More On Movies...The Return II

The Tale Of Two Sisters (2003)

A grim folkloric tale from South Korea. I can't believe this is twenty one years old. That means Oldboy and Memories Of A Murder must be as well. 2003 was a hell of a year for the resurgence of South Korean cinema. South Korea's all new, exotic yet often familiar and spectacularly audacious film-making had been creating film festival hubbub and underground interest for five or six years. Then in 2003, the last great film movement in history was hitting an early peak and unexpected mainstream crossover.  

Twenty one years later I wonder if perhaps The Tale Of Two Sisters would have benefitted by just telling the story straight instead of in the trendy convoluted flashback flashbetween flashsideways style. The intention is supposed to add mystery and add flash but makes you realise they're just trying too hard while also unnecessarily obfuscating some of the finer points of the tale. Still this is quite THE piece of work with stellar performances and impeccable flashy film-making. Nitpicking at one of the few great films made this millennium is a pretty fucking futile endeavour though innit. 

A cautionary tale of a family torn apart with horrific consequences as a result morally repugnant shenanigans. Transgress and be damned in unexpected ways.

The Tale Of Two Sisters was Kim jee-woon's first big film to make a splash on western audiences. He would go on to direct a handful of flix including two other bona fide brilliant films, the action packed neo-noir A Bittersweet Life (2005) and one of the most demented of all Korean revenge movies I Saw The Devil (2010). However The Tale Of Two Sisters is still the most beloved of all his pictures.

Shack Out On 101 (1955)

Good fun el cheapo OTT noir with added espionage, cold war paranoia, disillusioned returned soldiers and romance. While there are comic tones here, there's also a great dark seaside atmosphere captured in beautiful black and white by cinematographer Floyd Crosby of High Noon (1952) fame. 

A spunky waitress Kotty (Terry Moore) works in a shabby beachside diner where she constantly fights off lecherous blokes but little does she know soon she will be embroiled in a fight for her country. In a bid to extend the lean script stars Lee Marvin and Frank Lovejoy were encouraged to do some improv (pre-Cassavetes) and they succeed, particularly in the weight lifting scene where they critique each others physiques which will have you laughing out loud.   

Shack Out On 101 is exactly what watching these old movies is all about for me as there's nothing I love more than discovering irresistible one off artefacts like this.

He Ran All The Way (1951)

Nick Robey (John Garfield) is doomed from the start in this ultimate loser from wrong side of the tracks drama. A payroll robbery goes awry when Nick Robey kills a cop. He makes an acquaintance of Peg Dobbs (Shelly Winters) at a nearby swimming pool in the midst of fleeing the crime scene. Soon enough he takes her and her working class family hostage. The doom, apprehension, paranoia and psychological mind fuckery are masterfully rendered on celluloid here. 

Iconic final scene. 

Shockproof (1950)

Terrific atypical noir where a parole officer takes off with his parolee who just so happens to be a foxy dame. 

The Leopard Man (1943)

First time watch for me and I gotta say it was disappointing particularly after recently re-watching Jaques Tourneur masterpieces I Walked With A Zombie and The Cat People. It seemed to have all the right elements but they just didn't coalesce like they did in those aforementioned classics. Which means something was askew. It meandered too much and perhaps the story wasn't quite up to scratch. Cinematographer Robert De Grasse did all that he could with his beautifully framed scenes and crafty intricate use of shadows and light to make an incredibly distinct uber creepy atmosphere where perilousness lurks at every turn so it's not his fault. He was best on ground or what septic tanks might call MVP. I might reserve conclusive judgement until I've watched it several more times. 

The Web (1947)

Gangsters, molls, lawyers, cops, ex-cons, patsys, bodyguards, guns, embezzlement, seduction and murder all have their part to play in this web of intrigue. The Web's a nifty little crime-thriller that wouldn't be out of place if it started turning up in best 50 or 100 noir lists. Stars Ella Raines, Eddy Obrien, Billy Bendix and Vinny Price.

The Unsuspected (1947)

All the unbelievably meticulous set design, lavish costumery, brilliantly detailed lighting and sophisticated art of camerawork where each scene is framed like an art masterpiece (a highpoint in noir cinematography to be sure) can't quite save this bloated tale. It all just gets too highfalutin becoming tedious. Where say the highly stylised and conceptual vision of Nightmare Alley from the same year is pulled off with supreme conviction, creating an elevated pop culture artefact, the same can't be said for this similarly ambitious project. The lesson here is sometimes less is more and good scripts are important. However many noir fanatics will defend this flick and claim it as the most under-appreciated in the noir catalogue.

Police Story (1985)

Holy shite this classic Jackie Chan action-comedy has some of the most miraculous feats in action cinema history. Iconic scenes include a car chase down a hill that destroys an entire shanty town in the process, Jackie hanging on to a speeding double decker bus with just an umbrella, the wholesale destruction of a department store and more. So much broken glass. Breaking glass was a big deal in 80s Hong Kong action cinema and we are presented with virtuoso smash-age of glass in Police Story. Phew that's just the action side of things... 

