Dio & Metal & ....

There is something very business like about certain metal. The way they trade singers and guitarists like it's a fucking football draft. The bands don't necessarily feel organic or like a gang.

Somewhere on the internet the other day someone mentioned the lead singer of Whitesnake had been in Deep Purple. I always just thought they were an American poodle hair metal band. I did only know a couple of 80s Whitesnake music videos featuring scantily clad ladies. My metal knowledge is somewhat lacking. I guess I'm more into your 70s hard rock, proto-metal, heavy prog and space rock with huge blind spots when it comes to conventional heavy metal and NWOBHM. I've never been able to get into Iron Maiden or Judas Priest like I have with say the likes of Blue Oyster Cult, Truth & Janey, Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Scorpions or Venom (maybe one day but I'm not holding my breath). Where the hell do bands like Accept and WASP fit in? I guess I need to do some research. Actually I've watched all those Banger docos so I suppose I've just forgotten about the shit groups that I don't care about.

I like Deep Purple (LPs like In Rock, Machine Head, Live In Japan etc.). I only really started to recognise their charms when I got old. They do tend to get overlooked as metal pioneers in favour of your Led Zeppelins and Black Sabbaths, particularly these days. It's weird that I know fuck all about them except maybe they recorded once in a castle in Germany and it burt down or something or nothing (?). I guess I know more about the post-Deep Purple activities of Richie Blackmore because I quite liked Rainbow due to several live videos that used to get played on Rage in the late 80s when I was a teenager. Their 1976 LP Rising is a classic.

Then there was Rainbow's Ronnie James Dio who later joined Black Sabbath for a couple of albums in the early 80s. Not that I know much about him either. I was somehow aware that his first couple of solo records were rated by metal heads and then Henry Rollins once mentioned him in a stand up comedy routine in the early 90s.

Anyway what I'm trying to say is the stories of these people David Coverdale (singer of Deep Purple and Whitesnake), Richie Blackmore (guitarist of Deep Purple and Rainbow) and Ronnie James Dio (Vocalist extraordinaire of Rainbow, Black Sabbath & solo) are all relatively interesting. Why don't Mojo and the like cover this sort of stuff instead of going over and over the minutiae of Bob Dylan's motor bike spokes (Sure I haven't flicked through an issue for years but I assume....)

Maybe I have to start reading the metal equivalent to Mojo or maybe a history of metal. Any recommendations out there? I did read that Chuck Eddy book on 500 metal albums but that was hardly an overview of orthodox metal. More like one dude's trip into heavy music that pissed off many an orthodox metal head.

Scorpions, they were German. They also rocked.

INXS Invented Hauntology by accident!

I was a kid into INXS and knew all their experimental B-sides but I'd never heard this one until today, I think.. Perhaps it wasn't the Australian B-side to The One Thing or maybe I've just totally forgotten about it...er maybe it's coming back to me. I think I just hated it so I rarely played it. Anyway I'm thinking Moon Wiring Club might dig this. INXS invented hauntology by accident in 1982.

RIP Mark E Smith

Go to my twitter for more tributes to the great man. I'm trying not to double up on the stuff I've already posted there. I also don't wanna use all those same words that have been used to describe Mark E Smith and The Fall over and over again throughout their existence. So here are just a handful of tunes and videos from the first ten years of The Fall's recorded output.

M.E.S.

1957 - 2018

Recorded in 1977 and released in 1978.

1979's Rowche Rumble is the 3rd Fall single and what a cracker.

B-side to Fiery Jack. The Fall's B-sides were often as good as the A-sides and usually didn't feature on the LPs.

Single number 6 which was also not included on their album of the time. This is why Fall compilations are such an integral part of their discography. Is Totally Wired The fall's finest moment? It's fucking exhilarating. Has a song title ever fitted a song's sound so literally? 

My Favourite Fall LP (well for today anyway, interchangeable with about seven others), released in 1980 on Rough Trade.

Another great stand alone single from November 1981. This is peak period Fall right here folks.

This was the B-side to Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul from 1981. You got bang for your buck with Fall 7"s back then. I guess these were more like double A-sides, doncha reckon?

The B-side to another non-LP single Look Know from 1982. Just to clear up any confusion it was later included as a bonus track on the expanded cd version of Hex Enduction Hour.

C.R.E.E.P from 1984. Another mighty era for The Fall. This is when Brix Smith became an indispensable member of the mid 80s Fall line-up. The shiny new Fall now had boy/girl vocals, hooks galore and rhythms for the dance-floor.

Cruisers Creek a 1985 single. V dodgy vhs transfer of the film clip. Remember when youtube was just a bunch of old shonky vhs tapes?

LA is quite possibly the coolest tune in rock history. It's all happening here: the band, the production, the inspiration, the synergy.....spellbinding! They were not only top of their game, they were top of THE game. Taken from 1985's musical triumph This Nation's Saving Grace. LA is also AA-side to Cruiser's Creek.

1987 single which was a cover of an old 70s tune, maybe a Northern Soul or Motown number. I remember hearing the original on a soul radio show 10 years ago and freaked out because I always thought it was a Mark E Smith tune.

There were a bunch of versions of this ecstatic dance-floor anthem. Which one is this? I dunno. Hit The North should have been a global No. 1 with a bullet. 

*There is so much more to The Fall than just this motley selection of tracks. I could go on for days. I haven't even posted any live numbers or Peel Sessions. If you really get into The Fall it can be a captivating passion. 

2017's Best Tunes

I forgot to post a favourite tunes of 2017 list. This list has been sitting in my drafts since mid December but it was only a top 5 or 6 anyway. I've added a handful of other tracks since the Christmas/New Year period. I didn't listen to the radio or watch any music video channels in 2017 but I did check out probably a couple of hundred singles/tracks on youtube. Not hearing them in a radio context doesn't allow for a tune to insidiously worm its way into your brain though. I thought pop's reign had halted and r&b, rap etc. were in poor shape. I still do.

