Run

Since I have to try and dodge the short film review spoiler trap, there’s not much I can reveal about Run except that it’s about a backpacker who writes to his mother about his adventures on the road. It was single-handedly written, shot and edited by UK filmmaker Mat Johns for the 2012 edition of the Halloween KinoKabaret event in which he’s been taking part since 2006, filmed with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the help of a shoulder rig, and done on a zero budget in under four days.

I’ll skip the beating around the bush business and say that I am impressed. Flat-out impressed. I’m floored that a compact 6:45 minute watch managed to have such a profound emotional impact on me. The visceral handheld cinematography, the gentle but distinctly eerie voiceover and the main actor’s performance build an incredible atmosphere that takes a painful turn halfway through. The only thing I am conflicted about is the soundtrack — I’m generally not a big fan of background music because I find it emotionally manipulative and imposing in a bad way, as though it’s trying to dictate how the viewer should feel — but ultimately, the melancholic piano piece only adds to the twisted beauty of this short.

There’s no use in writing more as Run speaks for itself. Even British national treasure Stephen Fry loved it so much that he sent it out to his over 5 million Twitter followers. Mat Johns has created a short film which is heart-destroying in its magnificence, and I strongly encourage you to watch it.

Mr. Oizo – Amicalement

Expect the unexpected, kids. You never really know what Mr. Oizo a.k.a. Quentin Dupieux‘s up to when it comes to a new release. Except that it’s gonna be electronic, trashy and yet geeky as fuck.

Amicalement‘s got every ingredient disposable that characterizes Mr. Oizo‘s sound and there’s still room for a surprising collaboration with Marilyn Manson on the second track Solid, which is a sick masterpiece. With 4 tracks on this EP, I have to admit that it’s just the right amount of electronic banter / genius you probably need in order to love or hate this guy even more; there’s no in between! If this is the way French electronic music should sound like, I’m all in!

You can currently get the EP for free on Mr. Oizo‘s fantastic website that looks and feels like an old Macintosh system or you can play some cool beats and samples on his Shit MPC, which also is a nice and  original gimmick.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/7336472″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

The Smoking Hearts – Victory!


I’m back! After taking a two week writing break to party like no tomorrow and go to some cool gigs, I bring you The Smoking Hearts‘ debut album Victory! which was released in April. I first heard and met the guys back in 2011 when they opened for The Used, and I immediately dug their stage presence as well as their music. Two years later I read that they were the opener for Stone Sour, which got me quite excited since I hadn’t really kept up with their evolution. To keep it short: it was a bad idea to have put this album off for so long because it kicks ass.

But let me elaborate: the UK-based band refers to themselves as rock’n’roll, but I’d say that hardcore with an occasional punk influence puts it more to the point. The intro track Off With Your Head just kicks you right in the face from start to finish, dictating the pace for the rest of the eleven tracks in total. On the second track, however, you get confronted with the more melodic instrumental aspect during the chorus, which is coupled with gang vocals, thus making the whole thing a lot less repetitive.

The instruments are flawlessly played and provide a driving backdrop which is groovy and heavy at the same time. There is nothing to whinge about when it comes to the production, either. The only thing that might be putting first-time listeners off are the partially raspy, for lack of a better word, vocals. While they do fit the ensemble quite well, I’d say that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

To sum things up, I’d say that while The Smoking Hearts‘ debut might not be a victory for the entire musical genre, it certainly is a big Victory! for them. I for one am looking forward to seeing them on stage in the, hopefully, near future and also, in due time, to their next release. You can find more information on the band’s Facebook page and you can get a taste of the album below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEOeAz8aAK4]

Begotten


There is a lot of disturbing stuff out in the cinematic world and even though I have seen a lot, there are always films which literally fuck my mind. When I ask people about the most disturbing movie they have ever seen most of the answers are related to either the New French Extremism with Martyrs and À l’intérieur, the Italian cannibal films with Cannibal Ferox/Holocaust or the Asian splatter and gore genre with the Guinea Pig series and Ichi The Killer. I partly agree with the people and claim that most of those films are disgusting, brutal and controversial but in the end they are not really disturbing. This probably is a question of definition but personally, I think a disturbing film should have more to offer than simple shock value and that’s when experimental cinema comes into the limelight.

Begotten‘s premise is not easy to follow and there are a lot of different interpretations throughout the internet. I won’t concentrate on those but the movie contains all kind of religious references. I highly recommend watching the film without doing any research but to look some stuff up on the internet afterwards. The plot alone is probably one of the weirdest things I have ever read.

After director Elias Merhige, the script is inspired by Antonin Artaud’s Le Théâtre et son Double, Nietzsche‘s ideas on aesthetics, and a near-death experience Merhige had when he was 19 years old. To sum up, Begotten is an intense and dazing avant-garde horror experience, a cinematic wreckage and if this wasn’t enough, the film was shot on black and white reversal 16mm film and the director rephotographed, filtered and manipulated every single frame in order to intensify his surreal visions and artistic violence. Together with the unconventional decision to abstain from dialogues and traditional storyline the cinematographic brilliancy attains to perfection.

I am still enraptured by the grotesque and radical atmosphere, by the pulsing images and the raw violence. Begotten is a movie which you will never forget! And last but not least here is an interesting article I came across a few days ago: Begotten Antichrist: Did Marilyn Manson synchronize Antichrist Superstar to the movie Begotten?

Skincrack – …and Here Comes The Steamroller!

In fact the steamroller comes a little slowly, but those machines aren’t really known for being race cars but for their power. Power is the quality Skincrack want to broadcast with their debut album, although the opener seems to have a few problems, being a more punkish song compared to the coming outbursts that float somewhere between punk, metal and stoner rock. Walk Away’s refrain melody nevertheless is pretty catchy before a harder riff disrupts it and leaves us with the way darker New. Sombre vocals (I guess there are two singers sharing the vocal parts on the LP) guide trough a solid rock song that doesn’t fear to combine metal-like screams with melodic parts.