The Fourth Victim (1971)

Bizzaro murder mystery starring Carrol Baker with great psychedelic baroque lounge score from the maestro Piero Umiliani. I guess it has just enough elements to qualify as a Spanish giallo: It's set in London, Carrol Baker, a body count, a gay priest, a bumbling detective, meaningful paintings, an amateur sleuth, many a red herring, inheritances, mansions with spiral staircases, an insane asylum, a cemetery and more. Although it lacks the stylish explicit sex and violence delirium of the greatest gialli, it's still a curiosity well worth a look. For of murder mystery, gialli and Baker fans. Look out for dubbed Spanish detective's interesting accent that's sometimes Welsh sometimes Scottish sometimes English and sometimes some kind of gumbo European god knows what.

Snake In The Eagles Shadow (1978)

Ace old school chop-socky from Yuen Woo-ping starring Jackie Chan and Pai Chang Tien. No guns or swords here just superior bare handed kung-fu fighting with an ace story too. Classic tropes of kung fu master and student training montage and battles with rival kung fu schools are somehow mysteriously fresh to this day despite probably being cliches by 1978. 

Martial Arts action comedy doesn't get better than this.

Yes Madam! (1985)

More golden Hong Kong action straight from the vhs shelves. Stars our Miss Moomba 1984 Michelle Yeoh as the spunky copper Inspector Ng who is joined by Scotland Yard's inspector Carrie Morris (Cynthia Rothrock) to fight Triad gangsters, corrupt businessmen and petty thieves.

It's ladies night and two stars are born right here in the same film. Yes Madam! is Michelle Yeoh's first ever starring lead role and to top it off she did most of her own stunts. The producers loved Cynthia Rothrock so much they scrapped the male lead role and rewrote the script with Rothrock now as the the co-star  along with Yeoh.

This is where western action tropes meet far eastern action tropes to make a primo pop culture moment. Includes spectacular death defying stunts with some prime glass shattering. 

I saw Yes Madam! described as ridiculous in an attempt at a negative put down. What this reviewer left out was that it is GLORIOUSLY ridiculous. This is (over the) top echelon absurd action fun. The older I get the more meaningful a a movie like this becomes. I often think "Why was I being such a tool all into serious cinema wankery in my teens and 20s when there was so much more fun to be had watching something like this?" 

I think that maybe I think all the modern era set 80s Hong Kong action movies mentioned in this post are some of the greatest films ever made.    

*Don't get me wrong I was hardly into serious tosser things all the time. It's just the fact that I was into wanky seriousness at all that disturbs me. None of it was integral to me in the end like say Albert Camus' books were. Fun is very important for the human soul way more than any kind of "Oh yes but I like intellectual high brow stuff because it makes me so much better, more smug and smarter than you" or "Oh action comedy that's just cheap junk food entertainment. I like a film to give my brain some nourishment" The funny thing is the most nourishing thing I can think of (in regard to art) is enjoying yourself. The giddy fun to be had watching these pictures is a gift. Quite often they would spend over five or six months making these things, putting their bodies in harms way, all just so we could have a good time. So I think we need to cherish the effort and lengths these legends went to.

**Don't get me wrong I think Ingmar Bergman and Peter Greenaway are a lotta fun... what I'm trying to say is I hate snobbery directed towards films such as Corey Yuen's Yes Madam! or Righting Wrongs because they are just as worthy as whatever boring middlebrow nonsense is currently occupying the Sight And Sound top 100.

Dragons Forever (1988) 

Legendary Hong Kong trio Biao Yuen, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan star in this primo 80s action-comedy, plenty of 80s kung fu, comedy, absurdity and romance too. The ladies are Deannie Yip, Pauline Yeaung and Crystal Kwok and among the many villains are Wah Yuen and Temple of Doom's Roy Chiao.

A bunch of baddies running a chemical plant are polluting a fish farm which is upsetting some very foxy ladies: Let the shenanigans begin. 

Entertainment.

The Victim aka Lighning Kung-Fu (1980)

Insane Sammo Hung classic. One man's virtuous cheek turning is pushed to the absolute limits. Will he finally succumb to his violent vengeful urges or remain a craven pussy? While this is supreme Sammo Hung comedy kung-fu fighting entertainment, it is also philosophically fascinating.  

Fatty (Sammo Hung) shows up and pesters Chun-yau (Bryan Leung) to teach him his superior brand of kung-fu. An adopted orphan Chun-yau is now an adult kung-fu master but he and his wife are on the run from his resentful and rape-y step brother Cho-wing so he can't be bothered with Fatty's requests. Quite an intricate and convoluted but not hard to follow story unfolds from there which will have you on the edge of your seat right up until the very last second.

Invincible Armour (1977)

Kung-fu cult classic.

Am I really going to convince somebody to watch this? If you're into 70s kung-fu you've seen it. If you're a neophyte to 70s kung-fu you will soon see it. Otherwise you probably don't care and never will.

Invincible Armour is about murder, corruption and ultimately a battle between the iron armour and iron finger kung-fu techniques. Set in the historical era with mucho white hair, moustache, beard and ultimate eyebrow action. Often surprising and innovative.

Interesting that 80s Hong Kong superstars Yuen Biao and Corey Yuen appear here in early roles as assassins.  

Stagecoach (1939)

I just randomly pressed play on this on Prime late one night because it was too hot and I couldn't sleep. So I wasn't expecting much but ended up loving every single thing about it. For a start the film belongs to the ultimate drunk film character Doc Boone depicted by Thomas Mitchell in a virtuoso performance. 

Then out of nowhere a young and handsome John Wayne shows up. Yes I said young and handsome. Contrary to popular belief Wayne wasn't always an old fat cunt. I mean Stagecoach is twenty years prior to Rio Bravo. 