I just couldn't hear any innovations in rap at all, at least not vocally. It all just seemed to be rehashing what Gucci Mane, Future and Young Thug had pioneered years earlier. In times like these sometimes that can be ok because often newer artists consolidate on what the pioneers have already blueprinted. However it just seems like every newcomer is rather pale by comparison to their forefathers. God, Young Thug & Future even did an album together which left not a trace in my memory, that was not a good sign. Jay-Z sounded tired. Geez Tyler, The Creator was even sounding fresh with his old school Neptunes/NERD shtick, it stood out because everyone else sounded the same. Too Much (Vocal) from v1984 was classic b-boys on E stuff plus I quite liked tracks from these new feisty rappers with potential Rico Nasty and Sheff G.

The beauty of hip hop a few years ago was the fact that somehow even in this post-geographical internet age a regional flavour still came through in a lot of leading artists material. So distinctive styles were developing throughout the different neighbourhoods of America. Now you get New Yorkers sounding like wannabe southern trappers, people from LA moving to Atlanta, Rappers from Brooklyn wishing they were from Chicago etc. Where are Rae Sremmunrd from? Cardi B? Vince Staples? Is Travis Scott from Atlanta?  Who knows anymore? It's probably a cyclical thing. I mean you did have g-funk coming out of all sorts of places in the 90s, not just LA.

I didn't think I'd heard any good pop/rock songs last year, not that I tried very hard or at all. However, I actually heard the infectious Imagine Dragons tune, Whatever It Takes, in Emma's car on Boxing Day which I thought was a state of the art soft-rock anthem for the FM airwaves of 2017. No apologies hipsters.

Indie rock is just plain embarrassing now. It's the trad jazz of the 2010s.

Most R&B and their inter-zones sounded staid but there were a couple of things that grabbed my attention. The obvious standout was Kelela's two singles and LP. Apparently there's a Steve Gurley dub of her Truth Or Dare floating around the internet too. Thundercat, SZA and NERD featuring Rihanna had their retro moments.

There were one or two disparate electronic things that caught my ear but they were mainly just little 90s nostalgia trips for me like Lanark Artefacts' Touch Absence, Bicep's Glue, Loft's Funemployed and a few others that have slipped my mind. Other track-y things like Your Kiss Is Sour by Parris and Ploy's Unruly had their charms while Objekt's Theme From Q was almost something new. Oh and I've only just realised Rudeboyz came back with an EP but I missed it.

So below is my belated best tunes of 2017 list.

BEST TUNES OF 2017
Frontline - Kelela
LMK - Kelela
Slippery - Migos feat. Gucci Mane
Blue Light - Kelela
Bodak Yellow - Cardi B (Zora Jones & Sinjin Hawke Bootleg)
Magnolia - Playboi Carti
Too Much (Vocal) - v1984
Goosebumps - Travis Scott feat. Kendrick Lamar
Dark Matter - Jlin & Zora Jones
Mask Off - Future
DNA - Kendrick Lamar
Lemon - NERD feat. Rihanna

'ardcore Smokey Joe

Gotta love hearing some early 90s rave-y hardcore that has never crossed my eardrums before. Thanks to Simon via Energy Flash for alerting me to this Red Bull article on ridiculously overpriced rave records. Some of these tunes I'd not heard until today.
.
I love me a bit of kitchen sink hardcore: Breaks, scratching, Italo piano riffs, more breaks, synth riffology, chipmunks, hoovers, cheesy 80s synth samples, pitch-shifted divas, squelches, references to rushes etc. Kiss My Neck has got the lot.



Then there's this, a stone cold 'ardcore classic! Boomzabang, which is less cluttered than Kiss My Neck, has got fabulous beat science, riffs built on rhythms, time-stretching and melodic beats then the hardcore hoovers move in at 3.40 and by 4.20 it's mentastic. Next the track delves into dark lulls with a sampled diva, closing out on a classic break that could go on forever. How I've not come across this before is astounding because this is superior 92 into 93 hardcore slipping into darkside.

Smokey Joe is bringing the joy to my fuckered back and this sweltering heatwave.

Ryo Kawasaki - Mercy Of The Dragon

God only knows how I got here. This is from a 1982 LP by Ryo Kawasaki confusingly titled Featuring Concierto De Aranjuez. The centrepiece of side 2 is Hawaiian Caravan along with Mercy of The Dragon (see below). All of side 2 is good 80s Japanese cosmic stuff. Mucho custom guitar synthesizer action.

Mnemonics III - Pauline Oliveros

Damn fine electronics from the 60s. I have heard this one before...er... maybe it's on a different record to this one though or a different cover. Muchas Gracias to the late Pauline Oliveros for these alien frequencies sent from her swirly transmitter. Joy. Ha...I've just realised she was another faculty member of Mills College. Quite a coincidence or is it not one at all? Perhaps my brain was subconsciously playing Alvin Curran and Oliveros deliberately. That does not explain the Xenakis played in-between however. Anyway...

The silver lining to your back going out is the psychedelic unison of the drugs and the music.

A Perspex Town

New music from Jon Brooks aka The Advisory Circle. Lovely stuff. This video and LP cover art are courtesy of Ian Hodgson from Moon Wiring Club. A Perspex Town is taken from Applied Music: Vol. 2 - Plastics Today. This is some kind of faux library music album which is released on Friday.

Canti Illuminati - Alvin Curran

Had not heard this until the today of now. Loving it. Rzewski's old pal/collaborator from MEV, Alvin Curran makes amazing masterpiece released in 1982. This is desert Island stuff. Curran was also a Mills College Professor, they had quite the faculty didn't they? If someone hasn't done this already someone should, that is write a book about the great musical minds that were staff and students of Mills College, Oakland, California. Legends such as Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Robert Ashley and Luciano Berio were amongst the prestigious staff. Some of their distinguished students were Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Dave Brubeck, Kevin Blechdom, Joanna Newsom and their most recent star Holly Herndon.

I've done me back and cannot move, the painkillerz have kicked in big time and Canti Illuminati has arrived from nowhere to entrance me. Thanks interweb gods and not forgetting Alvin too. Wow! Muchas Gracias!