One feeling that won’t vanish throughout …and Here Comes The Steamroller! concerns the impression of having heard lots of those parts already in the 90s. Cut Into Pieces then very clearly opens the metal stage for the listeners, and in the beginning you may think that a different band is screaming at you right now. Before coming to a slow end, the song is very straight, making it the strongest of all the coming outbursts in which one often gets the impression of a band trying too hard instead of just mercilessly jumping trough the wall.

The fact that even the feeling of good old grunge arises sometimes just confirms the 90s spirit mentioned above. The vocal style of the “main” vocalist (correct me if I’m wrong) unfortunately takes a lot of power away, being a roughly barking dog that would perfectly fit into an aggressive punk band.

The songs off the second half sometimes offer an impression of crudeness or portliness, which often destroys the flow of the first songs. Celebrity may be considered as an exception, displaying a similar directness as in Cut Into Pieces. The heaviness doesn’t disappear, mission “power” is at least accomplished. Skincrack seem to still be looking for their own style and there surely is much to improve considering song composition and creativity. But you can give these guys a chance in those minutes you just want to be crushed by a steamroller or something.

Justice – Access All Arenas

There’s no better way to start the festival season than with a live album by one of your favourite bands ever, in this case Justice‘s live performance on Access All Arenas. As a matter of fact, I’ll be rocking this year’s Rock Werchter festival once again and I’ve been able to experience the sheer power of Justice‘s live sets on that site twice, back in 2008 and last year.

The live set was recorded in an ancient Roman amphitheater in Nîmes, in best Pink Floyd manner, if you know what I’m referring to. If you ever listened to Justice’s previous live album, Across The Universe, you will instantly notice that the opener is still the same, with Genesis‘ colossal intro making the crowd go apeshit in no time! This is the best proof for the timelessness of the first album † , that was released 6 years ago.

Against all odds, Gaspar Augé and Xavier de Rosnay do not only press midi controllers every once in a while, despite the prejudices people have towards electronic-dance-music acts. It’s not like both guys are on stage pressing buttons and peeling onions additionally. The strength of this duo bases in melting both albums into one crazy multi-layered experience. No big deal, you’d say, but that’s not the secret in Justice‘s sound. The twist is, unlike any other EDM project, finding a compromise between pounding beats and a fresh, elegant attitude only Frenchman can handle. Hate’em or like’em, Justice have an unmistakeable sound and signature, which turns them into a rare jewel in an electronic scene that has fallen into disrepute due to artists who ride the maximal sound bandwagon.

† Et Justice pour tous! †

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m46S-VGCimY]

Hobo with a Shotgun

Hobo with a Shotgun. Here’s where the film already scores points with me: there’s no need to carry out the tedious, boring task of covering the plot because the title sums it up nicely. It started out as a fake trailer that won Robert Rodriguez’s SXSW trailers contest and went on to become the second Grindhouse trailer to be made into a feature-length, high-budget film. The project was realised by director Jason Eisener and writer John Davies, two of the Canadian guys responsible for the fake trailer.

With a top-notch Grindhouse trailer to compare it to, it’s easy for the feature to miss the mark in the eyes of many fans. Case in point: the first attempt. After sitting through the disappointment I thought was Machete, I went into this experience with mixed feelings, and came out pleasantly surprised.

First of all, I think the premise is about as fantastic as it gets for a brain-dead action film: a hobo with a shotgun goes on a bad guy killing spree in a town, ironically called Hope Town, which runs on rampant crime and corruption. Rad. Then, it must be noted that Rutger Hauer is badass enough to make up for a lot of this movie’s faults. The man’s piercing blue eyes reach right into your soul, and his portrayal of the mellow hobo just minding his own business gone borderline maniacal vigilante is near perfect.

A notable characteristic of Hobo with a Shotgun is its colour palette: high-contrast, stark and oversaturated, adjectives which also apply to the movie as a whole. The dazzling colour scheme gives off comic book cover vibes and goes well with the film’s general over-the-top nature — I’d even go as far as to say that it is an integral part of what makes it work for me. The flashy shots indicate that its chief aim is not to be deep and heavy with meaning, and yet it still manages to raise questions of ethics while avoiding the classic exploitation genre trap of degenerating into masturbatory self-parody. It goes without saying that it’s not exactly an enlightening social commentary, either. But overall, I get the impression that aspirations line up with the outcome here, which I think is vital when it comes to movies of this gratuitously gory caliber.

Content-wise, I thought it was wholly decent, if a bit hectic and overstated. I probably won’t ever think about, let alone watch it again, but to accept long-term influence on my life as the universal purpose of movies and the benchmark by which their worth should be measured would be misguided. In order to enjoy Hobo with a Shotgun, you must see it for what it is: a film that tries to entertain largely by means of violence that is absurd to the point of hilarity. You get the gratification of sweet revenge by the “eye for an eye” principle, and though we all know, at the core, that that would be a horrible way to fight a corrupt system in the real world, it is kind of satisfying to watch the wooden bad guys get slaughtered on screen. If that doesn’t sit well with you, you probably won’t see much merit in this film, despite the sprinkles of heart and meaning it does contain.

The relentless energy and boldness of it is exhausting, though, so I was relieved when it came to a screeching halt after the explosive finale. My poor overstimulated senses were practically begging for a break after a good 86 minutes of shrill, glitzy, gore-injected craziness. If you plan on watching this one, which I won’t discourage you from doing, know that you’re in for one hell of a ride. And watch it at a time of day that allows for a few hours of visual impairment after.