A motley crew assemble to take part in a treacherous stagecoach journey bound for New Mexico. More misfits climb aboard along the way. There will be babies, battles with Apache (In an incredible feat of action cinema), spectacular south-west scenery, romance, death, revenge and freedom.

It's all about the ensemble cast who all get a bit of a go at the limelight. Actually the focus of the film continuously switches. It's more like a bunch of vignettes patched together for ultimate crowd pleasing entertainment. 

*That's a great idea for a post: The best acted drunks in cinema and tv ever. It's a tough call but off the top of my head for best drunk ever would be the very very very drunk guy from The Fast Show played by comic genius Paul Whitehouse, Robin Weigert's phenomenal portrayal of Calamity Jane in Deadwood (TV series) or Doc Boone here. Obviously I've missed a whole lot of people maybe I'll come back to this...

Righting Wrongs aka Above The Law (1986)

More OTT 80s Hong Kong action straight from the vhs shelves. Inspector Cindy (Cynthia Rothrock) is put on prosecuting lawyer gone vigilante (Yuen Biao) case. Eventually though they both end up fighting the real criminals, the corrupt and gangster Hong Kong police force and judiciary. I dunno how many wrongs are righted but a whole lotta entertaining wrong happens. No safe spaces here, children will be killed (not in real life in the movie) in the name of entertainment. 

Look out for terrific champagne comedy turn of father & son cop duo Bad Egg (Director Corey Yuen) and Uncle Tsai (Wu Ma). They steal the show for a moment. I wish they'd made an entire spin off franchise with this hilarious duo.

SPOILER ALERT

This movie really could have been called Everybody Dies, although if you got that blu-ray 18 months back you can now choose a different ending where at least one if not two of your main protagonists live! I can't bring myself to watch those versions as it would ruin one of the most nihilistic Hong Kong's action comedies of all time. 

Late Night Movie Of The Week.

Singapore (1947)

Spectacular noir black and white cinematography with all the right moody lighting and supreme shadows. More than anything this movie is a vibe of unsettling exotic humid ambience where everything could go troppo at any given moment. So it's a shame the story can't match this wonderfully realised setting. It can never live up to the actors of the main protagonists recent previous noir highpoints ie. Ava Gardener in The Killers or Fred McMurray in Double indemnity. Casablanca is a touchstone which the entire movie seems to be trying to emulate innit. Still it's not terrible, well worth a look to soak in the meticulously created atmosphere and the charismatic charms of the cast. 

Pearl smuggler (Fred McMurray) heads back to Singapore after the war to pick up his jewellery stash only to find his fiancee (Ava Gardener) isn't even dead she just has a bad case of amnesia. Events unfold from there. 

The Lady Gambles (1949)

Starring Barbara Stanwyck: The odds are stacked in your favour!

Does it even matter about the plot?...You're watching this for Barbara Stanwyck and all that entails. The mastery in which she inhabits a character and the way she intricately projects those characteristics onto the screen. It just so happens this one is quite complex despite the simplicity of the message here that "gambling is bad bad bad!" 

Joan (Barbara Stanwyck) goes on a downward spiral, an upward spiral, rinse and repeat until a brutal beating in a back alley one dark night and that ain't no spoiler that's the end that they showed at the start (like many a noir classic). This roller coaster of the trials and tribulations of a gambler is never less than a riveting portrait of such a lifestyle. We get the yin and yang of dark glamour depicted in casinos, race tracks, The Hoover Dam, backroom gambling dens, rolling dice, Mexico, Las Vegas, swanky hotel rooms, seedy poker games, back alleys etc. Not strictly noir, is anything?, The Lady Gambles is more like a melodramatic women's message flick with noir aspects. Stanwyck's performance is prime Stanwyck. Hey the rest of the cast can't help but be elevated too. She must have had an inspirational affect on her fellow actors.

More On Movies...The Return

*A couple of weeks ago all of a sudden I had an appetite for watching movies again. In the last two years I probably only watched about twenty films until this new burst of interest occurred. I have the great man David Lynch to thank for my renewed enthusiasm for all things moving pictures. I should really have two blogs, one for music and one for movies. If I can recall how to create a new blog I might just do that when inspiration hits. I feel like I have to relearn how to write about movies. Like what is actually of specific interest about a movie that I need to write about it? I'll figure it out soon enough hopefully. For now here's a tentative attempt to write some words on what I've been watching. 

The Legend of Billie Jean (1986)

Inspirational teen rebel flick or absolutely retarded absurd nonsense? An ever expanding range of tones and bonkers-ness is revealed with each new scene giving the film a constant state of fluxion. This is not uninteresting however I am wondering if this avant-garde effect is perhaps an unintentional consequence of incompetent film-making. 

House By The River (1950)

Melodramatic murder mystery Victorian noir. This is an underrated Fritz Lang film from his American noir era. There is a pretty good gloomy atmosphere and dreamlike vision here. House By The River is a masterclass in noir cinematography with its moonlit rivers, shadowy corridors, sinister silhouettes, ominous skies, dimly lit staircases, curtains ghostly rustling and more. 

The Clouded Yellow (1950)

Top fun ye olde British thriller. Sophie (Jean Simmons) is framed for murder alas she goes on the lam with the expert help of ex-spy/butterfly cataloguer David (Trevor Howard). Suspenseful cat and mouse shenanigans ensue right up until the rivetting climax. The title is naff but it's the name of a butterfly, still I would not have used this as the name of my film. However I do think it was a box office hit. In The Clouded Yellow they sit outside a country pub and later visit the lake district. It is an amazing time-capsule of mid century bucolic English life. 