Best of 2017

LPS/TAPES
Tantalising Mews/Cateared Chocolatiers - Moon Wiring Club
Dust - Laurel Halo
Take Me Apart - Kelela
AZD - Actress
The Ghost Of Hope - The Residents
Cassettera - Ekoplekz
When It's Time To Let Go - Lo Five
The Saddle Of The Increate - Sun Araw
async - Ryuichi Sakamoto

HNDRXX - Future

Dedicated To Bobby Jameson - Ariel Pink
Dulce Compañia - DJ Python

Maredidt - Myrkur
Lack - Pan Daijing
Reassemblage - Visible Cloaks
Rock Bottom - Rangers
Ambient Black Magic - Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement
Mnestic Pressure - Lee Gamble
Bioprodukt - Ekoplekz
Insert Genre Here/Epson's Bladder Salts - Ashtray Navigations
New Age Sewage - Robedoor

I've been trying to put this list together for over three weeks now. This morning I just thought 'Bugger it I won't do a list.' Then later this afternoon I thought I'll just write a small paragraph about a handful of records I didn't mind but didn't necessarily love to death and leave it at that. Listening to Moon Wiring Club's latest epic 2CD & LP combo I thought 'Well...they need a place to go don't they because they're fucking outstanding as usual.' So now I've put this together but I'm still not a hundred percent convinced about it.

Should it just be a top 3, a top 6 or maybe a top 8 list?....

Anyway many of my usual favourites did not make the list. I didn't hate the records by Ariel Pink, The Focus Group, Gas or Omar Souleyman but I didn't love them either like I usually do or wanted to. I mean that Ariel Pink LP is a bit lightweight innit? Yet It's also pretty good but it's just not in the same league as The Doldrums, Worn Copy or Pom Pom is it? It was still my most played LP of the year though so... The best film score was from Oneotrix Point Never for the crime movie Good Time. Toi Toi Toi and Migos just missed out, Chino Amobi was (oh so) interesting (not), Tyler The Creator, SZA & Thundercat were alright, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith was way overrated and that Zomby record just did my head in. Then there was my usual hip-hop entrants (Future, Young Thug, RJ, Beatking) whose LPs just didn't leave lasting impressions on my mind. I'd have been happy to make a top fifty list if there were fifty excellent albums released this year. I listened to a lot of stuff including black metal, even shoegaze and drum'n'bass plus a whole lot more rap but it just wasn't innovative, exceptional or consummate enough for me to write about.

REISSUES/ARCHIVES/COMPILATIONS
Selected Classics - The Mover
Frontal Sickness - The Mover
Final Sickness  - The Mover
Afternooners - Patrick Cowley
U-Men - U-Men
Voyage Cerebral - Didier Boquet
Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale - Heldon
Interface - Heldon
Stand By - Heldon
Fetus - Franco Battiato
Pollution - Franco Battiato
Sulle Corde Di Aries - Franco Battiato
Miracle Steps: Music From The 4th World 1983-2017 - Various
Pop Makossa: The Invasive Dance Beat Of Cameroon 1976-1984 - Various

TELLY
The Deuce
Sure The Deuce isn't as good as The Wire but it's fine entertainment.
The Crown
Sure The Crown isn't anywhere near as cool as The Deuce but season two was ten dramatic mini-movie masterpieces in a row. I can't explain it, just watch it. Who would have thought twenty hours (two seasons) of television about the bloody Queen could have been this amazing?
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Sure they didn't really need to do another season but it still had me laughing out loud a lot.
Twin Peaks - Episode 8
Sure I kinda preferred it when BOB was just a mystery. When BOB just was. Anyway this is a pretty cool episode that was all about early, experimental, cult & avant-garde cinema and much more. Exquisite. The other 17 episodes weren't a patch on this.
Black Mirror: Hang The DJ Episode
That was romance.
Line Of Duty
Best cop show since                    or perhaps ever. Season 4 was probably the finest so far with incredible performances from Thandie Newton and my current favourite actor Adrian Dunbar as Superintendent Ted Hastings. Gotta wait 'til 2019 for the next episode, sheesh!

see ya 2017

My dog loves this one. More Marc Acardipane for your soundtrack to 2017.

Best 80s Albums

tactics

Yesterday on twitter somebody asked what was the best LP released between 1980 & 1989. I thought I won't do my obvious pick. So I did a little year by year list that didn't include Talking Heads, The Fall, The Birthday Party, Prince, The Church, The Triffids, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine or The Pixies.

My pick in the end was My Houdini from Tactics but it could have been any of these or like a hundred others. Ever since I started this blog I've been meaning to write an article in praise of My Houdini. Maybe the time has come to finally put pen to paper about this undervalued post-punk/new wave classic.

1980- Out Of The Tunnel - MX-80 Sound

1981- My Houdini - Tactics

1982- Ice Cream For Crow - Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band

1983- Head Over Heels - Cocteau Twins

1984 - Let It Be - The Replacements

1985- At Home With You - X (The Australian band not the inferior one)

1986- Three Virgins - Axemen

1987- Children Of God - Swans

1988- Sixty Nine - AR Kane

1989- Max Q - Max Q

Problem Child - ACDC

Rick Rubin summed up AC/DC here. Amongst other things he wrote:

A great band like Metallica could play an AC/DC song note for note, and they still wouldn't capture the tension and release that drive the music. There's nothing like it.

The essence of Malcolm Young.

RIP Malcolm Young

Malcolm Young.

The Centre,

The Core,

The Engine,

The Backbone.

The Heart & Soul,

A riff machine.

The essence of AC/DC is the rhythmic guitars and the minimalist groove.

Malcolm was the fucking essence of AC/DC!

