I've left the world of Blogger and jumped over to Tumblr instead. Heck, I may even post more than every six to eight months. Maybe. And there's going to be another site up and running too, if I get around to it that is. It'll be more on a strictly music tip, with daily (what?!?) posts. Yup, daily.
Errrrr....yes. I used to blog. And I still do. Been tardy, innit?
Anywayze, yes, a few posts next week should make up for the lengthy absence, with piccy-tures of summer fun, gigs and the like. Until then....
Here are some quite delightful things on Youtube and the like that I'm quite taken with.
* Forget Alicia Keys and Jack White. This should be the official theme for the next 007 flick. Ta muchly Joe Cornish (from Adam and Joe)
* The lovely Isa GT has not just started a new club night (Musicalia at the new Moustache Bar in Dalston), but also made a video for The Black Ghosts (DJ Touche and Simon Lord's splendid band) single Anyway You Choose To Give. Aceness indeed.
* Y'know when you find something on your iPod that you've never heard before, and suddenly become obsessed with it for the next day? Step forward Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier, and their theme to Cannabis, the 1970 not-so-smash film of the same name. Grab the soundtrack from Boomkat or Play.
(yes, it's just music on a still image, but brilliant anyway)
* Some people need to step away from technology once in a while. Yikes.
Right, Earthquake is on the box so I'd best dash. Tame that quake Charlton!
(I first saw this in an all-night disaster movie marathon with The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and Dante's Peak. Dante's Peak? Well, it was 1997!)
On Sunday I woke to find one my favourite sites in the whole world: a carpet of snow outside my window. During my childhood in Australia, I was lucky that I grew up in a small country town, Orange in New South Wales, that received regular snowfall each winter (due to a higher elevation than most surrounding cities) More often than not it would mean that school would be cancelled for at least a day, meaning ample time to get frostbite in pursuit of making snowmen, snow angels and the perfect snowball. Bliss.
So I decided to make the most of the white landscape and head to the local cemetery to take pictures of snow-crusted seraphs, before checking out the snowmen in Clissold park. I made sure that the music accompanying my walk would be perfect too. Nothing overwrought or frantic, just something gentle that would suffice for a stroll around snow covered Stoke Newington. This is what I came up with. http://footprintsinthesnow.muxtape.com/
Indeed, this is the second online mixtape I've made in the last week, after stumbling across one of the most refreshing sites I've come across in a long time. Muxtape lets you create your very own mixtape for others to listen too. Simply register, upload your selection of 12 tracks, order and tag them, click save, and voilà....you're Rob Gordon. Or a smitten teenager.
NB: I'm not the first or the second, but certainly act like both all the time. And yes, I still make mixtapes. Fact.
Anyway, head over to Muxtape and listen to a random selection of user mixtapes. I've found that by clicking play on one tape and letting it run in the background while writing/browsing/cooking that I've discovered more new artists than using Last.fm. It's also made me realise that although the method of delivery may have changed over the last five years, mixtapes will continue to be made.
* After the sojourn in the snow, I spent an afternoon re-discovering artists I'd bookmarked on MySpace back while looking for acts for the first (and last) Something Secret club night at the Pleasure Unit. One such artist that caught my ear was blown-a-wish. The solo project from the bass player from London band Silent Alliance, Alex Brettel's work as blown-a-wish is reminiscent of Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. Her dreamy vignettes stay with you long after you've listened to them, with a degree of fragility that draws you in from the opening notes. If these are demos, I'm looking forward to hearing the finished product. blown-a-wish - My Heart Into
I love a good edit, and so does Lovefingers. One of the two folks behind the Black Disco Social Club in Los Angeles (alongside Nitedog), Andrew Lovefingers is a master of re-edits, especially of the space-disco/balearic kind. Examples of his work, as well as a slew of DJ sets, can be found on here (I'm particularly fond of the Donald Byrd and Jo Bisso cuts at the moment.....bliss).
Those who prefer hearing their music coming from a warm deck instead of a warm hard drive will be pleased to hear that Lovefingers collaboration with Nitedog, Black Disco Vol 1, is now out on 12", and a fine rekkid it is too, full of tripped-out woozy goodness. Fans of DFA and Emperor Machine need look no further. Grab it at Phonica while you can.
* Cut Copy are coming to town in April to showcase the damn fine songs from their second album In Ghost Colours, a record that has pretty much been the soundtrack to my week (apart from the sleeping bits that is, and possibly the bits where I had to go pee). Ahem.....anyway, it's out on May 5th here in the UK (yes, it seems rather odd that it's been pushed back again, and in the age of downloading, both of the legal and illegal kind, I'm perplexed as to the reasons why Universal have done this. Surely a foolish move considering the record leaked in early March, and came out in Australia last week). Tickets for their Scala show on April 23 are on sale now (grab 'em here, here, and possibly here)
And if you can't wait until May 5 and would actually like to purchase a physical copy quick smart, Red Eye in Sydney have it for around about £13 (including postage) (Album highlight? Far Away)
* The best cartoon from my youth has finally made it DVD!
Regular readers of this blog may find this confession rather strange, but I've resisted the Gallic charms of Sebastien Tellier for some time. Until now. I'm not sure why that is to be honest. I'd listened to snippets of his music here and there, and enjoyed his contribution to the Lost in Translation OST (surely one of the best soundtracks in the last ten years). Somehow though, I'd never really sought to take the time to really give his music a proper chance. Possibly because he was always name checked as an artist to like. As in, if you like Air, Beck, Daft Punk, Serge...well, you get the picture. Plus, his similarity to Gonzales bugged me in a way, almost as if he was the Pepsi to Chilly's Coke. (It's seems there's no love between the pair either, if this interview is anything to go by. And how good does the Let's Ride remix sound? Jarvis and Teki Latex? God damn.)