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MINI BARBARA STANWYCK FEST

The Lady Eve (1941)

You wanna know what charisma is? Look no further than this performance from the incomparable Barbara Stanwyck. You can't take your eyes off her: Scintillating! 

I don't know anything about the relationship between Stanwyck and writer/director Preston Sturges but it is hard to imagine that this dialogue could be performed by any other woman. Surely it was written with her in mind. 

Remember The Night (1940)

I thought this was going to be the greatest movie ever as this starts out the gate with a delicious premise of a prosecuting lawyer Jack (Fred McMurray) bailing out a bad arse jewellery thief Lee (Barbara Stanwyck) because it's Christmas. An entertaining chain of events ensue but by the time they get to Jack's country hometown in the sticks they start laying on the cheese thick and fast so as to become pretty unwatchable by the end. Preston Sturges would never allow his screenplays to be directed by anyone but himself after this debacle.

The Strange Loves Of Martha Ivers (1946)

Not quite top tier noir but well worth a look for the performances of Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott, Van Heflin and Kirk Douglas. A bit bloated but a good yarn nonetheless.

Baby Face (1933)

Pre-code Barbara Stanwyck gold. Flawless performance. It's incredible to think that they had really nailed talkies already as early as 1933. Baby Face is a fascinating portrait of Lily Powers (Stanwyck) rise from rags to riches. After an abusive childhood of being pimped out by her father during her her early teens Lily manages to accumulate considerable wealth as a young lady by using her feminine wiles to become a supreme gold digger. A morality and existential crisis ensues. 

Peak pre-code.

Crime Of Passion (1956)

Below average crime/noir flick but if you love your Barbara Stanwyck it is still worth a look, even if it's just to see how she handles this unconvincing clanger of a role. Actually now that I think about it, it's unintentionally more entertaining than it should be due the dubious improbable script and her clunky character arc. Perhaps if Stanwyck had camped it up some Crime Of Passion would have become a cult classic like many of Joan Crawford's starring vehicles of the same era later become. 

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Storm Fear (1955)

Snowbound home invasion rural noir. How many of those are there? Also notable because Dan Duryea plays the good guy!

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Prequel to the 90s hit tv show Twin Peaks where we find out exactly what Laura Palmer was up to and how she reached her demise. An absolute nightmare of a film. This ain't no quirky whodunnit but an horrific depiction of the dark underbelly of idyllic Americana. Sheryl Lee who plays Laura Palmer puts in an all-time virtuoso acting performance like no other before or since. I'm so glad I revisited this flick. I had no idea my mind was not only going to change so much but be totally blown away. I Hated it when it came out. Hated it again in the 00s. Tried again in the early 10s and didn't like it. Now I think it's great, possibly the best thing David Lynch has ever done. It's like I'm seeing an entirely different film to the one I saw in 1992, quite a weird experience actually. I can't for the life of me imagine why I ever didn't think this was peak Lynch: Twin peaks really. 

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

A sordid cautionary Hollywood tale told with next level irony and cynicism. The mansion is an extraordinary feat in interior design. Dilapidated grandeur in excelcis in more ways than one. 

Mulholland Drive (2001)

The faux lesbian Hardy Boys go on a disturbing yet sumptuous psychedelic dream-logical trip into the nefarious heart of Hollywood. 

Stupendous film-making. 

Supreme entertainment. 

Laura (1944)

We all know the cinematic greatness and the terrific plot twists and turns of Laura. But what about the fact that Laura (Gene Tierney) was basically a beard for her previous two suiters prior to Mark (Dana Andrews) coming along?  

Hard Boiled (1992)

Action. Action. Action. Just prior to moving to Hollywood John Woo directed Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in this OTT dazzling 90s Hong Kong classic. While the last half an hour set in a hospital is one of the most famous set pieces in action cinema history my favourite part is the teahouse scene. The teahouse shootout scene begins with the violence of boiling hot kettles being thrust into the faces of the baddies, which is uniquely brutal, visceral and sensationally cinematic, then all hell breaks loose. Next Chow does that memorable sliding down the banister whilst shooting two pistols thing. Legendary.

Kiss The Blood Off My Hands (1948)

Not a horror movie as the title would suggest but an atypical noir flick set in London featuring a strange doomed couple. I mean if you you first meet a fella with him invading your bedroom by breaking in the window in the middle of the night, covering your mouth and almost strangling you to death, is true love really on the cards? Excellent performances from Burt Lancaster, Robert Newton and in particular Joan Fontaine. Also some the greatest ever noir cinematography from Russel Metty of The Stranger (1946) and Ride The Pink Horse (1947) fame.

The Spiral Staircase (1946)

More than just a bonkers serial murder mystery story. Like a giallo The Spiral Staircase has loads of atmosphere and red herrings galore. It also features supreme horror-noir cinematography from Nicholas Musuraca with way ahead of its time killer POV shots. Prior to viewing I didn't realise that it's a slasher innit.

Directed by my other main man of cinema Robert Siodmak. Legendary Ole Bob had terrific run of noir pictures. He made at least ten classic movies in a very short period of time from 1944-1950. The very definition of a purple patch.

The Lodger (1944)

Good silly little creepy Jack The Ripper flick.

