Fledgling disco revival imprint Italians Do It Better seem to have caught the fancy of many over the past year thanks mostly to the strength of their sought-after releases and a whole heap of love from those bastions of taste -- the mp3 blog (who reads music magazines anyway?). The recent debut London performance of Chromatics on Brick Lane had road block written all over it and this Thursday it is the turn of their sultry labelmates Glass Candy to showcase their Yes Sir I Can Boogie stylings at Cargo. The current heat over Glass Candy is a welcome surprise given the lukewarm reception meted out to their no wave efforts on the 2003 album Love Love Love. Glass Candy's contributions to After Dark, the label showcase compilation, paid service to their new Italo infused sound with the outstanding "Miss Broadway" in particular getting props in all the right places (SMD opened their Mixmag CD with it) and was followed by the impressive album of sorts B/E/A/T/B/O/X. Label boss Mike Simonetti will be adding to the night with a selection of his finest disco cuts. Get there early to catch the smooth yacht rock croon of Hot Chip favourite Grovesnor in support.

Londoner Alessi started writing songs at 14, which we understand wasn't too many years ago, but for all her whimsicality -- she addresses the readers of her MySpace blog as "petals", "wizards", and "owls and owlets", for goodness sake, and she claims "trees, leaves, constellations, birds and the studying of dreams" as her preferred topics -- her astonishingly pure yet voluptuous singing has an inner strength that means you won't want to argue when you hear her sing that "All I Am Is A Woman". Her intensity is not girlish. And while her EP is called Bedroom Bound she's not your ordinary shut-in. Saying her sound is somewhere between Joanna Newsom (without the harp and unicorns) and CocoRosie (without the self-conscious perversity or the intermittent hip-hop borrowings) tells something of the gamine quality of her voice as well as the fact that her sensibility seems more American than English. There's no shortage of quirky female singer/songwriters out there but let's hope there's still room for one whose individuality is more than just surface mannerism. If so, then Alessi has a bright future.

NB: you can also catch Alessi on 22/05 (The Enterprise), 24/05 (St Moritz) and 29/05 (The Enterprise).

In 1971, a group of Vietnam Vets got together in a Detroit hotel conference room to bear witness to the horrors and war crimes they had seen, and committed, during combat. Shunned by the media at the time, the event was, fortunately, recorded by a filmmakers' collective and turned in to a powerful anti-war statement. The stories of abuse, murder, rape, torture and wanton destruction during the conflict are no different to the ones we've been hearing about in Iraq today, and therefore esepcially resonant. The documentary itself follows a simple structure of capturing key vets as they arrive to testify, and then focusing on their faces as they make their confessions on an improvised stage to an audience of a couple of hundred sympathetic onlookers. The subject is war, but there are no heroes here, there is no glory, there is no honour. There are only tales of being dehumanisation, tales of behaving like animals, tales of pain. At one point, a black activist confronts the vets about "why" the American troops behaved the way they did in Vietnam. They don't have a ready answer, but he does: "Racism." It's almost another whole subject in its own right, but we think he's got a point. A fascinating piece of filmmaking.

NB: Winter Soldier screens at the ICA till 26/05. After the screening on 08/05 there will be a Q&A round table with filmmakers, Sean McAllister (Liberace Of Bagdad and The Minders) and David Modell (War Torn). Other films of note this week are XXY and Edward Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes.

Changing landscapes are a sign of the times, each altered surface reflecting advances in technology, urban growth, changes and fluctuations in the chaos of patterns made by human beings as we struggle to expand and produce. The surface itself shows a system of checks and balances, of paradoxes: opportunity and crisis are encoded in the features of the spaces around us. Beyond the external topography of place alone, Edward Burtynsky has staked out a territory for himself in the conceptual horizons that lie inside the spaces within places, his work an immaculate record of interior landscapes -- the landscapes of labour. Noted for his painstaking attention to detail, and an ambiguous ethos, Burtynsky's visual language locates the sublime within the bleak and relentless mechanisms of industry. But what happens when you set these images in motion? What does the induction of time bring to the table? Jennifer Baichwal's film follows Burtynsky to China, creating an unsettling panoramic context for the photographer's work. The sterile and spectacular images come to life, revealing the impossible task of representing the very face of progress in its infinity.

