner, I know that there are ghost stations on the underground. I always found passing through those stations fascinating. And of course train rhythms are in my blood. But then I also loved the drums on that album, which in places thunder and motor like a track from African deep House. Naturally, I began looking forward to MU's next release. 

In the interim, the band released live remixes of Tokyo, which I rather liked, but Dead Air is the first proper album since Ghost Stations.

Was it worth the wait? Yes, it's a gem. But... there are no drums. 

This new album resonates in different ways and hooks into different memories. There are a few train rhythms, yes, but mostly Dead Air reminds me of Bowie's Berlin work with Eno, especially side 2 of Heroes. Overall, it's a pastoral cityscape, a kind of urban ghostland, one where you can explore inner-city shopping malls when everyone has gone home. Dead Air is moody, brooding and deeply satisfying; but there are no drums.