I Walked With A Zombie (1943)

There is a film none more atmospheric than this. Spectacular and spectacular cinematography from Roy J Hunt. 

Peak Eerie.

The Cat People (1942)

Creepy when I saw it as kid on telly, so much so that I could never forget this film and four decades later it's even more creepy. Val Lewton produces. Jaques Tourneur directs. Nicholas Musuraca rolls film. All the shadowy apprehensive goodness you could want in a horror movie. Simone Simon is totally engrossing as the peculiar, aberrant and unsound Irena Dubrovna. 

The Ghost Ship (1943)

What an odd film. Somewhere between a melodrama and a thriller. Really it's a serial killer flick though innit. When I was a kid every second film on the telly was set on a boat. I probably thought some kind of maritime life was ahead of me and that I'd die at sea as well... Anyway this is another Val Lewton production this time with editor of 1942's Cat People Mark Robson directing only his second feature and we've got cinematographer extraordinaire Nicholas Musuraca on board here too.

The ship captain (Richard Dix) starts to lose his mind which puts his crew in perilous danger. Tom (Russel Wade) the ship's third officer is onto this reckless negligence but the rest of the crew in an effort to conform to the captain's authority and not cause any dissent conspire against him. So the captain continues to wreak havoc on the boat. Can he be stopped?  

Lawrence Tierney made his first appearance on film as the doomed crew member Louie. The anchor chain locker scene is one of the most memorable scenes of horrifying claustrophobia in cinematic history. Special mention must go to legendary calypso singer Sir Lancelot (I Walked With A Zombie) for his ace supporting role.

 

The Old Dark House (1932)

More pre-code gold here. An outstanding cast in an outstanding setting, outstandingly directed with outstanding cinematography, makes this one hell of an outstanding comedy-horror-thriller. I'm so glad I've still got movies like this that I'd never seen up my sleeve. Hopefully there are plenty more unseen classics like this waiting to be discovered so that my eyes and ears may continue to be tantalised. 

A dangerous storm in the dark Welsh countryside sends the car, with married couple Margaret (Gloria Stuart) and Phil (Raymond Massey) and their bachelor friend Roger (Melvyn Douglas), off the road but they come across an old farmhouse where they seek shelter. Little do they know that a demented family of psychos dwell within this dilapidated mansion. The frightening Femm family are played by stage and screen luminaries Boris Karloff, Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore, Brember Wills and Elspeth Dudgeon. Another stranded couple Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and Gladys (Lilian Bond) soon turn up too and a delirious array of frightening, deranged and violent shenanigans ensue. Add in some romance and comedy and you've got yourself a rollicking good time. 

A Formal Sigh - Looking At Walls

A Formal Sigh - Looking At Walls (1981)

More shadowy post-punk shenanigans. This time from Liverpool outfit A Formal Sigh. No wonder we've never heard of them: they're called "A Formal Sigh" that's the worst fucking band name in history! Not even doing a John Peel session could save them from their name. They never ended up making a record during the lifetime (1980-82) of the band, even though they were being touted as the next big Liverpudlian thing for a while. Looking At Walls is top post-154 gloomy guitar goodness. That ominous early eighties sound!

Fade To Black - Soundtrack

Fade To Black - Soundtrack (1984)

Absolutely infectious post-punk with all the goth-y/synth-y vibes. Reminds me of something great I just can't quite put my finger on right now...maybe like what The Feelies would have sounded like if. instead of being VU obsessed, they were Californian deathrock wannabes. I like to imagine there's at least thousand unknown and neglected tunes from the 80s just like this lying around waiting to be discovered by my eardrums. What a great sound this bunch of San Franciscan hair had. Energetic and quite anthemic.

Rewind! 

David Lynch & Dean Hurley - Slow 30's Room

David Lynch & Dean Hurley - Slow 30's Room (2017)

Where the world's of David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Mark Fisher, haunty-ology and The Caretaker further intertwine.

Angelo Badalamenti - The Fireman (2017)

Also from Twin Peaks: The Return Part 8 which was the cinematic event of the last twenty years even though it was on the telly. Despite Badalamanti tunes being scarce during the eighteen hours of Twin Peaks: The Return, one of his best ever compositions was actually commissioned for Part 8. It's unbelievable to think Lynch only procured four new Badalamenti compositions for this epic 2017 telly-visual saga, when for the first two seasons of Twin Peaks, Angelo made over six and a half hours of music. Perhaps he was indisposed! I don't actually know the story behind why such a small amount of Angelo's music was recorded for the show. Anyway The Fireman is primo cosmic, epic and emotional organ musick.

The World Spins · Julee Cruise

Haley's Comet's come and gone...

...Falling through this night alone

*A supreme pop culture moment...well several really: Inclusion on the Floating Into The Night The LP, Twin Peaks Episode 14 and Twin Peaks: The Return Part 17.

Laura Palmer's screams echoing throughout the woods endlessly. 

Angelo Badalamenti - Dark Space Low

The final piece of music in Twin Peaks ever. 

Carrie Page, Laura Palmer doppelgänger and/or Laura Palmer.

MOON WIRING CLUB ~ SCATTERBRAIN 9

It's Christmas season that means one exciting thing: There's a new Moon Wiring Club album.  