NB Manufactured Landscapes is released in London on 09/05. On 09/05 catch two special Q&A screenings at the BFI Southbank, one at 6pm (with Jennifer Baichwal) and the other at 8:20pm (with Edward Burtynsky), and on 10/05 another one at 3:20pm (with both Baichwal and Burtynsky). Accompanying the film's release is an exhibition of Burtynsky's photographs at Flowers Central (09/05 till 24/05). Other films of note this week are XXY and Winter Soldier.

After the great success of Punchdrunk's The Masque Of The Red Death, which took over the whole building from basement to attic for six months, the BAC moves on to their exciting spring programme of theatre, music and play with the BURST festival. If there is a theme that links the cornucopia of events it is indeed "play" -- BURST is "playtime at the BAC", albeit with no plays in the traditional sense. Long renowned as a home for the innovative and experimental in theatre, the BAC is hosting both UK and international companies -- from Australia, Germany, Holland, the USA, and Austria -- in its month-long event. The festival also includes a full programme of "scratch" performances in the Grand Hall, featuring new work from Gerry Pilgrim, Station House Opera, Melanie Wilson, and Blind Summit among others -- and all free. BURST is also an invitation to the audience to "play along" -- a call to playful chaos if ever there was one.

NB: BURST runs from 08/05 till24/05.

This annual event by Sprawl and community recyclers BRAG returns to Thames-side arts venue Watermans -- complete with views out over Kew Gardens. SonicRecycler4's melange of electronica, acoustic and improv, is headlined by the US' Blevin Blectum, who stretches brittle electronica to breaking point, managing to sound like Jean-Michel Jarre in a fight with DAT Politics. Meanwhile, on a relaxed pop slant, Sean O'Hagan of the High Llamas -- and Stereolab/Saint Etienne collaborator -- showcases his Beach Boys-esque songs. Author and sound artist David Toop provides a performance of recycled ambience, as does violinist Aleks Kolkowski, who comes armed with vintage gramophones and shellacs. Leafcutter John cohort Simon Bookish provides stringent vocal poetry-in-motion- electro, with new arrangements akin to Steve Reich. DJs include a rare set by Laetitia Sadier (of Stereolab/Monade) alongside Iris Garrelfs and Janek Schaefer, who threatens to raid the charity box for his material. Plus stalls, installations and more. As the event's slogan has it: reduce, re-use, recycle.

From the femme fatale's seductive mink coat to the anti-hero's upturned collar, the criminal underworld cuts a dash in this effortlessly chic season of films. Taking the theme "If Looks Could Kill", the second instalment of the Fashion Film Festival explores the compelling links between cinema, fashion, crime and violence. Films spanning a century provide a catwalk of treats, from Marlene Dietrich's magnificent gowns in Desire (1936) to the Courreges- inspired styling of Ursula Andress in The Tenth Victim (1965). A special festival strand will investigate the fashion of juvenile delinquency via girl gangs and zoot suiters while over at Tate Modern, eight artists will explore themes such as cursed clothing, obsessive gestures and desires, and the history of the cinematic slap. Guest speakers will be looking beyond the groomed surface to reveal the hidden significance of seemingly innocuous sartorial gestures and objects, such as the lost glove, a set of stolen pearls and the blood-stained garment. With its glittering jewellery, luxurious dresses and designer hats, crime might not pay but it sure looks cool.

NB: runs till 31/05.

Scarce is an account of the second wave of Detroit techno that fails to mention Matthew Dear or his Audion moniker. Granted, he has temporarily abandoned it in favour of live instruments, but the Spectral/Ghostly axis still looms large over anything that blips and thuds. You probably wouldn't need to hear a note of Ryan Elliott to realise that he's cut from the same cloth as Dear. He's liable to be shuffling a mountain of records on three decks (not to mention the rest of his usual gadgetry) with clinical austerity. You can well imagine the two of them as musical bedfellows, as they were for three years as residents at Goodnight Gracie in Ann Arbor. None of the trademark Detroit crispness is lacking either -- evidenced memorably in his monster three-sided showcase of Spectral artists released in 2005, just as minimal mania was starting to bite. It promises to be as faithful an exposition of the icy techno sound as you're likely to get these days, at least until Dear returns from playing with his toys. The LikeThat boys who run this one are winning friends in the scene pretty quickly too, especially after a rare Dandy Jack show earlier this year was such a stomper it got stopped by the police.

