Mew – And The Glass Handed Kites

released: 2005

Label: Red Ink (Rough Trade)

Have you ever listened to an album that was just too much for your musical horizon? And have you ever tried to listen to it again, a few years later; just to figure out that the album is genius and awesomeness in one?

I have!

The first time I listened to Mew’s “And The Glass Handed Kite” my initial reaction was: “What the fuck is this? Transsexual art rock?”. Please bear in mind that I’m no sexual offender; but when I first heard the album back in 2005, the music I mainly listened to was music in the likes of Icelandic post rockers Sigur Rós or songwriter-folk music such as Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan or Elliott Smith. This album was just too much for me. I was not ready for it.

But praise Allah I’ve got a good memory and I gave the LP a new chance in 2012. And guess what? I’m totally addicted to this album.

The opener “Circuitry Of The Wolf” sounds like prog rock, you expect something like Rush, just to get a knock on the forehead with “Chinaberry Tree”, a dreamy shoegaze pop track that works perfectly with Jonas Bjerre’s high pitched voice. Yes, this is cotton candy dude. But you cannot eat steak all the time, your body craves sweets from time to time. This is the candy shop!

“Why are you looking grave” wakes you up from your sugar-induced slumber with it’s uptempo rhythm and genius melodies. Pop music should most definitely sound like this. Never have I been challenged with such a diversity in songwriting (except when I first listened to The Mars Volta).

And these danish virtuosos are not done yet. This “dreamy-indie-progressive-psychedelic-shoegaze-art-rock” bastard hasn’t unfolded it’s strength yet, just wait for it and expect the unexpected.

“Fox Club” is the exact interlude for the upcoming storm. A minimalistic composition with a gentle synth completing the wall of sound in combination with the reserved vocals. The drums begin. Slow, discrete, fast; FASTER! Are you ready for the best part of the album?

“Apocalypso”‘s alarming guitars remind you of J.R. Ewing but Mew are no band willing to fullfill any emo cliches! Space rock meeting progressive pop it is. The thumping bass and drums in the refrain are only beaten by Bjerre’s vocal genius; most definitely the highlight of the album. This precise refrain makes this band unique, these seconds underline the high quality of Mew’s songwriting.

In “Special” you’ll once more notice the broad sound spectrum of the album. The drums and bass have this slight disco touch and you can’t stop nodding your head and shaking your hips. What is this? Moroder-Disco? Ethereal dance rock? I don’t care; I just can’t get enough of it.

I hope I could give you an insight into this album as I’m not willing to describe any further tracks. You have to listen to it to experience it!

As you might have noticed, I’m completely in love with this masterwork and maybe “The Glass Handed Kites” will flash you as well. If not, perhaps in 7 years time, as it happened to me. Only time can tell.

Disclaimer: Youtube & labels decided to be a pain in the ass and disabled embedding for certain videos. Hail the free world wide web. Pansies…

Mew – The Zookeeper’s Boy (Video)

“You’re just like a giraffe

You have to climb to find its head

But if there’s a glitch, you’re an ostrich

You’ve got your head in the sand”

 

Trash Monday V


I really like Immortal, also because they don’t take the whole Black Metal stuff that serious, which makes them more likeable and less embarassing!

The Call of the Wintermoon is a great song and the video is even greater! Thanks to Abbath and co. for this hilarious piece of art!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VBdAY8eA9w]

Arkaeon – New Level Of Inhumanity EP


An EP of a young Luxembourgish Death Metal band fell into our lucky hands a few weeks ago. To write it short and simple: it is terrific! And that normally is a good thing for Death Metal.

The booklet already perfectly puts this experience in a nutshell: “Together we try to create our very own sound that is a mixture of technical, brutal, progressive and groovy songwriting…”

The drums are restless, brutal like a barrage, faster than machine guns and proper like a Swiss clockwork. No way of not being pushed from one battle to the next. The guitars are singing like huge birds in an ever burning sky. Technically very demanding, they also master to bid lots of melodic and progressive discoveries before switching to a pure rocking head bang part. (ok these guitar squeals seem to be one essential part of the modern metal culture but they really go on my nerves and they aren’t innovative and cool anymore -Luc-). Finally Rosh’s screams and growls were guite a surprise for me. I haven’t expected a such diversified voice at all. In Death Metal it is very often the voice which bores me to death quite fast. Listening do Arkaeon, it is quite the opposite.

