It took me several years to find this movie based solely on my fuzzy memories of walking into Delta Video and seeing the oversized VHS box on the shelf. The box had a close up of an unclenching hand with ants tearing out of it and some other apocalyptic imagery. We never rented it as we only rented new releases. However, the (then) disturbing box cover came back into my mind a when I joined an old “forgotten movies” site called Cinemageddon last year. I set out to try and find this piece of. . .classic cinema and CG did not disappoint. Unfortunately, this movie is very boring. It even starts off with some sort of nature film about how ants are awesome in so many ways. On a side note, there is actually an early episode of MST3K where they watch this movie. Not even they could make it enjoyable. This movie just about put me to sleep and I’ve watched The Revenge of Doctor X and Death Bed!
The soundtrack and visual effects are pretty cool but you just don’t hear or see enough of either.
May 4th - I had the greatest pleasure of witnessing Ratatat play at Brisbane’s newest club, the Hi-Fi at West End. I admit, I wasn’t too sure of Ratatat’s popularity in Brisbane, and expected a smaller crowd. It’s not necessarily that Ratatat is expected to be too ‘experiemental’ for the popular ‘youth’ taste - not at all, infact its the fact that their raw combination of synth and guitar that successfully catch new listeners are, by opinion, setting a change in trends of popular music to begin with - and particularly with younger ‘commercial’ audiences (well… in Brisbane, anyway) - but I digress…
So a large crowd at the Hi-Fi roared as Mike Stroud & Evan mast came on stage - approaching a set up of guitar and bass, synth, sampler pads, congos & toms and best of all… the classic auto-harp. Mike in particular is quite theatrical, as his guitar licks soar over the Even’s rumble bass, supported by their backing of sequenced melodic and distortions.
While being a simple set up, with only the two fellow strutting around with their bass & guitar - the visuals we as hoped for, with some of the best visual manipulation to back the surreal awe of Ratatat’s unique sound. An example of this was the very cool video clip for their track: Shempi
Overall, an impressive show to say the least - if you’re not familiar with Ratatat’s raw electronic/guitar instumental music, I urge you to check out their myspace for a listen.
I’m not sure what it is I love so much about the music from Flairs and company. The latest album ‘Sweat Symphony’ is full of ten short, punchy songs (about 3 and half minutes each) brimming with simple repetitive chorus lines, bouncy synth and bass lines all while singing mostly out of tune. It’s as fresh as anything Beck would offer in his better times.
Let me tell you something about The Glimmers. The Belgium duo of Mo Becha and David “Benoelie” Fouquaert have a couple of great mix albums with the FabricLive and DJ Kicks series respectively. Now, let me tell you something else. They blew it at the Paradise Lounge last Saturday (March 28th). It could have been for several reasons, but they were underwhelming and we ended up leaving mid-set (which I rarely do if ever). We were told they’d come on around 12:45 but it ended up being around 1:30 before they even got started (*yawn*) and I believe they might have been somewhat drunk (the club was mostly empty all night so perhaps they were waiting for maximum patronage). All in all, they were a complete train wreck as they fumbled CDs around for uninspired music offerings and mixed tracks with the grace of a deaf person without arms. On the plus side, local musician Hatchback saved the night (as a bonus, he has an album out on Lo Recordings so I should have known he’d have a good set).
Not only was Hatchback a pleasant surprise, but such club staples as “Lonely Dancing Girl,” “Fat Guy Who Can’t Dance but Dammit He Tries,” and “Two Party Boys Dancing Too Close” (pictured below next to The Glimmers) made their debuts on the dance floor. Here’s hoping this night was just a fluke for The Glimmers.
Did I go see Booka Shade, you ask? Well, of course I went to see them live at the Independent last night! There was a very diverse crowd of spectators there to cheer them on. I couldn’t remember who I last saw at The Independent until I walked in and saw various photos of notable guests along the entrance hall and then it hit me. I dragged bazooie with me a few years back to see RJD2 and stole his wife’s ticket as they sold out and forced her to go watch some movie down the block. She was a good sport about that.
The show itself started around 10:45 and lasted until about midnight. Sometimes I feel a little cheated for spending $25 on a ticket for an hour of music but honestly, if it’s as jam-packed with excitement as a Booka Shade show, you really won’t have buyer’s remorse. They even played an abridged version of their O Superman remix (originally by Laurie Anderson). Why Walter felt the need to lip-sync during the track is beyond me but as long as he was having fun. . .
Though honestly, with the photos I take it could have easily been any electronic duo but it was in fact Arno Kammermeier on drums and Walter Merziger on synths. Oh and they had an Apple laptop between them. . .I’m sure it probably had Ableton Live running. . .most likely
We took an adventurous trip up to San Francisco Sunday to visit the piers and eat at a restaurant no one should ever really eat at, the Rainforest Cafe (side point, when I stepped foot into RFC, I realized that I had been to the one near Disney World about 20 years ago and it looked exactly the same). Along our walk to the restaurant, we passed by a merry assortment of street performers and ended up at the breakdancing circle over near Pier 39. The same gentleman I’ve seen several times now over the years hosts a group of young dancers with the “above the influence” theme. Good for them, I guess. So, we gathered around the dance mat constructed of the finest cardboard boxes and packing tape and watched as they breaked it like it was the 80s (complete with a portable mic and ghettoblaster pumping out some Planet Rock derivative).
Many more photos taken with my new camera of some slick moves for your enjoyment coming up!
First, off I should mention that I’m no fan of the Australian drum’n'bass outfit known as Pendulum. I only know a handful of their work but Brian admires them and Jarrett (of JX2) as well (and I believe Adam does too so I’m pretty much an odd man out here). But, I decided to join Brian in going to see them up at the Regency on Tuesday night anyways.
It was a surprisingly decent show that started at a great time (10pm) and ended at a reasonable hour. To me, Pendulum is a cross between Rage Against the Machine and Prodigy. It was a fun mix to bounce to but their MC, Ben “The Verse” Mount, isn’t too appealing to me. I don’t know what it is about that Australian accent, but it just doesn’t work for me (though he did have TONS of energy that was good for the show). Other than that, I was amazed that Paul Kodish kept quite an accurate beat on live drums and the lead vocalist and guitar-synth player, Rob Swire kept the music interesting and varied.
And that, folks, is what we call a crappy camera phone photo that may or may not be proof that I went to see some lights and moving objects!
‘Whoooo….barbungggg… ah oh yeah this is… ahh..ahhh…’
Honestly, this is better than Shakespeare.
So we’re talking about collecting samples. It’s a truly weird idea to think that almost anything online can be sampled, but due to copyright, there is so much to clear. But I’m thinking the more languages collected over a period of time, the more word variations we can find.
Archiving is probably a result of my obsessive behaviours - but I know Alex can knock me dead with what he’s got stashed up. So I make up for showing off with my mixer, instead. But I digress…. or DO I?…… Yes. I do.
What I’m trying to say is that I’m a sucker for wanting to collect as much as I can of these randoms vocals - leading onto the idea of mashing up as many as possible, perhaps into conversation. Surely it can’t be too hard.
So I should talk to Steve one day - ask him if he wants to be in an amateur/pro-semi electro collective bedroom producers’ dance track?