Another week and another blockbuster line-up at London's premier disco shed Fabric, one of the last of the great clubbing behemoths left in London. With most of its rivals either closed or just pathologically uncool, it has fallen to Fabric alone to entertain the bussed-in crowds of confused tourists with decent music. And despite the much-acknowledged fact that the place would be heaving no matter whose name is on the bill, they still continue to hoover up the world's finest talent for their stellar line-ups. This week is of course no exception with appearances from the likes of French house stars Chateau Flight, Italian techno producer Marco Carola and Mark Farina (next up in the Fabric Mix series), whose blend of jackin' Chi-Town house should have the masses rolling their eyes in appreciation. For those seeking something less boom, boom, boom and more off the wall, Room 3 should provide plenty of respite with the amazing Prins Thomas over from Norway to showcase all things dubby and disco, and who will be joined by Matt Didemus of blue-eyed electronic soulboys, Junior Boys.

Hayley Tompkins produces work on a deliberately slight scale which expresses what could be called lyrical emptiness, most readily accessed through the video of edited mobile phone footage in the small back space at The Drawing Room. Partway through this video Tompkins deliberately shows the glowing screen and dials of a mobile phone as a clue to how the blurry footage was made. Rain-washed traffic, hazy windows and echoing stairwells bear witness their own transformation into moving images -- much like a Renaissance portrait, in which the image of the artist is captured, brush in hand, in a mirror in one corner. This contemplative approach to the process of making is echoed in the apparently slight fragments of photographs attached to the delicate panels and twig constructions which fill the main gallery. Washed with white and grey paint and sitting low on the wall, each of these objects attains the tentative delicacy of the first strokes of pencil on paper. The territory she occupies owes something to that of Richard Tuttle, but also an older tradition of assemblage work and painting that includes Blinky Palermo, Kurt Schwitters and the more poetic elements of Dada.

NB: runs till 01/06. On 17/05 (3pm) catch Hayley Tompkins in conversation with Michael Archer (writer, critic and head of the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art).

The print-like aesthetic of Tim Renshaw's abstract canvases belies the time taken to make them. The formal principles of art and design go head-to-head in this series of high-colour compositional battles that seduce rather than irritate the eye. Intricate grid and circular forms appear fractured and twisted: they might be interstellar crafts, or the magnified crumbs of domestic or urban detritus. Small two-colour works on paper, pinned between paintings, employ a test-card sensibility alluding, perhaps, to the technical complexity of their manufacture. In the larger works, however, the London-based artist's painterly systematisation of modernist architectural imagery makes an illusory game out of attempts to extrapolate each motif from their geometrically sectioned ground. This push and pull between portion and whole appears to mirror one's experience of architectural space as that which both contains and provides a partial interruption to the wider landscape. Renshaw's sophisticated mix of synthetic colour and subtle tonality contributes to the enjoyable multi-planar confusion between inside and outside, vista and detail.

NB: runs till 18/05.

We're all familiar with the coming-of-age story and all of its various incarnatons, and it seems that the early 21st century is an epoch in film history that will be remembered in one glorious, gluttonous epitaph: "anything is possible, everything is permitted". Bearing in mind as well how much we love to see films about the trials and tribulations of being different -- and the more obviously different the better -- it was a matter of time of time before somebody somewhere wondered what it might be like to grow up as a hermaphrodite, and decided to make a film about it. But this film somehow manages to escape the crudity of the Channel 5 style freakshow, as well as the impenetrable artiness or sentimentality attached to film of a similar ilk. The film's success, in spite of a sensational premise (and some weightily symbolic carrot chopping), lies in the extraordinary sensitivity of the cast, and in the mesmerizing strangeness of Ines Efron who plays the lead. On the surface XXY is hardly a story that everyone can identify with, but Efron's performance is unfaltering, and lends credibility to the subtle complexities of her relationships as they unfold.

NB: XXY is released in London on 09/05. Other films of note this week are Winter Soldier and Edward Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes.