To conclude one can say that the “New Level Of Inhumanity” is a quite fresh metal EP influenced by Death, modern Thrash and even some Black Metal. If you have a diversified metal taste with an affinity to progressive stuff, you should have an eye on this young band and buy there EP!

El Gore wishes you all the best!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91aCilzIN64]

Make Your Own Damn Movie!: Secrets of a Renegade Director


I am going to start this book review with a quote I read on Amazon.com. Boaz wrote: “You don’t have to be prude to be fully offended by this piece of trash! The author apparently does not pocess enough English language prowess to write any one paragraph without lacing it with EXTREMELY rank, foul an profane language.”

It probably was Boaz’s first time he ever got in touch with Uncle Lloydie and Troma Entertainment, a so-called independent film production and distribution company, cause he has no clue what Lloyd is talking about. Make Your Own Damn Movie!: Secrets of a Renegade Director is an incredibly humorous and inspiring book of personal real-life experiences, innovative ideas, autodidactic theories and subjective views.

The book is written by Kaufman himself with Adam Jahnke and Trent Haaga (ohh, I just read that he wrote Deadgirl. Damn that movie sucked, sry dude!) trying to help the old man arranging his weird thoughts. This often works out quite well but from time to time they also disagree on each others opinions. Check out the hilarious kindergarten battle between celluLloyd and “DV” Haaga from page 225-231.

Furthermore it was Trey Parker (yup kiddies, the South Park dude) who wrote the foreword and James Gunn (screenplay writer for the actual quite amazing Dawn Of The dead “remake”) who did the introduction and other “klugscheisser” stuff. But wait…James, what the fuck were you thinking about helping to ruin one of my favorite childhood cartoons. TWICE!

Well back to topic. I have to admit that I have never read All I Need To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger, and that’s why I can’t write about this book being a good follow-up or not. Lloyd if you read this review, send me a copy!

One thing is clear, Kaufman doesn’t care about pseudo arty farty descriptions of overrated film techniques and swanking about how much money he makes by doing the 1000th shitty remake of The Ring. Always being authentic, Lloyd created some kind of an comical crash course in which he covers every single aspect of film-making. With his great talent as a story-teller and necessary honesty Kaufman goes from the initial idea of making a movie to the important money raising aspect. From hiring the slaves and hookers….ehrm the crew members to the pre-production. From the underrated location scouting to the production itself. In the last chapters he concentrates on special effects, the importance of post-production, just as the marketing, publicity and the distribution aspect.

Lloydie doesn’t deny that as an independent no-budget filmmaker you are surrounded by big white sharks like Disney, Mirmax and co. who always try to rend you like a gay dolphin (hopefully Dolphin Man is not getting angry at me). But he also makes clear that “Impossible is Nothing”.

If you think that you are limited in doing a movie it is because you seem to be limited in your own creativity and your will. When you decide to do a head-crush scene, buy a watermelon or a kiwi (it depends!), cave it and fill the fruit with blood and some slimy stuff. Put a wig on it and let your car roll over it. Et voilà c’est tout. If you have a vision, it’s the all-out commitment and dedication you want to invest, and that’s what counts, not the money and especially no fucked-up CGI, 3D, whatever bullshit (Robert Rodriguez managed to make the cult flick El Mariachi with only a few thousand dollars).

Kaufman also gives useful advices on how to deal with pseudo actors in the movie business; to whom you should be quite honest and loyal and who you can take to the cleaners. But always remember that in the end it is your responsibility with the movie standing or falling. What I really liked about the book are Kaufman’s great advices on how to make awesome special effects without throwing your money out the window. This little excursion is called Troma’s E-Z Bake Special Effects Recipes For Boys And Girls. He explains amongst others how to make “realistic” fake blood, fake vomit, fake semen, a crushed head and most important a severed penis and how to put a chicken in the ass. All this stuff is very important when you decided to do an independent flick.