This is some hallucinogenic shit. A psychedelic musique concrète dub miasma, Scatterbrain 9 is like the perfect soundtrack for 2023's dysphoric overload. It feels like the noxiousness of the relentless psychological warfare placed upon us by our overlords has permeated this once playfully spooky project giving it a different type of nefariousness this time. A deleterious force has contaminated this once enchanted village, in the most glorious way of course. Delirious. 

No one in the 21st century has the synergy of sound & vision honed to such an impeccably specific degree that Moon Wiring Club does. Ian Hodgson's Moon Wiring Club is an aesthetic triumph

Chasin' the Voodoo · Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola - Chasin' the Voodoo (1978)

Congas. Congas. Congas. More drivin' Al Di. This time it's a cinematic cosmic car chase to track down the voodoo. 

Billy Cobham - Solarization

Billy Cobham - Solarization: Solarization / Second Phase / Crescent Sun / Voyage / Solarization - Recapitulation (1974)

Oh boy here we go for another lively, mind melting and visceral fusion journey. This is avant-garde, it's psychedelic, it's jazz, it's symphonic, it's easy listening, it's fast-funky heavy rock and it's ultimately great fun. All of the things and more including flugelhorn, marimbas and congas. 

This was so on, nothing could stop the alchemy of synergy. 

Peak audacity. 

Stanley Clarke - Life Suite

Stanley Clarke - Life Suite (1974)

Clarke starts out the gate on the final track of his self-titled LP by bringing all the dark drama with an incredible brass and string arrangement! Then Tony Williams puts on his best ever drum clinic, absolutely supreme drummage with added percussive goodness from Airto Moreira. How much fun are Clarke and Williams having. On the keys it's synth star Jan Hammer. Stanley's bass tone in the final movement (post-7:07 mark) is just phenomenal as he plays a heavy captivating hook. This is rare and emotional bass playing. I mean how many bassists can you say that about. The best part though, might be the stellar guitar heroics supplied by the underrated Bill Conners. Like all the best fusion this out-progs the most progg-iest of proggers and like all the best art it transcends any constraints you wish to place upon it. 

Something else. 

Al Di Meola - Race With The Devil On a Spanish Highway

Al Di Meola - Race With The Devil On a Spanish Highway (1977)

Strap in for some funky freeway fretwork fireworks.

Peak rockin' fusion!

"Oh Al Di is it you or me who are the elegant gypsy?"

What You Can Do In Your Life · Petalouda

Πεταλούδα - Τι Μπορείς Να Κάνης Στη Ζωή Σου (1973)

An absolutely archaic and dusty wah-wah monster with extra wind tunnel fuzz and a funky drummer break. All your psych-funk needs are taken care of here. When they say psychedelic funk what they mean is funky psych and this is the kind of jam you hope for. This Greek group did just the one 7 inch side. If you are going to record just one song this is the way to do it.

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Miles Davis - Side A Wednesday Miles - Bitches Brew/The Theme (1970)

So the four sides of Miles Davis At Fillmore double album were originally 25 minute condensed edits of each consecutive night's set named after each day of his June 17-20 1970 residency at New York's Fillmore East. Later in the 90s the cd version divided up the days into seperate tracks which were either passages of tunes, tunes or medleys of tunes. Miles also used to go from one song to another continuously at this stage without breaking up the momentum of the music. So it's hard to tell how much of this was real to the live audience and how much is a virtual performance edited by the splicing maestro Teo Macero. In the end it doesn't really matter does it unless maybe your apple or spottily is throwing in ads at crucial points of the record but hey go and buy the actual album if that's the case.

So this section of Wednesday Miles is the last half of side A and it's basically a shortened version of Bitches Brew and strangely a thirty second snippet of a 1956 golden oldie. The Theme being a track from a 1956 session that ended up being released on Prestige's Miles (1956) LP. Anyway it's all played inna fine style by this 1970 line-up of Miles' band. 

 

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1970)

As far as these live versions go Black Beauty's unhinged version might be even more better. It's a totally destroyed feedback and wah-wah drenched end of your tether abyss of a tune. I don't even get where the feedback or wah-wah are coming from as there's no guitarist here so it's either Chick's keyboard, Miles' trumpet or Dave Holland's bass. Holland and Davis were both renowned at this stage for utilising wah-wah so perhaps they are both the wah-wah culprits! Twins of wah-wah doom! 

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1969)

Still it's hard to go past the original epic brew of Bitches Brew. The siren-ing trumpets echoing across the apocalyptic night sky are still the most most pertinent soundtrack to our times. I'm pretty sure Miles is still way ahead of everyone... 

Al Di Meola - Suite Golden Dawn

Al Di Meola - Suite Golden Dawn:  (1976)

Another monster fusion jam from the ffuture. 

Mind-blowing your mind!

Al Di had a good little run of albums in the 70s but had an even better run of album covers. This is how a 21 year old Al Di chose to present himself to the world. I mean how many of us have lived this dream? If I put my other spectacles on and brushed my hair down I would basically be this LP cover. It's a vibe. It's a life vibe. It's an aspirational life vibe we all need to be striving for. Thank-you Al Di Meola for making us want to be better people in our lives!

Al Di Meola - The Wizard (1976)

The relentless opening track from Al's debut LP is ferocious fire on the frets. I believe these are blazing hot licks! Apart from the scintillatingly intense fretwork from the incomparable Al Di, The Wizard is a drummage and percussion extravaganza! That's Steve Gadd on drums and Mingo Lewis doing the percussion. Thank you lads for extravaganza-ing the rhythms. 

