Music Videos # 59

Cajun Dance Party - Amylise



After months of huge hype (much centered around the fact that they're only 16 years old), Cajun Dance Party seem to finally reach their full potential and justify all the media buzz, releasing an explosive song destined to top many year-best lists. Love all the infectious energy and massive enthusiasm felt everywhere, while the strings add an extra touch of urgency that sends this song into the stratosphere. Hell, they even have colorful baloons in the video. Massive.

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Music Videos # 58

Róisín Murphy - Overpowered



Ever since leaving Moloko, this girl seems to be getting more and more intriguing (and interesting too, I may add). After a first solo-album full of Mathew-Herbert-oriented experiments, this time it looks like she's heading into a more electro-pop direction. While we're all anxiously waiting for the full results (her label promises "a heady mix of electronic dance anthems, soul-stirring pop songs, deep, dark funk and quirky lyrical genius"...), here's the first single / video from her forthcoming album. Cool outfit.

Iconic Images # 3

Björk photographed by Jean Paul Gaude, Mixte magazine, October 2007 issue

Masters Of Horror

This last weekend, during the MOTELx - International Horror Movies Festival of Lisbon, I ended up seing what will certainly turn out to be two of the best movies of my personal cinematic 2007. Funnily enough, they were originally made for television, as part of the Masters Of Horror project, which consisted of autonomous 1-hour episodes directed by prestigious horror-movie cineasts and first shown on cable in the USA, during 2005.


John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns (dir. John Carpenter)


Why I loved it:
- The whole huge terror-densing atmosphere built around...a search for a movie!?
- Many references that will be loved by all the cinema enthusiasts out there.
- An homage to all B-Series classics. Hell, with so many means, even some of the acting still kinda sucks and the movie only gets better because of this spirit.
- Who of us doesn't end up desperately wanting to see "Le Fin Absolue Du Monde"?
- It's a classic John-Carpenter-at-its-best, period.

Plot:
"In this film by legendary horror director John Carpenter, a wannabe film producer named Kirby Sweetman (Norman Reedus) obsesses over a lost cinematic treasure. Called LE FIN ABSOLUE DU MONDE, the film was screened only once because its premiere turned the movie theatre into a madhouse of killing and violence. As Kirby goes to great lengths to track down this notorious film, he starts to have hallucinations of dangerous proportions. Will the rumors surrounding the film destroy him, or will he find it in time to use it as a weapon?"


Homecoming (dir. Joe Dante)


Why I loved it:
- Don't think there's ever been such an acid and caustic critic towards the Bush administration as this one.
- Huge sense of irony with loads of second-meaning quotes and situations.
- Is this a horror movie, a comedy or a documentary?
- Never too much to mention the Bush thing: even Michael Moore movies are 100% politically correct when compared to this.
- You end up on the zombies side.

Plot:
"A horror film with a political message, HOMECOMING comes from director Joe Dante (GREMLINS, THE HOWLING). With a war going on abroad and an election coming up, the Republican party is anxious about getting enough votes to seal the deal. But when they wish for the soldiers who died in the war to come back to life and speak on their behalf, they never expect it to actually happen. Rising from their graves, the undead men and women set out to tell their own version of events, and to get revenge by voting out of office the party that sent them to war."

Strategy - Future Rock

And here's another good example of what you can achieve when putting together so many different references and, almost by accident, ending up with something new in your hands. The title "Future Rock" may be a little bit exaggerated, but Strategy's music couldn't sound more actual. Once again, and like Joakim, the main comparison is Studio's "Yearbook 1", but if Joakim used the same methods reaching totally different results (darker, creepier, moodier, colder), Strategy's approach is almost identical to Studio's (and if there's any complaint to be had, that's basically the only one). Meaning we have long and warm electronic digressions full of groove, with acoustic appointments, sporadic (altered) vocals and an overall nostalgic and indolent feeling, where the sun can be felt in almost every second, while you end up dreaming only of positive things. The press, always hungy for new classifications, has invented the term "Balearic", and considering the associations this word brings to mind (holidays, the sea, relaxing in the sunset on a desert island) this time they're not really that far from the truth. (8,5/10)

Music Videos # 57

Joakim - Lonely Hearts



For a song titled "Lonely Hearts", nothing like making a video of... wedding scenes. The nostalgic appeal of the images also suits the song, which, btw, is just a portion of the many sonic surprises that can be found in "Monsters & Silly Songs".