The Lady From The Sea is late Ibsen, an exploration by the great Norwegian of the tensions erupting in love and marriage, yet more surreally imagined than better-known works like A Doll's House. The passionate Ellida is married to the stoical Wangel, yet she is inescapably bound to another, rumoured to have been lost in a shipwreck. Meanwhile Wangel's two daughters counterpoint their step-mother's struggles in love. From new company Silkensaw, Hannah Eidinow directs an excellent new translation by Frank McGuinness with clarity and verve. It's a beautifully designed production, with especially superb immersive sound, and some strong performances in a mixed bag of a supporting cast, with Alison McKenna standing out as the elder daughter Bolette. But the night is dominated by the bravura of Lia Williams in the title role, drippingly mercurial, providing an old-fashioned star turn in a night of old-fashioned theatre ultimately to be relished. This satisfying co-production concludes the Arcola's Ibsen season, a statement of intent from Dalston's theatrical powerhouse that will have the Almeida looking nervously over its shoulder.

NB: runs till 31/05.

Dinosaur Jr were among a slew of '90s alternative rock bands to reform in the last few years after a lengthy hiatus. Cynics may say that this was partly motivated by the massive success of the Pixies' comeback but, thankfully, these guys can still more than cut it, making some of their younger counterparts sound tame. One can imagine that J Mascis, Dinosaur's singer/guitarist, spent the ten years between 1997 and 2007 locked away somewhere, just playing guitar. Certainly, his stoner Gandalf appearance lends itself well to this theory. Last year's Beyond long player showed that the creative juices still spray forth, and the return of Lou Barlow (also of Sebadoh) to the fold has also helped recapture some of that early magic. They still cast an awesome presence on stage too, with Mascis painting seemingly endless guitar lines over a punchy rhythm section. Their last show in London was part of ATP's Don't Look Back season and covered only their earliest material but, tellingly, the prospect of a more expansive setlist also has plenty of appeal.

NB: this gig is almost sold out so get your tickets quick.

A dynamic explosion of energy captured in steel (B Of The Bang, 2002), a bridge that curls up into a ball (Rolling Bridge, Paddington Basin, 2005), or the folding form of a Buddhist temple perched on a hill side and commissioned by the Shingon-shu sect: all these exciting structures belong to Thomas Heatherwick. The prolific and highly imaginative designer is hailed as North London's answer to Leonardo da Vinci for the staggering diversity of his output. He has managed to slip between disciplines, cutting across architecture, to sculpture to engineering and visual art, all the while approaching each project according to its own distinct set of problems. From the biggest and brightest of works, to the intricate re-imagining of the application of the zip for Lomgchamp (Zip Bag, 2003), Heatherwick's diverse mix of projects are defined through his varied use of materials and 3-dimensional, highly enviable imagination. Joining him in conversation is Alice Rawsthorn, the perfect counterpoint to Heatherwick, as former Director of the Design Museum, and now design critic for the International Herald Tribune.

NB: also of note is Ross Lovegrove's talk at the Design Museum and Harrods' Design Icons lecture series on 09/05 (7:15pm).

So much has been said about the revival of folk music and culture here in the UK that it sometimes makes you wander where all of the UK acts are on occasions like this. In the face of what can only be described as a renaissance of the genre on the other side of the Atlantic and despite a few notable exceptions, the folk scene in the UK remains much the same as it was in the '70s. By contrast, the US has recently given us a plethora of gems, through whom we can appreciate a much more profound level of musical commentary on American life, with Bonnie Prince Billy, Sufjan Stevens and Iron And Wine standing out as ambassadors of this new stream of consciousness. Of all of these groups, it would seem that Iron And Wine (aka Sam Beam) is perhaps the most reluctant bearer of any torch. His approach eschews the most deliberate of references, while remaining consistently open to every avenue of opportunity. When audiences in Manchester noisily tried to silence Bob Dylan for his "blasphemy" against folk in 1966, few people would have predicted that, a generation later, a whole new and far more relevant approach to the genre would have blossomed.

