I am currently engrossedin the newest DEAD VOICES ON AIR offering, a double CD known as :pissfrond:. It receives extremely high marks from me, being quite possiblythe most accesable DVOA release to date. VVV (the Pan Sonic and AlanVega collaboration) and THE CURSE OF THE GOLDEN VAMPIRE (Alec Empireand Techno Animal facing off) have also snuggled their ways deep intomy heart -- nearly far enough to make my precious ears bleed! I fullyawait the new EC8OR album, which should be fab-boo. If you get freemoments, I suggest renting the movie ZERO EFFECT, quite funny andwell-done.
Canadians can be quite boring, but this group is neither Canadian nor boring. This wonderful debut, "Music Has the Right To Children" is currently out on Warp in the UK but will make it to the US via Matador in September. A rhythmic low-cool wonderful gem, ideal for driving, working, making dinner, or downloading porn.
2 releases are out fromLow recently. The first is a mail-order only CD of a live concert fromLouisville KY, "One More Reason to Forget", the second being a disc ofremixes, "owL remix Low". The live disc is a wonderful document,recorded in a church with the microphone in the back of the hall. Theambience is wonderful, the sound is natural, and the sirens outside fitin almost perfectly. Order one while you can by emailing
After the Flood 2 is outon AE and comes as a two-disc set. The first disc contains lots ofwishy-washy vocals from Gordon Sharp while the second disc, aninstrumental disc features some great contributions from Windy &Carl and Labradford. If you can find it for a reasonable price, pick itup for the second disc alone.
From Montreal, Canada comes my vote for best debut album of the year. godspeed you black emperor!,whose disc, "F# A# (infinity)" is the first CD issue of their debutrecord (previously on Constellation, now on Kranky). This nine-pieceband is described in their bio as drawing influencing sounds from EnnioMorricone, 17 Pygmies and Savage Republic, my impression is one of TheRachels and Angelo Badalamenti get an "spaghetti Western" soundtrackalbum produced by Steven Stapleton. There are three tracks in this +60minute disc, each song is of epic proportion with about five distinct"movements", the voices are only brief spoken-word, the otherinstrumentation consists of guitars, lush strings, bagpipes, drums andother various sound effects. Overall, a stunning debut record, by anystandards, and this is definately a band NOT to miss on their brieftour around the USA. Check the Kranky website for details.
Just saw Legacy of Rage, starring Brandon "The Crow" Lee from 1986. It's a pretty typical hong kong kung-fu/crime drama story, but it is kinda cool seeing him being used this way... The film style, dialogue, and action sequences are so different from how westerners do things, and the culture differences are very noticable. Brandon gets to kick ass as usual. The plot is a little far-fetched but that's not why people watch it, of course.
Biohunter, an anime from 1997, is an above-average anime in the genre of
"demon possessed people who fight other demon possessed people who
rape/kill/fondle with tentacles beautiful young women". Yah, it's
derivative. And this particualr movie has very strong Incredible Hulk
influences, but they also have a hand which walks around by itself a la
Aadams Family, and some really well-done scenery and monster battle
scenes. Oh well. Pass the crackers.
While I'm not big ontribute discs, this one has really grabbed my attention. "A Tribute toSpacemen 3" features some wonderful tracks like Mogwai's pretty versionof "Honey", Bardo Pond's heavy sonic "Call the Doctor", along withLow's haunting "Lord Can You Hear Me Call?" and Bowery Electric's"Things'll Never Be the Same". My only real beef with this is thatthere's too many songs from S3's "Playing with Fire" and nothing fromother great albums like "Recurring", leaving me wonder how muchSpacemen 3 these bands really listen to.