Joakim - Monsters & Silly Songs

If a few years ago music was well compartmented and divided into clear and autonomous styles, it seems that nowadays the main goal is to use a bit of everything, inventing post-post-movements which, occasionally, manage to create something completely new. This year we already had a mesmerizing paradigm of all this, with Studio's "Yearbook 1", one of this year's best records, with an unique cohesion that came from using so many different and only apparently antagonic styles like new-wave or afro-beat. Joakim, founder of french label Tigersushi Records and well-respected musician, has just done something similar with his third album, one of those records that are happy to confuse our expectations. A bit of new-wave here, some ambient music there, add elements of krautrock, electro, rock, funk, house, psychedelic sounds or even concrete music and voilà, you have "Monsters And Silly Songs". Looking for inspiration in so many different places could result in a total mess, but that's not the case: there's always an unexpected angle, surprising musical solutions and a strong (and somehow charmingly dark) identity, finding a new order out of chaos, one that makes "Monsters And Silly Songs" sounding so urgent and vital that it could only come from this exact moment. (8/10)

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M.I.A. - Kala

Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam's biography is so cool that it could almost be irritating: born from a Sri-Lankan family, her father is a Tamil revolutionary known as "Arular" (incidentally her first album's title), an activist that is still searched by the Sri-Lankan army; because of this, the rest of her family were forced to flee the country when she was very young, escaping to India before finally moving to London, where they were relocated as refugees. Here, she learned english and ended up studying fine art, film and video, while also starting her first experiments with music, together with her then-boyfriend Diplo. After "Arular", widely seen as one of 2005's best records, she was then refused a visa to enter the U.S.A. where she was supposed to work with Timbaland, all because of her origins and family history. She decided to take some time and travel around the world instead, with the goal of collecting new sounds, cultures and experiences that would take part in her second record. And here it is, the result of all this, "Kala". With an immense palette of sounds, beats and atmospheres, the few criticisms that were pointed at "Arular", saying that its songs sounded too similar (they didn't, but ok), are definitely no longer valid. There are still hints of hip-hop, baile funk, grime, ragga, dancehall or electro, but there's also Bollywood disco-sound, kid's beat-boxing, Pixies citations, even-more-audacious sonic elements and filthier beats, and a whole atmosphere of extreme globalization where every culture has something to say, even (especially) the most marginalized ones. And that's another way to look at "Kala": a visceral world-music record as done by a revolutionary woman where, instead of the usual touristic cliches, we have sweat, blood and sex fluids. M.I.A.'s strong and fascinating personna is the commander that gives sense to so many disparate elements, presenting "Kala" as a definition of her own kaleidoscopic and very personal universe. Maybe it doesn't sound as revolutionary as "Arular" did in 2005? Sure, but it doesn't matter anymore. She's already somewhere else and, apparently, she's taken the whole world with her. Actually, you couldn't get more political than that. (9/10)

Music Videos # 56

Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music



Third single from her Good Girl Gone Bad album, after the stellar "Umbrella" and the not-so-good "Shut Up And Drive", this time Rihanna uses a sample of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" by Michael Jackson to reach something of unbelievable proportions. Citing Popjustice again, here's quite possibly "the world's first electro-R&B-filter-house track".

V/A - After Dark

With so many great releases from projects like Lindstrøm, Sally Shapiro or Black Devil Disco Club, italo-disco is definitely back after 20 years buried and hidden deep inside music history ark, and nothing like an enigmatic collection from brand-new label "Italians Do It Better" to keep it alive. As the title "After Dark" says, this time there's not much sunshine around, keeping a cold, distant, melancholic and slightly creepy atmosphere that ends up being totally addictive. Presenting a bunch of new projects (it's worth mentioning and memorizing all of them: Glass Candy, Chromatics, Indeep, Mirage, Professor Genius and Farah) and showcasing their take into italo-disco's vintage electro sounds, analog synths and metronomic beats, there's also a minimal approach that carefully takes this very-cohesive collection into a whole new place of its own. And quite a wonderful place that is. (8,5/10)

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Some late-summer music selections

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead


While mainstream hip-hop is slowly agonizing in its own vanity (50 Cent vs Kanye West? WTF?), the underground is happily taking it into new extremes. El-P beats are so hallucinating that, at first listen, it's impossible to discern all elements, taking quite a few auditions to understand everything. If you want something as kaleidoscopic as it's humanly possible, look no further. (8/10)