Marc Acardipane - See You In 2017

2017 Gloom/Doom-Core

The atmosphere on these tracks is just so....now. Is World War III really going to be about a couple of drama queenz having a bitch fight in the sand pit about who's old, short or fat? Ye olde cartoons were smarter than that. Kim & Don are are the dim wit kids in grade one you felt sorry for. This here is the soundtrack for the schoolboy/world leader dust up which was made in 91/92 with a vision to 2017. I'm worried Marc Acardipane is some sort of Nostradamus type figure. I mean like Nostradamus (as in a psychically freaky fortune teller for the ages) and not just into him as Simon Reynolds mentioned at the beginning of the year on my blog. These aren't even Marc's most pulverising beats, It's all about the blackest gloomiest synths and sound generators. Some of these beats are almost quite fun. Music for the surviving cockroaches, ants and mutant sea creatures to joyfully bug out to while the ghost of humanity looms in the post-apocalyptic air.

*All of these tracks have been remastered and reissued in digital form in 2017. Frontal Sickness, Final Sickness and a compilation called Selected Classics have been part of Acardipane's reissue campaign by Planet Phuture. So far it's been all about The Mover and Mescalinum United, I wonder if any of his other aliases will be getting the remastered treatment?

Obscure Darkside Mix - DevNull

You can always depend on Pete DevNull to come with something fucking cool around Halloween for lovers of the darkside of the hardcore continuum and this year is no exception. This fabulous mix, that was posted a few days ago, is some of the most shadowy old school jungle you'll ever hear. According to Blog To The Old School some of these tunes are mega rare white labels and unreleased trax from back in the day. I reckon I only recognise 3 or 4 of the platters in this set. You know the score!

If you love the darkside I suggest you go through the BTTO archive of mixes. One year (2012?) Pete did an epic 3 hour set for Halloween which is one of my favorite all time dj mixes. There's a bunch of fantastic darkside sets from DevNull that should keep you going out of your brain for some time.

Umberto Lenzi Movies For Halloween

Watch Eyeball in tribute to the late great Umberto Lenzi. Ocular violence is probably my biggest fear so this gets to me despite how funny the whole movie is. It's very disturbing to me.



Lenzi did like 7 or 8 Gialli and Spasmo is his most triumphantly mental. Just go with it and forget about a cohesive narrative for the duration. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. There's actually a better version on youtube Posted by Giallo Realm which won't embed here. So maybe search for that one. Happy Halloween.

Halloween

Friday The 13th goes to an early 80s disco, 1982 to be precise. Love that synth bass.

Remember when Howard Shore was awesome? Particularly when he was scoring for Cronenberg.

Ambient to noisy electronic delirium and back again.

Francois De Roubaix was a French film composer. I think his mind was quite free of constraints when it came to making music. You can hear it all here in just 3 minutes. He covers a lot of ground but it doesn't sound forced or shoehorned, it's just wonderful. As far as I can tell only two tunes from the soundtrack to the 1971 Belgian film Daughters of Darkness were ever issued. Les Dunes d'Ostende was on one side of a 7" released by French label Barclay.

Keeping with the horror theme, De Roubaix died in his mid 30s in an accident whilst diving off The Canary Islands in 1975. He is pictured on the cover of one of his compilations in scuba diving gear which I thought was rather macabre.

HORROR MOVIE PODCAST - FACULTY OF HORROR
If you can get past how impressed this duo are about their scholastic achievements and are a horror movie fan this could be a podcast for you. The hosts Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West take an analytical look at one or two films per episode which are thematically linked. They've covered ye olde classics like Night Of The Hunter, Witchfinder General, Black Christmas, The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Shivers, Halloween etc. Plenty of 80s and 90s movies like The Shining, Sleepaway Camp, Friday The 13th, Fright Night, Gremlins, Lost Boys, The Crucible, The Crow & The Cube have been featured. Films of the new Millennium are not shied away from either, like they are in many other casts of pod. Wolf Creek, The Loved Ones, Elle, The Descent, Trick'rTreat, Calvaire, Martyrs, The Babadook, Cabin In The Woods & Drag Me To Hell have all been picked apart by the faculty. Alexandra West wrote the book Films Of New French Extremity and has a new book due soon about 90s teen horror.

I've never seen this movie but it's apparently a cross between Carnival Of Souls and Messiah Of Evil. Which sounds like it would be right up my street. The full version on youtube is unwatchable but it was issued by Arrow on dvd & blu-ray last year though. Looking forward to tracking it down. 

Movies Part III

The first 4 were good but this...

MOVIES I COULDN'T SIT THROUGH (ie. Wasted time & money renting these. Why do I torture myself trying to watch all this shit. Well I kinda don't anymore, only sometimes. Thank God)

Drive (2011)
Tediously dim plus am I the only person who thinks Ryan Gosling is dull as fuck?

Scott Pilgrim V The World (2010) 
Who cares?

American Hustle (2013)
What a load of shite.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008) 
OMG! Worst idea for a film ever.

Cabin In The Woods (2012) 
"It's so way out and meta, man."

Phone Booth (2002) 
Does anyone actually like the actor in this phone box?
  
This Is 40 (2012) 
The worst characters in a film ever played by the most unconvincing actors I've come across.

February (2015) 
No atmosphere or tension. 23 minutes in I couldn't have cared less what happened to these characters to continue watching.

King Kong (2005) 
Sleepy time.

Berberian Sound Studio (2012) 
Fuck off with your pretentious fake giallo homage!

The Wicker Man (2006) 
Nicholas Cage or Keanu Reeves: Who's worse?

Oh Brother Where Art Though (2000) 
"So quirky & unusual, man. Oh and I just love the soundtrack. Country music's so interesting."

I'm Not There (2007) 
I'm so not there. Never will be.

Horrible Bosses (2011)
Horrible movie.

Bad Teacher (2011) 
Bad Movie.

Friday The 13th Part 5 (1985) 
I got maybe a third of the way in when I realised this was so bad...it was just bad.

The Road (2009) 
I love sleep.

27 Dresses (2008) 
Got about 9 minutes into this.

Studio 54 (1998)
eww

The Thin Red Line (1998)
So much sleep to get here.

Waterworld (1995) 
The great snooze-fest continues. Maybe this isn't that bad but I just can't make it through without at least 3 naps.