While reading the book you sooner or later realize that Lloyd (unconsciously?) describes himself as(s) a sadistic slave-driver but a visionary and respecting one, which is probably the one and only answer on how this sick bastard and his whorehouse Troma could survive for nearly 4 decades in this perverse business.

P.s. whose fucker’s idea was it to put these white on black (!!!) pages into the book? I nearly got eye-cancer from reading this stuff.

Trash Monday III


Siiiigh… World Cup ’94 in the United States of America… so many memories of that huge and glorious event. I was in primary school back then and can perfectly remember how Italy lost their first group match against football giants Ireland or how could one forget; Roberto Baggio’s amazing penalty kick in the final game, against Brazil.

What I did not know back then was that Germany, apart from losing against Bulgaria in the quarter-finals, had support from overseas to pave their way to success.

In vain…

Dear DFB, I really really really like your football and I hope you’ll make it to the finals this year. But please; I beg you; do never collaborate with Village People again!

Thank you!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd_pCMGrAVE]

Intouchables

 

Starring: François Cluzet, Omar Sy and Anne Le Ny

Directed by: Eric Toledano

Intouchables (or Untouchable, in English) was a very pleasant surprise to me for 2012. Considering that I’m not that much into french movies and that Intouchables is on the run to become the most successful movie in France, leaving La Grande Vadrouille (with legendary Louis de Funés) and Bienvenu chez les ‘Chtis (starring french superstar actor Cad Merad) behind, I must say that this flick deserves this award and that I’m extremely happy about it.

But what’s this movie about?

It’s about a quadriplegic aristocrat named Philippe who was injured in a paragliding accident and eventually engages Driss, a young african from the ghetto, as his caretaker. This “combination” might sound perplexed at first, but it’s the very essence of this great movie. I have rarely seen such a “piece of art” that has so much heart and transmits so much hope and warmth to the viewer.

The combination of rich and depressed Philippe (or should I say frustrated, which sounds harsh considering his physical condition) and open-hearted extroverted Driss couldn’t be any more frontal. It’s Beethoven, Wagner and Brahms meeting Kool & The Gang. And yet the constellation works perfectly. After a short practical training at Francois palace (yes, one can say palace, it’s a big ass crib!) both become inseparable mates. Francois teaches Driss how to behave and introduce himself correctly in front of high society; how to look at art and how to interpret abstract artworks. He even manages to motivate Driss to become a painter.

And Driss , for his part, gives Francois his long lost self-confidence back; showing him the joys of life one can have, even with a severe disability. From introducing Francois into smoking marihuana to better withstand his phantom pain; to exotic ear-massages by high-class hookers or how to educate his rebelling daughter the right way, this unconventional life-affirming assistant is the right resource to make Francois feel alive and worth again.

The experience throughout the whole movie is like a big emotional rollercoaster joyride. That’s exactly the strong point of this flick. Being a paraplegic; with absolutely no autonomy is the biggest “punishment” and burden one can bear. But with “Intouchables”, you’ll realize once more that nothing is impossible; independently of the barriers you have to take upon you. When you have the right framework around you, like Francois has; with Driss on his side, you’ll never forget what you’re worth and worthy, no matter what obstacles you’ll have to confront.

Because after all, what matters, is the individual and the dignity that is in each one of us; no matter what one looks like or what obstacles one’s got to overcome.

Honestly, never could a movie bring all this aspects on point as Intouchables did.

There are a few things I did not like that much. For example, making a running gag of manual disimpaction is not really that funny, not for the patient nor for the caretaker, and yes; I do know what I’m talking about.

Furthermore I do ask myself how Francois could keep his balance when sitting inside his Maseratti as he could not move his limbs at all; eventhough Driss’ argument that only horses or cattle are transported in the back of a transporter sounds like a valid argument to me. But I guess that I’m splitting hairs right now, as both aforementioned points did not disturb the overall visual experience at all.

Intouchables left me very positively impressed and I have to say that it already is one of my all time favorites. Most definitely a must watch!

Trash Monday II


This video is, in every single way, absolutely perfect! From the guitars to the hair, from the music to the quality of the video. Although I know this song for quite some years now, I am still speechles.

“Enjoyyyyyyyyy” -Jürgen Klopp-
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lrWZuRn08I]