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Prodigy - Return Of The Mac


Not to be confused with dance group The Prodigy, this Mobb Deep MC is another good example on how the underground is saving hip-hop. Vintage soul and jazz samples and luxuriant orchestrations in a possible take between the smooth daisy-age of the early days and the harder sounds of gangsta-rap. (7,5/10)

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Wiley - Playtime is Over


Grime's most veteran producer releases what is supposed to be his last effort before leaving the spotlight, as usual full of crazy rhythms and furious rhymes. He will be missed. (7/10)

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A-Trak - Dirty South Dance (mixtape)


Kanye West favourite DJ (he was the man behind the plates during the "Touch The Sky" tour), releases his own mixtape where, from Justin Timberlake to Klaxons, Giorgio Moroder to The Clipse, Gwen Stefani dueting with LCD Soundsystem or hip-hop marrying with new-rave, everything is sliced, cut, mixed and juxtaposed to form the ultimate block-party soundtrack for this summer (8/10)

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Simian Mobile Disco - Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release


James Ford, aka new-rave guru and super producer of the latest albums by Klaxons and Arctic Monkeys, finally releases his first record as Simian Mobile Disco, together with James Shaw. Aimed specifically to the dancefloor, it largely succeeds in achieving its main goal, with a very physical sound that uses all the maximalism / new-rave tricks without a hint of shame, creating muscular electronic hooks of potentially-dangerous impact (7,5/10).

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Efdemin - Efdemin


Minimal techno and house from Berlin, full of spare dreamy sounds, blurry progressions and fuzzy melodic shadows, ending up with something so subtle and vaporous to the point of blending perfectly with the air around. Hypnotic. (7/10)

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Makossa + Megablast - Kunuaka


Reminding us why Vienna was so cool during the late 1990's, Makossa + Megablast update the trademark Kruder & Dorfmeister narcotic sound to the new millennium, incorporating an african flavour that maximizes its ferocious dancefloor groove. (7/10)

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Margaret Berger - Pretty Scary Silver Fairy


Apparently, "Pop Idol" is not as trashy as I thought it would be, at least not its Norway version. The legend goes that Margaret Berger didn't win anything, but she is now the last one to laugh. Her second album is pure and perfect synth-pop with immaculate melodies, crystalline and adventurous production (The Knife meets Britney Spears anyone?) and an indolent charisma. A star is born? (7,5/10)

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Owusu & Hannibal - Living With Owusu & Hannibal


Three years ago, things like this were everywhere, with Spacek, Some Water And Sun, Dwight Trible, Sa-Ra... The momentum may now have gone somewhere else, but there are still people out there searching for a new paradigm to the future of soul music. And right now, no one seems to be closer to that goal than this Copenhagen project. (7/10)

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Black Moth Super Rainbow - Dandelion Gum


This is what should have happened after Air released their "10.000 Hz Legend" album, if they hadn't become afraid of further exploring those psychedelic influences and were also brave enough to actually turn that fucking vocoder into an instrument of its own. "Dandelion Gum" is actually a good title for mutant folk-pop that seems made by someone slightly paranoid (in a good way, of course). (7/10)

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Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings


Speaking of disturbed minds, this one is a strong candidate to the title of "most hallucinating record of the year". From Wooody Wooodpecker laugh samples to the weirdest sound experiments available, this album full of avant-garde songs has an extra-bonus in the form of an unexpected sense of fun and humour, not taking itself too seriously. (7/10)

Myspace page


Ghost - In Stormy Nights


An enigmatic album by a japanese project that sounds not far from a fusion between folk, drone-metal, free-jazz and prog, this is as challenging as it seems. Definitely not easy-listenning but somehow intriguing, hitting all the right pleasure centers to keep us focused. (7,5/10)

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Music Videos # 54 and # 55

"Kala" is coming!...

M.I.A. - Boyz




M.I.A. - Jimmy

The National - Boxer

Something of this magnitude is beyond comprehension. With fragile compositions that are both epic and intimate, "Boxer" is a dive into the inner mind of a song-writing genius, someone that seems to have seen the light (and also the lack of it) and wants to share his experiences with us, lucky listeners, exposing things that are deep-buried inside him. The intensity felt in "Boxer" is one that seems to be involving us while controlling itself, always on the edge of exploding into a cathartic peak but restraining in the last minute. The fact that this explosion never happens externally / physically and instead is only felt in the inside / our mind, but in a very visceral way, just goes to show how special what we've just heard is. (9/10)

The National - Mistaken For Strangers (video)



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