Gods & Monsters (1998) 
Bad acting and a bad script = Oscars.

Noah (2014) 
WTF? Can you believe this guy had actually directed several good films before this one?

Hilary & Jackie (1998)
omfg..... 
Banger Sisters (2002) 
So Fake.

Jacob's Ladder (1990) 
I think I was supposed to be intrigued. I was intrigued by what another sleep would be like.

Mars Attacks (1996) 
Looking at the inside of my eyelids was infinitely more interesting than looking at this picture.

Demons (1985) 
Some film buffs recommend this. Why? I got maybe 12 minutes in and had to call it. "But Dario Argento co-wrote and produced it."  Big woop.

The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982) 
Didn't care enough about the characters to see what happened to them in the end, well I hope they all died and there was no final girl.

In The Realm Of The Senses (1976) 
"Incredibly deep and meaningful Asian porn" with the worst soundtrack ever.

5 CLASSICS STARRING JULIE CHRISTIE
Don't Look Now
Demon Seed
McCabe & Mrs Miller
Petulia
Billy Liar

NEVER SEEN
American Graffiti
Empire Strikes Back
Anything directed by Rob Zombie

MOVIES I SURPRISINGLY DIDN'T HATE
Knock Knock (2015)
Director Eli Roth comes across a such a tool but this could have been a major cult classic if they had cast a good leading man but hey, they got Keanu Reeves and he cannot act. The two leading ladies are fantastic though. Really good story, I thought. Wasted opportunity.

The Revenant (2015)
A bear V past his prime Leo, who would have thought entertainment would ensue?

Drag Me To Hell (2009)
Sam Raimi had made maybe one good movie since Evil Dead so I definitely was not expecting this to be good or even ok or even a bit less than ok.

The Black Swan (2010)
Expected this to be a very boring chick flick. Are you allowed to say that now, boring?

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
McConaughey hadn't been cool for like 20 years then...

Bad Neighbours (2014) 
Gotta love Rose Byrne. She's the best comic actress of our time.

The Notebook (2004)
Thought this was gonna be the worst pile o shite ever but I didn't hate it. Hey it's got fucking Gena Rowlands, the greatest living actress.

Killer Joe (2011)
Elderly directors usually don't make films you wanna watch. All film directors should be shot by the time they reach 50. Most of today's young directors should be rounded up and massacred immediately!

The King's Speech (2010)
The fucking royal family can go fuck themselves. Why isn't Australia a republic? Anyway this was alright with all the actoring and stuff.

The Passion Of The Christ (2004)
It had been over 30 years since Mel was involved with a good movie. So for this to be a classic is rather astounding. Yeah I know he's an arsehole but he might be a genius. Does that make him a genius arsehole?

Death Proof (2007)
Tarantino is the most overrated, unimaginative and derivative film maker of our time yet he thinks he so fucking great. My god he finds himself oh so interesting and clever. He started out with three good films and it's been all downhill ever since. Nobody recommended this one but I like.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
I think I saw this late one night on telly. Maybe I was wasted but I thought it was a good cheesy slasher.

Dressed To Kill (1980)
Never liked a De Palma movie in my life but this was a good laugh.

Young Thug

I totally slept on this one from Mr Thug in 2017. He still has greatness within him. I mean, I quite like the new album he's done with Future Super Slimey and now I'm going back to Beautiful Thugger Girls, which is sounding better by the minute. Not that I ever gave that album much of a chance. While he's not as astonishingly surprising, as he was say four or five years ago, he's still remarkably unique. Young Thug is probably for me the best thing vocally in the 2010s. Someone asked a question a while ago, at maybe Dissensus, on who is the most innovative musician of the the 2010s and I had a few ideas but this guy is surely the most idiosyncratic vocal talent of the last five or six years.

An amazing thing is that nobody's come up with a literary way to describe what it is (as far as I know), which is good. I'm actually trying not to come up with an easily describable term for what he does because then he will just become describable by that little phrase that someone comes up with. I do half wish I could put it all into words but it's a struggle. I find writing about music, sonics and their evocative nature comes a lot easier. There was someone who once wrote about Bob Dylan and all his vocal changes over the years, maybe they could do it. I kinda can't see an old Rolling Stone/Creem type of writer being seduced by Young Thug but you never know though. One thing is that Young Thug's vocal science is all organic as opposed to fucked with in the studio or by a computer/phone/autotune. Does this make him some sort of roots artist? Sure his voice has also been fucked with by technology too but he could survive without it. Thug has invented a whole new language/syntax in vocals and singing. At this moment he is just mercurial....

Super Slimey - Future & Young Thug

This actually has me excited about music in 2017. I hope it lives up to at least half of it's potential. I love this years records from The Residents, Laurel Halo and Rangers. Only two other LPs have had me in as much excited anticipation as this recently announced collaboration between Future & Young Thug though. They were the 2017 releases from Ekoplekz and Ariel Pink and I just haven't ended up in the blissful places that I thought they might take me (yet). So hopefully this combination of the worlds two best rappers will come through with the goods. It's a gutsy move from Future though, as Young Thug usually upstages all in his path. Thugger lifts his game on collaborations (ie. Rich Gang & Black Portland)! On an initial listen it sounds really fucking good. Way better than Beautiful Thugger Girls and perhaps as good as HNDRXX.

Mike Will Made This....

Rabbit Hole Part 2 Featuring Michael Hutchence, Flame Fortune, Troy Davies etc.

Now Flame Fortune is a forgotten footnote in Aussie Pop Music history. I always thought writing a book or at least a long form article on her life would be an interesting prospect. She was from LA and the above tune was produced by Michael Hutchence. Sex Symbol was recorded with an amazing Australian supergroup that included members of INXS, The Models, The Divinyls, Australian Crawl and The Angels. You would have thought 'How could this not be a hit with that kind of hit making pedigree behind her in the studio?' She appeared on the cover of Countdown magazine sometime in 1985 (I had that issue) when this single was released. Strangely enough the dude in the video is Troy Davies, the subject of the previous post. So it turns out he was everywhere in my pop cultural 80s but I just wasn't aware of who he was. It's kinda funny how not raunchy she is in this video compared to say Madonna or Vanity and later sex pots Britney, Beyonce & Nicky. I guess it's closer to new wave-y like maybe Berlin than those recent absurdly sexually athletic stars who are quite often not sexy at all.