Anyway, I recently visited Rough Trade in Notting Hill a few weeks ago for a record hit (Total damage? You don't want to know, but I can assure you that the final haul was worth every penny) and was immediately taken by one of the tracks played overhead. Sure enough it was the work of Mr Tellier, the track in question Roche from his new album Sexuality (Woodwork). Having previously read that the LP had been produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo from Daft Punk, I knew that I would have to give Sebastien a second chance, if only to hear Guy-Man's board work. Roche is reminiscent of the quieter moments on Discovery and Human After All, the slinkier, sexier side of Daft Punk that doesn't get nearly enough credit from critics too busy eulogising about the duo's influence on French dance music's new wave.
Christo's production on Sexuality glistens, providing a jagged intensity reminiscent of Vangelis's work on Blade Runner (Une Heure for example). Together with Tellier's longing vocals, it makes for refreshing listening. There's an almost guilty pleasure feeling to the album, and although not every track works (the over-the-top Manty for one), there's plenty here to immerse yourself in, notable mentions being the stunning closer L'Amour et la Violence and the playful Trevor Hornesque Divine, which has recently been chosen as the official French entrant for this year's Eurovision contest in May. Yes, that's right kids. Vote early, vote often.
Meanwhile, here's what Sweden chose to fight it out with Sebastien and...ahem...Andy Abraham (oh dear).
Charlotte Perrelli - Hero.
It's not nearly as good as last year's Svensk pick, The Ark's Worrying Kind. Only 51 points? This is how a Eurovision song should sound like - camp as hell. It's like Thin Lizzy meets Edison Lighthouse. Gold.
So this week Mr Kane and I went to see Be Kind Rewind at the flicks. I'd heard some very mixed reviews about it, so you can understand I approached Mr Gondry's latest film with caution. Would Jack Black try to steal every scene? Would Mos Def mumble his way throughout the film's entirety? Would the concept of films re-made in a ragtag style be too twee? No, no and no.
Be Kind was far better than I had expected, and I'm glad to say there were countless occasions when I was crying with laughter. As a pair of male leads, Black and Def worked well together. Black wasn't in over-the-top mode, thankfully, and the chemistry between the pair really helped ground the film early on. The theme of community was also prevalent in Be Kind, although the sentiment was slightly saccharine towards the end. But on the whole I'd say Gondry's latest effort was very satisfying indeed.
My favourite scene in the movie was a one shot sequence of Black and Def (and Melonie Diaz) remaking various films such as 2001, King Kong and Carrie. Indeed, the scene was reminiscent of Gondry's videos for Lucas With The Lid Off and Protection. Genius. If haven't seen his Directors Label collection of selected videos then pick it up on DVD now. It's usually quite cheap on Amazon marketplace and Fopp occasionally has it for under a tenner as well.
Lucas - Lucas With The Lid Off
Massive Attack - Protection
Gondry's also made a 'Sweded' trailer for the film which is almost as good as the film itself.
And Gondry's next project? He's directed one of three segments of Tokyo, a film comprising of three stories set in the aforementioned city. Gondry had also been working on the adaptation of Rudy Rucker's Master of Space and Time, which was to be scripted by Daniel Clowes, but Gondry has said himself in interviews that the project is just about 'dead in the water'. Recently though, it's been revealed that Clowes will team up with Gondry for an animated film, Migel Munya, written by Michel and his teenage son Paul. Also, Gondry has stated that his next project is Return of the Ice Kings, where the central concept is 'a story about kids who invent a water that makes you hear music when you drink it'. Errr....yeah.
Last year's Anti-Valentines session at the Keston Lodge was a hell of a lotta fun with drinking, dancing and just generally sticking two fingers in Cupid's direction by playing a selection of 'fuck love' and done-me-wrong songs throughout the course of the evening.
(My personal favourite of the night? This one)
So this Thursday the 14th we're going to do it all again from 8pm till late. Joining my good self on the wheels of rubber, steel and plastic will be Beez and Becca, aka World of Proper. Having seen those crazy kids last play at their Christmas records bash at The Mucky Pup, I'm guessing that Thursday should be -
a) a lark b) quite silly c) full of pardeeeee breaks d) probably quite messy
There will also be a ban on Joy Division tunes (seriously, that's just way too obvious for an Anti-V Day bash) and, despite what it states on the flyer above, I'm sure couples can sneak in as long as they stop holding hands for at least one millisecond whilst walking through the Keston doors. Oh, and no pashing like randy students sneaking a quickie behind the cricket nets/bleachers. Right? See y'all there.
Now, back to our (ir)regularly scheduled blogging
* A quick shout out to footie blog Angle of Post and Bar which skewers the hyperbole of the cash-grabbing Premier League and big time football quite nicely. If you're a fan of When Saturday Comes then Angle is certainly one to bookmark.
* While watching the Eng-er-land vee Switzerland match this week (if only to gaze at the sartorial smoothness of Don Capello of course), my flatmate Will decided that the name of Swiss goal scorer Derdiyok was a fine replacement for the title of Maria Vidal's 80s hit Body Rock 'Derdiyok, get your body into music...'
This led to a good hour's worth of amusement watching clips from the flick of the same name, an unintentionally hilarious cash-in on a crazy new street culture known as 'hip-hop'. I'm tempted to pick it up on Region 1 DVD for a fiver just to experience the full, camp, body popping Lorenzo Lamas experience. But for now, I guess these clips will have to do (Oh, and I'm changing my name to Chilly D).
'Yo, this cut? Very big in Europe this season....'
* Forget Sony's colour ads. Honda continue to make clever and unique commercials that never fail to raise a smile. Rubiks cubes and jigsaws. Gold.
Ramblings from a London writer, DJ and professional idiot.
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