Peak unbeatable heavy fusion.  

Manolo Badrena - The One Thing

Manolo Badrena - The One Thing (1979)

A monster funky cosmic latin jazz rock jam of the most uncommon variety. 

The One Thing is a remarkable psychedelic space-funk odyssey.

Party time people!

Lenny White – The Venusian Summer Suite

Lenny White – The Venusian Summer Suite (1975)

A jazz-rock-fusion bomb. Opening with the epic four and a half minute space-y horror movie synth goodness then it's a funky cosmic voodoo trip worthy of 70s Miles, which makes plenty sense as Lenny White's drummage featured on Bitches Brew. Superfly bass and flute with insane synth guitar breaks follow.

Lenny White - Mating Drive (1975)

The children of Bitches Brew supply more tasty cyber-superfly fusion. This time it gets brutal, intense and dark. 

Peak jazz rock fusion for existential urban night driving with the possibility of violence.

Mating Drive is nearly fifty years old and yet it still sounds like the future to me. Imagine if overrated tosh like The Smile was fifty years ahead of its time instead of over fifty years behind it?

Santana - Carnaval/Let The Children Play/Jugando

Santana - Carnaval/Let The Children Play/Jugando (1977) 

Haven't I been a fool? Why hasn't this been in my life before now? I vaguely recall hearing this fifteen or twenty years ago and thinking I must investigate that further. And I just didn't and yet I've got all sorts of latin and jazz and cumbia and samba rock and boogaloo and fusion and chicano rock albums and compilations. I mean I love nothing better than a latin rhythm so this was a no brainer but for some reason...well I guess I was always led to believe Santana were not only daggy but terrible and I never had a Santana fanatic friend to seriously sit me down and tell me the score. I'm hoping there is more like this mental medley in the catalogue. 

Rewind!

Miles Davis/James Brown

Miles Davis - So What (1959)

Somebody asked me the other day who are the five greatest music artists ever. I could only come up with one which was Miles.  

James Brown - Cold Sweat (1967)

Then the next day when the question came back to me in my head the only other one I could say for certain was James Brown.

Cold Sweat really is a funky-fied version of So What innit. Does everyone know this?

Anyway I think the story goes that they were jammin' on So What and it morphed into what would become known as Cold Sweat, inventing funk in the process. Whether that's the exact moment funk was born I dunno but if I had a DeLorean with a flux capacitor and could attend just one jam session from the twentieth century that would probably be it.

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady

Charles Mingus - Mode D-Trio and Group Dancers/Mode E- Single solos and Group Dance/ModeF-Group and Solo Dance (1963) 

I don't have a Marantz semi-audiophile set up like I did twenty seven years ago so a lot of the nice jazzy jazz (cool, hard-bop and post bop) I've been listening to just isn't cutting it, particularly the bass. I need to get a real hi-fi again! Something raucous with grunt like Charlie Mingus on The Saint And The Sinner Lady (1963) is much better because it's unapologetically in your face in the most delicious way. God it even sounds alright on me computer. I forgot that this LP is genius. 

I remember seeing a Charles Mingus documentary at the film festival around maybe 1999 or 2000 but I recall almost nothing about him or his music. All I recollect was that he was a part Chinese, part Swedish and part African American and he was pretty grumpy. So all I really know is the barmy music I had on a handful of tapes of his classic late 50s and 60s albums. However I don't think I ever knew that this record was like his Bitches Brew ie. his engineer Bob Simpson, under the direction of Charlie, was using the studio as an instrument and pioneering splicing in jazz six years before that Miles Davis/Teo Macero watershed moment. Apparently more than fifty edits were used. This involved cutting and sectioning the magnetic tape with razor blades and putting it back together with sticky tape and somehow making it sound seamless.

  

Charles Mingus - Track C Group Dances (1963)

As mentioned in a previous post Charlie hated the term jazz as did a lot of his fellow musicians. The record company decided to market this LP as "ethnic folk dance music", it's definitely my favourite ethnic folk dance album. The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady contains the spirit of ye olde New Orleans with the most infectious serpentine bluesy jazz infused with touches of Spanish guitar, improv, folk, classical and musique concrète. The whole commotion is like a defiant convulsion. It's an ecstatic blast of clashing tones teetering on the edge of chaos and collapse. A dazzling noise with a gloriously disorienting atmosphere only comparable to My Bloody Valentine.  

Charles Mingus - Track B Duete Solo Dances (1963)

Roll up. Roll up! Every track's a winner! For premium performance of your best interpretive jazz ballet. You too can be a star!

Charles Mingus - Track A Solo Dancer (1963)

Amongst The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady's euphoric cacophony there is a turbulent undercurrent. A sort of the harrowing beauty.

Search For The New Land - Lee Morgan

Lee Morgan - Search For A New Land (1964/66)

A surprising amount of Lee Morgan albums from the 60s were shelved. This seems absolutely absurd to me particularly when they feature the big jazz stars of the day Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Hank Mobley, McCoy Tyner, Cedar Walton and Art Blakey amongst others. Even more absurd was that there were beautifully recorded Wayne Shorter compositions just languishing in the Blue Note vaults. Miles Davis couldn't get enough Wayne Shorter tunes at the time. Shorter tracks like E.S.P. and Nefertiti were being used as titles for Miles Davis records for God's sake. 