So it turns out that Fortune was supposedly only 14 or 15 in the Sex Symbol video which was directed by Richard Lowenstein (Of Dogs In Space and Autoluminescent fame). This is definitely not true. She wasn't actually born in 1971 and was born in either 1969 or most likely in 1962 (as some articles state). I have a recollection that her and Michael Hutchence had a fling, maybe that was just a rumour.

Anyway to a 14 year old me, I thought she was pretty weird because she had this whole God/Sex dichotomy thing going on. I wasn't really aware that this was a staple personality trait in pop ala Little Richard, Al Green, Prince etc., at that stage of my life. The single flopped and as far as I can tell there was no follow up album. Fortune soon disappeared from the pop universe without becoming the star she thought she should have been. Six years later she was allegedly  murdered back in LA. Some information claims she may have committed suicide. It's all a bit sketchy. I can find little more information than this about her tragic life.

*Someone with time and money to do the research into this mysterious story will now have a fantastic Rolling Stone or weekend supplement article to write. Or if someone wants to make me an offer feel free to leave your details.

Rabbit Hole Featuring Michael Hutchence, Richard Lowenstein, Troy Davies etc.

There was a documentary on Michael Hutchence last night on telly. It led me down this strange rabbit hole of half remembered videos and collaborations. I have a vague memory that perhaps Speed Kills was in conjunction with Cold Chisel's Don Walker for some kind of soundtrack which appears to be the 1982 Australian flick Freedom. What about that fabulous hair?

This video appearance from Hutchence in Eccohomo's Motorcycle Baby was a late night staple of late 80s Aussie music tv. At the time I just assumed it was another Hutchence collaboration with Ollie Olsen. I think I was half right, but it's a Troy Davies project. He's the dude in the beanie and the woman on the back of Michael's motorbike. He was an actor, artist, Sharpie, drag queen, man, woman, some kind of performance artist and much more.

Admittedly I knew fuck all about Troy Davies until tonight but I think he makes an appearance in this film clip as well as being part of the film crew. He was a friend and a colleague of film and video clip director Richard Lowenstein. Talking To A Stranger is a 1982 Aussie post-punk classic from Hunters and Collectors. The Avalanches would remix this as Stalking To A Stranger 30 years later.

This sheds some light on Peter/Vanessa/Troy Davies.

More light shedding. Apparently there's a documentary on Davies, Ecco Homo, directed by Richard Lowenstein and Lynn-Maree Milburn. This was screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2015. Having moved away from Melbourne in 2013 I totally missed that. So while all this stuff is news to me tonight all you Melbourne hipsters probably know all about it, whatever. More info.

More On Movies

7 MELBOURNE FILMS
Dogs In Space (1986)
I resided in Richmond, where this picture was filmed, for many years. People still make pilgrimages to the Dogs In Space house. I drove past it once...er...it's just a house.

Malcolm (1986)
A whole lotta Melbourne in this one. Collingwood, Flemington, Kew, Thornbury, South Melbourne & The Central Business District. The titular character Malcolm works for Melbourne trams. I first saw this at that cinema in Balwyn when I was a kid visiting Melbourne.

Romper Stomper 1992)
All I can remember is Richmond Train station and scenes in Footscray but there's probably a few other locations.

Death In Brunswick (1991)
The old Bombay Rock Club in Sydney Road and that theatre in Coburg are the two locations I can recall. I lived in East Brunswick for almost a decade in the 90s before it got taken over by hipsters in the new millenium. The Lomond used to have lesbian country bands, The East Brunswick Hotel was v dodgy. There was a good video shop on the cnr. of Albert & Lygon. Maybe Mark Hartley worked there...is that right?

Chopper (2000)
Locations include Pentridge in Coburg which had closed down by then and Bojangles car park in St. Kilda which I'm sure didn't exist by that stage.

Patrick (1978)
Shot in East Melbourne, Brighton, Prahran, South Yarra and probably more. I used to know which number tram was in the film but I've forgotten.

Ghosts Of The Civil Dead (1988)
This was made in Melbourne but it was set in the middle of nowhere, adding to the eerie vibe. It's not for Melbourne-y location trainspotters really.

MOVIES I KNOW I'VE SEEN BUT CAN'T REMEMBER A SINGLE THING ABOUT THEM
Jaws (Well it had a shark)
The Babadook (Dunno what it had. I assume a babadook, whatever that is)
Subway
Friday The 13th
Serial Mom
The Parallax View (Well it had a Warren Beatty)
Shampoo (A Beatty, a Christie and a Hawn)
Donnie Brasco

FILMS I'VE NEVER SEEN
The Titanic (Do I need to see it? I hear it's not bad)
Beverly Hills Cop (As above)

GOOD OR BAD? I DUNNO
Eyes Wide Shut
Moulin Rouge
The King Of Marvin Gardens (Sometimes Jack Nicholson just gets on me tits!)
Death Wish
My Bloody Valentine
Barton Fink
In The Mouth Of Madness
Traffic
Death Bed
Spring Breakers

7 FROM THE 70s FROM ELLIOT GOULD. Surely he's THE ACTOR of the 1970s.
The Silent Partner (Perhaps the most underrated movie of the 70s)
California Split (Obv.)
The Long Goodbye (Obv.)
Little Murders (This has to be the weirdest film Gould ever did)
Busting (Gould stars alongside alleged non murderer Robert Blake)
Getting Straight (Best Gould Performance?)
The Lady Vanishes (Great chemistry between Gould and Cybil Shepherd)

RECENTLY WATCHED 
Night School (1981)
Pretty good. Sort of a Giallo made in America.

Death Wish (1974)
Did I need to be 14 to enjoy this or maybe another human entirely? Worth it for the wtf scene where someone spray paints a bare arse. A historic moment in cinema to be sure.