NB: this gig is almost sold out so get your tickets quick.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has an intimidating CV. He trained at PARTS, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's dance school in Brussels, performed with and choreographed for Les Ballets C de la B under the tutelage of Alain Platel, won numerous awards, toured with his own dance troupe, collaborated with composers, choreographers, writers and artists (including Akram Khan, Nitin Sawney and Antony Gormley in zero degrees)... Then, in January this year, he went to live with a group of Shaolin monks in a remote temple in China. Not, as you might imagine, for some peace and quiet, but to begin a new project. Sutra premieres at Sadler's later this month, but before then, a vast ensemble of dancers and musicians delivers a haunting, hybrid fairy tale in Myth. Influenced by themes as diverse as Manga and Italian music, Myth showcases Cherkaoui's considerable talent for piecing together seemingly discordant elements to make a melodious whole. The sprawling set hides doorways to nowhere; characters emerge quite literally from the woodwork to parade their fears and fantasies, and what fate has in store for them remains to be seen.

NB: runs on 16/05 and 17/05. Sutra (a collaboration between Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Antony Gormley and Monks from the Shaolin Temple) runs at Sadler's Wells from 27/05 till 31/05. Also of note at Sadler's is Sylvie Guillem + Akram Khan (12/05 and 13/05).

The year of 1968 was a time of momentous change. It heralded the end of the de Gaulle era in France and the Democratic control of the presidency in the United States, as well as the hopes of liberal communism in the east. From Paris to Czechoslovakia, Mexico to Yugoslavia, student protests rippled across the globe. But, to what extent have the events of 1968 affected the world today? And how can radical thinkers reshape the society in which they live? In our present moment, wherein unequal wealth, mass migration and environmental concerns threaten to destabilise global society, this question acquires more weight. It is also the subject of this debate, the centrepiece of a series on the legacies of 1968. The panel includes the leading philosopher Peter Dews, acclaimed US journalist and non-fiction writer Mark Kurlansky, the political strategist Ernesto Laclau, feminist literary critic Jacqueline Rose and the radical social theorist Goran Therborn. The event is chaired by Patrick Wright, author of Iron Curtain: From Stage To Cold War.

NB: this event is part of the London season entitled All Power to the Imagination! 1968 And Its Legacies which runs till 10/06. Make sure you catch the special 1968 film season at the Cine Lumiere (till 15/05).

A new generation of wealthy collectors from the Middle East, India, China and Russia are buoying the art market, and insiders say they are partly responsible for record-breaking auctions, such as the February Contemporary Art sale at Sotheby's in London which raised a breathtaking $188 million. How timely then that Russian-born artist Margarita Gluzberg's second exhibition at Paradise Row gallery should comment on issues of consumer desire and commerce. Ruskin-trained Gluzberg has produced a visually stimulating installation evoking The Great Exhibition and birth of consumerism. Gluzberg brings us back to the present day with still lives of luxury items such as Prada handbags and shoes. By drawing on Cold War economic hardship in her native Russia and literary influences such as Balzac's La Cousine Bette, Gluzberg transports us to another era. In The Blackout depicts a City of London trading floor, populated by anonymous faces with a phantom-like quality reminiscent of Luc Tuymans. Surreal segments of shop mannequins and festive baubles feature in Christmas Bollocks, floating Chagall-like on the canvas. Gluzberg treats each subject with a lightness of touch and deft draughtsmanship, displaying influences such as the Viennese Secession and Italian Renaissance, yet her style is unique and fresh.

NB: runs till 08/06.

Simon Stephens is a leading British young playwright with a long list of artistic achievements, including the Oliver Award (2006) and the Pearson Award (2002) for best new plays. After almost a two-year break from the British stage, Stephens returns with a dazzling new play that puts you on an emotional roller coaster ride from the moment the curtain goes up. Harper Regan is a touching family drama that sums up situations and emotions with brilliant economy. The play tells the story of a middle-aged woman who dares step away from her day-to-day problems to rediscover herself and her family after her father's death. But Stephens' work offers much more than domestic tragedy; it is near impossible to describe the many layers and issues he explores through Harper Regan's journey, so vividly acted by Lesley Sharp. It is a play about growing up and growing old, about love and grief, about dreaming and failing, and most of all it's a mirror to modern British society with all its insensitivities, petty fears and ambiguities.

NB: runs till 09/08. On 13/05 (6pm) make sure you catch Simon Stephens and Marianne Elliott when they discuss Harper Regan.

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