Anyway unlike other Lee Morgan albums Tom Cat and Infinity, they didn't wait until the 80s to release this recording. 1964's Search For A New Land only gathered dust on the shelves until 1966. Despite being recorded two months after the smash crossover hit LP The Sidewinder, Blue Note immediately shelved this record and requested Morgan go back into the studio to create another boogaloo jam in an attempt to capture the mass market again. 

The title track written by Lee Morgan is a spectacular piece of kaleidoscopic spatial jazz featuring Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and unusually for Morgan guitarist, Grant Green, along with the ace rhythm section of Reggie Workman and Billy Higgins doing divine cymbal work. It's all about wide open spaces and ebbs and flows and rare tones and unfamiliar vibrations and new horizons and tense tranquility and mysterious euphoria. 

Not so much the jazzy jazz as the post-bop transforming into spiritual jazz and free-bop. Make no mistake this is peak visionary jazz.

Masqualero - Miles Davis

Masqualero - Miles Davis (1967)

The four (pre-electric) second quintet records E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer and Nefertiti have been severely underrated by the CardrossManiac. Thirty years ago they were deemed only of interest as precursors to Miles in electric mode, not bad albums but still pretty dusty and fusty. I did not realise they were full blown artistic achievements worthy of prestigious status all of their own.   

In a way this is Wayne Shorter's band more than anyone else's but perhaps that's a misnomer as it's also definitely Tony Williams' band and it's also a Miles... Actually it really is a band, not a solo project. Jazz outfits usually always used a stars name though. We all know Can were the ultimate psychic rock band but this quintet reached extreme telepathic levels that are peerless. 

Masqualero starts out with clunks of drums and bass and keys, almost immediately Miles and Shorter begin riffing in unison, trumpet and sax going in and out of phase for a minute. Then the next six minutes are a free-bop extravaganza. Miles does his thing for a bit as do the other sans Shorter. Then Miles drops out as Shorter enters adding some of the most beautiful sounding saxophone textures and lines he ever recorded. While wonderful lowdown lulls and whirlpools of exquisite moody space are created by Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. With a minute to go Miles and Shorter come back, in off kilter unison, before a final flourish from the other three. 

While Masqualero is composed by Wayne Shorter you know that's only a blueprint and free playing is the goal. Playing (including listening) that's flexible, improvisational and cosmic yet not formless but not conventional either. Lucky for them responsiveness was collectively instinctual with each member of this quintet. 

Sorcerers indeed!

Descarga loca - Aníbal Velásquez

Aníbal Velásquez - Descarga loca (1965)

A real boogaloo scorcher. Well it's classic Columbian descarga innit. Literally a crazy jam. 

It's easy to see how jazz was waning in public opinion particularly when you hear jazz influenced tracks like this that are so much more immediate, infectious and ultimately more accessible. This is one of the reasons why the electric Miles revolution was necessary.  

The Sidewinder - Lee Morgan

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder (1963)

The teen trumpet sensation who played on Coltrane's Blue Train and many Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers peak records including the previous post's Moanin' was a veteran in his mid 20s, making a comeback after a dalliance with the "China white" by the time he recorded this scorcher. A latin inflected hard bop boogaloo bomb!

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - Moanin'/Children Of The Night [Steely Dan - Aja]

Moanin' - Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers (1958)

More jazzy jazz of the ultimate jazzy jazz variety. Trumpet from Lee Morgan! Benny Golson tops on tenor sax. Composition and fa fa funky rhythm and blues jazzy piano from Bobby Timmons. Rhythm section none too shabby either with Jymie Merritt accompanying Blakey's tres jazzy drummage. I mean it is jazzy jazzy but you can't escape the fact that it's got a bluesy rock'n'roll soul too. 

Peak jazzy jazz!

Perhaps hard bop is the archetypal jazzy jazz for me because I don't go back and listen to old school bepop or swing or big band or whatever else is lurking back there. I remember having tapes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and other bepoppers when I was small and it just seemed too ancient because I already knew Bitches Brew, Spiritual Unity, Interstellar Space and 60s/70s James Brown. 

Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers - Children Of The Night (1961)

A Wayne Shorter composition featuring his great sax and the tremendous trombone of Curtis Fuller then the topper-most trumpet of Freddie Hubbard. Terrific tinkling of the ivories from Cedar Walton while Art & Jymie ensure the tempo and swinging dance-ability of the tune. 

These Jazz Messengers sure had a great run from the mid 50s to the mid 60s. They basically ran the jazzy jazz for that ten year period while other jazz sub genres existed adjacently. If you just followed all the members and their solo outings and collaborations along with all the Blakey And The Jazz Messengers records for that period you would be down an impeccable jazz rabbit hole. That's a big chunk of peak history for the jazzy jazz and the subsequent offshoot sub styles of the time. 

...Oh now I remember why I ended up in the jazzy jazz milieu, Steely Dan. Walter Becker and Donny Fagen loved the engineering aesthetics of Rudy Van Gelder. He recorded thousands of sessions in his New Jersey studio for labels such as Prestige, Blue Note and Impulse. The above two tunes are engineered by Van Gelder.

Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

Wayne Shorter made a cameo sax appearance on this, the title track to Steely Dan's Aja from 1977. A sprawling post-bop extravaganza like no other in rock.

This, not so much the jazzy jazz as the jazz fusion/jazz-rock. It's post-rock though really innit. 

Also notable for the exquisite improv drummage from Steve Gadd...

...and THE EVERYTHING!