Popcorn (1991)
Good ideas and production values but not quite executed to its full potential. A definite curio though for people interested in the Slasher continuum.

Get Out (2017)
??? ZZZZZZ

IT (2017)
Pretty good. The kids in the cinema seemed to like it, it's a kids film innit?

Gerald's Game (2017)
Such a naff ending it ruined the rest of the film which was probably only a 5 out of 10 anyway. Don't waste your time on this one.

I THOUGHT THEY WERE DEAD, BUT THEY'RE NOT
Peter Fonda
Tippi Hedren
Gena Rowlands
Kirk Douglas (Surely that is not correct)

Gabba

I was thinking the other day 'We've been waiting for some kind of gabber recommencement since 2016 flipped into 2017 but nothing's happened.' I guess the scene has probably continued on in the same way that drum'n'bass still exists. What I really mean is that gabber/doomcore/gloomcore godfather and legend Marc Arcardipane hasn't resurfaced as far as I can tell (not that I've really looked). In the 90s Arardipane had this logo on many of his releases See You In 2017. 

Here are some dudes (below) with the historical knowledge of gabber giving it a retro-gabba crack (Via Energy Flash).



I wish this lecture (above) was real and was going to continue on for another 45 minutes. The track by DJ Balli & Giacomo Bella ChickenFIAT that was posted at Energy Flash is fun but hardly revelatory, hey what is these days?



God I love that thick squally synth sound! Rotterdam Terror Corps were mentioned in that above trailer.



Hardcore



70s rock (Queen samples, traces of Sabbath riffage in the synth) influences in 90s Hardcore!





A Cold Rush. Atmos-Fear was recorded several years earlier than the other above tunes. This is Marc Arcardipane & Marc Arcardipane ie. he is The Mover & The Rave Creator. This is the true soundtrack for 2017.

It's 2017?
Where are you Marc?

Nadir

I took a screen shot of this from maybe pitchfork a month or two back because I thought it was hilarious and depressing. I'd rather hear The Venetians cover Noiseworks. It's really hard to come up with a combo that is worse. Suggestions most welcome.

I Love/Hate Movies

Here's some movie lists I've put together after listening to a lot of movie podcasts and looking at my favourite films list on my blog profile. That's an off the cuff list written in like half an hour. Many films are not included because I haven't re-watched a lot of those old favourites (listed below). My brain also doesn't feel the need to have rigid rankings for things anymore. I would have once had strict well thought out lists for the top twenty movies of all time, the top ten films set in Melbourne, top seven Scorsese movies, top five worst actors etc. I could probably add to my favourite films list a few more Italian, Polish, South Korean, Japanese, Czech, French and German films, horror movies, film-noir, documentaries and a few more from Robert Altman,  John Cassavetes, John Huston, Woody Allen and a bunch of directors I've never heard of......

*Disclaimer

*These lists are by no means comprehensive, just what I came up with one night when I couldn't sleep. I didn't get out me Leonard Maltin or do any research, otherwise this post would then have taken up the entire internet.

**I didn't have a vcr until 1986 or 87 (my mid teens) plus had boringly strict catholic parents so I missed a whole lotta horror/trash/comedy/action stuff from the 80s. I was not an 80s teenage video shop nerd. I didn't love Joe Dante, John Hughes or teen tits and arse sex comedies. I've never seen a Charles Bronson movie, Troll 2 or Labyrinth. I've actually never seen Porky's from beginning to end but I do remember seeing Recruits. I have no interest in kids or teen films now. I think a lot of people's love for those genres comes from nostalgia ie. seeing them at the right age. By the time The Goonies came out I was too old for it but people just a couple of years younger than me cherish it. I went straight from Temple Of Doom, Back To The Future and Aliens to being obsessed with David Lynch, Wim Wenders and Peter Greenaway. I now find that hilarious and so pretentious.

I'd love to be into just one genre like Westerns, Krimi, Nunsploitation, Gialli, Turkish Rip-offs, Czech New Wave, Made For TV Horror, Rape Revenge, Hospital Horror or Blaxploitation. Being middle aged I've come to terms with the fact that I'm a middlebrow dilettante though. If I find a film I like, I haven't found a tribe - I've found a movie I dig. The films I like/dislike don't define me (Insert quote from Groucho Marx "I don't want to belong to any club...."). I've lost interest in sci-fi. My patience for slow films has dwindled. I've forgotten a lot of (pre 60s) old hollywood classics, musicals, comedies, monster movies, British films etc. that I once saw on telly and liked. I've also forgotten a lot of the names of avant-garde, arty and foreign films that I liked and would have seen at the Melbourne Cinematheque, arthouse/cult-y theatres and The Melbourne International Film Festival. Remember The Carlton Moviehouse, The Valhalla, The Lumiere, The Panorama (that was in Brunswick St. for like 10 minutes during 1993), The Astor, that one that was in Swanston Street?.... I've probably forgotten a few others too.

MOVIES I ONCE LIKED BUT CAN'T IMAGINE LIKING NOW (But you never know though)
Trust
Dazed & Confused
Chasing Amy
Reality Bites
American Beauty
There Will Be Blood
Stalker
Donnie Darko
Badlands
New York, New York
Leaving Las Vegas
Spirits (of The Air Gremlins Of The Clouds)
Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
Betty Blue
Hiding Out
Buffalo 66
Faster Pussycat Kill Kill (Probably couldn't sit through this without being wasted man)
The Trip
Suspiria
Rolling Thunder
Wings Of Desire
Kiss Of The Spider Woman
Sex & Zen
Dead Man
Jean De Florrette
Manon De Sources
The Lover
Down by Law
Thelma & Louise
Unbearable Lightness Of Being
Better Off Dead (Actually watched this the other day too, pretty naff and oh so quirky. Maybe kids would like it, probably not. I mean this was great for an 80s fourteen year old me. Now all I see is that John Cusack's really fucking annoying)
Simple Men
Two Hands
Bad Lieutenant (Watched this the other day. Keitel was wavering between utter shite and really convincing as a depraved cop. Then came the whining/wailing scenes towards the end. That tipped an already ordinary and obvious film into total nonsense for me. Being young and impressionable makes you like strange things. Bad Lieutenant has put me off watching any of the other films in this particular list because I've proved myself correct twice)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Hot Fuzz
The Holy Mountain (I'm sure if I smoked a holy mountain of weed I'd like it)
Shine
Surviving Desire
Magnolia
Fellini films
Bergman films

MOVIES I ONCE LOVED BUT HAVEN'T SEEN FOR OVER 15 YEARS (So who knows? But I reckon I might still like 'em. Middlebrow alert!)
My Life As A Dog
Brazil
Sex, Lies & Videotape
Bad Boy Bubby
Love Serenade
Naked
Bliss
La Haine
Millers Crossing
Midnight Express
Angel Heart
3 Women
Stop Making Sense
The Elephant Man
Hana-Bi
End Of The Century
A Better Tomorrow
Paris Texas
Scanners
Deathdream
The Man Who Fell To Earth
The Living End
Pure Shit
Stone
Hardboiled
The Filth & The Fury
Drugstore Cowboy
Delicatessen
Tokyo Drifter (Watched this after I put up this blog post. Classic)
Fresh
To Die For
Proof
Rain
Targets
Race With The Devil
Marathon Man
The Getaway
Performance
Re-Animator
If
Stroszeck
Night Of The Creeps
Lenny
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
The Temple Of Doom
Woyzeck
The Ice Storm
Eating Raoul
Shock Corridor
Deep End (A 70s British film with a Polish director and Can on the soundtrack. How could you go wrong?)
Melvin and Howard
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf
Three Colours Trilogy
Breaking The Waves
Mulholland Drive
Last Temptation Of Christ
Secretary
Day Of The Dead
Akira
Pink Flamingoes
Branded To Kill
Le Samourai
Shaft
Truck Turner
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
The Comfort Of Strangers
Nil By Mouth
Fun
Gas Food Lodging
Sexy Beast
The Fourth Man (Nobody ever talks about this film. It was directed by Paul Verhoeven in 1983 before he moved to Hollywood. It's his best film, I reckon.....although I only saw it once, maybe 28 years ago. John Hinde presented it on ABC TV)
Going Down
Death In Brunswick
Romper Stomper
Bachelor Party
Lantana
The Boys
Chunking Express
Do The Right Thing
Repo Man
Predator
Family Plot
Trees Lounge
Colors
My Beautiful Laundrette
Meantime
Living In Oblivion
The Age Of Innocence
Roadside Prophets
Route 66
Those 80s and early 90s Jon Jost films I saw, maybe at the Melbourne Cinematheque.

MOVIES I ONCE LOVED BUT NOW HATE
Clerks
Wild At Heart
Raising Arizona
2001: A Space Odyssey (Maybe this just doesn't work on blu-ray/telly ie. not in a cinema. I originally saw it in the early 90s on a 70mm print in the best cinema in Melbourne and it blew me young little mind)

MOVIES I'M INDIFFERENT TO (AKA Meh...What's all the fuss?)
Kill Bill I & II
Heat
The Proposition
DIG
Vertigo
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Lord Of The Ring Trilogy
The Departed
Scarface
Blade Runner
The Breakfast Club
The Big Lebowski
E.T.
The Graduate
Cinema Paradiso
The Princess Bride
Rocky
Marnie
Robocop
The Hateful Eight

MOVIES I NEVER LIKED (yeah I know)
Harold & Maude
The Life Aquatic
Last Tango In Paris
Angel Baby
Top Gun
Star Wars
Pretty Woman
Priscilla: Queen Of The Desert (One of my heroes, Philip Brophy, wrote a monograph on how much he hates this movie. What a legend!)
The Last Waltz
Shawshank Redemption
Schindler's List
Boondock Saints
Forest Gump
Fight Club
Silence Of The Lambs
The Green Mile
Gladiator
Japanese Story
Gangs Of New York
Memento
Snatch
Dead Poets Society
Chinatown
MASH
Easy Rider
Citizen Kane
Broken Flowers
Lost In Translation
The Castle
Pump Up The Volume
24 Hour Party People
Wonderland
Swingers
Before Sunrise
Inglorious Bastards
....and a million more

MOVIES I USED TO HATE BUT NOW QUITE LIKE
The Shining
The Godfather
Groundhog Day
Taxi Driver
Crocodile Dundee
Dirty Dancing
The Tenant
Psycho
A Clockwork Orange (Well half of it)
Rio Bravo
Zabriskie Point

LOVED IT, HATED IT, LOVED IT AGAIN
Dogs In Space

MOVIE DIRECTORS I CAN'T STAND
Todd Haynes
Wes Anderson
Terrence Malick
Michael Winterbottom

NEVER SEEN
Tootsie
It's A Wonderful Life
Razorback

THREE CLASSIC 70s FILMS I ONLY DISCOVERED IN 2017
Chilly Scenes Of Winter
Puzzle Of A Downfall Child
(Thanks to Bill Ackerman & Mike White for alerting me to those above two)
The Dion Brothers

(Discovered this on a very dodgy print at either youtube or a pirate-y site while I was having a Stacy Keach fest. Hey its got Margot Kidder as well. This film's also known as The Gravy Train. Funnily enough it's written by Terrence Malick. He also wrote the script to Pocket Money which I really like too. He seems a bit looser and just plain better when he's doin the script sans the directing gig)

93 Darkside/Jungle

This one goes into the category of 'Heard it but never knew what the fuck it was and jeez it's a hardcore bewdy!' More dark 93 bizniz, this time on a funky jungle tip.



This is from the same EP. Melodic rhythms, bleepedelia and trippy kindness, you know what I mean. Lovely but it also gets a bit dark (I always wondered where the Omni Trio acolytes were).



Not so lovely, this one. Fantastic euphoric gloom.  Get on a bad trip and send your brain down the gurgler. This one will make you see spiders on the wall,